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544 GIANTS.
same time, the stones met in the air, 1 and fell where they now
lie in the middle of the field above Michelbach, each with the
marks of a big giant hand stamped on it. Another way of
signalling was for the giant to scratch his body, which was done
so loud that the other heard it distinctly. The three very ancient
chapels by Sachsenheim, Oberwittighausen and Griinfeldhausen
were built by giants, who fetched the great heavy stones in their
aprons. When the first little church was finished, the giant
flung his hammer through the air : wherever it alighted, the next
building was to begin. It came to the ground five miles off, and
there was erected the second church, on completing which the
giant flung the hammer once more, and where it fell, at the same
distance of five miles, he built the third chapel. In the one at
Sachsenheim a huge rib of the builder is preserved (Mone s Anz.
8,63). The following legends come from Westphalia: Above
Nettelstadt-on-the-hill stands the Hiinenbrink, where hiines lived
of old, and kept on friendly terms with their fellows on the Stell
(2 ^ miles farther). When the one set were baking, and the
other wanted a loaf done at the same time, they just pitched it
over {see Suppl.). A hiine living at Hilverdingsen on the south
side of the Schwarze lake, and another living at Hille on the
north side, used to lake their bread together. One morning the
one at
Hilverdingsen thought he heard his neighbour emptying
his
kneading-trough, all ready for baking; he sprang from his
lair, snatched up his
dough, and leapt over the lake. But it was
no such thing, the noise he had heard was only his neighbour
scratching his leg. At Altehiiffen there lived hiinen, who had but
one knife at their service ; this they kept stuck in the trunk of a
tree that stood in the middle of the village, and whoever wanted
it fetched it thence, and then put it back in its place. The spot
is still shown where the tree stood. These hiines, who were also
called duties, were a people exceedingly scant of wit, and to them
is due the proverb
<
Altehiiffen dumme dutten. As the surround
ing country came more and more under cultivation, the hiinen
felt no longer at ease among the new settlers, and they retired.
It was then that the duties of Altehiiffen also made up their minds
to emigrate; but what they wanted was to go and find the
1 Like Hrungni s hein and ThOr s hammer, p. 533.