Once, a merchant named Jasper was passing through a dense forest with his men. Suddenly, a terrible storm broke out. They decided to take shelter in the nearby caves.
As it grew dark, huge savages attacked Jasper and his men. They were too small to fight back. The savages took them to a dark cave where they saw a roasting pit. A monstrous, ugly looking savage entered the cave. He had one eye and long, sharp teeth. His nails were like the claws of an eagle. He picked up one of Jasper’s men and gobbled him up. Then, he fell asleep.
Jasper whispered, “We have lost our horses. Now, we must find wood and make buggies to carry our goods.” He and his men ran to the forest and started making buggies without wasting any time.
But unfortunately, when they were ready to leave, the monster found them and took them back to his cave.
Again, the monster ate one of Jasper’s men. When he fell into deep sleep, Jasper said, “Let us escape from this dreadful place on our buggies.” They picked up a red hot rod from the roasting pit and stabbed the monster’s eye with it. He ran outside roaring in pain.
Taking advantage of this, Jasper and his men ran to the forest. But the monster returned with two other monsters. The giants threw large boulders at Jasper’s men, killing all of them except Jasper and his two companions.
They ran till they were tired. Finally, they stopped near a fruit tree to rest. They fell asleep, only to be woken up by the hissing of a large snake. It swallowed one of Jasper’s men. Jasper and his other companion immediately started climbing up a tree but the dreadful serpent followed them and swallowed the other man, too. Then, it slithered away.
Jasper climbed down and gathered small twigs, shrubs and thorns. He put them around the tree and climbed up to the topmost branch. At night, the snake returned but could not reach the tree because of the thorny shrubs and twigs. It went away.
The next day, Jasper saw a group of merchants and stopped them by throwing his shirt towards them. Two men climbed up the tree and brought him down. He narrated his adventure to the merchants. They invited Jasper to travel with them. Jasper agreed and reached home safely.
