Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/163

Rh of women of their own kind, and many were the ugly acts committed by them for the purpose of self-gratification (twentieth century discretion will not permit an indulgence in the naturalism which was so characteristic of the writings of Garcilasso's time).

legend has it that an angel appeared one day in a cloud and with a sort of flaming sword consumed them in fire, leaving only a few bones as evidence of their existence. Regarding these bones, Garcilasso makes his most surprising statement: "This it was said of the giants, which we believe occurred, because in this region it is said that there have been found and are still found very large bones, and I have heard Spaniards, who have seen a piece of a molar, express the opinion that if the tooth had been whole it would have weighed half a pound; and also they have seen a piece of shin-bone that caused great wonderment when considering how big the entire bone must have been, all of which is evidence that this must have happened; because aside from this the site of their village and their wells or cisterns may still be seen." Garcilasso goes on to say that "in this year of 1550" certain bones were discovered in Lima which were large enough to have belonged to such giants, and even to larger men than legend described. He adds that he has heard that in Mexico (Spanish gossip concerning explorations and finds, quoted from such an early date as 1550, was relatively fresh and close to its source!), giants' bones were also discovered in Mexico City or its environs, in a very ancient tomb. Although at first glance these giants cannot be too closely compared with Chief Sequoyah's Olympic Peninsula giants who had hypnotic powers and seemed to enjoy a higher mental state in general, it might be possible that some of them attempted a migration by sea, the hardships of which resulted in degeneracy. However, the most surprising possibility of all is that these giants may not have perished, as the legend says. They may have managed intermarriage with the natives and succeeded in perpetuating their species, because something happened here in Peru a few years ago that intimates they are at large, in the same territory, to this day! A certain wealthy acquaintance of mine in Lima has spent more than fifteen years of his life and perhaps as much as fifty thousand Peruvian Soles in explorations among the Andes, in search of buried treasure. He has seen and found many strange things and had a number of remarkable adventures. Being a rather unimaginative individual, and not being given to exaggeration or jocularity (and inasmuch as he knew nothing about Garcilasso's story), it is very improbable that he could be perpetrating a hoax, and for this reason the story he has to tell about the giant footsteps is the more remarkable. It is odd that, although he has no knowledge of the legend discussed above, the location in which he says he saw the giant footsteps was approximately where the legend says the giants first came. He had gotten a clue from an old man concerning the existence of a treasure, and he had persuaded the fellow to accompany him to the site. The old man was loathe to accompany him, because he was frightened of the place, but he finally agreed to go. After traveling north from Lima several hundred kilometers, they found themselves in a most desolate region of the desert, where neither food nor water were to be obtained (a place thrice visited by myself—author). Here to the east was a giant sand dune, in fact a low foothill, which the old man pointed out as being the location of the treasure. It is true that the core of this hill consists of a buried temple, the portals of which have been seen uncovered by shifting sands in years past. The old man was frightened at the prospect of spending the night here, because he said the treasure was guarded. "By whom?" queried my friend. "By a thing that walks in the night," replied the other.

Dismissing this remark as but the product of superstitious imaginings, my friend locked up his car, which was parked off the dirt road near the beach (since paved and called the Pan American Highway), and walked up to the hill of the buried temple, where a small tent had been pitched for the night.

"Let's go to sleep," he said. For in the morning they were to make some preliminary exploratory excavations.

About midnight, the old man grasped my friend's arm in a fit of terror and cried out, "It's coming! It's coming'!" "What's coming?" asked my friend, sleepily. "The thing! Can't you feel it shaking the ground?"

My friend listened but heard and felt nothing. In an attempt to reassure his terrified companion, however, he opened the tent and looked outside. It was a clear, moonlit night, and the desert fairly glowed under its bright rays. He could see for miles up the desolate coast, from the elevation of the slope on which the tent was pitched. He also looked down toward the beach where his car was parked but saw absolutely nothing to arouse his suspicions or cause alarm. Insisting that the old man's fears were groundless, he returned to his sleeping bag.

ORNING arrived without event, and he soon started getting breakfast. While thus engaged, he was startled by a hair raising cry emitted by the old man, who had wandered some distance from the tent. The fellow was screeching at him to come running at once, for he had found something incredible. My friend states that when he reached his friend the latter was pointing at the sand in front of him, and that he saw before him the most gigantic imprint of a bare human foot that he could have ever imagined. He still has a double