The first person he met on the way was a man-at-arms with a belly like a huge water-skin, lying flat on his stomach by the river. When someone wanted to cross, he'd swallow the river at one gulp so the person could go dry-shod.

"Ahoy, what are you doing there?" the lad cried.
"Drinking up the river!"
"That's all you do?"
"Yes, and I live very well by it!"
"Come aboard, I'll take you to the king's castle."

A little farther on he found another man-at-arms with a mouth like that of an oven, gnawing furiously at a mountain.

"Say, what are you doing there?"
"Chewing up the mountain!"
"That's all you do?"
"Yes, and I live very well by it!"
"Come aboard, I'll take you to the king's castle."

Folktales

Text copyright©1989 Random House, from the Pantheon book French Folktales