The Stone Giant's Challenge
A heroic Iroquois warrior once issued a challenge to a fearsome Stone Giant who had been terrorizing villages. The giant accepted and the two met in battle. The warrior discovered that ordinary weapons could not pierce the giant's stone skin. Using his wits, he lured the giant onto treacherous ground where a rockslide buried him, then climbed to the giant's head and found the vulnerable soft spot. This story was recorded in multiple versions by anthropologists in the 19th century, including by Erminnie Smith among the Onondaga and by Arthur C. Parker among the Seneca. It belongs to a cycle of