The Cat and the Hens

A cat had heard that all the hens in a chicken coop had fallen ill. He had been thinking for a long time of a way to get the door open, and at last this seemed lika a very good opportunity.

He dressed up as a doctor, with a bag full of instruments and medicines, and off he went to the chicken coop.

'Good day, hens, how are you feeling? I've come to give you a check up. Please open the door.'

But the chickens all answered together. 'Thanks very much, but we'll at feel a lot better if you would just go away, thank you.'

The Magic Table

A good-natured and industrious young man worked for a magician, who gave him a magic table as a payment. All he had to say was, 'Set yourself,' and everything he needed for a meal would appear on it. Thanks to this fit, the young man thought that he would not want for anything again for the rest of his life, and so he decided to return home, and so he decided to return home, to his father.

On the way, he stopped in a tavern for a meal and a night's sleep. The owner had no food left because he already had a large number of guests, so he told the young man he would have to make do with a crust of bread. It doesn't matter,' the young man said, not at all worried. 'I'll take care of the rest myself.' Then the magic table provided so much food, that all the others there were able to eat their fill as well. After that, the landlord decided that he could make good use of a table like that. He stole it and replaced it with one that looked the same, so that the young man did not notice. But the magic turned out to be with the young man who owned the table, not with the table itself. So the new table continued to provide the young man with all the food he needed, and when the landlord of the tavern tried to give orders to the table he had stolen, a stick appeared and give him a good thrashing!

The Sick Lion and the Prudent Fox

The lion was old and tired and realised that, if he still wanted to get enough to eat, he would have to resort more to cunning and less to force. So he pretended to be sick and retired to his den. Then, every time that one of his subjects came by, the lion would reach out with his paw, grab the visitor and eat him.

It came to the fox's turn, but the fox remained at the entrance.

'Do come in, fox!' said the lion cordially. 'Thank you, but I'd really rather not,' the fox replied. 'Although I can see so many footprints going in, I cannot see one which comes out!'

He Told No Lies

A farmer had a younger brother, who had the bad luck to be in love with the daughter of a duke. Her father was so mean that he would never agree to give her hand in marriage to anyone who was not rich. The elder brother therefore decided to do something to help the younger one.

First, he made his brother put on his oldest suit, which was patched with dozens of pieces of cloth. Then he got him to sit beside the fireplace, where the roof was sound. Then he put a bowl on his lap, and gave him two gold coins which he was to pass from one hand to the other, then into the bowl, then round again. Then he went to see the duke.

'How is your brother off for money?' the miserly father asked.

'I can honestly say that money is passing through his hands all the time?'

'What's the state of his house?'

'He has a sound roof over his dead.'

'Ah! So he is rich and has his own house!' exclaimed the duke. 'And what about his wardrobe?'

Said the older brother: 'He has far more pieces of cloth to wear than I have.

The miser was most impressed, not realising that he had not had a direct answer to any of his questions.

In his way, without telling a single lie, the wedding was quickly arranged.

The Cossack and the Witch

A valiant cossack came across some splendid apples on a tree, but they were enchanted and had been placed there by a witch in order to capture men. In fact, the cossack had scarcely touched one of the apples with when the witch appeared.

'I will give you a chance to save yourself,' she said. 'You must hide and I must try to find you. If you are clever enough to remain hidden for ten hours, then I shall marry you; if not, then you will be my slave!'

Now the cossack was very good friends with a fairy who changed herself into a great eagle and told the cossack to leap up onto its shoulders.

'I will carry you so high up that the witch will never be able to see you'.

Unfortunately, the witch had a magic book which told her everything, No sooner had she asked the book than she learnt exactly where the cossack was hiding. 'Come down out of the sky at once!' she screamed.

The friendly fairy then transformed the cossack into a needle, with which she sewed the pages of the witch's book together. The witch, thus, lost the challenge and had to keep her promise to marry the cossack. But she reformed completely and the two lived long and happily together.

The Stag and the Lion

A stag was immensely proud of his majestic set of antlers. Yet, on the other hand, he was extremely dissatisfied with his slender legs and hoofs.

One day a lion began to chosen him. By virtue of his speed, the stag succeeded in fleeing from the lion, but then he ran into a thicket and his antlers caught in the branches and he was trapped.

'Alas and woe is me!' thought the stag. 'How wrong I was to complain about my slender legs and delicate hoofs which have served me so well. How wrong I was to be so proud of my large antlers which are now the cause of my ruin!'

The Magicians' War

The Wizard of Ah had declared war on the Wizard of Oh. Oh changed himself into a wild horse and galloped away. Ah observed his escape and changed himself in his turn into a hare which ran off in pursuit. Just as Ah was about to catch up, Oh changed again into a wolf and threw himself on the hare. Ah would have been torn to pieces had he not changed into a bear, then Oh transformed himself into a lion.

To escape the wild fury of the lion, Ah became a swan and flew away. He realised that Oh was chasing him in the form of a falcon, and threw himself into the sea, where he took the form of a fish. Oh, who had now become a shark, was about to eat him in a single mouthful, when Ah succeeded in reaching shore just at the spot where the princess was about to pick up, when Oh appeared beside her in the form of a gold ring. She had just placed the ring on her finger, when a merchant, who was really Ah, arrived and bought the ring from the princess. the ring shattered into grains of wheat which fell to the ground. The merchant became a hen which gobbled up the grains, but one grain remained hidden and it now changed into a handsome prince, who, of course, married the princess.

The Casket with Something Good Inside

A young boy found an old casket while he was wandering about the woods. He was very excited and tired to guess what it contained. 'Golden coins? Jewels? Maps to guide me to fantastic treasures?'

The casket, however, was locked and the boy had nothing with which to pen it. Even more curious, he went out of his way to pass the hut of an old man who had a reputation as a fortune teller. The old man inspected the casket, felt if, smelt it, and finally said to the boy; 'There is something good inside.'

'What is it? Gold? Jewels?'

'Something good,' the old man repeated. 'More than this I cannot tell you.'

The young man was now sure that he had some great treasure in his possession and he felt more and more impatient. 'Something good,' he repeated again and again to himself. 'It must certainly be something of enormous value if the old man said that to me.'

Unable to control himself or to wait till he got home, the boy picked up a stone and began to bash at the lid until the casket finally broke open. Inside there was a liquorice root, but, unfortunately, because of the bashing he had given the casket, it too was broken.

The Golden Clog

The shouts of the shoeseller, going up and down the street with his donkey, laden with shoes and clogs for sale, had begun to annoy the townspeople. Wishing to be left in peace, they decided to buy all his goods. But once they had agreed a price per pair, the people noticed that the more clogs they bought and piled up in the street, the more full seemed to be the baskets of clogs on the wagon. There was no doubt that there was witchcraft at work. A great argument broke up.

At that very moment, the king passed by in his carriage. The towns people asked for his judgement, but the shoemaker made a gift of a golden clog to the little prince, who was with his father, and the king decided that no crime had been committed. As he announced this, the mysterious shoeseller disappeared.

Very soon after it was discovered that the golden clog was bewitched. Not only could nobody get it off, but the clog also grew little by little along with he prince's foot. Therefore it never caused him any paint at all.

Years later, the king chose a girl to be a wife for his son. Hardly had the marriage been celebrated when the golden clog began to hurt the prince. It only ceased to hurt him when his marriage was annulled. The king went to the court magician for advice, and learnt that his son would only be able to make a happy marriage to the girl who was able to make the golden clog from his foot. The princess of nearby kingdoms were the first to try, followed by all the duchesses, countesses, and common people in the land until there only remained a dirty scullery-maid! At that moment the shoeseller's cry was heard from the street and the girl, was changed at once into the most gentle and lovable princess. So, the king was content and the young prince and princess lived happily ever after.

The Fountain of Youth

On one of the islands of Japan there one lived an old woodsman with his equally elderly wife. Yoshida and Fumi, for these were their names, were happy with the long life they had lived together, but they knew that the day would come when death would separate even them and this was the only thing that made them sad.

One day, Yoshida went off into the forest, but everything had changed with the passing of years and the old woodsman lost his way. He found a spring and drank a few drops of water. He realised then that he had become suddenly as young and healthy again as he had been when he was twenty years old! He had discovered the legendary fountain of youth.

He ran home and his wife almost failed to recognise him. When. however, Fumi, learnt what had happened, she set off at once.

When a few hours had passed and still Fumi had not returned, Yoshida began to grow worried. He went back to the fountain and found there a baby girl who could not even walk! But Yoshida knew what to do; he took the baby in his arms, and, because of his great love for her, from that day on he acted as her father and they continued to live happily together for many more years.

Rita's Chicken

Rita was a good cook. One day, her master ordered her to prepare a roast chicken, because he was having a guest to dinner. The girl did her best and roasted the chicken so well that your mouth watered just to look at it; and in fact, her mouth really did water.

'I must just taste it and make sure that I've added enough salt,' she said to herself and broke off a wing and ate it. 'It's absolutely delicious!' she congratulated herself: 'But if I leave only one wing, then the master will be bound to notice that one is missing. It would be better if I ate the other wing as well.' By the time she had practiced some more of this logic, there was nothing left of the chicken when the master returned. Rita, however, assured him: 'The chicken is ready. You can even begin to sharpen the carving knife.'

The guest arrived shortly after. 'Run away! Quickly!' Rita whispered to him. 'My master only invited you here in order to kill you. Can you not hear him sharpening his knife?' The guest did not wait to be told again but fled immediately as fast as he could.

'That was a strange person you invited for dinner!' she immediately went and complained to her master. 'Your guest came in, stole the chicken I had cooked, and then ran away!'

The Bags Full of Faults

According to a Greek legend, when men were created, the great god Zeus gave each one a gift of two bags. One bag was full of man's own faults, the other full of everybody else's faults. But when the moment came for Zeus to give man his two bags, each one hanging at the opposite end of a carrying pole, by mistake he put the bag with the defects of everybody else in the front, whilst the bag with each man's own defects finished up behind his back.

It is perhaps for this reason that it is so easy to see other people's faults and so difficult to see our own!

The Lion and His Partners

The goat, the sheep and the cow went into business with the lion and, just as in every company, it was agreed that costs and profits would be divided equally. It happened that they trapped a deer and held a shareholders, meeting in order to apportion it out. In fact, the lion was most meticulous about dividing the catch into four equal parts. 'I shall take the first share,' he said, 'because it is my right to do so. Being King of the Forest, I shall also take the second, and also the third, because Im the strongest. Should you lay claim to the rest, then I shall make a meal of you as well!'

The Ice-Cream Cart

There was once a little girl and her mother who were so poor that often they could not even afford to buy bread. When the ice-cream cart passed, the little girl would watch with yearning, not greed, in her eyes, the other children licking their huge cones. The Ice-cream seller noticed this and felt so sorry for her that he gave her his entire cart as a present.

'What will happen when all the ice-cream is finished?' asked the little girl. 'This is a magic cart,' the ice-cream vendor reassured her, 'and it makes ice-cream all by itself. You only have to tell it what kind and then, when the containers are full, you must remember to say, ''Enough now''.'

From that day onwards, the little girl and her mother had as much ice-cream as they wanted. One day, however, while the little girl was away, her mother wanted something to eat. 'Chocolate and nut,' she ordered, and the cart immediately began to produce ice-cream. It made so much that floods of ice-cream began to pour out. The poor woman did not know how to make it stop. Soon the whole town was buried and, when the little girl returned, the ice-cream was already as high as the roof-tops and people coming into the town had to lick for themselves a path through it.

The Father and His Daughters

A man once had two daughters, one of whom had married a poor farmer, the other a potter. The father went to visit each of them and asked; 'How is business going?'

'Very well,' replied the first daughter, 'but we could use more water to irrigate the land. We pray every night the God will send us rain!' When he asked the second daughter, she replied: 'Business is going well, but we pray to God for dry weather to harden our posts!' 'And what should I pray for?' exclaimed the father, 'if one daughter wants one thing, and the other the opposite?'

The Faithful Horse and the Fox

An Arab once had a horse that had served him faithfully for years, but was now very old and thus no longer wanted. 'Go away!' the master told the horse. 'When you return as strong as a lion, you'll find the stable door open for for your again!'

So the poor horse had to leave. On the road he met a fox. to whom the horse told his story. The fox consoled him at once: 'Have courage, dear horse! Lie down here on the road and pretend to be dead. Then just leave everything to me!'

The fox then ran off to the den of a large lion. 'There's a dead horse on the road!' he exclaimed. 'You should go and get it!' 'Fine,' said the lion, 'but how will I drag it back here? It will weigh too much!'

'Don't worry, my friend,' replied the fox. 'I will tie the horse to your tail!'

The lion agreed to this plan, and when they reached the horse the fox tied it tightly to the lion's tail. As soon as the last knot

The lion agreed to this plan, and when they reached the horse the fox tied it tightly to the lion's tail. As soon as the last knot was tied, the fox shouted, 'Hup! Home!' to the horse.

The horse leapt to his feet and ran home to his master, dragging the enraged and struggling lion behind him. 'When the Arab saw the two animals, he said, 'Well, my old friend, you really are stronger than a lion. From now on. I'll look after you until the day you die!'

The Great Kotei and the Golden Eagle

Kotei was the greatest emperor in ancient Japan. He defeated all his enemies and conquered vast territories. Amongst other things., or so the legends tell us, it was Kotei who invented the compass and also sailing boats in order to achieve his amazing conquests.

Moreover, he also know how to rule with wisdom and justice, and did so well that the Japanese people have never been so rich and happy as they were then.

One day, the emperor, who was by this time a very old man, was in the park, walking slowly with the aid of his walking stick. All of a sudden, an eagle flew down towards him. It shone as if it was made of gold, as it circled slowly to the ground and landed right at Kotei's feet.

'Messenger from the sky,' asked the wise emperor, 'have you come to tell me that my life is ended?'

The eagle nodded its great head in assent, so the emperor said farewell to his family, who wept many treas and hugged his knees. Then Kotei climbed onto the back of the eagle, which spread it winds and flew off into the sky, where it soon dwindled to a tiny speck in the brilliant rays of the sun.

The Indians with Black Feet

A long, long time ago, an American Indian had a strange dream. He dreamt that he went to the edge of the great northern forest and there he found such abundant wildlife that not even a hundred generations of hunters would suffice to kill it all.

Following the message in his dream (for, like all Indians, he considered a dream to be a sign of divine guidance), he gathered his family together and set out. On the prairies, the Indian encountered immense hordes of bison, but these great beasts were so fast that not one of his family could get close enough to kill one.

Disappointed, the Indian prayed for along time before falling asleep. In his dreams he had a new vision; he had to find a certain magic plant and rub it onto the feet of his vision and, to his surprise, the feet of the little boy turned back; so much so that his father decided to call him 'Siksika', which means 'Black Feet'.

And the magic plant had a further effect: Siksika became such a fast runner that he was able to catch the bison.

From Siksika was born the great nation of the Blackfeet, who, from that moment of this time, tint their moccasins black and more known everywhere as great hunters.

Reynald and the Fox and the Cockerel

Reynard, the famous red fox, was lucky one day. He found a hole in the fence and got through into the hen coop and caught a cockerel by surprise. He would have got clean away except that all hens began to cluck with fear and the farmer's wife heard the racket and sounded the alarm.

The farmer set off in pursuit at once with his men and his dogs. And, while the men shouted the worst insults imaginable at the thief, what the dogs were barking was scarcely more complimentary.

'What kind of fox are you?' asked the clever cockerel. 'You let them call you all these names and you haven't even got the pride to answer them?'

Reynard, his self respect in question, turned to shout at his pursuers: 'You blockheads! You great snails! You'll never catch me!'

As he opened his mouth to shout the first word, the cockerel fled from his jaws and flew into a tall tree.

'You are the blockhead!' the cockerel crowed, raising its crest. 'Catch me now, if you can.'

Reynard, however, had enough on his plate without trying to recapture the cockerel. He forgot all about him and ran off at once; and he did not stop until he was safe in his den.

The Oak and the Sugar Cane

The oak, whch was very proud of itself, showed a great deal of sympathy for the sugar cane. 'What a sad lot is yours! A breath of wind is sufficient to make you bow your head. On the other hand, I stand up straight and tall in the strongest gale!'

'Yes, but,' the sugar cane objected, 'although the wind can make me bend, it can never break me.'

A furious storm then broke out. When it had passed over, behold there was the oak lying on the gound with its roots in the air, while, little by little, the sugar cane straightened itself up, as strong as ever before.

The Dancing Teapot

Once upon a time, a ragman found a badger caught in a trap. He took pity on the animal and set it free. Now this badger had magic powers and thought for a long time about how to repay the man. Finally the badger turned itself into a beautiful teapot and slipped itself into the ragam's bag.

When the ragman found the teapot, he was very puzzled as to how it had got into the sack. He decided to take it at once to the priests in the temple as a gift, so that they might always remember him in their prayers.

When, however, one of the priests put the teapot on the fire to boil some water, he heard it cry out. He immediately began to shout in terror: 'The teapot is possessed!'

The other priests came running, but the teapot seemed to be boiling away in the normal fashion. However, the priest insisted on calling the ragman back and returning his teapot to him.

The night, the kindly ragman was awakened by a tiny voice. When he looked around, he saw that the teapot now had the head, the tail and the paws of a badger.

'Take me to the market,' the teapot said to him, 'and I will dance for you and make you a rich man.'

And thus it was. To see something that was half badger and half teapot, that danced by itself. was such an extraordinary sight, that people were willing to pay to witness it.

The ragman became so rich in this way that in a short while he had enough money to last him a lifetime. After this, instead of going on to make even more money, the regman decided that the least he could do for the teapot, to whom he owed so much, was to allow it to rest.

So that the teapot might for not fall into the hands of some more greedy person, he took it back to the temple where the priests again agreed to look after it.

From that day, a thousand years have passed, but the teapot is still in the temple where it basks in the rays of the sun through the windows.

The Fox and the Crow

One day a fox came across a crow who was perched on a branch with a piece of cheese in its beak. Immediately, the fox began to consider how he might obtain if for himself.

'You have everything, strength, beauty, eisdom!' he said flatteringly to the bird. 'If you only had a beautiful voice, then you would be perfect.'

Not wishing the fox to think that it did not have a fine voice, the crow began to sing. Of course the piece of cheese fell from its beak and the fox claimed it at once. 'Your most serious problem,' laughed the fox, 'is that you have more vanity than intelligence!'

The Mark of Wisdom

In the forests of Africa there once lied a very clever rabbit who wished to become even more wise. So he went to ask for help from a witch.

'Bring me a live python,' the witch told him, 'and then we shall see.'

So the rabbit cut a long branch from a tree and went to the python's lair, where the snake was curled up. The rabbit showed it the branch. 'You are always boasting about your size,' said the rabbit, 'but this branch is longer than you.' 'Don't talk rubbish,' said the python. 'Very well then, prove it, let me see which of you is longer.'

The python stretched itself out alongside the branch, whereupon the rabbit lost no time in lying the snake to it. 'Well done, indeed,' the witch praised him. 'Now you must bring me a swarm of bees.' So the rabbit emptied a pumpkin, put some honey inside, and hung it up near a beehive. When the bees had gone inside the pumpkin, the rabbit closed up the little hole he had made and carried the pumpkin full of bees to the witch. When the witch saw that the rabbit had succeeded in the second test as well, she rubbed a little magic ointment between his ears and a small white spot appeared. The rabbits of Africa still have this little spot and it is considered a mark of wisdom.

The Story of King Prudence

There was once a king who was so cautions and different that he was known as Prudence. Since he did not trust horses, he went everywhere on foot, until, finally, his escorts grew tired of the long walks and asked a magician to invent some kind of seat that moved by itself.

Two days later the new invention was ready. 'It is called a bicycle,' the magician informed them.

A minister was then required to demonstrate to the king how the bicycle worked, unfortunately, he fell off and broke his arm. When he had recovered a little he went back to the magician and said: 'We need something safer than a seat; an entire carriage would be better'.

A whole week was needed before the new invention was ready and it was called an automobile. During the first test drive, however, the unlucky minister crashed into a tree.

After this, King Prudence continued to travel everywhere on foot, until the day he tripped, fell and broke his leg. Then he understood that he had been wrong to blame the bicycle and the automobile for accidents that were really due solely to the imprudence of men. He himself then went at once to the magician and ordered carriages without horses for himself and everyone else at court.

The Magic Veil

A young farmer lived an impoverished existence in his little hut, but he never complained because the beauty of nature was more precious to his sensitive soul than any wealth.

One day his attention was caught by a lovely smell coming from the woods. He followed the sweet fragrance with until he reached a pine tree and saw, caught in the branches, an unbelievably beautiful veil, woven from rays of sunshine, beams of moonlight, and studded all over with stars. The young man had just disentangled the veil from the tree, when there appeared a young maiden who asked for it back. At first the young man refused, at which the unknown girl burst into tears.

'I am a nymph,' she explained, 'and without my veil I will never again be able to rejoin my sisters.'

"If you really are a nymph, then you can prove it,' said the young man, 'by dancing for me as only nymphs know how to dance.' So the maiden began to dance in mid-air, her veil flying round and round the farmer, and from the veil there fell thousands and thousands of flowers.

Later, the farmer never could tell if he had dreamt it all, or if it had really happened, but from that day on the young man rejoiced even more in the beauty of nature.

Ivan the Brave and the Water Life

An old tsar heard tell of a princess from whose finger came drops of water with the power to restore youth. So the tsar sent his elder son to look for her.

The young man reached the edge of the world, but there learned that he still had to cross three bridges. The toll for the first bridge was one of his arms, for the second a leg, and for the third his head. The discouraged prince gave up the venture and returned home.

The younger son, Ivan, was then sent out on the quest, and he too went to the edge of the world. At the first bridge, instead of paying the toll of an arm he used arm to defeat the guards; at the second bridge, he made use of both his legs to run across before the guards could catch him; and at the third bridge, he used his head to find a way to sneak across.

He went on until he reached a golden castle. In it there was a beautiful, sleeping girl. From her finger dripped the water of life. Ivan began to collect it in his flask, when the maiden awoke and caused him to fall unconscious to the ground. But when she looked closely at Ivan and saw how handsome he was, she roused him again, and, together, the young couple returned to the tsar with the water of life. Naturally, then they were wed.

The Artist and His Rival

A famous artist was commissioned by the ruler of a powerful city to paint frescoes on the walls of his palace. Scaffolding was put in place and the artist began to paint. The next morning he discovered that his painting had been scrawled on and covered with splashes of paint.

The artist was furious, thinking that one of his rivals had done it. To find the culprit, the prince ordered the guards to hide in the room, so they could surprise the vandal, if he returned, and teach him a lesson. The guilty party was caught in the act, and turned out to be the prince's pet monkey. It had watched the artist at work and tried to imitate him.

The monkey was put back in its cage until the painting was finished. When it was released and saw the painting, the monkey pulled a face, as if so say, 'I could have done it better.'

'Now you really are behaving like a true painter,' laughed the prince. 'It is well-known that artists do not have the gift of modesty, and they all think their own work is a masterpiece and other artists' work is rubbish.'

Figeater's Money Bag

They called him Figeater because he loved eating figs so much, but nobody knew his real name or where he had come from. The young man was a natural clown and his antics made everyone laugh, so everybody liked him and he considered himself happy.

One day, Figeater found an old money bag on which was embroidered the phrase: 'Ask and you shall receive.' It was a magic money bag and, indeed, it was enough to ask, for any wish to be granted. The young man tried out the bag by asking for small amounts of money, and then for a few golden coins. As his own needs were small, Figeater gave away to others everything he received; but his sudden wealth caused his fellow villagers to grow suspicious. They accused him of being a thief and chased him out of the village.

In his wanderings, Figeater came across an old beggarman. He looked very familiar, and as they spoke they realised that each was the one the other was a king in disguise, searching for his son who had been taken away by robbers and abandoned many years ago. The son, of course, was none other than Figeater, and he and his father went back rejoicing to their kingdom where they lived long and prosperously.

James the Simpleton

Although James was a complete simpleton, he was very willing and helpful. One day he went to a friend's house for lunch, which was very fortunate.

When the returned he found that his father, his mother and his two brothers had all eaten mushrooms and were now in so much pain that they feared that they had been poisoned.

'Run to the pharmacy,' said his father, who could not move for his stomach cramps, 'and get something very strong for stomach upsets, a dose for four people. Have you got that?'

'Yes, dad: I have to go and get something for upset stomachs, a dose for four people.'

'Good. Go on. Be quick!'

They waited and waited, but James did not return and his father began to worry; he knew his son was capable of doing anything. Luckily he began to feel better, and so he went out to look for the boy. He found James by the roadside doubled up and in great pain, holding his stomach.

'What have you done to yourself?' asked the father worriedly.

'Just what you told me to. dad,' James replied. 'I want to the pharmacy and got the four doses of medicine, and then I took them all.'