Ivan the Archer and the Princess

Ivan was the tsar's valiant and courageous archer. He was always entrusted with the most difficult tasks.

One day, when Ivan was old, the tsar commanded him to journey to the furthest limits of the world and bring back the beautiful princess Vassilla to be the royal bride.

Ivan had to face a thousand perils in this quest, but eventually he succeeded in stealing Vassilla away.

But the princess wanted vengeance for her kidnapping and told the tsar she would never marry him, unless her kidnapper was first put to death in a pot of boiling oil.

The ungrateful tsar ordered that Ivan be executed. Evan then the brave archer showed no fear, and stepped without hesitation into the steaming pot. But Ivan's extraordinary courage brought about a supernatural reaction, and he proved invulnerable to the boiling oil. When he was brought out of the pot, not only was he completely unharmed, but he had become young once more and astonishingly handsome!

One seeing this miracle, the populace denounced the tyrant and threw him into the pot of oil instead of Ivan, who was acclaimed as tsar in his palace.

The princess Vassilla, of course, could not refuse her hand in marriage to the new and handsome tsar.

The princess Vassilla, of course, could not refuse her hand in marriage to the new and handsome tsar.

The Wolf and the Heron

The wolf had swallowed a fish bone and went to ask the heron to pull if out of his throat. 'I will reward you handsomely for your help,' he promised the heron.

The heron agreed and, in an instant, put his long beak down the throat of the wolf and pulled out the fish bone. At this, the wolf thanked the heron and began to walk away.

'What about the reward you promised?' the heron shouted after him.

'What?' the wolf replied. 'You put your head between my jaws and I didn't bite it off! Isn't that reward enough?'

King Solomon's Vase

King Solomon was so wise and just that God gave him mastery over all spirits and demons, as well as the whole of the animal kingdom. Now the Queen of Sheba wanted to know if the tales of Solomon's extraordinary powers were true, so she sent him an envoy with a vase.

'Can you guess,' asked the envoy, 'what is inside this vase?' A spirit whispered the answer into King Solomon's ear and he replied, 'Two precious stones, a pearl and an emerald.'

'Look carefully,' said the envoy. 'There is a minute hole in each stone. Can you pass a thread through these holes?' A demon told the king the name of the best jewel cutter in the whole world, but even he could not perform such a feat, and it looked as though it was, in fact, impossible to pass a thread through such tiny holes.

Eventually there came a small voice from the ground. 'May I help your majesty?' It was a tiny worm, Which took the thread in its mouth, entered the hole in the pearl, emerged from the other side, and then did the same with the emerald.

When she heard of this, the Queen of Sheba realised that no ruler could stand against a king who had not only demons and spirits, but even worms at his command. She went at once to pay homage to King Solomon.

The Nightingale and the Farmer

A nightingale, who had laid her eggs late in the season, was still hidden in the corn when it was almost ripe. She began to worry that the crop might be harvested before her young ones were able to fly away.

Whenever she left the nest, she always urged her chicks to keep their ears open and, upon her return, tell her every word that they had heard.

One evening, when she came back to the nest, she found her chicks in terror. The youngest spoke up: 'The owner of the field told his sons to go and get their friends to come tomorrow to help with the harvesting of our field.'

'Is that all,' smiled the nightingale. 'Don't be alarmed, my dears, because nothing will happen, you will see.'

And she was right. The next morning none of the friends turned up. The farmer sent them a second message, asking them to come and help the next day, and once again the nightingale was not worried in the slightest....until the day she finally heard the farmer say to his sons: 'I've had enough. Tomorrow we shall bring in the harvest ourselves. When there is work to be done, we cannot count on our friends to do it for us.'

It was only then that the nightingale took her chicks, and flew swiftly away without further delay.

The Camel and the Jackal

There once was a jackal who hated water but needed to cross a river. He decided to come to an agreement with a camel.

'If you carry me to the other side of the river,' he proposed to the camel, 'I will show you a field full of sugar cane. Then, while you eat the sugar cane, I will dine on the fish and crabs I find on the river-bank.'

The camel agreed to this bargain and the jackal jumped up on his back. The crossing went perfectly, but after wards the jackal, who had a much smaller stomach, satisfied his hunger long before the camel. Whilst the camel still eating, the jackal began to howl. The noise brought the farmers running with big sticks. The little jackal managed to escape, but the camel could not avoid a beating.

'Why no earth did you do that?' asked the camel when he was carrying the jackal back cross the river.

'Oh, it's just that I nearly always sing for a while after dinner,' replied the jackal.

'Well, I nearly always have a roll in the water when I've finished eating,' said the camel, and he splashed down in the river.

So with a ducking in the river, the camel repaid the jackal for the beating it had received.

The Crows' Challenge

Two crows challenged each other to see which of them could fly highest, whilst carrying a sack of an agreed size.

The first crow filled his sack with cotton and laughed at the other crow who had filled his, instead with salt, which was much dissolve.

The cotton absorbed the rain water and became so heavy that the first crow did not even have the strength to get off the ground, and he had to admit defeat.

The Fox and the Turtle

For want of a better meal, a starving fox captured a turtle, but then could not manage to break through the solid shell in order to eat it.

You should try putting me in the water for a while to soften me up,' suggested the shrewd turtle.

This sounded like excellent advice to the fox. He carried his prey to the stream and immersed it in the current. The turtle, who was a superb swimmer, slid out of the fox's paws and re-emerged in mid-stream laughing, 'There are animals who are even more cunning than you. Now you'll stay hungry!'

The Bees and the Hornets Go to Court

The bees and the hornets were in dispute, because both claimed that they were owners of the honey in a honeycomb. Since they simply could not come to an agreement, they all ended up in the court-room. There, the judge, a wasp, found it impossible to decide who was in the right.

There were witnesses who declared that they had seen black and yellow insects going in and out of the comb, but this testimony did nothing to clarify the situation, as both bees and hornets are black and yellow insects. The wasp was obliged to make further enquiries and ask many questions. It seemed that the proceedings would go on for ever until the Queen Bee finally lost her patience.

The longer this goes on,' she said to the judge, 'the more time and money is lost to us. We are not able to work, so meanwhile our honey is going bad in the comb. I propose a quick solution: both of the bees and the hornets shall build another honey comb. Whoever builds the best honeycomb in the shortest time shall be declared owners of the comb.'

Naturally, the hornets, who cannot build honeycombs, did not accept this proposal......and from this the wasp deduced immediately that the honeycomb could belong only to the bees.

The Viper, the Frogs and the Water Snake

A viper often went to drink at a pond which a water snake claimed as his own. The two snakes decided they would have to settle the matter by fighting. The frogs, eternal enemies of the water snake, supported the viper.

On the day of the contest, the frogs began to croak madly, for they could think of nothing else to do.

The viper won the battle, and afterwards the frogs asked the victorious viper for their share of the spoils. The viper began to whistle and the frogs were baffled.

'I'm repaying you in the same way you helped me,' explained the viper.

Reynard the Fox and the Eels

A fisherman was returning home after a day by the river with his cart full of eels. Reynard the fox saw him and immediately thought of a way of getting himself a sumptuous dinner. He lay down in the middle of the road and presented to be dead.

When the fisherman saw him, he fell for the trick. He picked up the fox, convinced that he had found himself a beautiful fox skin, and put it in the back of his cart. Once on the move, Reynard emptied all the eels out into the road, gathered them up and ran off. So the gullible fisherman lost both his fox fur skin and his fish.

How the Rabbit Became White

Eye of the Eagle, an Indian brave, was a great hunter. One summer the weather was so hot and dry that all the prairie animals moved away in search of water, and even Eye of the Eagle could find no game with which to feed his tribe. Things got so bad that one day he got into his canoe and decided that he would have to follow the wild animals into the Great North where they had fled.

He paddled and paddled and went so far, that one day he was surprised to find himself in a snowstorm. This, however, did not disturb him, because he knew he could follow more easily on the snow the tracks left by the wild animals. When he found the tracks of a deer, he began to follow them; but the snow fell so heavily that the hunter was blinded and became lost. Luckily he came across a brown rabbit and it offered to help him by guiding him back to his canoe. The rabbit's dark skin stood out clearly against the snow.

In this way, Eye of the Eagle was saved. He was so grateful to the brown rabbit that he chanted a magic spell which made its fur turn white. This meant that the rabbit could no longer be seen against the snow in winter, and so no-one could hunt it again.

The Faithful Friends

A young page so cared for his horse and fed it so well that even the fox would have liked to have had the young page as her master, in order to be so well treated. So she asked to be taken into the page's service and was accepted. She was also treated so well that he she was followed by the bear, by all the other animals in the forest.

One day the friends of the young page decided it was time they found him a wife. They chose the daughter of the king himself for their master, and cleverly arranged that they should meet and fall in love. The king, however, did not approve of the choice his daughter had made and locked her in a tower.Then all the animals in the page's employ planned to free her.

The cat persuaded the princess to follow him out onto the terrace around the tower, and then the eagle picked her up and carried her away. The king, in a fury, declared war on all the animals, but there were so many of them and they made up such a massive army that the king had to make peace.So the page was pardoned and the king reluctantly gave him his daughter's hand in marriage. The two of them lived happily ever after, surrounded by all their faithful animal friends.

The White Cat and the Imps

Once upon a time, there was a man who had captured a polar bear which he intended to present to the tsar. On the way home, he found himself in the woods as night began to fall, and he asked a woodsman for refuge.

'Of course, you may stay the night,' said the woodsman, 'but you'll have to make do as best you can, because there won't be much space. This night in the feast of the rolls, the impish spirits of the forest, and unfortunately they have a tradition of celebrating with a banquet in my house!'

The man laid out his bed in the closet, and the bear crawled in under the covers and soon fell asleep.

That evening the trolls arrived, hundreds of every shape and size, noisy and cheeky like little boys. One of them spied the white fur under the covers, and thought a large cat was hiding there. The troll tugged spitefully at the fur, until the polar bear leapt out in fury. The terrified trolls fled.

The year after, before turning up at the house, the trolls asked the woodsman if he still had his 'big cat'.

'Oh yes!' confirmed the woodsman, 'and the seven kittens she has had in the last twelve months are all bigger than the mother!'

Needles to say, the trolls never returned to the woodsman's house for their banquet.

How Men Came to Possess Fire

Many, many years ago, the American Indians did not know hot to make fire, but they knew of its existence for they had seen smoke rising from an island inhabited by the tribe of weasels. On this isand a lightning-bolt had struck, and set a treeon fire.

Unfortunatey the Indians were unable to swim as far as the island, but the rabbit came to their aid. He offered to go and steal the fire.

'I can run and swim faster than them,' said the rabbit. 'I'll steal the fire and the weasels will never catch me.' Then he covered his head in pine resin and set off.

The weasels were having a party when he reached the island, and invited him to a scared dance around the fire. This was just what the rabbit had been hoping for! As he was dancing, he drew closer and closer to the fire untill eventually the pine resin on his head caught fire. Then he fled.

The weasels soon found they could not catch him, so they called upon the rain spirits to extinguish the fire on the thief's head. The spirits heard their prayer and answered, but the rabbit hid in a hollow tree, and did not come out again untill the rain strom was over. He made his way back to the camp of his friends, the Indians, and handed over to them the fire which has burned there from that day to this.

The Owl and the Nightingale

There was once a nightingale, in a cage by a window, that was in the habit of singing only at night. An owl was puzzled by this and went to ask the nightingale what the reason was.

'When I was captured,' explained the nightingale, 'it was day and I was singing. In this way I learnt to be more prudent and to sing only at night.'

'Are you afraid you might be captured a second time?' asked the baffled owl. 'It would have been better if you had been more careful the first time when your freedom was at risk. Not it doesn't really matter any more!'

The Spiteful Gnomes

One upon a time a woman had a lovely baby, but gnomes stole the child and put in its place a baby gnome in the cradle. The mother begged them to return the child to her, but they just laughed unkindly. Sad and distracted without her baby, the woman put a raw egg on the fire instead of into the pot of water. The gnomes, who were always running around the kitchen, burst out laughing at this, because, as we all know, gnomes like to laugh more than anything else. So they returned her baby to the mother and took away the baby gnome.

The Cockerel and the Weasel

Once, while the cockerel was giving a long 'cock-a-doddle-doo' a weasel walked up behind him. 'You are a very good singer,' the weasel purred, 'but I know a cockerel that can sing perfectly while standing on the leg.'

'That's east!' said the vain cockerel, doing the same.

'Ah, but he also shuts his eyes!'

'I can do that too!'

And while the cock was showing off in this fashion, the weasel carried him off into the woods to eat him. When mealtime arrived, the weasel held the cockerel still with his paws and.......

'Didn't anyone teach you to say grace before eating?' the cockerel interrupted.

'Of course they did!' said the weasel, lifting his paws to put them together. The cockerel didn't hesitate, but flew straight up to a high branch. The weasel was determined not to give up a meal, so he picked up a dry leaf and pretended to read it.

'It's a letter from the king!' he murmured and turned to the cockerel. 'I don't understand a single word of it. Why don't you read it to me?'

'Gladly,' replied the cockerel, 'but some other time would be better. I can see a group of hunters coming.'

The weasel ran off and the clever cockerel returned to the hen house.

The Hen with the Silver Eggs

One day, in an Arabian city, a woman went to the market and bought a beautiful hen.

You can imagine her surprise later, when the hen laid a silver egg. If the hen could only be persuaded to lay more than one egg each day, the woman was sure she would never have to work again.

So the woman decided that the hen must eat more, so that it could lay more eggs.

But the only result was that the hen died of indigestion, and did not lay any more eggs at all.

The Bewitched Mill

The old mill was inhabited by ghosts and no-one knew what went on there, because each person who passed a night there was speechless with fear by morning.

The owner of the mill was in despair, because no-one wanted to work there. So he was delighted when a young man, too simple to be scared, came looking for a job.

That night, when the young man sat down on the bench, the door opened before him and a table moved forward, laden with all kinds of good things. Invisible guests then began to dine and the young man joined in, not at all put out by the fact that the cutlery was moving of its own accord. At a certain moment, all the lights went out and the young man was slapped in the face.

'Do that again,' he said,' 'and you'll get a slap in return.' And when he did get another slap, he slapped right back at the invisible face. He went on all night, trading blow for blow. At dawn, all the strange happenings ceased, and after that nothing eve happened again, for ghosts are scared them-selves of someone who is not scared of them, and in fact they prefer to run away.

Apollo and the Shepherd

Apollo, who was the Greek god of music, was very proud of how well he could play the lyre. Everyone agreed that no music was as good as Apollo's until one day he was told of a shepherd called Olander, whose melodies on the flute were just as sweet as his. So Apollo invited Olander to Delphos, his island home, and challenged him to a contest.

First the god, and then the shepherd, played before a great audience, and the most wonderful melodies came forth from their instruments. The Muses, who were acting as judges. found it impossible to decide which of the two was the better musician. Very put out at this, Apollo proposed a second trial.

'This time let us play our instruments the opposite way,' he said. Again Apollo played first, but even though his lyre was upside down, beautiful music still flowed from it. Then it was Olander's turn. He put the other end of the flute into his mouth, but though he puffed and puffed, he was quite unable to produce a sound.

Only at the end did Olander realise that he had been tricked, because a flute cannot be played from the opposite end to the mouthpiece. So Apollo won, but the Muses still refused to give him any prize because he had won by trickery.

The Darning Needle

A large darning needle was very full of itself, almost as if it was a lacework needle, until one day, pushing through some tough cloth, its eye broke. But the seamstress did not want to throw it away, and used it instead to pin the scarf round her neck. The needle thought it had been promoted and became even more conceited.

One day, it slipped out of its high position, at the woman's neck, and landed in the kitchen sink. But it did not feel at all humiliated, rather it was convinced it had been made lord admiral of the seas, and was being sent out to discover new lands.

In truth, the only land it discovered was the drains, but all the dirt and waste that passed through only made it feel more important, because the needle remained slim and shiny. It even made a friend in its own social class - a bottle top, which, because it also shone, the needle thought worthy of its attention.

'I see that you are a diamond,' said the needle.

'And you are a sword,' replied the bottle top.

'Yes, you are right. I'm the king's sword.'

And the two of them are probably still there, telling each other about their exciting past lives.

The Deer-Witch and the Butterfly

One day a young hunter saw a magnificent deer and chased it through the woods. After a long pursuit, he arrived at a little house hidden in the middle of the forest, and there the deer was transformed into an old witch.

'You've fallen into my trap now,' cackled the witch, pointing a gnarled finger at him. 'Now I am going to change you into an animal as well.'

Terrified, the young hunter turned to escape, only to discover that the way was blocked by a toad, which suddenly changed into a bear. Then the witch changed again, this time into a black raven, which flew at the hunter to touch him and complete the evil spell.

But before the raven could reach him, a butterfly landed on the young man's shoulder and that was enough to break the witch's spell. The butterfly changed herself into a beautiful huntress with drawn bow and arrow pointing at the raven.

'Let us go, old witch, or else.....' she cried.

And then, even the beer, who was actually the brother of the huntress, returned to normal,. All three jumped onto the horse and escaped, followed by the uselessly croaking raven.

The Bell on the Cat

Several centuries ago, the mice called a meeting to consider their sad situation.

All the speakers agreed on the fact that it was all the fault of the cats, and they debated ways in which they could avoid being hunted by them.

Finally, a solution was proposed and everyone approved. It was decided to attach a bell to every cat so that the mice would hear them coming.

This law is still in force, but unfortunately no mice have come forward to volunteer to put the bells on the cats

The Lion and the Old Hare

In the jungle, there once was a fierce lion who killed many animals. The survivors decided that if they were not to suffer the same fate something must be done. The king of the jungle would have to make do with one meal a day, In return, to save him the effort of hunting, each day's victim would come to the lion of his own accord.

Things went on like this until it came to the turn of a cunning, old hare. Off he went to the lion, gasping as if he had just run a long way.

'On my way here,' he panted, 'I was attacked by a lion. But for my fast legs, I would never have escaped,'

'Another lion?' The king of the jungle roared with rage at the very idea of a rival. 'Where is he?'

'At the pool. He is big and young, stronger and braver than you.'

'We'll see about that. Take me to him.'

So the lion followed the hare to the pool and there, as he leaned over the edge, he saw another lion in the water below. He sprang at it immediately .... and that was how an old hare got the better of a cruel tyrant. And that is why there is why there is a proverb which says: 'Cunning is more powerful than brute strength'.

The Giant and the Miser

A good-hearted young giant heard tell of a blacksmith who was very miserly and the treated his workers very unjustly, so he went along to the workshop and asked to be taken on as an apprentice.

The blacksmith thought that such a big strong lad could probably do the work of a dozen others. He was tempted to take him on, but he wanted to know how much money he would have to pay him.

'Just give me a little something for each hammer blow,' replied the giant.

Thinking of the money he would not have to pay the others, the mean blacksmith agreed. He put his new apprentice to work in the forge, but with the first hammer blow, the anvil sank so far into the ground that it could not be pulled back out. The blacksmith realised that he had made a good bargain. He asked the giant to leave before he destroyed everything.

'How much do I owe you for that single blow?' he asked the giant.

'Not much,' answered the young giant. 'Just this....' And he gave the blacksmith a kick that sent him flying over the rooftops.

The Two Samural and the Servant

A samural was on his way to Kyoto, unhappy because he had not found a servant to carry his bags. A second samural was also going to Kyoto, and he was unhappy because he had not found a servant to keep him company. The two samural met up and decided to continue together. At least they could keep each other company.

Further on, they met a common man who was also going to Kyoto, and they asked him to enter their service. The man accepted willingly and the samural gave him their long swords to carry; but they were unhappy with their servant.

'You can see a mile off that you are not a warrior!' they reproached him. 'You don't know how to carry the swords properly.'

After enduring this for a while, the man grew tired of being made fun of. He drew on of their long swords and pointed it at their throats.

'Hand over your short swords from your belts!' he commanded. Once the two samural were disarmed, he made them hand over their money bags as well. Then he threw all the weapons into the river and off he went.

'Carry them by yourselves,' he said to the samural. 'I already feel exalted enough carrying your gold!'

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids

Mother goat had to go out one day and leave her seven little kids alone in the house. But before leaving, she warmed them sternly about the bad wolf and his great cunning, and so, when the wolf knocked on the door and said he was the mother goat, they were not fooled.

'No, you are the big bad wolf,' they answered. 'Our mother has a soft sweet voice.'

So the wolf tired again later, after eating some honey to make his voice sweeter; but the kids were still not fooled. This time the wolf was betrayed by his paws, which were black and hairy. Pretending to be their mother, he held presents for the kids i his paws.

The next time, the wolf went to the baker and ordered him to make a goat's paw out of bread dough, and when the little goats saw this they were fooled. They thought it really was their mother and they opened the front door. In a flash the wolf swallowed them all up - all, except one, who just in time hid in the cupboard.

When mother goat came home, the little kid told her what had happened to his brothers and sisters. Off went the mother goat to look for the rascally wolf. When she found the wolf, he was fast asleep under a tree, but in his full stomach the mother goat could see the shape of the little goats' heads. Then, with scissors the mother goat freed her young, and she put stones in their place. Afterwards she sewed up the wolf's stomach so neatly that he never even noticed. When he woke up and went to have a drink, however, the weight of the stones in his stomach made the wolf lose his balance, and he fell into the water and was drowned. So the seven little goats were able to grow up strong and healthy, with big horns, so they could defend themselves against wicked wolves.

The Mystery of the Sphinx

A long, long time ago, the city of Thebes was guarded by a sphinx, a creature with the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle.

She asked the same riddle of every passer-by, and when they could not answer, she consumed them.

'What being,' the sphinx asked Oedipus, when he came upon her, 'has four legs in the morning, two at midday and three in the evening?'

'Man,' answered Oedipus. 'As a child he crawls on all fours, in his prime he walks on two legs, and when he is old he leans on a stick.'

True, Very True!

A highly respectable hen was cleaning herself with her beak one day, when she broke off one of her feathers. 'Not another one,' she sighed. 'I ll never be beautiful at this rate.'

Her neighbour, overhearing, misunderstood the hen's words and went and told the mother hen, 'One of my sisters is pulling out all her feathers to make herself more beautiful...'

Listening on the roof of the hen house, the owl remarked, 'What a shameless creature.'

'Be quite,' warned his wife,. 'Don't let the children hear you.'

But she flew off nonetheless to tell the pigeons. 'Have you heard? One of the hens has plucked out all her feathers for love of the cockerel. She'll catch a cold, if she isn't already dead!'

In the pigeons' retelling of the story the number of featherless hens had risen to two. From the swallows to the bats, the story grew more and more amazing. When finally it got back to the hen house, would you believe it, at least five or six hens were without feathers after a jealous fight over the cockerel!

Obviously the first respectable hen had no idea that she was a participant in a story of this kind.

'What a scandal,' she exclaimed. 'They should be ashamed of themselves!'

The Donkey and the Crown

The rulers of a small kingdom desired one thing above all others, a son, but when finally a son was born to them, they were very disappointed. The little prince looked just like a donkey! All the same they loved him clearly, and he had such a a lovable nature that his appearance came to be overlooked. But when he grew up and saw his own reflection in the lake, the prince was most upset. He was so ashamed that he fled from the palace at once and began to roam the world.

After many travels and adventures, he found himself in another kingdom where he was given employment as a court musician. The musical donkey was so kind and gentle that everybody grew fond of him especially the king and queen, so much so that they asked him if he would care to marry their beautiful daughter, He accepted readily and the wedding was celebrated in great style; and, on that very evening, when the newly wed couple were alone in their room, the donkey skin, which had always covered the prince, fell away, revealing a handsome young man; the love of the princess for the donkey had broken the spell.

Catherine and the Mirror

One day silly little Catherine went for a walk in the woods. When she reached the lake, she decided to eat, but the grew tired and slept till night-time. When she woke up, it was so dark that she could not see her own reflection in the water.

'Am I really hear or am I not?' she asked herself. She decided to go home and ask. When she got home she called out, 'Is Catherine there?'

'She must be in the bedroom,' replied a sleepy voice.

'If Catherine's at home,' thought Catherine, 'then I'm not Catherine.'

So she went away and never returned.

The Dragon with a Hundred Heads

A knight, on his way through a deep wood, suddenly spied a monstrous dragon in the thick of the forest. He was a very brave man and had often fought and defeated dozens of even bigger dragons. But this particular dragon had one hundred long necks., as may heads, and the same number of terrible, gaping jaws!

It would have been easy for the knight to have defeated a dragon with three heads, or even seven, but a hundred ! He decided he had no choice but to flee. He was wrong in his judgement. It was because of its tangle of necks that the dragon would never have been able to get free from the thick undergrowth. It could, therefore, have been easily defeated.

A little later, the knight spied a second dragon in the thickets before him. The time the dragon had only one head, and thus the knight approached it fearlessly, sword in hand. But, although this dragon had only one head, it had one hundred legs, and in moments it rushed so quickly through the thicket, that it caught the reckless knight and made mincemeat of him.

This story shows that it is better to have a hundred legs that obey you, than a hundred heads to give orders.