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.