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!'