Thereupon Lazarus took the log, threw it away, and laid himself down in
its stead. Towards dawn, he began to groan, and when the Draken heard
that, they asked what ailed him, to which he made answer: ‘The gnats
have stung me horribly.’ This terrified the Draken, for they believed
that Lazarus took their blows for gnat-stings, and they determined at
any price to get rid of him. Next morning, therefore, they asked him if
he had not wife or child, and said that if he would like to go and visit
them they would give him a bag of gold to take away with him. He agreed
willingly to this, but asked further that one of the Draken should go
with him to carry the bag of gold. They consented, and one was sent with
him.
When they had come to within a short; distance of Lazarus’s house, he
said to the Draken: ‘Stop here, in the meantime, for I must go on in
front and tie up my children, lest they eat you.’
So he went and tied his children with strong ropes, and said to them:
‘As soon as the Draken comes in sight, call out as loud as you can,
“Drakenflesh! Drakenflesh!”’
So, when the Draken appeared, the children cried out: ‘Drakenflesh!
Drakenflesh!’ and this so terrified the Draken that he let the bag fall
and fled.
On the road he met a fox, which asked him why he seemed so frightened.
He answered that he was afraid of the children of Herr Lazarus, who had
been within a hair-breadth of eating him up. But the fox laughed, and
said: ‘What! you were afraid of the children of Herr Lazarus? He had
two fowls, one of which I ate yesterday, the other I will go and fetch
now--if you do not believe me, come and see for yourself; but you must
first tie yourself on to my tail.’
The Draken then tied himself on to the fox’s tail, and went back thus
with it to Lazarus’s house, in order to see what it would arrange. There
stood Lazarus with his gun raised ready to fire, who, when he saw the
fox coming along with the Draken, called out to the fox: ‘Did I not tell
you to bring me all the Draken, and you bring me only one?’
When the Draken heard that he made off to the rightabout at once, and
ran so fast that the fox was dashed in pieces against the stones.
When Lazarus had got quit of the Draken he built himself, with their
gold, a magnificent house, in which he spent the rest of his days in
great enjoyment.
The Story of the Queen of the Flowery Isles
There once lived a queen who ruled over the Flowery Isles, whose
husband, to her extreme grief, died a few years after their marriage. On
being left a widow she devoted herself almost entirely to the education
of the two charming princesses, her only children. The elder of them was
so lovely that as she grew up her mother greatly feared she would excite
the jealousy of the Queen of all the Isles, who prided herself on being
the most beautiful woman in the world, and insisted on all rivals bowing
before her charms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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