posted February 04, 2013 07:30 PM
I think everyone has heard about the scorpion (fun facts like how long a scorpion can live underwater not withstanding) so I'll share this Russian folktale:A wolf fell into a trap but somehow managed to wrench himself free and began to run through the forest. Some hunters spied him and began to trail him. The wolf was compelled to run across a road, where a peasant returning from the field with a bag and a flail happened to be walking along. The wolf said to him: “Do me a favor, dear peasant, hide me in your bag; some hunters are on my trail.”
The peasant consented, hid him in his bag, tied it up, and slung it over his shoulder. He walked on and soon met the hunters.
“Have you seen a wolf in this neighborhood, peasant?” they asked.
“No I haven’t seen anything,” answered the peasant.
The hunters galloped on and vanished from sight. “Have my pursuers gone?” asked the wolf.
“They have.”
“Well then, let me out.” The peasant untied the bag and let the wolf out into the free world.
The wolf said: “Well, peasant, now I will devour you.”
“Ah, wolf, wolf,” said the peasant, “I saved you from a dire fate, and now you want to devour me!”
“Old favors are soon forgotten,” replied the wolf.
The peasant realized that he was in bad straits, and said: “Well, if so, let us walk on, and if the first person we meet agrees with you that old favors are soon forgotten, I will submit and you can devour me.”
So they walked on and met an old mare. The peasant stopped her and said: “Please, little mother mare, settle our dispute. I have rescued the wolf from a dire fate, and now he wants to devour me.” And he told her all that had happened. The mare thought and thought and said: “I lived with my master for twelve years, bore him twelve foals, worked for him with all my strength, but when I grew old and could not work any longer, he dragged me into a ravine; I climbed and climbed, until at last I climbed out by dint of much effort, and now I am plodding along I know not whither. Yes, old favors are soon forgotten.”
“You see, I am right,” said the wolf. The peasant was grieved and implored the wolf to wait until they met someone else.
The wolf consented and soon they met an old dog. The peasant asked him the same question. The dog thought and thought and then said: “I served my master for twenty years, guarding his house and his livestock, and when I grew old and could bark no longer, he drove me out of his house, and now I am plodding along I know not whither. Yes, old favors are soon forgotten.”
“Well, you see I am right,” said the wolf. The peasant became even sadder than before and implored the wolf to wait for a third encounter saying: “Then you may do as you will, since you refuse to remember my favor.”
The third beast they met was a fox and the peasant repeated his question to her. The fox began to argue. “But how is it possible,” she asked, “that a wolf, such a big beast, should have been able to climb into this small bag?” Both the wolf and the peasant swore that he had, but the fox still refused to believe it and said: “Well, little peasant, let me see how you put him in that bag.” The peasant opened the bag and the wolf stuck his head into it. The fox cried: “But did you hide only his head?” The wolf crawled in with his whole body. “Well, little peasant,” the fox went on, “show me how you tied him.” The peasant tied the bag. “Well, little peasant, how did you thresh the grain in the field?” The peasant began to thresh the bag with his flail. “And now, little peasant, before we discuss my reward for having saved you, how did you swing around?”
The peasant swung around, struck the fox on her head, and killed her, saying: “Old favors are soon forgotten.”
Lindaland
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posted February 04, 2013 12:57 PM
posted February 04, 2013 02:25 PM
}}}
posted February 04, 2013 03:51 PM
piece of cake, muhahaha 
