 Introductory chapter to Tanglewood Tales This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Wayside Introductory A short time ago, I was favoured with a flying visit for my young friend Eustace Bright, whom I had not before met with since quitting the breezy mountains of Berkshire. It being the winter vacation at his college, Eustace was allowing himself a little relaxation in the hope, he told me, of repairing the inroads which severe application to study had made upon his health. And I was happy to conclude from the excellent physical condition in which I saw him that the remedy had already been attended with very desirable success. He had now run up from Boston by the noon train, partly impelled by the friendly regard with which he is pleased to honour me, and partly, as I soon found, on a matter of literary business. It delighted me to receive Mr Bright for the first time under a roof, though a very humble one, which I could really call my own. Nor did I fail, as is the custom of landed proprietors all about the world, to parade the poor fellow up and down over my half a dozen acres, secretly rejoicing, nevertheless, that the disarray of the inclement season. And particularly the six inches of snow, then upon the ground, prevented him from observing the ragged neglect of soil and shrubbery into which the place had lapsed. It was idle, however, to imagine that an airy guest from Monument Mountain, Bald Summit and Old Greylock, shaggy with primeval forests, could see anything to admire in my poor little hillside with its growth of frail and insect-eaten locust trees. Eustace very frankly called the view from my hilltop tame, and so, no doubt, it was, after rough, broken, rugged, headlong berkshire, and especially the northern parts of the county, with which his college residence had made him familiar. But to me, there is a peculiar, quiet charm in these broad meadows and gentle eminences. They are better than mountains, because they do not stamp and stereotype themselves into the brain, and thus grow wearism with the same strong impression repeated day after day. A few summer weeks among mountains, a lifetime among green meadows and placid slopes, with outlines forever new, because continually fading out of the memory. Such would be my sober choice. I doubt whether Eustace did not internally pronounce the whole thing a bore, until I led him to my predecessor's little-druined, rustic summer house, midway on the hillside. It is a mere skeleton of a slender, decaying tree trunks with neither walls nor a roof. Nothing but a treasury of branches and wicks, which the next wintry blast will be very likely to scatter in fragments along the terrace. It looks, and is, as evanescent as a dream. And yet, in its rustic network of bows, it has somehow enclosed a hint of spiritual beauty, and has become a true emblem of the subtile and ethereal mind which planned it. I made Eustace's bright sit-down on a snowbank, which adheaped itself over the mossy seat, and gazing through the arched windows opposite, he acknowledged that the scene at once grew picturesque. Simple as it looks, said he, this little edifice seems to be the work of magic. It is full of suggestiveness, and, in its way, is as good as a cathedral. Ah, it would be just the spot for one to sit in, of a summer afternoon, and tell the children some more of those wild stories from the classic myths. It would, indeed, answer die. The summer house itself, so airy and so broken, is like one of those old tales, imperfectly remembered, and these living branches of the Baldwin apple tree, thrusting so rudely in, are like your unwarrantable interpolations. But, by and by, have you added any more legends to the series since the publication of the Wonder Book? Many more, said Eustace. Primrose, Periwinkle, and the rest of them, allow me no comfort of my life, unless I tell them a story every day or two. I have run away from home partly to escape the opportunity of these little wrenches. But I have written out six of the new stories, and have brought them for you to look over. Are they as good as the first? I inquired. Better chosen, and better handled, replied Eustace Bright. You will say so when you read them. Possibly not, I remarked. I know from my own experience, that an author's last work is always his best one in his own estimate, until it quite loses the red heat of composition. After that, it falls into its true place, quietly enough. But let us adjourn to my study, and examine these new stories. It would hardly be doing yourself justice where you to bring me acquainted with them, sitting here on the snowbank. So we descended the hill to my small old cottage, and shut ourselves up in the southeastern room, where the sunshine comes in, warmly and brightly, through the better half of a winter's day. Eustace put his bundle of manuscript into my hands, and I skimmed through it, pretty rapidly, trying to find out its merits and demerits by the touch of my fingers, as a veteran storyteller ought to know how to do. It will be remembered that Mr Bright condescended to avail himself of my literary experience by constituting me editor of the Wonder Book. As he had no reason to complain of the reception of that erudite book by the public, he was now disposed to retain me in a similar position with respect to the present volume, which he entitled, Tanglewood Tales. Not, as Eustace hinted, that there was any real necessity for my services as introducer, inasmuch as his own name had become established in some good degree of favour with the literary world. But the connection with myself, he was kind enough to say, had been highly agreeable. Nor was he, by any means desirous, as most people are, of kicking away the ladder that had perhaps helped him to reach his present elevation. My young friend was willing, in short, that the fresh verdure of his growing reputation should spread over my straggling and half-naked boughs. Even as I have sometimes thought of training a vine with its broad leafiness and purple frutage over the worm-eaten posts and rafters of the rustic summer house, I was not insensible to the advantages of his proposal and gladly assured him of my acceptance. Merely from the title of the stories, I saw at once that the subjects were not less rich than those of the former volume. Nor did I at all doubt that Mr. Bright's audacity, so far as that endowment might avail, had enabled him to take full advantage of whatever capabilities they offered. Yet, in spite of my experience of his free way of handling them, I did not quite see, I confess, how he could have obviated all the difficulties in the way of rendering them presentable to children. These old legends, so brimming over with everything that is most abhorrent to a Christianized moral sense, some of them so hideous, are there so melancholy and miserable, amid which the Greek tragedians sought their themes and moulded them into the sternest forms of grief that ever the world saw, was such material the stuff that children's playthings should be made of. How were they to be purified? How was the blessed sunshine to be thrown into them? But Eustace told me that these myths were the most singular things in the world, and that he was invariably astonished whenever he began to relate one by the readiness with which it adapted itself to the childish purity of its auditors. The objectionable characteristics seems to be a parasitical growth, having no essential connection with the original fable. They fall away and are thought of no more, the instant he puts his imagination and sympathy with the innocent little circle whose wide open eyes are fixed so eagerly upon him. Thus the stories, not by any strained effort of the narrators but in harmony with their inherent germ, transform themselves and reassume the shapes which they might be supposed to possess in the pure childhood of the world. When the first poet or romancer told these marvellous legends, such is Eustace Bright's opinion, it was still the golden age. Evil had never yet existed, and sorrow, misfortune, crime, were made shadows which the mind fancifully created for itself as a shelter against two sunny realities, or at most but prophetic dreams to which the dreamer himself did not yield a waking credence. Children are now the only representatives of the man and woman of that happy era, and therefore it is that we must raise the intellect and fancy to the level of childhood in order to recreate the original myths. I let the youthful author talk as much and as extravagantly as he pleased, and was glad to see him commencing life with such confidence in himself and his performances. A few years will do all that is necessary towards showing him the truth in both respects. Meanwhile, it is but right to say he does really appear to have overcome the moral objections against these fables, although at the expense of such liberties with their structure as must be left to plead their own excuse without any help from me. Indeed, except that there was a necessity in it, and that the inner life of the legends cannot be come at save by making them entirely one's own property. There is no defence to be made. Eustace informed me that he had told his stories to the children in various situations, in the woods, on the shore of the lake, in the dell of Shadowbrook, in the playroom, at Tanglewood fireside, and in a magnificent palace of snow, with ice windows, which he helped his little friends to build. His auditors were even more delighted with the contents of the present volume than with the specimens which have already been given to the world. The classically learned Mr. Pringle, too, had listened to two or three of the tales and censured them even more bitterly than he did the three golden apples. So that, what with praise and what with criticism, Eustace Bride thinks that there is good hope of at least as much success with the public as in the case of the Wonder Book. I made all sorts of inquiries about the children, not doubting that there would be great eagerness to hear of their welfare among some good little folks who have written to me to ask for another volume of myths. They are all, I am happy to say, unless we accept Clover, in excellent health and spirits. Primrose is now almost a young lady, and Eustace tells me is just as saucy as ever. She pretends to consider herself quite beyond the age to be interested by such idle stories as these. But, for all that, whenever a story is to be told, Primrose never fails to be one of the listeners and to make fun of it when finished. Periwinkle is very much grown and is expected to shut up her baby house and throw away her doll in a month or two more. Sweet Fern has learned to read and write and has put on a jacket and pair of pantaloons, all of which improvements I am sorry for. Squashblossom, Blue Eye, Plantain and Buttercup have had this scarlet fever, but came easily through it. Huckleberry, Milkweed and Dandelion were attacked with a whooping cough, but bore it bravely and kept out of doors whenever the sun shone. Cow slip during the autumn had either the measles or some eruptions that looked very much like it, but was hardly sick a day. Poor Clover has been a good deal troubled with her second teeth which have made her meager in aspect and rather fractious in temper. Nor, even when she smiles, is the matter much mended since it discloses a gap just within her lips almost as wide as the barn door. But all this will pass over and it is predicted that she will turn out a very pretty girl. As for Mr Bright himself, he is now in his senior year at Williams College and has a prospect of graduating with some degree of honourable distinction at the next commencement. In his oration for the bachelor's degree, he gives me to understand, he will treat of the classical myths viewed in the aspect of baby stories and has a great mind to discuss the expediency of using up the whole of ancient history for the same purpose. I do not know what he means to do with himself after leaving college, but trust that by dabbling so early with the dangerous and seductive business of authorship, he will not be tempted to become an author by profession. If so, I shall be very sorry for the little that I have had to do with the matter in encouraging these first beginnings. I wish there was any likelihood of my soon seeing primrose, periwinkle, dandelion, sweet fern, clovered plantain, huckleberry, milkweed, cow slip, buttercup, blue eye and squash blossom again. But as I do not know whether I shall revisit Danglewood, and as used as Bright probably will not ask me to edit a third wonder book, the public of little folks must not expect to hear any more about those dear children from me. Heaven bless them and everybody else whether grown people or children. End of The Wayside, introductory. The Minotaur In the old city of Trizine, at the foot of a lofty mountain, there lived a very long time ago a little boy named Thesius. His grandfather, King Pithius, was the sovereign of that country and was reckoned a very wise man so that Thesius, being brought up in the royal palace and being naturally a bright lad, could hardly fail of profiting by the old king's instructions. His mother's name was Aethra. As for his father, the boy had never seen him, but from his earliest remembrance Aethra used to go with little Thesius into a wood and sit down upon a moss-grown rock which was deeply sucking into the earth. Here she often talked with her son about his father and said that he was called Aegeus and that he was a great king and ruled over Attica and dwelt at Athens which was as famous as city as any in the world. Thesius was very fond of hearing about King Aegeus and often asked his good mother Aethra why he did not come and live with them at Trizine. Ah, my dear son, answered Aethra with a sigh, a monarch has his people to take care of. The men and women over whom he rules are in the place of children to him and he can seldom spare time to love his own children as other parents do. Your father will never be able to leave his kingdom for the sake of seeing his little boy. Well, but dear mother asked the boy, why cannot I go to this famous city of Athens and tell King Aegeus that I am his son? You are but a tiny boy as yet, replied his brother. See if you can lift this rock on which we are sitting. The little fellow had a great opinion of his own strength. So grasping the rough protuberances of the rock he tugged and toiled a mane and got himself quite out of breath without being able to stir the heavy stone. It seemed to be rooted into the ground. No wonder he could not move it, for it would have taken all the force of a very strong man to lift it out of its earthy bed. His mother stood looking along with a sad kind of smile on her lips and in her eyes to see the zealous and yet puny efforts of her little boy. She could not help being sorrowful at finding him already so impatient to begin his adventures in the world. You see how it is, my dear Theseus, said she. You must possess far more strength than now before I can trust you to go to Athens and tell King Aegeus that you are his son. But when you can lift this rock and show me what is hidden beneath it, I promise you my permission to depart. Often and often after this did Theseus ask his mother whether it was yet time for him to go to Athens, and still his mother pointed to the rock and told him that for years to come he could not be strong enough to move it. And again and again the rosy cheeked and curly-headed boy would tug and strain at the hard mass of stone, striving, child as he was, to do what a giant could hardly have done without taking both of his hands to the task. Meanwhile the rock seemed to be sinking farther and farther into the ground. The moss grew over it thicker and thicker until at last it looked almost like a soft green sea with only a few gray knobs of granite peeping out. The overhanging trees also shed their brown leaves upon it as often as the autumn came, and at its base grew ferns and wildflowers, some of which crept quite over its surface. To all appearance the rock was as firmly fastened as any other portion of the earth's substance. But difficult as the matter looked, Theseus was now growing up to be such a vigorous youth that in his own opinion the time would quickly come when he might hope to get the upper hand of this ponderous lump of stone. Mother, I do believe it has started, cried he after one of his attempts. The earth around it is certainly a little cracked. No, no, child, his mother hastily answered, it is not possible you can't have moved it, such a boy as you still are. Nor would she be convinced, although Theseus showed her the place where he fancied that the stem of a flower had been partly uprooted by the movement of the rock. But Aethera sighed and looked disquieted, for no doubt she began to be conscious that her son was no longer a child and that in a little while hence she must send him forth among the perils and troubles of the world. It was not more than a year afterwards when they were again sitting on the moss-covered stone. Aethera had once more told him the oft-repeated story of his father and how gladly he would receive Theseus at his stately palace and how he would present him to his courtiers and the people and tell them that here was the heir of his dominions. The eyes of Theseus glowed with enthusiasm and he would hardly sit still to hear his mother speak. Dear mother Aethera, he exclaimed, I never felt half so strong as now. I am no longer a child, nor a boy, nor a mere youth. I feel myself a man. It is now time to make one earnest trial to remove the stone. Ah, my dearest Theseus replied as mother, not yet, not yet. Yes, mother, said he resolutely, the time has come. Then Theseus bent himself in good earnest to the task and strained every sinew with manly strength and resolution. He put his whole brave heart into the effort. He wrestled with the big and sluggish stone as if it had been a living enemy. He heaved, he lifted, he resolved now to succeed or else to perish there and let the rock be his monument forever. Aethera stood gazing at him and clasped her hands, partly with a mother's pride and partly with a mother's sorrow. The great rock stirred. Yes, it was raised slowly from the bedded moss and earth, uprooting the shrubs and flowers along with it, and was turned upon its side. Theseus had conquered. While taking breath he looked joyfully at his mother and she smiled upon him through her tears. Yes, Theseus, she said, the time has come, and you must stay no longer at my side. See what King Aegeus, your royal father, left for you beneath the stone when he lifted it in his mighty arms and laid it on the spot whence you have now removed it. Theseus looked and saw that the rock had been placed over another slab of stone, containing a cavity within it so that it somewhat resembled a roughly made chest or coffer of which the upper mass had served as the lid. Within the cavity lay a sword with a golden hilt and a pair of sandals. That was your father's sword, said Aethera, and those were his sandals. When he went to be king of Athens he bade me treat you as a child until you should prove yourself a man by lifting this heavy stone. That task being accomplished you are to put on his sandals in order to follow in your father's footsteps and to gird on his sword so that you may fight giants and dragons as King Aegeus did in his youth. I will set out for Athens this very day, cried Theseus. But his mother persuaded him to stay a day or two longer while she got ready some necessary articles for his journey. When his grandfather, the wise king Pithius, heard that Theseus intended to present himself at his father's palace, he earnestly advised him to get on board of a vessel and go by sea because he might thus arrive within fifteen miles of Athens without either fatigue or danger. The roads are very bad by land, quote the venerable king, and they are terribly infested with robbers and monsters. A mere lad like Theseus is not fit to be trusted on such a perilous journey all by himself. No, no, let him go by sea. But when Theseus heard of robbers and monsters he pricked up his ears and was so much the more eager to take up the road along which they were to be met with. On the third day, therefore, he bade a respectful farewell to his grandfather, thanking him for all his kindness and affectionately embracing his mother, he set forth with a good many of her tears glistening on his cheeks and some, if the truth must be told, that had gushed out of his own eyes. But he let the sun and wind dry them and walked stoutly on, playing with the golden hilt of his sword and taking very manly strides in his father's sandals. I cannot stop to tell you hardly any of the adventures that befell Theseus on the road to Athens. It is enough to say that he quite cleared that part of the country of the robbers about whom King Pythias had been so much alarmed. One of these bad people was named Procrustes, and he was indeed a terrible fellow and had an ugly way of making fun of the poor travellers who happened to fall into his clutches. In his cavern he had a bed, on which with great pretense of hospitality he invited his guests to lie down, but if they happened to be shorter than the bed this wicked villain stretched them out by main force, or if they were too tall he lopped off their heads or feet and laughed at what he had done as an excellent joke. Thus, however weary a man might be, he never liked to lie in the bed of Procrustes. Another of these robbers named Skynus must likewise have been a great scoundrel. He was in the habit of flinging his victims off a high cliff into the sea, and in order to give him exactly his desserts Theseus tossed him off the very same place. But, if you will believe me, the sea would not pollute itself by receiving such a bad person into its bosom, neither would the earth having once got rid of him consent to take him back so that between the cliff and the sea Skynus stuck fast in the air which was forced to bear the burden of his naughtiness. After these memorable deeds Theseus heard of an enormous sow which ran wild and was the terror of all the farmers round about, and as he did not consider himself above doing any good thing that came in his way he killed this monstrous creature and gave the carcass to the poor people for bacon. The great sow had been an awful beast while ramping about the woods and fields, but was a pleasant object enough when cut up into joints and smoking on I know not how many dinner tables. Thus by the time he reached his journey's end Theseus had done many valiant feats with his father's golden-hilted sword and had gained the renown of being one of the bravest young men of the day. His fame traveled faster than he did and reached Athens before him. As he entered the city he heard the inhabitants talking at the street corners and saying that Hercules was brave and Jason too and Castor and Pollux likewise but that Theseus, the son of their own king would turn out as great a hero as the best of them. Theseus took longer strides on hearing this and fancied himself sure of a magnificent reception at his father's court since he came thither with fame to blow her trumpet before him and cried to King Aegeus, Behold your son! He little suspected innocent youth that he was that here in this very Athens where his father reigned a greater danger awaited him than any which he had encountered on the road. Yet this was the truth. You must understand that the father of Theseus, though not very old in years was almost worn out with the cares of government that had thus grown aged before his time. His nephew is not expecting him to live a very great while intended to get all the power of the kingdom into their own hands but when they heard that Theseus had arrived in Athens and learned what a gallant young man he was they saw that he would not be at all the kind of person to let them steal away his father's crown and scepter which ought to be his own by right of inheritance. Thus these bad-hearted nephews of King Aegeus who were the own cousins of Theseus at once became his enemies. The still more dangerous enemy was Medea, the wicked enchantress for she was now the king's wife and wanted to give the kingdom to her son, Mithas, instead of letting it be given to the son of Aethra whom she hated. It just so happened that the king's nephews met Theseus and found out who he was just as he reached the entrance of the royal palace. With all their evil designs against him they pretended to be their cousins best friends and expressed great joy at making his acquaintance. They proposed to him that he should come into the king's presence as a stranger in order to try whether Aegeus would discover in the young man's features any likeness either to himself or his mother Aethra and thus recognize him for a son. Theseus consented for a fancied that his father would know him in a moment by the love that was in his heart. But while he waited at the door the nephews ran and told King Aegeus that a young man had arrived in Athens who to their certain knowledge intended to put him to death and get possession of his royal crown. And he is now waiting for admission to your Majesty's presence, added they. Aha! cried the old king on hearing this, why he must be a very wicked young fellow indeed. Pray, what would you advise me to do with him? In reply to this question the wicked Medea put in her word. As I have already told you she was a famous enchantress. According to some stories she was in the habit of boiling old people in a large cauldron under pretense of making them young again. But King Aegeus I suppose did not fancy such an uncomfortable way of growing young or perhaps was contented to be old and therefore would never let himself be popped into the cauldron. If there were time to spare from more important matters I should be glad to tell you of Medea's fiery chariot drawn by winged dragons in which the enchantress often used to take an airing among the clouds. This chariot in fact was the vehicle that first brought her to Athens where she had done nothing but mischief ever since her arrival. But these and many other wonders must be left untold and it is enough to say that Medea amongst a thousand other bad things knew how to prepare a poison that was instantly fatal to whomsoever might so much as touch it with his lips. So when the King asked what he should do with Aegeus this naughty woman had an answer ready at her tongue's end. Leave that to me, please, your Majesty, she replied. Do not only admit this evil-minded young man to your presence treat him civilly and invite him to drink a goblet of wine. Your Majesty is well aware that I sometimes amuse myself by distilling very powerful medicines. Here is one of them in this small file as to what it is made of that is one of my secrets of state. Do but let me put a single drop into the goblet and let the young man taste it and I will answer for it. He shall quite lay aside the bad designs with which he comes hither. As she said this, Medea smiled. But for all her smiling face she met nothing less than to poison the poor innocent Theseus before his father's eyes. And King Aegeus, like most other kings, thought any punishment mild enough for a person who was accused of plotting against his life. He therefore made little or no objection to Medea's scheme and as soon as the poisonous wine was ready gave orders that the young stranger should be admitted into his presence. The goblet was set on a table beside the king's throne and a fly, meaning just to sip a little from the brim, immediately tumbled into it, dead. Observing this, Medea looked round at the nephews and smiled again. When Theseus was ushered into the royal apartment, the only subject that he seemed to behold was the white-bearded old king. There he sat on his magnificent throne, a dazzling crown on his head and a scepter in his hand. His aspect was stately and majestic, although his years and infirmities weighed heavily upon him as if each year were a lump of lead and each infirmity a ponderous stone and all were bundled up together and laid upon his weary shoulders. The tears both of joy and sorrow sprang into the young man's eyes for I thought how sad it was to see his dear father so infirm and how sweet it would be to support him with his own youthful strength and to cheer him up with the alacrity of his loving spirit. When a son takes a father into his warm heart it renews the old man's youth in a better way than by the heat of Medea's magic cauldron. And this was what Theseus resolved to do. He could scarcely wait to see whether King Aegeus would recognize him so eager was he to throw himself into his arms. Advancing to the foot of the throne he attempted to make a little speech which he had been thinking about as he came up the stairs. But he was almost choked by a great many tender feelings that gushed out of his heart and swelled into his throat all struggling to find utterance together and therefore unless he could have laid his full over-brimming heart into the King's hand poor Theseus knew not what to do or say. The cunning Medea observed what was passing in the young man's mind. She was more wicked at that moment than ever she had been before for it makes me tremble to tell you of it. She did her worst to turn all this unspeakable love with which Theseus was agitated to his own ruin and destruction. Does your Majesty see his confusion? She whispered in the King's ear. He is so conscious of guilt that he trembles and cannot speak. The wretch lives too long. Quick, offer him the wine. Now King Aegeus had been gazing earnestly at the young stranger as he drew near the throne. There was something he knew not what either in his white brow or in the fine expression of his mouth but beautiful and tender eyes that made him indistinctly feel as if he had seen this youth before as if, indeed, he had trotted him on his knee when a baby and had beheld him growing to be a stalwart man while he himself grew old. But Medea guessed how the King felt and would not suffer him to yield to these natural sensibilities although they were the voice of his deepest heart telling him as plainly as it could speak there was our dear son and Aethra's son coming to claim him for a father. The Enchantress again whispered in the King's ear and compelled him by her witchcraft to see everything under a false aspect. He made up his mind, therefore, to let Vecius drink off the poisoned wine. End of Part 1 of the Minotaur Recording by Miriam Esther Goldman Section 2 of Tanglewood Tales This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Miriam Esther Goldman Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Minotaur Part 2 Young man said he, You are welcome. I am proud to show hospitality to so heroic a youth. Do me the favour to drink the contents of this goblet. It is brimming over, as you see, with delicious wine, such as Ipisto only on those who are worthy of it. None is more worthy to quaff it than yourself. So saying, King Aegeus took the golden goblet from the table and was about to offer it to Theseus. But partly through his infirmities and partly because it seemed so sad a thing to take away this young man's life, however wicked he might be, and partly no doubt because his heart was wiser than his head and quaked within him at the thought of what he was going to do. For all these reasons the King's hand trembled so much that a great deal of the wine slopped over. In order to strengthen his purpose and fearing lest the whole of the precious poison should be wasted, one of his nephews now whispered to him, Has your Majesty any doubt of this stranger's guilt? This is the very sword with which he meant to slay you. How sharp and bright and terrible it is! Quick, let him taste the wine or perhaps he may do the deed even yet. At these words Aegeus drove every thought and feeling out of his breast except the one idea of how justly the young man deserved to be put to death. He sat erect on his throne and held out the goblet of wine with a steady hand and bent on Theseus a frown of kingly severity. For, after all, he had too noble a spirit to murder even a treacherous enemy with a deceitful smile upon his face. Drink! said he in the stern tone with which he was want to condemn a criminal to be beheaded. You have well deserved me of such wine as this. Theseus held out his hand to take the wine. But before he touched it King Aegeus trembled again. His eyes had fallen on the gold-hilted sword that hung at the young man's side. He drew back the goblet. That sword, he exclaimed. How came you by it? It was my father's sword. Replied Theseus with a tremulous voice. These were his sandals. My dear mother, her name is Aethra, told me his story while I was yet a little child. But it is only a month since I grew strong enough to lift the heavy stone and take the sword and sandals from beneath it and come to Athens to seek my father. My son, my son! cried King Aegeus, flinging away the fatal goblet and tottering down from the throne into the arms of Theseus. Yes, these are Aethra's eyes. It is my son. I have quite forgotten what became of the king's nephews. But when the wicked Medea saw this new turn of affairs, she hurried out of the room and, going to her private chamber, lost no time to setting her enchantments to work. In a few moments she heard a great noise of hissing snakes outside of the chamber window and, behold, there was her fiery chariot and four huge winged serpents wriggling and twisting in the air, flourishing their tails higher than the top of the palace and all ready to set off on an aerial journey. Medea stayed only long enough to take her son with her and to steal the crown jewels together with the king's best robes and whatever other valuable things she could lay hands on. And, getting into the chariot, she whipped up the snakes and ascended high over the city. The king, hearing the hiss of the serpents, scrambled as fast as he could to the window and bawled out to the abominable enchantress never to come back. The whole people of Athens, too, who had run out of doors to see this wonderful spectacle, set up a shout of joy at the prospect of getting rid of her. Medea, almost bursting with rage, uttered precisely such a hiss as one of her own snakes only ten times more venomous and spiteful and glaring fiercely out of the blaze of the chariot, she shook her hands over the multitude below as if she were scattering a million of curses among them. In doing so, however, she unintentionally let fall about five hundred diamonds of the first water together with a thousand great pearls and two thousand emerald rubies, sapphires, opals and topazes to which she had helped herself out of the king's strongbox. All these came tilting down like a shower of many-colored hailstones upon the heads of grown people and children who forthwith gathered them up and carried them back to the palace. But King Aegeus told them that they were welcome to the whole and to twice as many more if he had them for the sake of his delight at finding his son and losing the wicked Medea. And indeed, if you had seen how hateful was her last look as the flaming chariot flew upward, you would not have wondered that both king and people should think her departure are good riddance. And now Prince Theseus was taken into great favor by his royal father. The old king was never weary of having him sit beside him on his throne, which was quite wide enough for two, and of hearing him tell about his dear mother and his childhood and his many-boyish efforts to lift the ponderous stone. Theseus, however, was much too brave and active a young man to be willing to spend all his time in relating things which had already happened. His ambition was to perform other and more heroic deeds, which should be better worth telling in prose and verse. Nor had he been long in Athens before he caught and chained a terrible mad bull and made a public show of him greatly to the wonder and admiration of good king Aegeus and his subjects. But pretty soon he undertook an affair that made all his foregone adventures seem like mere boy's play. The occasion of it was as follows. One morning when Prince Theseus awoke he fancied that he must have had a very sorrowful dream and that it was still running in his mind even now that his eyes were opened. For it appeared as if the air was full of a melancholy whale and when he listened more attentively he could hear sobs and groans and screams of woe mingled with deep, quiet sighs which came from the king's palace and from the streets and from the temples and from every habitation in the city. And all these mournful noises issuing out of thousands of separate hearts united themselves into one great sound of affliction which had startled Theseus from slumber. He put on his clothes as quickly as he could not forgetting his sandals and gold-hilted sword and hastening to the king inquired what it all meant. Alas, my son! Quote King Aegeus, heaving alongside, here is a very lamentable matter in hand. This is the woefulest anniversary in the whole year. This is the day when we annually draw lots to see which of the youths and maids of Athens shall go to be devoured by the horrible Minotaur. The Minotaur exclaimed Prince Theseus and, like a brave young prince as he was, he put his hand to the hilt of his sword. What kind of monster may that be? Is it not possible at the risk of one's life to slay him? But King Aegeus shook his venerable head and to convince Theseus that it was quite a hopeless case he gave him an explanation of the whole affair. It seems that in the Isle of Crete there lived a certain dreadful monster called a Minotaur which was shaped partly like a man and partly like a bull and was altogether such a hideous sort of creature that it is really disagreeable to think of him. If he were suffered to exist at all it should have been on some desert island or in the duskiness of some deep cavern where nobody would ever be tormented by his abominable aspect. But King Minos, who reigned over Crete laid out a vast deal of money in building a habitation for the Minotaur and took great care of his health and comfort merely for mischief's sake. A few years before this time there had been war between the city of Athens and the island of Crete in which the Athenians were beaten and compelled to beg for peace. No peace could they obtain, however, except on condition that they should send seven young men and seven maidens every year to be devoured by the pet monster of the cruel King Minos. For three years past this grievous calamity had been born and the sobs and groans and shrieks with which the city was now filled were caused by the people's woe because the fatal day had come again when the fourteen victims were to be chosen by lot and the old people feared lest their sons or daughters might be taken and the youths and dansels dreaded lest they themselves might be destined to glut their avenous maw of that detestable man brute. But when Theseus heard the story he straightened himself up so that he seemed taller than ever before and as for his face it was indignant despiteful, bold, tender and compassionate all in one look. Let the people of Athens this year draw lots for only six young men instead of seven, said he. I will myself be the seventh and let the Minotaur devour me if he can. Oh, my dear son, cried King Aegeus why should you expose yourself to this horrible fate? You are a royal prince and have a right to hold yourself above the destinies of common men. It is because I am a prince, your son and the rightful heir of your kingdom that I freely take upon me the calamity of your subjects, answered Theseus. And you, my father, being king over these people and answerable to heaven for their welfare are bound to sacrifice what is dearest to you rather than that the son or daughter of the poorest citizen should come to any harm. The old king shed tears and besought Theseus not to leave him desolate in his old age more especially as he had but just begun to know the happiness of possessing a good and valiant son. Theseus, however, felt that he was in the right and therefore would not give up his resolution but he assured his father that he did not intend to be eaten up unresistingly like a sheep and that if the Minotaur devoured him it should not be without a battle for his dinner. And finally, since he could not help it King Aegeus consented to let him go. So a vessel was got ready and rigged with black sails and Theseus with six other young men and seven tender and beautiful damsels came down to the harbor to embark. A sorrowful multitude accompanied them to the shore. There was the poor old king too leaning on his son's arm and looking as if his single heart held all the grief of Athens. Just as Prince Theseus was going on board his father bethought himself of one last word to say my beloved son said he grasping the prince's hand you observe that the sails of this vessel are black as indeed they ought to be since it goes upon a voyage of sorrow and despair now being weighed down with infirmities I know not whether I can survive for the vessel shall return but as long as I do live I shall creep to the top of Yonker Cliff to watch if there be a sail upon the sea and dearest Theseus if by some happy chance you should escape the jaws of the Minotaur then tear down those dismal sails and hoist others that shall be as bright as the sunshine beholding them on the horizon myself and all the people will know that you are coming back victorious and I will welcome you with such a festal uproar as Athens never heard before Theseus promised that he would do so then going on board the mariners trimmed the vessel's black sails to the wind which blew faintly off the shore being pretty much made up of the size that everybody kept pouring forth on this melancholy occasion but by and by when they had fairly out the sea there came a stiff breeze from the northwest and drove them along as merrily over the white-capped waves as if they had been going on the most delightful errand imaginable and though it was a sad business enough I rather question whether fourteen young people without any old persons to keep them in order could continue to spend the whole time of the voyage in being miserable there had been some few dances upon the undulating deck I suspect and some hearty bursts of laughter and others such unreasonable merriment among the victims before the high blue mountains of Crete began to show themselves among the far-off clouds that sight, to be sure, made them all very grave again Theseus stood among the sailors gazing eagerly towards the land although as yet it seemed hardly more substantial than the clouds amidst which the mountains were looming up once or twice he fancied that he saw a glare of some bright object along way off clinging a gleam across the waves did you see that flash of light he inquired of the master of the vessel no prince but I have seen it before answered the master it came from Talus I suppose as the breeze came fresher just then the master was busy with trimming his sails and had no more time to answer questions but while the vessel flew faster and faster towards Crete Theseus was astonished to behold a human figure gigantic in size which appeared to be striding with the measured movement along the margin of the island it stepped from cliff to cliff and sometimes from one headland to another while a sea foamed and thundered on the shore beneath and dashed its jets of spray over the giant's feet what was still more remarkable whenever the sun shone on this huge figure it flickered and glimmered its vast countenance too had a metallic luster and threw great flashes of splendor through the air the folds of its garments more over instead of waving in the wind fell heavily over its limbs as though woven of some kind of metal the nyer the vessel came the more Theseus wondered what this immense giant could be and whether it actually had life or no for though it walked and made other life-like motions there yet was a kind of jerk in its gait which together with its brazen aspect caused the young prince to suspect that it was no true giant but only a wonderful piece of machinery the figure looked all the more terrible because it carried an enormous brass club on its shoulder what is this wonder Theseus asked of the master of the vessel who is now at leisure to answer him it is Talus, the man of brass said the master is he a live giant or a brazen image that truly replied the master is the point which has always perplexed him some say indeed that this Talus was hammered out for King Minos by Vulcan himself the skillfulest of all workers in metal but whoever saw a brazen image that had sense enough to walk round an island three times a day as this giant walks round the island of Crete challenging every vessel that comes nigh the shore and on the other hand what living thing unless all his sinews were made of brass would not be weary of marching 1800 miles in the 24 hours as Talus does without ever sitting down to rest he's a puzzler take him how you will still the vessel went bounding onward and now Theseus could hear the brazen clanger of the giant's footsteps as he trod heavily upon the sea beaten rocks some of which were seen to crack and crumble into the foaming waves beneath his weight as they approach the entrance of the port the giant stravel clear across it with a foot firmly planted on each headland and uplifting his club to such a height that its butt end was hidden in the cloud he stood in that formidable posture with the sun gleaming all over his metallic surface there seemed nothing else to be expected but that the next moment he would fetch his great club down slam bang and smash the vessel into a thousand pieces without heeding how many innocent people he might destroy for there is seldom any mercy in a giant you know and quite as little in a piece of brass clockwork but just when Theseus and his companions thought the blow was coming the brazen lips unclose themselves and the figure spoke whence come you strangers and when the ringing voice ceased there was just such a reverberation as you may have heard within a great church bell for a moment or two after the stroke of the hammer From Athens shouted the master in reply On what errand thundered the man of brass and he whirled his club aloft more threateningly than ever as if he were about to smite them with a thunder-stroke right amidst ships because Athens so little while ago had been at war with Crete We bring the seven youths and the seven maidens answered the master to be devoured by the Minotaur Pass! cried the brazen giant That one loud word rolled all about the sky while again there was a booming reverberation within the figure's breast The vessel glided between the headlands of the port and the giant resumed his march In a few moments this wondrous sentinel was far away flashing in the distant sunshine revolving with immense strides around the island of Crete as it was his never-ceasing task to do Though sooner had they entered the harbor than a party of the guards of King Minos came down to the waterside and took charge of the fourteen young men and damsels Surrounded by these armed warriors Prince Theseus and his companions were led to the king's palace and ushered into his presence Now Minos was a stern and pitiless king If the figure that guarded Crete was made of brass then the monarch who rolled over it might be thought to have a still harder medal in his breast and might have been called a man of iron He bent his shaggy brows upon the poor Athenian victims Any other mortal beholding their fresh and tender beauty and their innocent looks would have felt himself sitting on thorns until he had made every soul of them happy by bidding them go free as the summer wind This admittable Minos cared only to examine whether they were plump enough to satisfy the Minotaur's appetite For my part I wish he himself had been the only victim and a monster would have found him a pretty tough one One after another King Minos called these pale frightened youths and sobbing maidens to his footstool and gave them each a poke in the ribs with his scepter to try whether they were in good flesh or no and dismissed them with a nod to his guards but when his eyes rested on Theseus the King looked at him more attentively because his face was calm and brave Young man! asked he with his stern voice Are you not appalled at the certainty of being devoured by this terrible Minotaur? I have offered my life in a good cause answered Theseus and therefore I give it freely and gladly But thou, King Minos, art thou not thyself appalled who, year after year, hast perpetrated this dreadful wrong by giving seven innocent youths and as many maidens to be devoured by a monster? Does thou not tremble, wicked King, to turn shine eyes and word upon shine own heart? Sitting there on thy golden throne and in thy robes of majesty I tell thee to thy face, King Minos, thou art a more hideous monster than the Minotaur himself Aha! Do you think me so? cried the King, laughing in his cruel way Tomorrow at breakfast time you shall have an opportunity of judging which is the greater monster, the Minotaur or the King Take them away, guards, and let this free-spoken youth be the Minotaur's first morsel End of Part 2 of the Minotaur Recording by Miriam Esther Goldman Section 3 of Tangled with Tales This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Tangled with Tales, Penetrion Hothorn The Minotaur, Part 3 Near the King's throne, though I had no time to tell you so before, stood his daughter Ariadne She was a beautiful and tender-hearted maiden and looked at these poor doomed captives with very different feelings from those of the undressed King Minos She really wept indeed at the idea of how much human happiness would be needlessly thrown away by giving so many young people in the first bloom and rose blossom of their lives to be eaten up by a creature who, no doubt would have preferred a fat ox or even a large pig to the plumpest of them And when she beheld the brave, spirited figure of Prostitius bearing himself so calmly in his terrible peril she grew a hundred times more pitiful than before As the guards, by taking him away she flung herself at the King's feet and besought him to set all the captives free and especially this one young man These foolish girl answered King Minos What has thou to do with an affair like this? It is a matter of state policy and therefore quite beyond thy weak comprehension Go water thy flowers and think no more of these Athenian catives whom the Minotaur shall as certainly eat up for breakfast as I will eat a partridge for my supper So saying, the King looked cruel enough to devour Theseus and all the rest of the captives himself had there been no Minotaur to save him the trouble As he would hear not another word in their favour The prisoners were now led away and clapped into a dungeon where the jailer advised him to go to sleep as soon as possible because the Minotaur was in the habit of calling for breakfast early The seven maidens and six of the young men soon sobbed themselves to slumber But Theseus was not like them He felt conscious that he was wiser and braver and stronger than his companions and that therefore he had the responsibility of all their lives upon him and must consider whether there was no way to save them even in this last extremity So he kept himself awake and paced to and fro across the gloomy dungeon in which they were shut up Just before midnight the door was softly unballed and the gentle Ariadne showed herself with a torch in her hand Are you awake, Prince Theseus? She whispered Yes, answer Theseus With so little time to live I do not choose to waste any of it in sleep Then follow me, said Ariadne and tread softly What had become of the jailer and the guards Theseus never knew But, however that might be Ariadne opened all the doors and led him forth from the darksome prison into the pleasant moonlight Theseus said the maiden Now get on board your vessel and sail away for Athens No, answered the young man I will never leave Greed unless I can first lay the minotaur and save my poor companions and deliver Athens from this cruel tribute I knew that this would be your resolution said Ariadne Come then with me, brave Theseus Here is your own sword which the guards deprived you of You will need it and pray heaven you may use it well Then she led Theseus along by the hand until they came to a dark shadowy grove where the moonlight wasted itself on the tops of the trees without shedding hardly so much as a glimmering beam upon their pathway After going a good way through this obscurity they reached a high marble wall which was overgrown with creeping plants that made it shaggy with their verdure The walls seemed to have no door nor any windows but rose up lofty and massive and mysterious and was neither to be clambered over nor, as far as Theseus could perceive to be passed through Nevertheless, Ariadne did but press one of her soft little fingers against a particular block of marble and, though it looked as solid as any other part of the wall it yielded to her touch disclosing an entrance just wide enough to admit them They crept through and the marble stone swung back into its place We are now, said Ariadne, in the famous labyrinth which Daedalus built before he made himself a pair of wings and flew away from our islands like a bird That Daedalus was a very cunning workman but of all his artful contrivances this labyrinth is the most wondrous Where we to take but a few steps from the doorway we might wander about all our lifetime and never find it again Yet in the very centre of this labyrinth is the Minotaur and, Theseus, you must go thither to seek him But how shall I ever find him? Asked Theseus if the labyrinth so bewilders me as you say it will Just as he spoke, they heard a rough and very disagreeable roar which greatly resembled the lowing of a fierce bull but yet had some sort of sound like the human voice Theseus even fancied a rude articulation in it as if the creature that uttered it were trying to shape his horse breath into words It was at some distance, however and you really could not tell whether it sounded most like a bull's roar or a man's harsh voice That is the Minotaur's noise whispered Ariadne, closely grasping the hand of Theseus and pressing one of her own hands to her heart which was all in a tremble You must follow that sound through the windings of the labyrinth and, by and by, you will find him Stay, take the end of the silken string I will hold the other end and then if you win the victory it will lead you again to the spot Farewell, brave Theseus So the young man took the end of the silken string in his left hand and his gold-hilted sword ready drawn from its scabbard in the other and trod boldly into the inscrutable labyrinth How this labyrinth was built is more than I can tell you but so cunningly contrived amismes was never seen in the world before nor since There can be nothing else so intricate unless it were the brain of a man like Daedalus who planned it or the heart of any ordinary man which last, to be sure, is ten times as great a mystery as a labyrinth of creed Theseus had not taken five steps before he lost sight of Ariadne and in five more his head was growing dizzy but still he went on now creeping through a low arch now ascending a flight of steps now in one crooked passage and now in another with here a door opening before him and there one banging behind until it really seemed as if the walls spun round and whirled him round along with them and all the while through these hollow avenues now nearer, now farther off again resounded the cry of the Minotaur and the sound was so fierce so cruel, so ugly so like a bull's roar and with all so like a human voice and yet like neither of them that the brave heart of Theseus grew sturner and angrier at every step for he felt it an insult to the moon and sky and to a affectionate and simple mother earth that such a monster should have the audacity to exist As he passed onward the clouds gathered over the moon and the labyrinth grew so dusky that Theseus could no longer discern the bewilderment through which he was passing he would have felt quite lost and utterly hopeless of ever again walking in a straight path if every little while he had not been conscious of a gentle twitch at the silken cord then he knew that the tender hearted Ariadne was still holding the other end and that she was fearing for him and hoping for him and giving him just as much of a sympathy as if she were close by his side Oh indeed, I can assure you there was a vast deal of human sympathy running along that slender thread of silk but still he followed the dreadful roar of the Minotaur which now grew louder and louder and finally so very loud that Theseus fully expected to come close upon him at every new zigzag and wriggle of the path and at last in an open space at the very center of the labyrinth he did discern the hideous creature Sure enough, what an ugly monster it was only his horned head belonged to a bull and yet somehow or other he looked like a bull all over preposterously waddling on his hind legs or if you happen to view him in another way he seemed wholly a man and all the more monstrous for being so and there he was the wretched thing with no society, no companion, no kind of a mate living only to do mischief and incapable of knowing what affection means Theseus hated him and shuddered at him and yet could not but be sensible of some sort of pity and all the more the uglier and more detestable the creature was for he kept striding to and fro in a solitary frenzy of rage continually emitting a hoarse roar which was oddly mixed up with half-shaped words and after listening a while Theseus understood that the Minotaur was saying to himself how miserable he was and how hungry and how he hated everybody and how he longed to eat up the human race alive Ah the bull-headed villain and oh my good little people you will perhaps see one of these days as I do now that every human being who suffers anything evil to get into his nature or to remain there is a kind of Minotaur an enemy of his fellow creatures and separated from all good companionship as this poor monster was Was Theseus afraid? By no means, my dear auditors What? A hero like Theseus afraid not had the Minotaur had twenty bullheads instead of one Bold as he was, however I rather fancy that it strengthened his valiant heart just at this crisis to feed a tremulous twitch at the silken cord which he was still holding in his left hand It was as if Ariadne was giving him all her might and courage and much as he already had and little as she had to give it made his own seem twice as much and to confess the honest truth he needed the whole for now the Minotaur turning sedendia about caught sight of Theseus and instantly lowered his horribly sharp haunts exactly as a mad bull does when he means to rush against an enemy at the same time he bearced for the tremendous roar in which there was something like the words of human language but all disjointed and shaken to pieces by passing through the gullet of a miserably enraged brute Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say and that rather by his gestures than his words for the Minotaur's horns were sharper than his wits and of a great deal more serviced to him than his tongue but probably this was a sense of what he uttered Ah wretch of a human being I'll stick my horns through you and toss you fifty feet high and eat you up the moment you come down come on then and try it was all that Theseus deigned to reply for he was far too magnanimous to assault his enemy with insolent language without more words on either side there ensued the most awful fight between Theseus and the Minotaur that ever happened beneath the sun or moon I really know not how it might have turned out if the monster in his first headlong rush against Theseus had not missed him by a hair's breadth and broken one of his horns shot off against his own wall on this mishap he bellowed so intolerably that a part of the labyrinth tumbles down and all the inhabitants of Crete mistook the noise for an uncommonly heavy thunderstorm smarting with the pain he galloped around the open space in so ridiculous a way that Theseus laughed at it long afterwards though not precisely at the moment after this the two Antigonus stood valiantly up to one another and fought sword to horn for a long while at last the Minotaur made a run at Theseus grazed his left side with his and flung him down and thinking that he had stabbed him to the heart he cut a great caper in the air opened his bullmoth from year to year and prepared to snap his head off but Theseus by this time had leaped up and caught the monster off his guard fetching a sword stroke at him with all his force he hit him fair upon the neck and made his bull head skip six yards from his human body which fell down flat upon the ground so now the battle was ended immediately the moon shone out as brightly as if all the troubles of the world and all the wickedness and the ugliness that infest human life were past and gone forever and Theseus as he leaned on his sword taking breath felt another twitch of the silken cord for all through the terrible encounter he had held it fast in his left hand eager to let Ariadne know of his success he followed the guidance of the thread and soon found himself at the entrance of the labyrinth thou hast slain the monster cried Ariadne clasping her hands thanks to thee dear Ariadne answered Theseus I returned victorious then said Ariadne you must quickly summon thy friends and get them and thyself on board the vessel before dawn if morning finds thee here my father will avenge the Minotaur to make my story short the poor captives were awakened and hardly knowing whether it was not a joyful dream were told of what Theseus had done and that they must set sail for Athens before daybreak hazing down to the vessel they all clambered on board and Seasius who lingered behind them on the strand holding Ariadne's hand clasped in his own Dear maiden said he thou wilt surely go with us thou art too gentle and sweet a child for such an iron-hearted father as King Minos he cares no more for thee than a granite rock cares for the little flower that grows in one of its crevices but my father, King Aegis and my dear mother, Aethra and all the fathers and mothers in Athens and all the sons and daughters too will love and honour thee as their benefactress come with us then for King Minos will be very angry when he knows what thou has done now some low-minded people who pretend to tell the story of Theseus and Ariadne have the face to say that this royal and honourable maiden did really flee away undercover of the night with the young stranger whose life she had preserved to that Prince Theseus who would have died sooner than drawn the meanest creature in the world ungratefully deserted Ariadne on a solitary island where the vessel touched on its voyage to Athens but had the noble Theseus heard these falsehoods he would have served their slanderous authors as he served the Minotaur here is what Ariadne answered when the brave prince of Athens besought her to accompany him now Theseus pressing his hand and then drying back a step or two I cannot go with you my father is old and has nobody but myself to love him hard as you think his heart is it would break to lose me at first King Minos will be angry but he will soon forgive his only child and by and by he will rejoice I know that no more youths and maidens must come from maidens to be devoured by the Minotaur I have saved you Theseus as much for my father's sake as for your own farewell heaven bless you all this was so true and so maidenlike and was spoken with so sweet a dignity that Theseus would have blushed to urge her any longer nothing remained for him therefore but to bid Ariadne an affectionate farewell and to go on board the vessel and set sail in a few moments the white foam was boiling up before their prow as prestigious and his companions sailed out of the harbour with a whistling breeze behind them Talus the brazen giant on his never-ceasing sentinels march happened to be approaching that part of the coast and they saw him by the glimmering of the moonbeams on his polished surface while he was yet a great way off as the figure moved like clockwork however and could neither hazen his enormous trites nor retard them he arrived at the port when they were just beyond the reach of his club nevertheless straddling from headland to headland as his custom was Talus attempted to strike a blow at the vessel and overreaching himself tumbled at full length into the sea which splashed high over his gigantic shape as when an iceberg turns a somerset there he lies yet and whoever decides to enrich himself by means of brass had better go dither with a diving bell and fish up Talus on the homeward voyage the 14 youths and damsels were in excellent spirits as you will easily suppose they spent most of their time in dancing unless when the side long breeze made the deck slope too much in due season they came within sight of the coast of Attica which was a native country but here I am grieved to tell you happened a sad misfortune you will remember what Theseus unfortunately forgot that his father King Aegis had enjoined it upon him to hoist sunshiny sails instead of black ones in case he should overcome the minotaur and return victorious in the joy of their success however and amidst the sports, dancing and other merriment with which these young folks wore away the time they never once thought whether their sails were black, white or rainbow coloured and indeed left it entirely to the marinas whether they had any sails at all thus the vessel returned like a raven with the same sable wings and wafted her away but working Aegis day after day in firm as he was had clambered to the summit of a cliff that overhung the sea and there sat watching for princesses homeward bound and no sooner did he behold the fatal blackness of the sails than he concluded that his dear son whom he loved so much and felt so proud of had been eaten by the minotaur he could not bear the thought of living any longer so first flinging his crown and scepter into the sea useless baubles that they were to him now King Aegis merely stooped forward and fell headlong over the cliff and was drowned poor soul in the waves that formed at its base this was melancholy news for princesses who when he stepped ashore found himself king of all the country whether he would or no and such a turn of fortune was enough to make any young man feel very much out of spirits however he sent for his dear mother to Aethans and by taking her advice in matters of state became a very excellent monarch and was greatly beloved by his people End of The Minotaur Part 1 A great while ago when the world was full of wonders they lived an earthbound giant named Aethans and a million or more of curious little earthbound people who were called pygmies this giant and this pygmies being children of the same mother that is to say our good old grandmother earth were all brethren and twelved together in a very friendly and affectionate manner far far off in the middle of hot Africa the pygmies were so small there are so many sandy deserts and such high mountains between them and the rest of mankind that nobody could get a peep at them often than once in a hundred years as for the giant being of a very lofty stature it was easy enough to see him but safest to keep out of his sight among the pygmies I suppose if one of them grew to the height of 6 feet or 8 inches he was reckoned to be a prodigiously tall man it must have been very pretty to behold 2 or 3 feet wide paved with the smallest pebbles and bordered by habitations about the biggest square-less cage the king's palace attained to the stupendous magnitude of Periwinkle's baby house and stood in the center of a spacious square which could hardly have been covered by our hearthrug the principal temporal cathedral was as lofty as Yonder bureau and was looked upon as a wonderfully sublime and magnificent edifice all these structures were built they were neatly plastered together by the pygmy workmen pretty much like bird's nests out of straw, feathers, eggshells and other small bits of stuff with stiff clay instead of mortar and when the hot sun had dried them they were just as snug and comfortable as the pygmy could desire the country roundabout was conveniently laid out in fields the largest of which was nearly of the same extent as one of sweet fern's flower beds here the pygmies used to plant a lot of grain which, when it grew up and ripened overshadowed these tiny people as the pines and the oaks and the walnut and chestnut trees overshadowed you and me when we walk in our own tracks of woodland at harvest time they were forced to go with their little axes and cut down the grain exactly as the woodcutter makes a clearing in the forest and when a stalk of wheat with its overburdened top chance to come down crashing upon an unfortunate pygmy it was apt to be a sad affair I did not smash him to pieces at least I am sure it must have made the poor fellow's head ache oh my my stars if the fathers and mothers were so small what must the children and babies have been? a whole family of them might have been put to bed in a shoe or have crept into an old cloth and played hide and seek in its summon fingers you might have hidden a year old baby under a symbol now these funny pygmies as I told you before had a giant for a neighbor and a brother who was bigger if possible than they were little he was so very tall that he carried a pine tree which was 8 feet through the butt for a walking stick it took a far-sighted pygmy I can assure you to discern his summit without the help of a telescope and sometimes in misty weather they could not see his upper half but only his long legs which seemed to be striding about by themselves but at noon day in a clear atmosphere when the sun shone brightly over him the giant innate has presented a very grand spectacle there he used to stand a perfect mountain of a man with his great countenance smiling down upon his little brothers and his one vast eye which was as big as a cartwheel and placed right in the center of his forehead giving a friendly wink to the whole nation at once the pygmies laughed to talk with the natus and 50 times a day one or another of them would turn up his head and shout through the hollow of his fists hello brother and natus how are you my good fellow in the distance quick of their voices reached his ear the giant would make answer pretty well brother pygmy I thank you in a generous roar that would have shaken down the walls of their strongest temple only that it came from so far I loved it was a very happy circumstance that the natus was the pygmy people's friend for there was more strength in his little finger than in millions of such bodies is this if he had been as ill-natured to them as he was to everybody else he might have beaten down their biggest city in one kick and hardly have known that he did it with the tornado of his breath he could have stripped the roofs of a hundred dwellings and sent thousands of inhabitants whirling through the air he might have set his immense foot upon a multitude when he took it up again there would have been a pitiful sight to be sure but being the son of mother earth as they likewise were the giant gave them his brotherly kindness and loved them with as big a laugh as it was possible to feel for creatures so very small and on their parts the pygmy's loved natus with as much affection as the tiny hearts could hold he was always ready to do any good offices that lay in his power as for example when they wanted the breeze to turn the windmills the giant would set all the sails agoing with the mere natural respiration of his lungs when the sun was too hot he often set himself down and let his shadow fall over the kingdom from one frontier to the other and as for matters in general he was wise enough to let them alone and leave the pygmies to manage their own affairs which after all is about the best thing that great people can do for little ones in short as I said before the natus loved the pygmies and the pygmies loved the natus the giant's life being as long as his body was large while the lifetime of the pygmy was about to spin this friendly intercourse had been going on for innumerable generations and ages it was written about in the pygmy histories and talked about in the ancient traditions the most venerable and white bearded pygmy had never heard of a time even in his greatest of grandfather's days when the giant was not the enormous friend once to be sure this was recorded on an obelisk 3 feet high erected on the place of the catastrophe and it has set down upon about 5000 pygmies who were assembled at the military review but this was one of those unlucky accidents for which nobody is to blame the small folks never took it too hard and only requested the giant to be careful for ever afterwards to examine the acre of ground where he intended to squat himself it is a very pleasant picture to imagine a natus standing among the pygmies like the spy of the tallest cathedral that was ever built while they ran about like pismas at his feet and to think that in spite of the difference in size there were affection and sympathy between them and him indeed it has always seemed to me that the giant needed the little people more than the pygmies needed the giant for unless there had been his neighbors and well-riches and as we may say his play fellows and natus would not have had a single friend in the world no other being like himself had ever been created no creature of his own size had ever talked to him in thunder like accents face to face when he stood with his head among the clouds he was quite alone and had been so for hundreds of years and would be so forever even if he had met another giant a natus would have fancied the world not big enough for two such vast personages and instead of being friends with him he would have fought him till one of the two was killed but with the pygmies he was the most sportive and humorous and merry-hearted and sweet-tempered old giant that ever washed his face in a wet cloud his little friends like all other small people had a great opinion of their own importance and used to assume quite the patronizing air towards the giant poor creature, this said to one and other he has a very dull time of it all by himself and we ought not to crutch wasting a little of our precious time to amuse him he is not half-so-bright as we are to be sure and for that reason he needs us to look after his comfort and happiness let us be kind to the old fellow why if mother earth had not been very kind to ourselves you might all have been giants too on all the holidays the pygmies had excellent sport with the natus he stretched himself out at full length on the ground where he looked like a long ridge of a hill and it was a good hour's walk no doubt for a short-legged pygmy to journey from head to foot of the giant he would lay down his great hand flat on the grass and challenged the tallest of them to climb upon it and straddle from finger to finger so fearless were they that they made nothing of creeping in amongst the folds of his garments when his head lay sidewise on the earth they would march boldly up into the great cavern of his mouse and take it all as a joke as indeed it was meant when the natus gave a sudden snap of his jaws as if he were going to swallow 50 of them at once you would have loved to see the children dodging in and out among his hair or swinging from his beard it is impossible to tell half of the funny tricks that they played with their huge comrade but they do not know that anything was more curious than when a party of boys was seen running races on his forehead to try which of them could get first around the circle of his one great eye it was another favorite feat with them to march along the ridge of his nose and to jump down upon his upper lip if truth must be told there were sometimes as troublesome to the giant as the swarm of ants or mosquitoes especially as they had a fondness for mischief and liked to prick his skin with their little swords and lances to see how sick and tough it was but the natus took it all kindly enough also once in a while when he happened to be very sleepy he would crumble out the peevish word or two like the muttering of a tempest and ask them to have done with their nonsense a great deal oftener however he watched the merriment and gamboles until his huge heavy clumsy wits were completely stirred up by them and then he would roar out such a tremendous volume of immeasurable laughter that the whole nation of pygmies had to put their hands to their ears else it would certainly have deafened them ho ho ho, quas the giant shaking his mountainous sides what the funniest thing it is to be little if I were not a natus I should like to be a pygmy just for the joke's sake the pygmies had but one thing to trouble them in the world they were constantly at war with the cranes and had always been so ever since the long-lived giant could remember from time to time very terrible battles had been fought in which sometimes the little men won the victory and sometimes the cranes according to some historians the pygmies used to go to battle on the backs of goats and lambs but such animals as these must have been far too big for the pygmies to ride upon so that I rather suppose they hold on squirrel-back or rabbit-back or red-back or perhaps upon hedgehogs whose pranky quills would be very terrible to the enemy however this might be and whatever creatures the pygmies rode upon I do not doubt they made a very formidable appearance armed with sword and spear and bow and arrow blowing their little trumpet and shouting their little war cry they never failed to exhort one another to fight bravely and recollect that the world had its eyes upon them although in simple truth the only spectator was the giant and ate us with his one great stupid eye in the middle of his forehead when the two armies joined battle the cranes would rush forward flapping their wings and stretching out their necks and would perhaps snatch up some of the pygmies crosswise in their beaks whenever this happened it was truly an awful spectacle to see those little men fight kicking and sprawling in the air and at last disappearing down the cranes long crooked throat swallowed up alive a hero you know must hold himself in readiness for any kind of fate and doubtless the glory of this thing was a consultation to him even in the cranes gissored if an ate us observed that the battle was going hard against these little allies generally stopped loving and ran with mild long strides to their assistance flourishing his flap aloft and shouting at the cranes when croaked and retreated as fast as they could then the pygmy army would march homeward in triumph attributing the victory entirely to their own valor and the warlex killing strategy of whom so ever happened to be captain general and for a tedious while afterwards nothing would be heard of but grand processions and public banquets and brilliant illuminations and shows of ex-work and likenesses of the distinguished officers the smallest life in the above described warfare gave me chance to pluck out the cranes tail feather it proved a very great feather in his cap once or twice if you will believe me a little man was made chief ruler of the nation for no other merit in the world than bringing home such a feather but I have now said enough to let you see what the gallant little people this were and how happily they and their forefathers for nobody knows how many generations had lived with the immeasurable child the natives in the remaining part of the story was more of a far more astonishing battle than any of that was fought between the pygmies and the cranes one day the mighty natives was lolling at full length among his friends his pine tree walking stick lay on the ground close by his side his head was in one part of the kingdom and his feet extended across the boundaries to another part and he was taking whatever comfort he could get while the pygmies scrambled over him and peeped into his cavernous mouth and played among his hair for a minute or two the giant dropped his leap and snorted like a rush of a whirlwind during one of these little bits of slumber a pygmy chance to climb upon his shoulder and took a few around to her eyes as from the summit of a hill and he beheld something a long way off which made him rub the bright specks of his eyes and look sharper than before at first he mistook it for a mountain and wondered how it had grown up so suddenly out of the earth but soon he saw the mountain move as it came nearer and nearer what should it turn out to be but the human shape not as big as a natus it is true although a very enormous figure in comparison with pygmies and it was still bigger than the man we see nowadays and the pygmy was quite satisfied that his eyes had not deceived him he scampered as fast as his legs would carry him to the giant's ear and stooped over its cavity and shouted lastily into it hello brother natus get up this minute and take your pine tree walking stick in your hand here comes another giant to have a tassel with you puh puh grumble the natus only half awake none of your nonsense my little fellow don't you see I am sleepy there is not a giant on earth for whom I would take the trouble to get up but the pygmy looked again and now perceived that the stranger was coming directly towards the prostrate form of a natus with every step it looked less like a blue mountain and more like an immensely large man he was soon so nigh that there could be no possible mistake there he was with the sun flaming on his golden helmet and flashing from his polish press plate he had a sword by his side and the lion skinned over his back and on his right shoulder he carried a club which looked bulkier and heavier than the pine tree walking stick of a natus but this time the whole nation of the pygmies had seen the new wonder and a million of them set up a shout altogether so that it really made quite an audible squeak get up natus bestow yourself your lazy old giant here comes another giant as strong as you are to fight with you nonsense, nonsense called the sleepy giant I will have my nap out, come homey there the stranger drawnier and now the pygmies could plainly discern that if his stature were less lofty than the giants yet his shoulders were even broader and in truth what a pair of shoulders they must have been as I told you a long while ago the ones appeared in the sky the pygmies being ten times as vivacious the great numbskull of a brother could not divide the giant's slow movements and were determined to have him on his feet so they kept shouting to him and even went as far as to prick him with their swords get up, get up, get up, they cried up with you lazybones the strange giant's club is bigger than your own his shoulders are the broadest and we think him the stronger of the two a natus could not endure to have it said that any mortal was half as mighty as himself this latter remark of the pygmies tricked him deeper than their swords and sitting up in rather a sark humor he gave a gape of several yards wide rubbed his eyes and finally turned his stupid head in the direction where his little friends were so eagerly pointing no sooner did he set his eyes on the strange a den leaping to his feet seizing his walking stick he strode a mile or two to meet him all the while brandishing the sturdy pine tree so that it whistled through the air who are you? signed the giant and what do you want in my dominions there was one more strange thing about the natus of which i have not yet told you lest, hearing of so many wonders all in a lamp you might not believe much more than half of them you are to know then that whenever this redoubtable giant touched the ground either with his hand, his foot or any other part of his body he grew stronger than he had ever been before the earth you remember was his mother and was very fond of him as being almost the biggest of her children and so she took this method of keeping him always in full vigor some persons affirm that he grew ten times stronger at every touch others say that it was only twice as strong but only think of it whenever a natus took a walk supposing it were about ten miles and when he stepped a hundred yards at the stride you may try to decipher out how much mightier he was and sitting down again when he had first started and whenever he flung himself on the earth to take a little repose even if he got up the very next instant he would be as strong as exactly ten just such giants as his former self it was well for the world that a natus happened to be of a sluggish disposition and liked eels better than exercise for if he had frisked about like the pygmies and touched the earth as often as they did he would long ago have been strong enough to pull down the sky about people's ears but these great lovely fellows resemble mountains not only in bulk but in their disinclination to move end of part one of chapter four recording by Ellie July 2009 section five of Tangled Wood Tales this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ellie Tangled Wood Tales by Nathaniel Hawson the pygmies part two any other mortal man except the very one whom a natus had now encountered would have been half frightened to death by the giant's ferocious aspect and terrible voice but the stranger did not seem at all disturbed he carelessly lifted his club and balanced it in his hand measuring a natus with his eye from head to foot not as if one was mitten at his stature but as if he had seen a great many giants before and this was by no means the biggest of them in fact if the giant had been no bigger than the pygmies who stood breaking up the eels and looking and listening to what was going forward the stranger could not have been less afraid of them who are USA? who are the natus again? what's your name? why do you come hither? speak you vagabond I'll try the sickness of your skull with my walking stick you are a very discourteous child answer the stranger quietly and I shall probably have to teach you a little civility before we part as for my name it is Hercules I have come hither because this is the most convenient road to the Garden of the Hesperides which I am going to get three of the golden apples for King Eurystheus you shall go no farther bellow the natus putting on a grimer look than before for he had heard of the mighty Hercules and hated him because he was said to be so strong neither shall you go back when you came how will you prevent me asked Hercules from going with her I please by hitting you a rep with this pine tree here shouted the natus scowling so that he made himself the ugliest monster in Africa I am 50 times stronger than you and now that they stamped my foot on the ground I am 500 times stronger I am ashamed to kill such a unique dwarf as you seem to be I will make a slave of you and you shall likewise be the slave of my brethren here the pygmies so throw down your club and all your weapons and as for the lion's skin I intend to have a pair of gloves made come and take it off my shoulders then answered Hercules lifting his club then the giant grinning with rage threw a tower like towards the stranger ten times strengths at every step and fetched a monstrous blow at him with his pine tree which Hercules caught upon his club and being more skillful than the natus he paid him back such a rep upon the scones that down-tumbled the great lumbering man mountain flat upon the ground the poor little pygmies who really never dreamed that anybody in the world was half so strong as the brother natus were a good deal dismayed at this but no sooner was the giant down that up he bounced again with tenfold might and such a furious visage as was horrible to behold he aimed an other blow at Hercules but struck away being blinded with stress and only hit his pure innocent mother earth who groaned and trembled at the stroke his pine tree went so deep into the ground and stuck there so fast that before a natus could get it out Hercules brought down his club across his shoulders with a mighty swag which made the giant roar as if all sorts of intolerable noises had come stretching and rumbling out of his immeasurable lungs in that one cry a weight went over the mountains and the valleys and for all I know was heard on the other side of the African deserts as for the pygmies the capital city was laid in ruins by the concussion and vibration of the air and though there was up enough without the help they set up a shriek out of three millions of littles road fencing no doubt that this world shines below at least ten times as much meanwhile a natus scrambled upon his feet again and pulled his pine tree out of the earth and all a flame with fury and more outrageously strong than ever he ran at Hercules and brought down another blow this time Rascal shouted he you shall not escape me but once more Hercules warded off the stroke with his club and the giant's pine tree was shattered into a thousand splinters most of which flew among the pygmies and did more mischief than I like to think about before a natus could get out of the way Hercules let drive again and gave him another knockdown blow which sent him hills overhead but served only to increase his already enormous and insufferable strength as for his rage there was no telling what the fiery furnace it had now got to be his one eye was nothing but the circle of red flame having now no weapons but his fists he doubled them up it's bigger than a hawk's head smote one against the other and danced up and down absolute frenzy flourishing his immense arms about as if he meant not merely to kill Hercules but to smash the whole world to pieces come on, rot, you sundering giant let me hit you but one box on the ear and you'll never have a headache again now Hercules though strong enough as you already know to hold the sky up began to be sensible that you should never win the victory if he kept on knocking a natus down for a bind by if he hit him such hard blows the giant would inevitably the help of his mother earth become stronger than the mighty Hercules himself so throwing down his club with which he had fought so many dreadful battles the hero stood ready to receive his antagonist with naked arms stepped forward cried he since I've broken your pine tree will try which is the better man at the wrestling match aha then I'll soon satisfy you shouted the giant for if there was one thing on which he braided himself more than another it was his skill in wrestling I'll fling you where you can never pick yourself up again un-came a natus hopping and capering with the scorching heat of his rage and getting no wicker with his too reekish passion every time he hopped but Hercules you must understand was wise and in the snap skull of a giant and had sought of a way to fight him huge earthborn monster that he was and to conquer him too in spite of all that his mother earth could do for him watching his opportunity as the mad giant made a rush at him Hercules caught him round the middle with both hands lifted him high into the air and held him aloft overhead just imagine it my dear little friends what a spectacle it must have been to see this monstrous fellow sprawling in the air face downwards kicking out his long legs and wriggling his whole vast body like a baby when its father holds it at arms length towards the ceiling but the most wonderful thing was that as soon as the natus was fairly off the earth he began to lose the wicker which he had gained by touching it Hercules soon perceived that his troublesome enemy was growing weaker both because he struggled and kicked with less violence and because the sound of his big voice subsided into a crumble the truth was that unless the giant touched mother earth as often as once in five minutes not only his overgrown strength but the very press of his life would depart from him Hercules had guessed his secret and it may be well for us all to remember it in case we should ever have to fight a battle with a fellow like a natus for these earthbound creatures are only difficult to conquer on their own ground but may easily be managed if we can contrive to lift them into a loftier and purer region so it proved with the poor child whom I'm rarely a little sorry for notwithstanding his unseemly way of treating strangers who came to visit him when his strengths and press were quite gone Hercules gave him a huge body toss and flung it about a mile off however it fell heavily and lay with no more motion than a sand hill it was too late for the giant's mother earth to help him now and I should not wonder if his ponderous bones were lying on the same spot to this very day and were mistaken for those of an uncommonly large elephant but alas me, what the wailing did the poor little pygmy set up when they saw the enormous brother treated in this terrible manner if Hercules heard their shrieks however he took no notice they only the shrill plaintive twittering of small birds that had been frightened from their nests by the uproar of the battle between himself and the natives indeed his thoughts had been so much taken up with the giant that he had never once looked down at the pygmies lower even knew that there was such a funny little nation in the world and now as he traveled a good way and was also rather wary from his exertions in the fight he spread out his lion's skin on the ground and reclining himself upon it fell fast asleep as soon as the pygmies saw Hercules preparing for a nap they nodded their little heads to one another and winked with their little eyes and when his deep regular breathing gave them no taste that he was asleep they assembled together in an immense crowd spreading over a space of about 27 feet square one of their most eloquent orators and a valiant warrior enough besides though hardly so good at any other weapon as he was with his tongue climbed upon a toadstool and from that elevated position addressed the multitude his sentiments were pretty much as follows or at all events something like this was probably the utmost of his speech tall pygmies and mighty little man you and all of us have seen what the public calamity has been brought to pass and what an insult has here been offered to the majesty of our nation yonder lies inators our great friend and brother slain within our territory by Miss Grant who took him at this advantage and fought him if fighting can be called in a way that neither man nor giant nor pygmy ever dreamed of fighting until this hour and adding a grievous condemnly to the wrong already done to us the Miss Grant has now fallen asleep as quietly as if nothing were to be dreaded from our rest it behooves you fellow countrymen to consider in what aspect we shall stand before the world and what will be the verdict of impartial history should we suffer these accumulated outrages to go unevented inators was our brother one of the same beloved parent to whom we own this youth and seniors as well as the courageous hearts which made him proud of our relationship he was our faithful ally and fell fighting as much for our national rights and immunities as for his personal ones we and our forefathers have dwelt in friendship with him and held affectionate intercourse as man to man through immemorial generations we'll remember how often our entire people have reposed in his great shadow and how our little ones have played hide and seek in the tangles of his hair and how his mighty footsteps have familiarly gone to and fro among us and never trodden upon any of our toes and there lies this dear brother this sweet and amiable friend this brave and faithful ally this virtuous giant, this blameless and excellent inators dead, dead, silent, powerless a mere mountain of clay forgive my tears, nay, I behold your own where we to drown the world with them could the world blame us? but to resume, shall we, my countrymen suffer this wicked stranger to debat unharmed and triumph in his treacherous victory among distant communities of the earth shall we not rather compel him to leave his bones here on our soul by the side of our slain brother's bones so that while one skeleton shall remain is the everlasting monument of our sorrow shall endure as long, exhibiting to the whole human race terrible example of pygmy vengeance such is the question I put it to you in full confidence of a response that shall be worthy of our national character and calculated to increase rather than diminish the glory which our ancestors have transmitted to us and which we ourselves have proudly vindicted in our warfare with the Kains the orator was here interrupted by a burst of irrepressible enthusiasm every individual pygmy crying out the national honor must be preserved at all hazards he bowed in making a gesture for silence wound up his hearing in the following admirable manner it only remains for us then to decide whether we shall carry on the war in our national capacity when united people against the common enemy or whether some champion famous informer fights shall be selected to defy the slayer of our brother-in-aithers in single combat in the latter case, do not unconscious that there may be taller men among you I offer myself for the enviable duty and believe me, dear countrymen whether I live or die the honor of this great country and the famed beast as heroic progenitors shall suffer no diminution in my hands never will I can wield the sword of which an outfling away the scabbard never never never even if the crimson hand that slew the great-in-aithers shall lay me prostrate like him on the soul which I give my life to defend this valiant pygmy through out his weapon which was terrible to behold being as long as the blade of a pen knife and sent the scabbard whirling over the heads of the multitude his speech was followed by an uproar of applause as its patriotism and self-devotion unquestionably deserved and the shouts and clapping of hands would have been greatly prolonged had they not been rendered quite inaudible by a deep respiration while rarely called a snore from the sleeping Hercules he finally decided that the whole nation of pygmies should set to work to destroy Hercules not be it understood from any doubt that the single champion would be capable of putting him to the sword but because he was a public enemy and all were desirous of sharing in the glory of his defeat there was a debate whether the national honor did not demand that the herald should be sent with a trumpet to stand over the ear of Hercules and after blowing a blast right into it to defy him to the combat by formal proclamation but two or three venerable pygmies well versed in state affairs gave it as their opinion that war already existed and that it was the rightful privilege to take the enemy by surprise moreover if awakened and allowed to get upon his feet Hercules might happen to do them a mischief before he could be beaten down again Four, as these sage counselors remarked the strangest club was really very big and it rattled like a thunderbolt against the sky of the natives so the pygmies resolved to set aside all foolish punctilious and the sale the antagonist at once accordingly all the fighting men of the nation took their weapons and went boldly up to Hercules who lay fast asleep, little dreaming of the harm which the pygmies meant to do him a body of 20,000 archers marched in front with the little bows all ready and the arrows on the string the same number were ordered to glam upon Hercules some with spades to dig his eyes out and others with bundles of hay and all manner of rubbish so that he might perish for the lack of press this last however could by no means perform the appointed duty inasmuch as the enemy's press rushed out of his nose in a hurricane and whirlwind which blew the pygmies away as fast as they came now it was found necessary therefore to hit upon some other method of carrying on the war after holding a council the captains ordered their troops to collect sticks straws, dryweeds and whatever combustible stuff they could find and make a pile of it heaping it high around the head of Hercules as the great many thousand pygmies were employed in this task they soon brought together several bushels of inflammatory material and raised so tall a heap that mounting on its summit they were quite upon the level of the sleeper's face the archers meanwhile were stationed with some bow shot with orders to let fly at Hercules the instant that he stirred everything being in readiness a torch was applied to the pile which immediately burst into flames and soon waxed hot enough to roast the enemy had he but chosen to lie still a pygmy you know, though so very small, might set the world on fire just as easily as a giant could so that this was certainly the very best way of dealing with their foe provided they could have kept him quiet while the conflagration was going forward but no sooner the Turcules begin to be scorched when he started with his hair in red blaze what is all this he cried bewildered with sleep and staring about him as if he expected to see another giant at that moment the twenty thousand archers twang their bow strings and the arrows came whizzing like so many winged mosquitoes right into the face of Hercules but I doubt that a more than half a dozen of them punctured the skin which was remarkably tough as you know the skin of a hero has good need to be Villain shouted the pygmies all at once you killed the giant and ate as our brother and the ally of our nation we declare bloody war against you and will slay you on the spot surprised at the shrill piping of so many little voices Hercules after putting out the conflagration of his hair gazed all round about but could see nothing at last however looking narrowly on the ground he has spied the innumerable assemblage of pygmies at his feet he stooped down and taking up the nearest one between his thumb and finger set him on the palm of his hand and held him at proper distance for examination it chanced to be the very identical pygmy who had spoken from the top of the toadstool and had offered himself as a champion to meet Hercules in single combat what in the world my little fellow ejaculated Hercules may you be I am your enemy answered the valiant pygmy in his mightiest speak you have slain the enormous innate as our brother by the mother's side the age is the faceful alley of our illustrious nation we are determined to put you to death and for my own part I challenge you to instant battle on equal ground Hercules was so tickled by the pygmy's big words and wall-hack gestures that he burst into a great explosion of laughter and almost dropped the poor little might of a creature of the palm of his hand through the ecstasy and convulsion of his merriment upon my word cried he I saw that I'd seen wonders before today the interest with nine heads stakes with golden horns six-legged men, three-headed dogs giants with furnaces in their stomachs and nobody knows what besides but here on the palm of my hand stands a wonder that outgoes them all your body my little friend is about the size of an ordinary man's finger pray how big may your soul be as big as your own said the pygmy Hercules was touched by the little man's downless courage and could not help acknowledging such a brotherhood with him as one hero feels with another my good little people said he making a low opiessence to the Grand Nation not for all the world would I do an intentional injury to such brave fellows as you your heart seemed to me so exceedingly great that upon my honor a marble high your small bodies contained them as you for peace and as a condition of it will take five strides and be out of your kingdom at the six goodbye I shall pick my steps carefully for fear of treading upon fifty of you without knowing it for once Hercules acknowledges himself vanquished some writers say that Hercules gathered up the whole race of pygmies in his lion skin and carried them home to Greece for the children of King Uris toys to play with but this is a mistake he left them one and all is in their own territory where for all I can tell the descendants are alive to the present day building the little houses, cultivating the little fields spanking the little children waging the little warfare with the grains doing the little business whatever it may be and reading the little histories of ancient times in those histories perhaps it's then recorded that a great many centuries ago the valiant pygmies avenged the death of the giant innate us by scaring away the mighty Hercules end of part two of the pygmies recording by Ali July 2009