Twistales

Returning home one winter’s day, a farmer found a snake lying under a hedge, half dead with cold. Taking pity on the creature, he brought it home, where he laid it upon the hearth near the fire. No sooner was the snake restored by the warmth of the cottage than it began to attack the…

There was once a man who was lucky enough to own a goose that laid him a golden egg every day. However, since the process was so slow and since he wanted the entire treasure at once, he became dissatisfied and eventually killed the goose. After cutting her open, he found her to be just…

A farmer, whose sons were always quarrelling with one another, had tried a long time in vain to reconcile them with words. Finally, he decided that he might have more success by setting some sort of an example. So, he called his sons to him and told them to place a bundle of sticks in…

Some geese and cranes were feeding together in the same field one day, when a bird-catcher suddenly came upon them. Since the cranes were slim and light they could fly off right away and escape the bird catcher’s nets. The geese, however, weather down by their fat, could not take off so easily and were…

Emerging from the mud of a swamp, a frog proclaimed to the entire world that he had surfaced to cure all diseases. “Come and see the most miraculous doctor in the world!” he cried. “No one is my equal, not even Aesculapius himself, Jove’s physician!” “How dare you pretend to be able to heal others,”…

Once there was a widow who owned just one sheep. Wishing to make the most of his wool, she sheared him so closely that she cut his skin as well as his fleece. Suffering from such painful treatment, the sheep cried out, “Why are you torturing me like this? What will my blood add to…

There was once a nest of young larks in a field of corn that had just become ripe, and the mother was on the lookout every day for the reapers. Whenever she went in search of food, she told her young ones to report all the news they heard to her. One day, while she…

After a fly had been buzzing about the head of a bull for several minutes, he finally settled down upon a horn and begged the bull’s pardon for disturbing him. “If my weight causes you any inconvenience at all, he said, “just tell me, and I’ll be off in a moment. “Oh, don’t trouble your…

A lion and a bear pounced upon a fawn at the same time and had a long, gruelling fight over it. The struggle was so hard and even that both of them eventually lay half-blinded and half-dead on the ground without enough strength to touch the prize that was stretched out between them. A fox,…

A country maid was carrying a bucket of milk on her head to the farmhouse when she began daydreaming and musing. “The money that I earn from this milk will enable me to increase my stock of eggs to three hundred. If I take into account that some of these eggs may be rotten and…