The Hattiesburg news., 1910-05-10
LEGENDS Of ANIMALS
Interesting Old Time Stories of
Bird and Beast.
THE HORSE AND THE CAMEL

IL ihC pCSlbliuS INV UiiuS uiu uO
feathers. but al last word was brought
that the Great Spirit had their clothes
ready if they would send some one for
them. As the distance was long. the
turkey buzZard was selected on ac-
count of his endurance and in recogni-
ton of the service he was to have first
choice of apparel. the one condition be-
ing that he could try no suit on tho
second time. Can you guess the re-
suit? For one trifing objection or
another he let all the fine feathers 30
by until. TO his horritied astonshment.
there was nothing left but the poor.
| commonplace suit that he wears to-
day.
We talk conceitediy of the airship
as though brand new invention of
the modern brain when thousands of
years ago King Solomon had a most
satisfactory one, a magic carpet upon
which he frequently took spin
through space. Only one fault could
| be found with this carpet touring car
1t had no covering, and too often the
! sun shone uncomfortably upon the
royal head. Now. the wisdom of Solo.
mon included a rare linguistic accom-
plishment. The king spoke the Ian
guage of birds. So one day when out
riding on his carpet he called upon
some passing vultures TO hold their
wings over him by way of awning.
But they were going north. the king
| toward the south. and to his right teous
Indignation the birds insolently re-
| fused.
"Cursed be We. o vultures" he cried
In wrath. And because YOU will not
obey the commands of your lord who
rules over the whole world the feat H.
heat of the sun and the coldness of
winter and the keenness of the wind
and the beating of the rain shall fall
upon your rebellious necks. which shall
not be protected with feathers like the
necks of other birds. and. whereas you
have hitherto Jared delcately. hence
forward you shall eat carrion and
your race shall be impure until the end
of the world"
According to Arab folklore, one day
Allah called the south wind to him,
condensed it, took handful, blew
upon it the breath of life and thus ere
ated horse, But the steed ut once
began to find fault. His neck. he COM
planned. WIS too short to reach the
grass. his back had nothing to steady
saddle. his hoofs were so sharp that
they would surely sink into the sand
Instead of reproving his ingratitude
in words Allah then created the camel
as an object lesson of reproach.
The horse shuddered at the sight of
what he wanted to become. and this
is the reason that every horse starts
when first meeting his caricature
Perhaps you have not had the op-
portunity of gazing dentist-wise into
the mouth of IA coyote and so have
never wondered why its back teeth
looked as though they were broken off
and forced down into the gums. but
you must surely have come across
many an empty locust skin.
70 the south of the Xuni lands in
4NCN -hSAiNC Il NpsONt OllNG Hkilltu Out
hunting. but got no farther than the
foot OF a certain old pine tree, 50 fas-
cinated did he become in a locust who
sat playing flute and singing in one
OF its branches. In fact such was the
animals enthusiasm that he insisted
upon taking a lesson on the spot. His
voice proved hoarse and growly, but
hn H.. II,
words of the locust song and turned
homeward. proudly repeating them.
when by bad luck he fell into GO
piers hole, said other words under his
breath and forgot his lines
Back TO the pine tree ne trotted,
again imposed upon the locust's good
nature. once more saliied forth in tri-
umph. But this time as he practiced
aloud be frightened flock of pigeons
that flew out with such a noise as COM
pletely to muddle his brain. and there
was nothing left for him but another
appeal to the fwornout locust.
Now. even ii music teacher will turn
and the locust. seeing him coming from
afar and having heard that coyotes ate
insects. decided to rid himself of this
tireson1e fellow. No sooner thought
than done. In a flash he swelled up.
split his skin and crawled our. Find
ing fat hand a clear light colored bit
OF Quartz. he put it in the empty skin.
mucilaged 1t up the back with pitch
and flew Off TO another tree.
The trick worked TO a charm. The
coyote called out TO the supposed To-
Gust again and again without receiving.
q reply, became enraged. snatched the
effigy out of the tree and bit so hard
on the stone that he ran yeping away
The water of creek partly soothed
his pain. but ever since the mouth of
a coyote has shown the effect Of that
tragic bite. and whenever a locust
ventures out on a summer morning to
sing a song 1t Is his custom to protect
himself from the consequences of at
tracing too much attention by skin
- Il.