The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1911-02-14
THE HORSE AND THE CAMEL
An Arabian Folklore Tale Tells Why
Every etssd shuddsrs on q First
Meeting With q cameI-soIonon and
The Neck of the VuIturs.

the Neck of the Vulturs.
In the beginning the birds had no
feathers. but at 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-
don Of the service he was to have first
choice of apparel, the one condition be-
ing that he could try no suit on the
second time. Can you guess the re-
suit? For one trifing objection or
another he let all the fine feathers go
by until. to his horrif1ed establishment,
there was nothing left but the poor,
commonplace suit that he wears to-
day.
We talk conceitedly Of the airship
as though a brand new invention of
the modern brain when thousands OF
years ago King Solomon had a most
satisfactory one, magic carpet upon
which he frequently took a 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 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 righteous
indignation the birds insolently re-
fused
Cursed be ye, o vulturesr he cried
In wrath. And because you will moi
obey the commands Of your lord who
rules over the whole world the feath
ers of your necks shall fan of and the
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 delicately. hence
forward you shall eat carbon 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 a handful, blew
upon it the breath of life and thus ere
ated horse. But the steed at once
began to find fault. His neck, he com
| planned, was too short to reach the
grass, bis back had nothing to steady
q 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 came
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 coyote and so have
never wondered why its back teeth
looked as though they were broken of
and forced down into the gums, but
you must surely have come across
many an empty locust skin.
10 the south of the Zuni lands in
New Mexico a coyote once started out
hunting. but got no farther than the
foot of certain old pine tree. SO fas-
cinated did he become in a locust who
sat playing a flute and singing In one
fnf lfe hs.u hos In 70 nf he
animals enthusiasm that be insisted
upon taking lesson on the spot. His
voice proved hoarse and growly, but
he persevered until he learned the
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 be trotted,
again imposed upon the locust's good
nature, once more sailed forth In tri-
umph. But this time as he practiced
aloud he frightened flock Of pigeons
that few out with such noise as COM
pletely to muddle his brain. and there
was nothing left for him but another
appeal to the WORKOUT locust
Now, even a music teacher will turn.
and the locust, seeing him coming from
sfar and having heard that coyotes ate
insects, decided to rid himself of this
tiresome fellow. No sooner thought
than done. In a fash be swelled up.
split his skin and crawled out. Find
ing at 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
reply, became enraged. snatched the
effigy out of the tree and bit so hard
on the stone that he ran yelping away.
The water of a creek partly soothed
his pain. but ever since the mouth of
coyote has shown the effect of that
tragic bite. and whenever a locust
ventures out on a summer morning to
sing a song II is his custom TO protect
himself from the consequences of at
tracing too much attention by skin
ming himself and leaving his counter
part in the tree May q. Ringwalt In
Los Angeles Times.