This is post #3 of my penance after I have been blacklisted by Hivewatchers for plagiarizing.
No need to upvote this post, as the payout has been declined.
But comments are welcome. I will continue to upvote all meaningful comments.
THE SWORD OF SAINT PETER
Source
"Woodpecker, go tell my mother: “Your son is doing well. He keeps a flock of three hundred white and black sheep by the great sea, and he does not forget what you endure for him."
The woodpecker took off like a bullet. At sunset, he attacked the shutter of the queen's bedroom with great blows of his beak.
All night the bird worked hard and steady. At daybreak, the shutter was holed. Then the woodpecker saw that the queen was alone, and he came and clung to the head of her bed.
“Quiou quiou quiou. Hello, queen. Your son is doing well. He keeps a flock of three hundred white and black sheep by the great sea, and he does not forget what you endure for him."
"Thank you, woodpecker."
The woodpecker took off like a bullet.
“Shepherd, you are obeyed."
"Thank you, woodpecker. From now on, I intend for us to be great friends."
"Shepherd, with pleasure. If you ever need me again, shout loudly: “Quiou quiou quiou." Wherever I am, whatever I do, I will leave everything for you."
The king's son and the woodpecker therefore became great friends. From sunrise to sunset, they talked for a long time. But one day, the woodpecker became very angry.
”Quiou quiou quiou. Shepherd, it has been just a year since you tended your flock of three hundred white and black sheep by the great sea. If you continue like that, you will never find the sword of Saint Peter. Go travel the world. If you still need me, you know what I promised you."
"Farewell, woodpecker. Tomorrow evening I will be far away."
The next day, at dawn, the king's son saluted his masters and left.
For a year he walked straight, always straight ahead, from sunrise until dark night. One morning, while crossing a large wood, the king's son felt tired. He sat down in the shade of an oak tree and took a piece of bread from his bag. It was summertime. The earth was all cracked.
While he was eating lunch with a good appetite, seven lizards came out of the ground and came to collect the crumbs.
“Eat, lizards. Eat, my friends. Here is the rest of my bread."
The seven lizards made short work of it.
“Tziou tziou tziou. Young man, you have done us a great service. We will pay you according to our power. Young man, we know who you are. We know what you think about night and day. You think your mother told you: “Go travel the world. Find the sword of Saint Peter. When you grow up big and strong, don’t forget what I endured for you." Young man, we do not know where the sword of Saint Peter is. But next Christmas Eve, you will learn more than us. However, you are not at the end of your trials. If you ever need us, whistle loudly: “Tziou tziou tziou." Wherever we are, whatever we do, we will leave everything for you."
"Thank you, lizards."
The seven lizards returned underground, and the king's son left again.
Finally, Christmas Eve arrived. It was freezing, and the moon shone on the countryside white with snow. The king's son said to himself:
“The time marked by the seven lizards has come. Walk, always walk, until you know where to find the sword of Saint Peter."
At midnight, he stopped very close to a river. At the water's edge, a poor old man with a gray beard was shivering.
“Good evening, poor man. Bad weather for traveling. You're shivering. Hold. Take a drink from my flask. It will warm you up."
The poor old man took a drink from the flask and stopped shivering.
Source: L’Épée de saint Pierre, from the French book Contes populaires de la Gascogne, tome 1, published in 1886.
Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.
I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.
So, the king's son took a year to arrive where he is now, but the woodpecker took less than a day to go to the castle? We must conclude that the king's son was not always going in the same direction during all the days he walked for a year.
Woodpeckers are fascinating birds. They use their bills to knock on trees, either for drumming or hammering. They are drumming to send a message around that they are here in their territory. When hammering, they make holes in trees, either to find insects under the bark or to create their nest.
When they are hammering, the deceleration of their head can be as high as 10,000 m/s2, which is one thousand times the acceleration of gravity. Because of that, they get warm and they hammer in small bursts to be able to cool down between each burst.
Woodpeckers are omnivorous. Even if their diet is mostly made of insects, they can eat small snakes and lizards.
It is nice that the king's son had someone to talk to, the woodpecker' while tending the sheep. Apparently, the sheep were not talking, or they were not as interesting as the woodpecker. They were not as smart as Shawn the Sheep.
My wife Kati and I, we came to Europe at the beginning of last June. Kati flew to Budapest on June 2nd and I flew to Paris on June 3rd.
Unfortunately for me, a week before leaving British Columbia, I got a bad case of shingles. It was very painful for a month and a half and less painful for another month and a half. Needless to say, spending several hours in a plane, or in my car when I drove to Pécs, was not easy.
Now, it is no longer really painful, but it is still there, and the skin rash is still visible.
Shingles is caused by the virus of varicella (also known as chickenpox). I had varicella when I was seven, that is more than 65 years ago. For all this time, the virus stayed dormant inside my body, and decided suddenly to act up!
As you can get shingles multiple times during your life, and I have learned that there is a vaccine that is 90% successful, I intend to try to get this vaccine when I go back to Canada at the end of November.
-- Vincent