THE QUEEN OF THE MISSISSIPPI
'Oh! that is nothing at all,' said the young hero. And, turning to the man who ate up the earth, he said:
'Sit down there, my friend.' Then turning again to the servant, he ordered him to bring in the biggest bull they could find.
They obeyed, and set it down in front of the man who ate the earth. And, in presence of the Queen, he swallowed the bull whole, head and tail and everything; and it was alive!
But the Queen said, 'You have not won me yet!'
And then she called in a second servant and said:
'Here is my servant. See if you can drink more than he can!'
And immediately the servant took hold of a whole cask of wine, and in one mouthful drank the whole lot up.
The young hero said, 'That is nothing at all!' Then, turning to the man with a mouth as big as a river, he added:
'Come here, my friend. Place yourself on your stomach on the moat, and drink well!'
And the man with the mouth as large as a river placed himself on his stomach, with his mouth to the water of the great moat outside, and in one second he had drunk up the whole moat, fishes and all, absolutely dry.
But the Queen still said they had not won her!
And she beckoned another servant. Then, turning to the young man, she said: 'See if you can run better than he can. There,' she said, 'at the top of that high mountain, just near the sun, lives a hermit. Go and ask him what it is he wishes to say to me. Then come back and tell me.'
'Oh! that is nothing at all,' said the young hero. And, turning to the man who ran like a hare, he said: 'Go to the top of the mountain and come back with the message.'
And the man who ran like a hare was out of sight in a second, and before they could count three he had returned to the Queen with the message that the hermit was dead, which the Queen had known all the time.
And the young man said to the King:
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