The Flying Lion

The wonder is that the Great Frog did not meet a princess with gold bracelets on her arms and red flowers in her hair, sooner than he did. However, it is an…

The wonder is that the Great Frog did not meet a princess with gold bracelets on her arms and red flowers in her hair, sooner than he did. However, it is an excellent story.

One of the most clever girls who ever lived was a king’s daughter named Pearl Blossom. She was so clever that every one came to her for advice.

She knew what medicine to give people when they were sick, the kind of herbs and plants which were good to eat, and the crops which would grow best in different kinds of soil.

She could tell when it was going to rain, and when the rain would clear; and she understood what animals said to each other. There was just one thing she did not know, and that was how to get rid of the Flying Lion.

Now the Flying Lion was a very terrible beast. He devoured everything he came across; and had built himself a house, or palace, of the bones of the creatures he had eaten.

Pearl Blossom would have been perfectly happy if it had not been for the Flying Lion, for the very thought of him made her sad.

“He is like a cloud hanging over our village,” she said to her father, one day. “When the women go to the river to wash, or the children go outdoors to play, no one knows how many will come back.”

“It is a terrible thing to think about, of course,” replied her father. “Some one should get rid of him, but a woman cannot do it. Don’t think about the Flying Lion.”

You see, the old King had no great opinion of his daughter’s abilities, and he thought her rather spoiled by the fuss his people made over her. But this was not so. Pearl Blossom was too sensible to be conceited. She was kind and good, and wanted to help others as much as possible.

One morning, Pearl Blossom went into the forest to gather roots, and pretty soon came to a place where a tall woman was sitting at the foot of a cotton-tree.

The woman was fair of face, with hair like red gold, and she wore a long, trailing white garment. “Who are you?” asked Pearl Blossom. “I never saw you before.”

“You haven’t seen me before, although I have always been here,” the woman replied. “I whispered in your ear all you know about the things in the forest. How did you think you learned so much about animals and plants?”

“Why, I just thought about them as I sat under the trees,” said Pearl Blossom, after a little pause.

“It was I who taught you,” said the woman. “My name is Gulu, and I live inside the cotton-tree. Would you like to see my home?”

“Indeed I would,” said Pearl Blossom.

So Gulu led her through the door into the tree, and there was the loveliest little house she had ever seen. The carpet was green moss, the walls were covered with beautiful flowers, and it was lighted by fire-flies and glow-worms.

Pearl Blossom was delighted with what she saw, and said so. Then she and Gulu sat down and began to talk. “We are old friends; for although you have never seen me, I have told you nearly all my secrets. Is there anything else you want to know?”

“I want to know how to get rid of the Flying Lion,” replied Pearl Blossom. “Can you tell me how to do it?”

Gulu was silent for quite a little while. Then at length she said: “It will be rather difficult; yes, the most difficult thing you could have asked me. But if you will stay with me for three months, it can be done.”

“Why must I stay three whole months?” asked Pearl Blossom.

“Because, in the first place it will take you a month to weave an invisible robe for yourself; and unless you have one, you can’t meddle with the Flying Lion.”

“I suppose if he should see me, that would be the end of it.”

“Indeed it would, and of you, too,” said Gulu. “Then after the robe is made, you will have to learn the language of the crows and the frogs. That will take two months, because they are more difficult to understand than the rest of the animals.”

“But I must go home first and tell my parents where I am.”

“Indeed you must not,” replied Gulu. “No one must know where you are, or the Flying Lion will hear of it and know what you are doing.”

“I must get rid of the Flying Lion,” said Pearl Blossom; “so it will be best for me to stay.”

But the King and Queen were distracted with grief when night came and the Princess had not come back from the forest, so they sent the bushmen in every direction in search of her. They sought for many days, but could not find her, and every one thought the Flying Lion had eaten her.

All this time Pearl Blossom sat in the cotton-tree house weaving herself a robe which would make her invisible wherever she went. And when it was finished she learned the language of the crows and the frogs.

Then, when the three months were at an end, Gulu told her she would better go and listen to the crows in the forest and find out what to do about the Flying Lion.

So Pearl Blossom put on her invisible robe and crept up close to the crows to hear what they had to say.

“I don’t know just what it is,” said one of them, “but there is some secret about his wings. The white crows know it, but they dare not tell.”

“He leaves two white crows to guard the bones every day when he goes hunting,” said a young crow. “There are piles and piles of them, and he won’t have one of them broken. I have seen them,” he added proudly.

“What is all this about bones?” asked a very old crow. He could not fly as far as the younger ones, and was inclined not to pay much attention to their wonderful tales.

“Why, the bones of the creatures the Flying Lion has eaten,” replied the young crow. “He has built a house with them over there where the sun goes down,” nodding towards the west. “I know it, for I have seen it,” he added, puffing out his breast with a great deal of importance.

“I must see that house myself,” thought Pearl Blossom; “and I must hear what the white crows say to each other. Perhaps they will let out the secret.”

So Pearl Blossom went away through the forest, and walked for a long time before she reached the house where the white crows were.

The way through the forest was very difficult, too. Sometimes the bush-rope caught her feet and threw her down; sometimes she had to creep over great fallen trees; and again she had to creep under bushes.

It was very fortunate that she could talk to the animals, for the bush-crows and the monkeys and the snails showed her the way, and were all very kind to her.

It took some time for them to get used to her way of appearing and disappearing, and of course, it puzzled them, for she had to slip off her invisible robe while she spoke to them.

“Human beings are queer creatures at the best of times,” said the snake to the monkey. “Being a Princess makes her a little queerer, I suppose.”

The white crows were flying round and round the Flying Lion’s house when Pearl Blossom got there. The house was very large, all built of bones, and there was a pile of bones in front of it three times as high as the Princess. After a while the white crows settled on a tree near her, and began to talk.

“I wish I knew one thing,” said the first one. “Why doesn’t he want any of the bones broken? Can you tell me that?”

“The only person who knows is the Great Frog,” answered the other.

Pearl Blossom was disappointed. “They don’t know the secret after all,” she said to herself.

“What Great Frog?” asked one of the crows. “Do you mean the Great Frog who lives in the pond behind the house?”

The other crow nodded his head.

“But he won’t tell it until he is asked by a Princess with gold bracelets on her arm and red flowers in her hair. I have heard that ever since I was born.”

The moment Pearl Blossom heard this, she hurried away to the pond behind the house, for she had gold bracelets on her arm and red flowers in her hair.

The Great Frog was sunning himself on the bank when the Princess came up. He was green in color, with a white chest, and he was three feet high and one foot broad.

Pearl Blossom, who never knew what it was to be afraid, slipped off her invisible robe and went up to him.

“Well,” he said when he learned what Pearl Blossom wanted, “if the Flying Lion is doing as much damage as that, it is time to stop him.”

“But can you do it?” asked Pearl Blossom anxiously.

“Anyone can do it who knows the secret of the bones,” replied the Great Frog. “If the bones are broken, he won’t be able to fly any more.”

“Then will you go and break them?” asked the Princess.

“Nothing would give me more pleasure,” replied the frog politely, and off he went by leaps and bounds to the Flying Lion’s house, and pulled it down and broke all the bones in pieces.

Then he called out to the white crows: “Tell your master, if he wants me, to come to the pond and look for me!”

Pretty soon the lion came crashing through the bushes in a great rage.

“I can’t fly!” he cried out. “What have you done that I can’t fly?” he asked the white crows.

“We haven’t done anything,” they replied. “The Great Frog has been here and broken the bones. He says if you want him you may go to the pond.”

Then the lion stopped roaring and crept softly towards the water to catch the frog, who was sitting on the bank. But the Great Frog slipped into the water just as he was within a yard of him, and dived to the other side and sat there.

Then the lion crept round to the other side, but again the frog was too quick for him, and he could not catch him. He tried time and time again to catch him, but at last had to give it up and go away.

Since then lions have never had any wings, but are obliged to walk on their feet like other animals.

As for Pearl Blossom, the Great Frog had fallen so much in love with her that he wanted to marry her. She thanked him, but now that the lion had lost his wings she must go back to her father and mother.

And how delighted her parents were to see her; and when the people of the village heard that the Flying Lion would trouble them no more, there was great feasting and rejoicing in every house.