Friday, September 4, 2009

The Noted Rider

(Yikes! Here is a story that needs an ending. Please send me your ideas about how this very ancient tale reaches its logical conclusion. Thanks for your suggestions and imagination. -- Delmar Lemming, EOI resident story teller)
Once a famous nobleman galloped through...


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    the forest on his horse. On one side of him, his wife was riding along on another horse and on the other side rode his trusted servant. They rode through the night as the moon was full and lit their way. Suddenly the moon disappeared behind some clouds and the three riders slowed their horses to a trot. Just then a gang of bandits jumped out from the bushes and attacked. They pulled them off their horses and chopped off the heads of the nobleman and his servant. Then they took the horses and all their money and rode off into the night, leaving the woman alone in the forest beside these two dead men. The woman wept in agony but the moon came out again and revealed a tiny stream that she had not noticed. As the moonlight danced in the flowing water two birds landed on a low branch just above the woman’s head. One bird tells the other that the mud of this stream is magic. If the woman takes the mud from this stream and rubs it in her hands with three leaves from the tree where they are perched, then spits into the mixture three times and chants the magic spell (the hocus pocus variety) she can then run the mud onto the dead men’s necks and put their heads back on. They will, the bird assures his mate, then be perfect well again. The birds fly away and the woman rushes to do as instructed. After carrying out the procedure she puts the heads back on.As predicted, the men are right as rain. The trouble is, in her excitement, the woman put her husband’s head on the servant’s body and the servant’s head on her husband’s body. My question is: who is her real husband?

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