| PLAYERS: | Trickster - a young waghalter with moustache and wearing peasant shirt |
| and trousers, black boots and a fur cap; | |
| An old man; | |
| Blue Emperor; | |
| Emperor's daughter; | |
| Bear: dark-brown, two or three times bigger than a man; | |
| SCENE I |
| A winter scene, a road under snow in a village. It is snowing. All along the | |
| performance of this scene and during scene III, white confetti (natural or artificial | |
| cotton) as snow flakes must be spread down from the ceiling of the stage - the children | |
| like it very much. |
| Trickster: | (Blithe, singing playfully and whistling) |
| I am Trickster the merry | |
| I am wandering alone | |
| I am Trickster the merry | |
| In the world my name's renown! |
| (The scenery is running backwards on a movie screen from the backstage | |
| wall while Trickster is walking and singing. At the end of his song the village | |
| will fade away in the distance and the Emperor's palace will come in sight on the | |
| screen. Now the rhythm of the song is changing.) |
| Lonely wandering | |||
| The entire world | First Stanza | ||
| With spurred boots | |||
| I don't feel cold | |||
| Refrain: | |||
| Lots of children sprite and gay | |||
| come to see him on the stages | Second Stanza | ||
| of the puppets theatre play | |||
| Trickster, a joy for little ones in ages. |
| Watchman | : (With a profound voice) |
| Who are you, there. At the palace gate? | |
| Trickster | : An honest man! I am coming from far away, from over the seas and lands. |
| Watchman | : And why did you come here? |
| Trickster | : I am strolling on the long roads of the world and now I am here in this vast and |
| lonely land in winter time!! | |
| Watchman | : And how? Are you coming with ill thought, are you coming with ill intentions? |
| Trickster | : How on Earth!! Watchman!! I am strolling through the world. Everybody knows me. |
| Watchman | : What's your name? |
| Trickster | : I am called Trickster - the Wag!!! I think you have heard of me. |
| Watchman | : Of course! Why didn't you say it from the very beginning? All the folks know you!! |
| : (To the audience) You children, do you know him? | |
| Audience | : Yes!! |
| : Or: No! | |
| : Or: Yes and No! | |
| Watchman | : If you know him, enjoy yourselves! He is again among us! |
| : Or: You don't know him? He is your friend, everybody's friend. | |
| : Or: for you, those who don't know him, I will tell you that Trickster is | |
| : the best merry friend of the children. | |
| : (To Trickster): I'll let you enter the palace Trickster,but a great danger is menacing | |
| : you up there. | |
| Trickster | : It doesn't matter to me at all! |
| Watchman | : the Blue Emperor is very sad because his daughter can never marry. |
| Trickster | : I'll marry her. |
| Watchman | : Finding a possible groom is not the problem. Plenty of brave, strong, young men like |
| : you have tried to marry her but all of them have failed. | |
| Trickster | : I shall try too. It is worth trying. The trial is not the death. |
| Watchman | : On the contrary. This trial means that you run the risk of dying. Many princes and |
| : knights who have tried have been smashed to smithereens. Their corpses are now in a | |
| : common grave. Ninety nine Prince Charmings have already died and if you enter, you | |
| : could be the hundreth. | |
| Trickster | : How do you imagine that I will perish so easily? Have you ever seen a dead devil? |
| Watchman | : Trickster!! Trickster!! God bless you!!! |
| Trickster | : Take it easy watchman!!! Mind your gate and do not bother about me!! |
| Watchman | : Trickster, my boy!! I am speaking to you as if you were my own child. I'd advise you |
| : to turn back on your way into the wide world though the Blue Emperor has ordered me | |
| : to hold any young man if he is of marrying age. I am not to let him leave our land until he | |
| : tries his powers at the palace to break the spell on the Blue Emperor's daughter. He is to | |
| : sleep one night in a room with the Bear and to awake unharmed the next morning. | |
| Trickster | : To turn back after such a long journey and go back to where I cam from? Not a chance!! |
| : Watchman!! Maybe destiny has directed me here, maybe arriving here is my own good | |
| : fortune! | |
| Watchman | : As you like, but my good nature induces me to warn you! |
| Trickster | : Thank you very much watchman. I'll be very careful. |
| Blue Emperor | : (His voice coming from backsage) Hey!! What's going on there at the gate of the |
| : palace? (Pause) Who is strolling on our lands? | |
| Watchman | : (Whispering to Trickster) the Blue Emperor is coming!! (Loudly to the Emperor) |
| : . . . a poor man . . . he is asking for lodging . . . | |
| Blue Emperor | : Is he young? |
| Watchman | : . . . yes . . . no . . . he is . . . |
| Trickster | : I am called Trickster, Your Highness! |
| Blue Emperor | : Ha!! Ha!! Ha!! You don't say!! I have not heard of you for such a long time until |
| : today!! I thought you were already dead for at least a century!! But it is not too late | |
| : to die tonight. | |
| : (To the Watchman) Open the gate! | |
| : (The watchman opens the gate, which makes a great deal of noise from the heavy | |
| : and rusted bolts. The gate suddenly slams shut behind Trickster and the bolts are | |
| : swiftly locked. Spear-carrying soldiers suddenly appear and grab him. The Blue | |
| : Emperor's Machiavellian laughter is heard and then the noise of swords being | |
| : drawn from their scabbards. The Blue Emperor and his daughter are coming onto | |
| : the stage.) | |
| Blue Emperor | : Ha! Ha! Ha! Your popularity will lower from now on. You will make a mockery |
| : of . . . yourself now! (He is pointing towards the audience.) | |
| Watchman | : Take pity on him, Your Highness! For pity's sake! We all love Trickster, we love |
| : him for his lovely jokes! Take pity on him!! | |
| Blue Emperor | : That's it! An Emperor is supposed to have no mercy for his underlings, otherwise they |
| : will not obey any more. But I will give you a chance, Trickster. If you take the risk and | |
| : remain alive after sleeping one night with the Bear from the palace, I'll give my daughter | |
| : to you as a wife as well as one quarter of the entire empire. (The watchman is crying.) | |
| : Tell me Trickster, do you dare to take the risk? | |
| Watchman | : Pay attention, Trickster! This Bear is not a usual one. It is as giant as a mountain. The |
| : Blue Emperor is keeping it in a cellar that is a cold and damp grotto. He is eating a | |
| : man every night. The Emperor's daughter is sighing.) | |
| Blue Emperor | : Hey! You, watchman, accompany this undaunted young man to the bear's grotto. And |
| : don't forget. Tomorrow, in the small hours of the morning do take and throw out his | |
| : bones so not to filth the air of the palace. | |
| Emperor's Daughter | : Father, have mercy on him! He is such a stout fellow with unrivaled features that |
| : I have never seen until now! | |
| Blue Emperor | : First of all, he must prove his bravery. I do not give my daughter to the first |
| : newcomer. | |
| Trickster | : Your Highness, I want to ask something of you! |
| Blue Emperor | : Let's hear it! Speak! |
| Trickster | : Do lend me until tomorrow morning a bag with hot pies and a bag with fir-wood splints. |
| : A bag with nuts, a bag with stones and place in a fifth bag a razor, mirror, soap a | |
| : shaving brush, a chopper and a number of deal boards and pins. I'll try to do in the | |
| : Bear. | |
| Blue Emperor | : Do give him what he wishes! Let's see! (The watchman gets out into the side-scene and he |
| : is coming back with five bags which he gives to Trickster. ) And now, do accompany him | |
| : to his fate! (Trickster is pushed from behind with spears off the stage to inside the grotto | |
| : where the Bear is kept.) |
| (The grotto of the Bear. The stage is in a shade of darkness. There are stalagmites and | |
| stalactites and a little water spring. A frightful, giant, mangy bear is sleeping on a very | |
| large bed.) | |
| Trickster | : (Singing) wake up, wake up you lazy bones!! |
| Bear | : (Sick and tired) I don't wake, I don't wake. I am dropping with sleep. |
| (Trickster noisily casts his bags to the ground. The Bear is starting as if from a deep dream | |
| and he is looking at Trickster with large red eyes. He is speaking to Trickster in an attempt | |
| to frighten him.) | |
| Grrrr! Grrrrr! Grrrrrr! (Threatening with his great paws) Grrrr! (Trickster remains | |
| undaunted.) So! You are not frightened. All others were fainting away in a swoon at the | |
| first sight of me. | |
| Trickster | : How on Earth! I have just forgotten to get frightened. |
| Bear | : I beg you, do get frightened, otherwise the Blue Emperor could get angry! |
| Trickster | : I have forgotten to get frightened, seeing you so big and bulky. |
| Bear | : Honest? |
| Trickster | : Do not wonder about nothing! Stand up on two legs when somebody enters your home! |
| Bear | : (Stretching himself lazily) Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! Who is that one who dares to oblidge me? |
| Trickster | : The politeness is obliging you. Do you want to be considered an ill-bred from beneath the |
| Earth? Good manners teach you to be polite and respectful with unknown people. | |
| Bear | : (The same play with his paws) Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! |
| Trickster | : Mind your place, mind your behavior! Behave yourself! Tell me you haven't been ashamed |
| to grow like that: pell-mell and uncontrolled? Whom else have you seen looking like that? | |
| Bear | : Shame? To me? What do you think? Let's make a contest to see who will be the winner. |
| Trickster | : A contest, surely! Of course, a good idea. Let us go into a contest to become friends |
| Bear | : How do you prefer: to fight with swords, with spears or to struggle in a wrestling match? |
| Trickster | : I don't like those kinds of fighting! I don't want any bloodshed even in a fight with a bear. |
| Any dolt may win in a fight with a sword. We shall fight with words. Let's see who is the | |
| cleverest!! (Pause) But wake up, you idler! What's that! You are going to sleep at the | |
| same time as the hens!! What are you: a bear or a masher? (The bear is looking in wonder | |
| at this little being who is speaking in an unstintingly towards him.) | |
| Bear | : (Ironically) Whom have I the honor of meeting? |
| Trickster | : Who am I? Only a stupid thing like you does not know who I am! |
| Let's see if you can guess! | |
| Bear | : Maybe you are a Prince who has come here to marry the Blue Emperor's daughter!!! |
| Trickster | : What kind of a Prince carries a bag? (He is laughing.) The Blue Emperor's daughter!!! |
| (The bear is standing up on two legs and he looks like a very large rock ready to collapse | |
| over Trickster.) | |
| Bear | : But I shall eat you just like that!! Grrrr! Grrrr! Grrrr! |
| Trickster | : (Frightened, looking upwards to the bear but speaking down to him) You, little bear! |
| Behave yourself! First of all, do sit down when you speak to me, you will get tired! | |
| (The bear sits down on the bed, no longer looking like a giant. Trickster is breathing | |
| very hard, it seems that he is no longer frightened.) | |
| Look here, I am caustic and I'll turn your stomach if you eat me. Do you see these - (he | |
| is pointing towards the bags). I suggest that you first of all taste a bit of pie with honey. | |
| I know that you are very fond of honey, abiding the stings of a swarm of bees when you | |
| are caught at their hive. | |
| Bear | : (Licking his lips) how I'd like that!!! |
| Trickster | : (Addressing the audience with an aside, so as not to be heard by the bear): I shall give him |
| a bag with splints. (Trickster throws a big, tough splint from the bag with the splints while | |
| he is eating a pie from the bag with pies. The bear is trying to eat the splint, trying very hard, | |
| forcing himself to gnaw at the splint but he cannot so he is crying.) | |
| Trickster | : You are not able to eat a pie!! And you dare to compete with me!! Don't you? |
| (The bear is discredited and goes to great lengths to eat all the splints. Afterwards he begins | |
| to complain, holding his belly with his paws.) | |
| Bear | : Alas!!! My belly is hurting me!! My belly is hurting me!! |
| Trickster | : What's the matter with you? What's hurting you? Your belly is hurting you just from eating |
| pies? | |
| Bear | : (Pretending he is not hurt.)No!! Nothing hurts me!! |
| Trickster | : This means that you cannot eat nuts, not a single nut! |
| Bear | : That bag with nuts is not enough for me, I'll crack them all with my large teeth. |
| Trickster | : You are only puffing yourself up. |
| (Addressing the audience so as not to be overheard by the bear) | |
| I'll give him the bag with the stones so that he will crack his own teeth on them. | |
| (Trickster gives him the bag with stones.) | |
| Bear | : I'll crack the nuts with my teeth and not with a hammer as you are doing. |
| Trickster | : O.K. !! If you think you are so stout!! |
| (The bear is striving with all his might to crack the "nuts", but he is cracking all his teeth | |
| instead and he is spitting them from his mouth like glass beads.) | |
| Bear | : Alas!!! I am now toothless, I have no teeth in my mouth anymore!! |
| Trickster | : A few minutes ago you were saying that all my nuts are not enough for your teeth but I |
| see now that it is quite otherwise: all your teeth were not enough for a single nut. You are | |
| not worth your salt. If you were living in a forest with all the other bears, you would not | |
| survive, you would die of starvation. The Blue Emperor is your luck, he is feeling pity for | |
| you and he is throwing you some leftovers from his dinner as if you were a dog | |
| Bear | : Are you insulting me? Do you dare to insult me? |
| Trickster | : What has induced you into such a rage? Now, toothless you cannot do anything to anyone |
| any more. | |
| (Trickster is producing from a bag a razor, mirror, soap and a shaving brush. He is fixing | |
| the mirror on a wall and he begins shaving his face calmly.) | |
| Bear | : What are you doing up there? |
| Trickster | : I am shaving myself to be smart and not covered with locks like you. The Emperor's |
| daughter will get frightened when she sees you so ugly as you look just now. | |
| Bear | : I love the Emperor's daughter very much. I have killed all her suitors and that's why I'll |
| kill you too. | |
| Trickster | : I don't like the Blue Emperor's daughter and I don't intend to marry her; she is too |
| haggard and spoiled. I have come here to teach you how to entrance her, how to behave | |
| yourself to give up your bad habits (meanwhile he is finished shaving and he is showing | |
| his face to the bear.) | |
| Look at my cheeks, how smart I am!! | |
| Bear | : (Admiringly) shave me, too!! |
| Trickster | : Do you think that you can support it? |
| Bear | : With great pleasure!! I want the Blue Emperor's daughter to fall in love with me. |
| Trickster | : O.K.!! But do not grow angry. You have three inches of long locks and it will be hard to |
| shave them. | |
| Bear | : Do, try!! |
| Trickster | : O.K.!! Be attentive now!! |
| (He arranges two boards on the floor) | |
| Lie there! | |
| (The bear is lying on the boards, Trickster is catching the bear's paws, two by two, with | |
| some other shorted boards.) | |
| Bear | : But what do you intend to do with me? |
| Trickster | : You must stay motionless, like this was a surgical operation. |
| Bear | : But the doctors use anesthetic, so that you do not feel the pain. |
| Trickster | : Do not worry. I have thought of everything. |
| (Trickster is pouring water on the bear and then he makes soap lather all over | |
| Trickster takes the stick so that the lather spreads all over the cave.) | |
| Bear | : Alas!! What's going on here? Alas!!! |
| Trickster | : You have to be patient, I have to tease your fur because it is too dirty and filthy. |
| Bear | : But I see that you are clubbing me!! |
| Trickster | : I do not club you, I am clubbing your fur to soften it so as to more easily cut those locks |
| of yours. Haven't you observed that men lather their cheeks very well before shaving. | |
| Bear | : (In a half voice) of course, I have seen them!! |
| (Trickster takes a great chopper out of a bag and begins cutting the bear's great locks.) | |
| Alas! Alas! Alas! Grrrr! Grrrr! | |
| Trickster | : Do not make such a hubbub, you could wake up our neighbors. The Blue Emperor could |
| hear it. | |
| (The bear is lamenting in a lower voice and he is tossing around on the boards. After a | |
| while Trickster : ) | |
| I have grown tired. I am sure that you have never shaved yourself in all your life and you let | |
| your beard grow since the day you were born. | |
| (Trickster moves the boards, setting the bear's paws free. The bear is hardly breathing.) | |
| Now, take this handkerchief (he gives him a handkerchief) and defend me against the | |
| flies because I have toiled so hard for you. I want to rest in your bed until tomorrow morning | |
| and you must see that no one disturbs me. | |
| (Trickster is lying on the bed and he falls asleep lightly snoring. The bear looks very stultified | |
| and deploring, barely standing on his feet. The light in the cave is growing slowly brighter. | |
| Dawn is coming. The bear is defending Trickster with the handkerchief. Outside, one can hear | |
| the voice of the Blue Emperor and his daughter lamenting.) | |
| Blue Emperor | : Watchman, take Trickster's bones out of here and throw them away, the air is filthy! |
| Watchman | : Immediately, Your Highness! |
| (The watchman is coming in the cave rubbing his eyes and creaking the door loudly.) | |
| Bear | : (With his finger at his muzzle) quiet! Silence! Mister Him is sleeping!! (He |
| is pointing towards Trickster; | |
| (The watchman stumbles over a stalagmite and falls down in surprise seeing the poor | |
| appearance of the bear.) | |
| Watchman | : (Aside) What an apparition of a bear!! How could Trickster make such a mockery of him? |
| Trickster | : Who is disturbing my rest? |
| Bear | : (To Trickster pointing towards the watchman.) Boss!! He has fainted away when seeing how |
| handsome I am!! | |
| (The bear is slapping the watchman's face with his paws.) | |
| Watchman | : Don't touch me with your paws, beast! |
| Bear | : (To Trickster.) He cannot believe his eyes how handsome I am. |
| Watchman | : (Running quickly out of the cave and shouting) |
| Your Highness!! Courtiers!! Do something quickly to see the miracle!!! | |
| (They are all coming into the cave and are astonished.) | |
| Bear | : (Very proud of himself, speaking to Trickster.) My beauty has taken their breath away. |
| Grrrr! Grrrr! I am the most handsome bear in the whole world!! | |
| Blue Emperor | : To the devil! You are the most ugly!! |
| Bear | : (Smiling towards Trickster), they are not yet accustomed to my new appearance. |
| Blue Emperor | : You! Get out of my palace! I need no more such frights. You are stultifying me!! |
| Emperor's Daughter | : But father, do respect your own pledge to Trickster. |
| Blue Emperor | : If I have taken this pledge that I would give him my daughter as wife and a quarter of the |
| whole empire, I must obey. | |
| All the courtiers | : Hurray!! Trickster will live with us from now on!!! |
| Trickster | : Your Highness!! I am very proud of the honor you are granting to me, but I am not worthy |
| of your daughter and your empire. My destiny is to stroll free along the entire world, to | |
| help other people to get rid of troubles and the evil which still exists. I cannot tarry in only | |
| one empire, the other will feel my absence. (The Emperor's daughter is crying.) I am sure | |
| you will find another worthy bridegroom. I am not looking for riches and power. I am | |
| content with my poverty and my freedom, I want to be free as the birds in the sky. | |
| Watchman | : Go away and be free and healthy, Trickster!! |
| Blue Emperor | : I am grateful to you, you broke the spell which held my unmarried daughter. What |
| will you do now? | |
| Trickster | : Your Highness! I want to ask you to give me this bear. I will teach him many things . |
| Bear | : (Starting eagerly), I am ready at any moment!! |
| Trickster | : To employ him in a circus so that he may greet with his paws at his temple the children |
| from all over the world, to do somersaults and to walk on string. An itinerant circus will | |
| take him from country to country and when he is an old bear, he will retire to a zoo with a | |
| well deserved pension. He is gifted and well trained. | |
| Blue Emperor | : I have the exact same thoughts as Trickster. |
| Emperor's Daughter | : Do come to us as well with your itinerant citcus! |
| Bear | : Grrrr!! Grrrr!! Of course, surely!! |
| Courtiers | : Goodbye Trickster! See you later !! |
| Trickster and the Bear | : (Going away), see you later!!! |
| ( The road is leading from the palace through a thick forest. The palace remains in | |
| the distance and then it disappears. Snow is coming down. Trickster and the bear are singing. | |
| Trickster is leading the bear with a chain tied onto the bear's collar. The bear makes | |
| somersaults and he is bowing, greeting the children in the audience.) | |
| Trickster | : I am Trickster - the famous |
| All the world I want to stroll | |
| I am Trickster - the famous | |
| and I want to help you all!! | |
| Bear | : And I am the bear jester |
| what could scare me? Nothing! | |
| Trickster is my only master | |
| and I am walking on strings!! | |
| Both | : The first stanza from scene I. |
| Trickster | : Refrain I |
| Bear | : Refrain II |
| (The curtain is falling down. Trickster is heard singing the first stanza.) | |
| Trickster | : The first refrain. |
| (June 1970 - 1986. Inspired from a fairy tale told to me by my Grandfather Smarandache | |
| N. Ion or Mandea as the call him - from Gorunesti-hamlet, Balcesti village - Valcea | |
| county.) |
| PLAYERS: | Trickster; |
| Bear; | |
| Dragon (seven headed). | |
| Trickster and the bear are walking through a forest. The forest is covered with snow. |
| It is a frosty night. Howls are heard somewhere in the distance. A light is sparkling. |
| Bear | : Master! Look there! There is a light up there!! Maybe it is a chalet for tourists or a cottage |
| for a forester. | |
| Trickster | : Take it easy! Don't rush like a stupid lamb into the mouth of a wolf!! |
| Bear | : But I am very cold because I have no more of my fur. You clubbed it and then cut it off. |
| (gestures as if clubbing somebody.) | |
| Trickster | : Never mind! Don't bother. You have to harden yourself to it. Your fellow bears are hibernating |
| now in this weather, in their dens sucking their own paws of famine while you have pies | |
| and nuts . . . so many victuals. | |
| Bear | : Don't speak any more of pies and nuts, I am sick of them, I'd rather not eat anything. |
| Trickster | : It's your own business!! But until we reach the other end of the forest, this forest is as |
| black and thick as a brush, your belly will be absolutely empty and its skin will be | |
| near your back. | |
| Bear | : Let it be the only trouble Trickster. But so that we don't get bored, let's tell a story! |
| A fairy tale! | |
| Trickster | : Let me think! Once upon a time there was a dragon, a very lovely and obedient dragon. |
| Bear | : I have never heard of a lovely dragon, nor of an obedient one! In all the fairy tales by my |
| grandfather, the Oldbear, the dragons were all wild, frightful beasts. | |
| Trickster | : This one was a nice and obedient one. He was a little cub just born to his mother. She was |
| nurturing him with milk from her bosom and she was swinging and caressing him. | |
| Bear | : (In disgust) poor him! She was caressing him!! |
| Trickster | : And our dragon was growing and he has now become a grown up dragon. And every night he |
| was eating a .(pause)..a bear. | |
| Bear | : Alas!! Trickster! Don't you know another fairy tale! I was so afraid my hair stood on end. |
| Trickster | : What hair? You have no more hair on you. |
| Bear | : Alas!! But, what do you think, are there really dragons? |
| Trickster | : Why are you asking me? You, as a bear, would know more about dragons since they are beasts |
| nearer to your kin. | |
| Bear | : Of my kin? What? Has he drunk water from the same jar as me? God bless my heart!! |
| Trickster | : Let's go on. so the dragon was eating a bear every night. |
| Bear | : Alas!! Hasn't he changed his menu? Always the same menu? Wasn't he tired of the same thing |
| every night? | |
| Trickster | : The bears were a sweet dessert for the dragon. Something he found very delicious. |
| Bear | : And what shall we do if we come face to face with such a wretched being? (Frightfully) What |
| do you say about that Trickster? | |
| Trickster | : If we stumble upon the tail of a dragon which is bathing in the sun on a stone, then we must |
| fight to the death to defeat him. | |
| Bear | : It would be wiser to take flight. |
| Trickster | : You cannot take flight as easily as you have incited him. |
| Bear | : And how do you think you can fight a seven headed beast where each head has its own mouth |
| where he can bite with them all? | |
| Trickster | : If you cannot defeat him in wrestling, you must defeat him with cleverness. You have to |
| deceive him my little bear. You have to take away his mind so you defeat him in a fight | |
| without fighting. You must make him defeat himself. | |
| Bear | : The dragons are now living in the woods and they are not to be met in the night are they? |
| Trickster | : If you say so! |
| Bear | : If that is so, where are they living? |
| Trickster | : Well! If they are not living in the woods that means that they are living in the towns, in |
| houses or in blocks of flats. | |
| Bear | : And so, they are not tramping in the night? |
| Trickster | : (Ironically) I think that they are not getting out of their dens because they are afraid of |
| beasts. | |
| Bear | : And in this case, what are they doing in their free time? |
| Trickster | : At night they are lying in their beds and with one head they watch television and with |
| the other heads they read fairy tales written by Ion Creanga, Andersen or the Grimm | |
| brothers. | |
| Bear | : As I reckon, they are multilateral persons. |
| Trickster | : A head is smiling, a head is sighing, a head is smoking and a head is drinking coffee |
| in the morning. | |
| Bear | : What a nice thing, they are behaving themselves. |
| Trickster | : One day he was coming back home from fishing. I forgot to tell you that he had become |
| a fisherman renowned throughout the land. He was hypnotizing the fish with the middle | |
| head and with the first head he was grasping and gobbling the fish because this head had | |
| a larger mouth. He was fishing only for carps that were as big as a knapsack and . . . | |
| Bear | : And? |
| Trickster | : and pikes and breams. |
| Bear | : And the other heads, what were they doing in the meantime? |
| Trickster | : The other heads were lurking by themselves little fishes and they were swooping upon |
| their prey. | |
| Bear | : This dragon was fishing with a rod with many hooks, but, go on. |
| Trickster | : And so, he was coming back home one day and he has found in the mail-box a |
| telegram brought there by an ostrich. The telegram was from his aunt who let him know | |
| that she was ill and she was taken to a hospital. The dragon has bought a ticket and he | |
| took the first plane..(pause). | |
| Bear | : And what?.Go on.. |
| Trickster | : The pilot, a kangaroo dressed in service unit, pulled a lever and the plane took off while the |
| Stewardess was speaking on a loudspeaker: "put on your belts". The warm womanly voice | |
| Has melted the dragon's heart. | |
| Bear | : But what? Had he only one heart? |
| Trickster | : It doesn't matter. Listen to me.the stewardess was as beautiful as a swan with a long neck |
| and a white gown and the dragon fell in love with her as soon as he saw her. | |
| Bear | : Were there any other travellers on the plane? |
| Trickster | : Of course. A wild boar was among them and he has fallen asleep and was snoring |
| So loudly that you might swear that he was walking through some creeping stalky pumpkins. | |
| He was in the plane with his swon and a herd of little pigs which were squeaking for | |
| sweets, chocolates, oranges juice. They could not stay still for a minute. The Wilde Boar | |
| family being the most numerous was also the noisiest. There it was a Pussy-cat also, she | |
| had brown fur and was wearing a little felt cap and a pinky bow and she was perfumed | |
| all over:from the top of her tail till her little ears. She was dozing away in the last row of | |
| chairs. | |
| Bear | : This is the question : how could the dragon love the swan with one head while he... |
| Trickster | : He was loving her with all his being. But the swan was fond only of the dragon's |
| second head who was the most good looking of them all. And thus, the other heads have | |
| become jealous of the second head. The dragon was cursing his fate thinking why hasn't | |
| he been born with only one head as all the people in the world. But their idyll has lasted | |
| till the first landing of the plane. The dragon has to get down at the first stop. The Wild | |
| Boar with his family and the Pussy-cat remaied in the |