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Penguin Island-Part8_Anatole France_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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pitchfork into my left thigh."

As he said this he carefully ran his hand over the insulted part, and, after



giving himself up for a few moments to bitter meditation:

"What idiots those Penguins are! I am tired of blowing flames in the faces of



such imbeciles. Orberosia, do you hear me?"

Having thus spoken the hero raised his terrible helmet in his hands and gazed



at it for a long time in gloomy silence. Then he pronounced these rapid words:

"I have made this helmet with my own hands in the shape of a fish's head,



covering it with the skin of a seal. To make it more terrible I have put on it

the horns of a bull and I have given it a boar's jaws; I have hung from it a



horse's tail dyed vermilion. When in the gloomytwilight I threw it over my

shoulders no inhabitant of this island had courage to withstand its sight.



Women and children, young men and old men fled distracted at its approach, and

I carried terror among the whole race of Penguins. By what advice does that



insolent people lose its earlier fears and dare to-day to behold these

horrible jaws and to attack this terrible crest?"



And throwing his helmet on the rocky soil:

"Perish, deceitfulhelmet!" cried Kraken. "I swear by all the demons of Armor



that I will never bear you upon my head again."

And having uttered this oath he stamped upon his helmet, his gloves, his



boots, and upon his tail with its twisted folds.

"Kraken," said the fair Orberosia, "will you allow your servant to employ



artifice to save your reputation and your goods? Do not despise a woman's

help. You need it, for all men are imbeciles."



"Woman," asked Kraken, "what are your plans?"

And the fair Orberosia informed her husband that the monks were going through



the villages teaching the inhabitants the best way of combating the dragon;

that, according to their instructions, the beast would be overcome by a



virgin, and that if a maid placed her girdle around the dragon's neck she

could lead him as easily as if he were a little dog.



"How do you know that the monks teach this?" asked Kraken.

"My friend," answered Orberosia, "do not interrupt a serious subject by



frivolous questions. . . . 'If, then,' added the monks, 'there be in Alca a

pure virgin, let her arise!' Now, Kraken, I have determined to answer their



call. I will go and find the holy Mael and I will say to him: 'I am the virgin

destined by Heaven to overthrow the dragon.'"



At these words Kraken exclaimed: "How can you be that pure virgin? And why do

you want to overthrow me, Orberosia? Have you lost your reason? Be sure that I



will not allow myself to be conquered by you!"

"Can you not try and understand me before you get angry?" sighed the fair



Orberosia with deep though gentle contempt.

And she explained the cunning designs that she had formed.



As he listened, the hero remained pensive. And when she ceased speaking:

"Orberosia, your cunning, is deep," said he, "And if your plans are carried



out according to your intentions I shall derive great advantages from them.

But how can you be the virgin destined by heaven?"



"Don't bother about that," she replied, "and come to bed."

The next day in the grease-laden atmosphere of the cavern, Kraken plaited a



deformed skeleton out of osier rods and covered it with bristling, scaly, and

filthy skins. To one extremity of the skeleton Orberosia sewed the fierce



crest and the hideous mask that Kraken used to wear in his plundering

expeditions, and to the other end she fastened the tail with twisted folds



which the hero was wont to trail behind him. And when the work was finished

they showed little Elo and the other five children who waited on them how to



get inside this machine, how to make it walk, how to blow horns and burn tow

in it so as to send forth smoke and flames through the dragon's mouth.



XII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)

Orberosia, having clothed herself in a robe made of coarse stuff and girt



herself with a thick cord, went to the monastery and asked to speak to the

blessed Mael. And because women were forbidden to enter the enclosure of the



monastery the old man advanced outside the gates, holding his pastoral cross

in his right hand and resting his left on the shoulder of Brother Samuel, the



youngest of his disciples.

He asked:



"Woman, who art thou?"

"I am the maiden Orberosia."



At this reply Mael raised his trembling arms to heaven.

"Do you speak truth, woman? It is a certain fact that Orberosia was devoured



by the dragon. And yet I see Orberosia and hear her. Did you not, O my

daughter, while within the dragon's bowels arm yourself with the sign of the



cross and come uninjured out of his throat? That is what seems to me the most

credible explanation."



"You are not deceived, father," answered Orberosia. "That is precisely what




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