Atondido Stories
heaven! Oh, dragon, have mercy on me! Fly back to earth and let
me go and I swear before God that never again until death will I
offend you!"
Batcha's pleading would have moved a stone to pity but the
dragon, with an angry shake of his tail, only hardened his heart.
Suddenly Batcha heard the sweet voice of the skylark that was
mounting to heaven.
"Skylark!" he called. "Dear skylark, bird that God loves, help
me, for I am in great trouble! Fly up to heaven and tell God Al-
mighty that Batcha, the shepherd, is hung in midair on a drag-
on's back. Tell Him that Batcha praises Him forever and begs
Him to deliver him."
The skylark carried this message to heaven and God Al-
mighty, pitying the poor shepherd, took some birch leaves and
wrote on them in letters of gold. He put them in the skylark's bill
and told the skylark to drop them on the dragon's head.
So the skylark returned from heaven and, hovering over
Batcha, dropped the birch leaves on the dragon's head.
The dragon instantly sank to earth, so fast that Batcha lost con-
sciousness.
When he came to himself he was sitting before his own hut.
He looked about him. The dragon's cliff had disappeared. Other-
wise everything was the same.
It was late afternoon and Dunay, the dog, was driving home
the sheep. There was a woman coming up the mountain path.
Batcha heaved a great sigh.
"Thank God I'm back!" he said to himself. "How fine it is to
hear Dunay's bark! And here comes my wife, God bless her!
She'll scold me, I know, but even if she does, how glad I am to
see her!"
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