Knocked Thirty in a Blow : A Story

As the little tailor heard a honey-seller in the street, he craned out his neck from the window, and finding the honey of good quality, purchased two spoonfuls. The poor honey-seller went away as he had never sold so little honey before, but he could not refuse him – he being the first customer of the day.

The tailor cut himself a slice of bread and spread it with honey and deciding to eat it after having finished with the shirt in hand, placed it on the table.

Having finished with the job in hand he decided to have his breakfast. He saw that many flies had swarmed feasting on the slice. He cried, “You little naughty things! How dare you do that!” And picking up the shirt he had just sewed, blew away the flies violently. He noted that many flies had fallen dead. He counted them. They were thirty in all.

“Wow! Thirty in one blow! How strong I am!” pleased at his feat, the little tailor said to himself. “The world must know how strong I am!” And he sat down to make a belt for himself and embroidered on it in bold words, ‘KNOCKED THIRTY IN ONE BLOW’. And taking a piece of cheese which he might need on the journey and the bird he had in the cage, he set out on his journey.

Going through the streets with his head held high in a cocksure manner, he reached a forest. Seeing his feat recorded on his belt, a terrible giant appeared before him and said, “So you think you’re so mighty.” And he picked up a stone and pressed it so hard that it powdered. “Try and do it if you’re that strong,” cried the giant.

Controlling his perplexity, the little tailor took out the cheese from his satchel and squeezed and whey dropped from it, and he triumphantly said, “And what do you think of that? Was my squeeze better than yours?”

“Well done!” cried the giant in his astonished voice and picked up another stone and flung it away, and it fell a great distance away. “Beat that, O tiny warrior!”

“No doubt it was a great throw, but you look up. I’ll throw the stone which would never land,” said the little tailor and he freed the bird into the air. Finding herself at liberty, the bird flew away out of sight, never to be seen again.

“Well, O little warrior!” said the puzzled giant at his defeat, “Your stature defies your might, and you’ve earned my invitation. Come to my cave and I’ll treat you like my honoured guest.”

At the giant’s cave they had had a nice dinner and the little tailor got a fine bed to sleep on, but he was ill at ease, for he was not very convinced of the giant’s intentions of having come to terms with him, so he placed the pillow in the middle of the bed, and curled up himself under the bed having a sound sleep.

The little tailor was right. At dead of night, the giant came into the room and hit the bed hard with a thick iron rod, crying, “So you’re finally off to a perennial rest, you little creature!”

Having saved himself from the savage power of the giant, the tailor knew that the best course for him was to flee, so he sneaked out of the cave and ran and ran all night until he arrived at the king’s palace in the town. The dawn had already broken and he was dead tired, and seeing the soft green grass in the garden, fell asleep snoring loudly.

He had not slept for long that he was awakened by the king’s men who seeing the inscription on his belt, woke him up and led him to the king. The king was much impressed by the inscription he had on his belt, and said, “If you’re brave enough, go to the forest and kill the two giants there. They keep terrifying my subjects and steal away the pets.”

“As you wish,” the little tailor could only speak.

“And if you do, you can have half of my kingdom and my daughter in marriage,” the king proclaimed.

The little tailor bowed knee deep little considering how he could deal with the giants and wondering if he would ever be able to accomplish it. In the forest, he spotted two enormous giants fast asleep under a tree. How to kill them, the question lurked. Shall I throw stones at them, thought he. But one such stone would hardly injure them and they would awake only to make mincemeat of me, thought he. And an idea flashed his mind.

The little tailor came behind the tree and judged if he could do what he wanted. Then he slapped one of the giants on the face and hid behind the tree. The giant awoke and looked first at the other giant and finding him fast asleep thundering in snores, he looked around, and finding no one around once again lay down to sleep.

The little tailor once again came out from behind the tree and slapped hard the other giant. Now he awoke. Finding the first giant asleep, he too once again slept. Now the tailor hit the first giant again. He had hardly slept by then. He looked at the other giant. Not finding him asleep as fast as he was earlier, punched awoke him crying, “Hey you! It’s too much.”

The other giant sat up and finding his companion raging in fury cried, “It’s you who are hitting me.”

“Don’t tell me,” roared the first.

The two giants argued and quarrelled, hit each other with punches and slaps, and threw rocks and trees, and at last both of them fell dead.

The little tailor walked into the king’s palace and said proudly, “It’s all over. It was difficult indeed, but I finished them off. They threw trees at me and I returned with rocks, and the poor giants could hardly stand my fierce attacks.”

Having told the cooked up story, the tailor bowed his head anticipating for the reward the king had announced, but the king had never really thought to give half his kingdom and his daughter to the funny-looking man, so he said, “You’ve done a great job indeed, but to earn your reward, you need to get rid of the unicorn plaguing the kingdom.”

Once again the little tailor set off to the forest. The unicorn was a horse-like fierce animal with a strong horn on its forehead. As soon as it saw him, it began chasing him, making him to run for his life. Little did he know how he was to take on the dreaded animal, so he ran helter-skelter in the woods. When he saw the unicorn had caught up and was just behind him, he jumped behind a huge tree. In its flow of great speed, the unicorn could neither stop nor divert and thrust hard its horn into the trunk of the tree. Presently, it was no more in a position to move and all the little the little tailor had to do was to severe its head with his little sword.

The little tailor, having accomplished the job entrusted to him, returned to the king with his head held high boosting about his adventure. However, the king was least pleased with him and was perturbed at the thought of loosing half of his land and daughter in marriage, so he thought out another way, “The princess desires that you must spend a night with the bear in the palace cellar, and if you can do that, you’ll have your reward at once.” The king thought that he’d get rid of the tailor in this way, for the bear was very frightening and no one had ever escaped from his sharp claws.

“That’s not a great problem,” said the tailor.

In the evening the tailor was left in the cellar and locked from outside. As the bear got ready to make mincemeat of him, the little tailor took out some walnuts from his satchel, cracked open one and ate the inside. He then asked the bear, “Would you like to eat them? They are so tasty.”

The bear nodded. The little tailor gave him a walnut. The bear crack opened with his teeth and found it very tasty to eat. “Yes, it’s really good!” said the bear. “Give me some more.”

The little tailor this time gave him small brown pebbles. The bear wanting to taste the dainty inside, tried his best to crack open them, but little knowing that he was trying on pebbles, broke all his sharp teeth.

The bear was tired, but unable to sleep owing to pain in the teeth. The little tailor knew this, so he brought out the wooden flute and played. The bear liked the music and said, “Can you teach me how to play the flute?”

“Of course, I can, but your sharp long nails will come in the way,” said the little tailor. “If you’re so sure to learn it, you may have to undergo a little pain.”

“That I can, for I want to learn it. I can play whenever I want to entertain myself,” the bear replied.

“That’s the spirit,” said the tailor whipping out his needle. “I’d need to sew up your nails, agreed?”

“Yea,” said the bear. The tailor sewed down the nails of the bear and said, “See, I’m quite tired now. I’ll teach you how to play flute on the morrow.” And he lay down on the bear’s soft straw and fell asleep, snoring and muttering in sleep as he was used to. The bear wanted to learn music right then, but he was able to do nothing without his claws and teeth and growling helplessly he too slept down.

In the morning, the king had no more ideas to get rid of the little tailor and he married his daughter with him. The little tailor, now the king of half the kingdom, began to lead a comfortable life. One night, as was his habit, he muttered in sleep, “I’ll sew your shirt next week.”

Listening to these words, his wife felt strange and went to her father and repeated the words The king now knew the reality and said, “Your husband is nothing but a poor tailor.”

The princess too no more wanted to live with her husband, so the king said, “Tonight I’ll send some men to deal with him. All that you’ve to do is to keep the window of the bedroom open.’’

As the little tailor lay down on his bed, he heard some hushed voices from the window. Blinking he looked in that direction. He saw some soldiers stealthily sneaking into the room. He knew he could not fight them, so pretending fast asleep, he murmured, this time loud enough to be heard by the soldiers in the window, “I knocked thirty in one blow and killed the two enormous giants and a fierce unicorn and clapped the claws of the mighty bear, so why should I be afraid of the men in the window? I can kill them all in one blow.”

Listening to his words, the soldiers ran away as fast as they could. But the tailor realized that he might not be able to survive long, so he gathered a bagful of gold and fled from the kingdom the same night.