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    Adventures of Tortoise Slowcoach and Hedgehog Quick Foot
    Adventures of Tortoise Slowcoach and Hedgehog Quick Foot
    Adventures of Tortoise Slowcoach and Hedgehog Quick Foot
    Ebook134 pages1 hour

    Adventures of Tortoise Slowcoach and Hedgehog Quick Foot

    By George Nikolov

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    About this ebook

    The collection Fables From Bulgaria' contains twenty five of the most beautiful Bulgarian folk tales and fables, selected and translated into English.
    This book will take you on a journey into the wonderful world of Bulgarian folklore. The folk tales are translated into easy and accessible English and they are suitable for reading both by children and their parents.
    The book is addressed mainly towards the growing generation of children of Bulgarian emigrants or children from mixed marriages who live abroad and for whom Bulgarian is a second language. With this collection I would like to help to the growing generation of children of Bulgarian emigrants or children from mixed marriages who live abroad. With this collection we would like to help them and their parents keep the cultural bond with Bulgaria alive and enhance their perceptions of the folklore heritage of this beautiful country.
     Apart from them, we hope this book will find its readers also among all those who feel connected or are interested in Bulgaria or those who simply love good stories on eternal topics.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGoce Nikolovski
    Release dateJun 16, 2018
    ISBN9781386413929
    Adventures of Tortoise Slowcoach and Hedgehog Quick Foot

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      Book preview

      Adventures of Tortoise Slowcoach and Hedgehog Quick Foot - George Nikolov

      Introduction

      The collection Fables From Bulgaria’ contains twenty five of the most beautiful Bulgarian folk tales and fables, selected and translated into English.

      This book will take you on a journey into the wonderful world of Bulgarian folklore. The folk tales are translated into easy and accessible English and they are suitable for reading both by children and their parents.

      The book is addressed mainly towards the growing generation of children of Bulgarian emigrants or children from mixed marriages who live abroad and for whom Bulgarian is a second language. With this collection I would like to help to the growing generation of children of Bulgarian emigrants or children from mixed marriages who live abroad. With this collection we would like to help them and their parents keep the cultural bond with Bulgaria alive and enhance their perceptions of the folklore heritage of this beautiful country.

      Apart from them, we hope this book will find its readers also among all those who feel connected or are interested in Bulgaria or those who simply love good stories on eternal topics.

      Slowcoach and Quick foot

      C:\Users\Goce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Word\IMG_7263.jpg

      A HEDGEHOG, NEITHER very big nor very small, lived in a dale out in the fields, overgrown with low shrubs and thorns. His friend was a small tortoise.

      The name of the hedgehog was Quick foot, and the tortoise was called Slowcoach. They were inseparable.

      In the daytime they slept in the dale and in the evening when the sun set behind the mountain they would set out to look far food.

      Slowcoach was fond of small white snails and half-rotten fruit, and her friend Quick foot fancied mice, lizards and grapes. Frogs, how­ever, he considered a delicacy.

      He always woke up first in the evening and would prod Slowcoach:

      Come on, wake up! It's time we had a bite.

      Why are you always in such a hurry! the tortoise grumbled, for she enjoyed- sleeping and was very lazy. The two friends would leave the dale and the magpies, who lived in the branches of the wild pears, began jeering in a hoarse voice:

      Look out, look out! There come the speeders!

      Make way! Make way for them! joined  in the  quails  from  the field nearby. And the blackbirds giggled in the shrubs along the dale. Quick foot and Slowcoach turned a deaf ear to all these taunts and hurried down as fast as they could to get out of earshot.

      They would wander all night long in the vineyards hard by, scour the boundaries of the fields or the gardens outside the village. At dawn, wet with dew, but full and happy, they would return to the dale and fall into a long, sweet sleep, caressed by the warm sun.

      Theirs was a  life of quiet and abundance.  Our  lazy friends would probably have lived for many a year like that, if one day the fanner had not ploughed the dale and rooted out all the shrubs and the thorns.

      From  that day on  Slowcoach  and Quick foot  lived  through  many  adventures and mishaps which are described in this book.

      Redmouth

      They moved to a high boundary, overgrown with thick yellow grass, quite unaware that it belonged to a big, ash-grey snake called Red-mouth. That was her name because her mouth inside was red like a brick.

      When Slowcoach and Quick foot waged in the grass, the dew was still on it and the sun had just risen. They lay in the middle of the boundary and fell asleep right away, tired out with the night's wander­ings. They liked the boundary and its high soft grass, which hid them from other animals and birds, and they were very surprised not to find a hare or a treacherous weasel in it. They knew nothing of Redmouth, whо was now sleeping in her hole on the other side of the boundary. Redmouth hated the early hours of the morning and she hated the dew. She preferred to go out when the sun had dried the dew and grew hot. Then she would slowly creep out like the true mistress of the place she was, coil up and bask her cold body, with blood which was even colder.

      When she felt nice and warm, Redmouth would set out along the boundary, hungry by now and her iskin shining in the sun.

      Usually she went to the neighboring millet field. A swarm of sparrows used to perch on the few bushes there.

      C:\Users\Goce\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Word\IMG_7265.jpg

      THE SNAKE CRAWLED NOISELESSLY under the bushes and waited for the sparrows to perch. Then she rivetted her cold, glassy eyes on the sparrow which was nearest and kept them so without winking.

      At first the sparrow would bristle up and droop its wings; later on it was overcome by dizzy excitement and fell from the bush. Red­mouth swallowed it feathers and all, unmindful of the frightened twit­terings of its friends and would fall asleep for a few hours, till the cow-bells of the herd and the shouts of the herdsman woke her up. He had often chased her and had thrown his heavy cudgel at her. But Redmouth could flee like an arrow, hissing spitefully. Once she even made a dash at the herdsman and he all but fainted with fear.

      This morning the snake was hungry and cross. As usual she asked for  a  while in  the sun  and then went  along the boundary. A slug was creeping in the grass. Redmouth saw it and tried to catch it but as she entered the boundary, she came upon Slowcoach and Quick foot. Both friends were fast asleep and free of all care. She was surprised to find two unbidden guests there  and hissed venomously, darting out her thin forked tongue. Her head raised high, she turned  at the hedgehog. Her body recoiled  and  then  darted  for­ward in a flash. The blow was awful. Quick foot squealed and tumbled over.

      Dazed by the blow the hedgehog could not understand whom he had to deal with, but when he heard the hissing of the snake and felt her thin fangs go into his muzzle, he rolled bis body into a ball of needles. The snake grew as taut as a pole to avoid the quills. A life and death struggle began. Both flung this way and that in the tall grass — the hedgehog snorted, Redmouth hissed menacingly.

      Slowcoach, waked by the noise, her head sticking out of the shell, had been watching the struggle with indifference. At long last her slow, clumsy mind realized the plight Quick foot was in. She rose to her bandy, broad legs and made a bee line for the snake.

      The sudden attack surprised Redmouth. She let go of the hedge­hog and faced the tortoise. Slowcoach, however, suddenly hid within her shell. Cheated and angry, the snake turned to the hedgehog again. But Quick foot had succeeded m getting on his feet, and hiding behind a shield of needles, attacked in his turn. In vain did Redmouth try to bite him. His thorns made his body invulnerable. The snake saw his eyes red with fury. She bounded this way and that, fell upon his thorns and  hissed  venomously.

      All of a sudden the hedgehog slept at her and as she recoiled to evade the blow, he caught her by the tail. Redmouth rose up like a stick and whistled with pain. She mustered all her strength and wrung her­self loose. Her body lashed like a whip and glistened in the

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