THE MAN WITH TWO DOGS

_{The kitchen.}

Finally one day, after having wandered in this way for a long, long time, Jean found himself in a large avenue, full of beautiful flowers with delicious scents and where the birds of the forest seemed to have all gathered, to sing and flutter around these beautiful flowers. At the end of the avenue, which was very long, there was a large iron gate.

“It is here, without doubt, that the master of the forest lives,” he said to himself; I would like to speak to him, because it seems to me that I have been keeping his wood for several years, without having seen it only once.

And he knocked on the door. The door was opened for him. He then found himself in a large castle courtyard, where he saw no one. He noticed an open door. He entered again and found himself in a large kitchen, but he still didn't see anyone.

"Is this castle abandoned?", he says to himself. "My goodness, I will settle here then."

There was, however, a good fire in the hearth, and a lamb on the spit. When Jean judged that the lamb was cooked to perfection, as no one appeared, he removed it from the fire and began to eat with good appetite, without forgetting his dogs. He also found excellent wine and had a meal like he had not had for a long time. When he had finished, he was very surprised to see a woman's hand (he could only see the hand) take a candlestick from the table, and beckon him to follow her. He had never been fearful, but not having spared the wine which he found very good, he was less so than ever at this moment, and he followed, without hesitation, the hand and the light. She led him into a beautiful room, where there was a beautiful bed, placed the candlestick on the table, and then disappeared.

"It’s very singular!", Jean said to himself, "Anyway, we'll see what will happen."

And he lay down and fell asleep without delay. Around midnight, a loud noise suddenly awakened him, and he saw in his room, around the table, three devils playing cards. The lame devil suddenly said:

"I smell Christian!"

"Nah!", the others said to him, "How do you expect there to be Christians here? Be on your game."

And they started playing again. But a moment later the lame devil got up and said again:

"For sure, there is a Christian around here, somewhere!"

And he looked in every corner of the room, then in the bed, and found Jean, who was hiding as best he could under the sheets:

"What did I tell you!", he continued, pulling him out of bed and showing him to the others. "What are we going to do with it?"

"Well, cook it and we will eat it right away! We had a sad supper, and he is undoubtedly the cause of it."

There was a hellish fire in the fireplace; poor Jean was hung above, without him making a complaint, and when he was cooked, which did not take long, they ate him, and licked their fingers, so delicate did they find his flesh. Then they left.

As soon as they had left, a beautiful princess, or rather the head of a princess (for only the head could be seen) entered the room. She searched first on the table, then under the table and in every corner of the room, and finally found a fragment of bone, no bigger than a little finger:

"Oh happiness!", she says.

Then she began to rub this bone with an ointment that she had; and, as she rubbed it, the bone was covered with flesh, the limbs returned little by little, and the body was reconstituted, so that it found itself complete and as healthy as ever.

Source: L’Homme aux deux chiens. from the French book Contes et légendes de Basse-Bretagne published in 1891.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Part 5

Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.

I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.

Jean finds a strange castle and is found in bed by a lame devil, who has decided to roast him and eat him.

Then, a mysterious princess with no body resuscitates him!

Where are the two dogs when all this happens?

Recently, we went for a walk in Lyons' Park, in Port Coquitlam. This is the favorite walk of Kati.

Port Coquitlam is close to Coquitlam (where we live). The two cities are separated by the Coquitlam River, which is sometimes very wild.

After the big snowstorm of 10 days ago, the weather has been very mild, so the snow in the mountains has melted and the result is that the river was very high. Also, the color of the water was dark green, but we don't know why.

Here are some pictures: