Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/75

Rh house. He also took with him three sheep and four reals, which was all the money he possessed in the world.

While journeying along, he met a beggar who seemed famished and in great distress; moved with pity he gave the man his three sheep and all the bread, leaving himself nothing but the few small coins he had in his pocket. But as the beggar was no other than our Lord, who had assumed that disguise. He changed the three sheep into three large and powerful dogs, and told the brother to take them as his best friends and defenders, for their strength was a match for the most dangerous enemy or beast he might meet with. From that day he was always very successful in the chase, and he and his dogs were sure to be engaged to accompany any hunting excursion that took place in the neighbourhood.

One day, as he was travelling through some hills, he suddenly came to a pass, where he saw a girl at the entrance of a cave, who cried to him, as he approached her: "Fly! Fly for your life, good man, for a great snake with seven heads will soon come to attack you and will kill you."

"What great monster can it be that I cannot defend myself against?"

"It is a monster snake which no huntsman has ever succeeded in destroying. It devours a human