sheep, twelve pigs, and three young boys. Every family was in
mourning and the island was full of lamentations. In order to remove the
scourge, the Elders of the unfortunate villages watered by the Clange
and the Surelle resolved to assemble and together go and ask the help of
the blessed Mael.

On the fifth day of the month whose name among the Latins signifies
opening, because it opens the year, they went in procession to the
wooden monastery that had been built on the southern coast of the
island. When they were introduced into the cloister they filled it with
their sobs and groans. Moved by their lamentations, old Mael left the
room in which he devoted himself to the study of astronomy and the
meditation of the Scriptures, and went down to them, leaning on his
pastoral staff. At his approach, the Elders, prostrating themselves,
held out to him green branches of trees and some of them burnt aromatic
herbs.

And the holy man, seating himself beside the cloistral fountain under an
ancient fig-tree, uttered these words:

"O my sons, offspring of the Penguins, why do you weep and groan? Why do
you hold out those suppliant boughs towards me? Why do you raise towards
heaven the smoke of those herbs? What calamity do you expect that I can
avert from your heads? Why do you beseech me? I am ready to give my life
for you. Only tell your father what it is you hope from him."

To these questions the chief of the Elders answered:

"O Mael, father of the sons of Alca, I will speak for all. A horrible
dragon is laying waste our lands, depopulating our cattle-sheds, and
carrying off the flower of our youth. He has devoured the child Elo and
seven young boys; he has mangled the maiden Orberosia, the fairest of
the Penguins with his teeth. There is not a village in which he does not
emit his poisoned breath and which he has not filled with desolation.
A prey to this terrible scourge, we come, O Mael, to pray thee, as the
wisest, to advise us concerning the safety of the inhabitants of this
island lest the ancient race of Penguins be extinguished."

"O chief of the Elders of Alca," replied Mael, "thy words fill me with
profound grief, and I groan at the thought that this island is the prey
of a terrible dragon. But such an occurrence is not unique, for we find
in books several tales of very fierce dragons. The monsters are oftenest
found in caverns, by the brinks of waters, and, in preference, among
pagan peoples. Perhaps there a