A Pound of Flesh
Once there was a young man, who wanted to sample all the pleasures young men crave. He heard that a challenge had been set to find a suitable husband for a rich man’s daughter. What he didn’t know was that it was the daughter who had designed the test. Being the only child and female, her father was aware that she would be vulnerable to every ambitious man so from and early age his daughter had been well educated.
She had an appetite for learning and explored knowledge from all over the world so when her father passed away she knew what to do… and it involved magic.
The young man heard that he would have to give a large amount of money to the daughter before he could even take part in what now seemed like a contest among other wealthy men. The challenge was that he had to spend the night with the daughter and make sure she awoke the next morning satisfied. Apparently, all the men had tried this and lost their money.
He made a grand bow as he met the daughter. They ate together and talked and that night as she lay next to him, he fell soundly asleep. The next morning he left but his money stayed with the daughter.
Furious, he went to everyone he knew to borrow the money to try again. No one would consider it. The only one who agreed had a heavy price. If the money was not returned in a year and a day, the forfeit would be a pound of the young man’s flesh. Agreeing, he took the loan and returned to the daughter to try again.
That night, he inspected the bed, the covers and the pillow. None of these had been comfortable so why had he slept so well? As he did this, he unconsciously displaced a feather which had a spell the daughter had cast upon it. When she lay next to him that night, to her surprise he was still awake!
The next day, she decided she had found her husband. They were married and began their life together. It was over a year and a day when the young man was reminded of his debt. Now wealthy, he offered to pay more than he’d borrowed but this was rejected. The pound of flesh was wanted. When he confessed this to his wife, she told him to go to court and she would send a lawyer to help.
Again, she cast a spell on the feather so that when she held it, people only saw a lawyer. When the lender still refused to take the repayment, she told him to take the pound of flesh. He could only take a pound exactly and only flesh not blood. If he didn’t manage this, he himself would be put to death. Faced with this situation, the lender accepted the money and the husband returned home with his clever wife.
Thank you for reading my October blog.