Husband and Wife Wife Beaters 372 383 1 The Bull the Donkey and the Husbandman 1001 Nights Allah gave a wealthy husbandman the ability to understand all languages but told him never to tell anyone the husbandman fearing his life guarded the secret well one day he was watching his animals and heard a bull tell a donkey he is lucky he has an easy life the donkey tells the bull to fake sick refuse to eat and fall down so he will not be given bad treatment the master responded by tying the donkey to the plow and making it do the bull s work the donkey was exhausted while the bull relaxed all day so the donkey told the bull that he heard the master say he was going to take him to the butcher if he did not regain his strength the master heard this next morning the husband and his wife went to the stall and the bull gave a great show of health and strength man laughed at him wife asked why he laughed he decided to face his fate and set his affairs in order the master had 50 hens who were all serviced by one cock who was lustily mounting one after another a farm dog said it was a shame that he was doing that the day his master would die the cock said he is no master if he cannot manage one wife when the cock controls 50 hens and that he should beat her with a tree branch until she repents he did so she gave in they lived happily until they died 2 The Language of Beasts Andrew Lang a man had a shepherd who was herding his flock and heard a hissing sound from the forest he went to go see what the sound was there was a tree and grass on fire and a snake was caught in it the snake asked him to save him the shepherd put out his staff and the snake wrapped around it the shepherd asked the snake if she would harm him the snake said no shepherd said he did not want to leave his flock and the snake said to take her to her father who is the king of the snakes and to make haste they came to a gate made of snakes intertwined but the snake whistled and the arch unwound the snake told the shepherd to ask her father to understand the language of beasts rather than for jewels or money after some convincing the king granted the shepherd his wish for saving his daughter he spat into his mouth and the wish was granted the shepherd was going home and heard ravens say there was gold under where his lamb was laying he told his master his master let him have the gold and he built a house got married and had many animals on Christmas eve he told his wife to get everything ready for a feast she did and all was prepared right he told all his shepherds to take the night off and he would tend the flocks for them dogs thought to kill and eat the master but the oldest said he would not so the master had all the dogs except the old one killed the husband and wife rode home on their horses and the wife fell behind the husband s horse asked the wife s horse why he was falling behind the wife s horse said she was too fat to carry and the husband laughed the wife asked why he laughed and he said he did not know she kept asking so he laid down in a coffin and told her to bring the dog a piece of bread the dog would not eat it the cock came and ate it the dog asked why he could eat when his master is going to die the cock said he should be able to handle one wife the master got a stick and beat his wife until she never asked him questions again 3 The Lark and the Taming of Women Romania a man was plowing his field in the middle of it a lark made her nest and was hatching her young the lark asked the man to go around the nest and he would do him good also the man said he didn t mind but if his wife saw a part of the field unplowed she would beat him the man said she beats him all day and the lark said that he could help him if he does what he says the lark told the man to beat her with a stick if she starts bothering him he did so she ran away and was at home waiting with a large stick he came home and beat her and she had no chance to beat him the neighbors caught on and started beating their wives too the wives had a meeting under the head woman of the town and they decided to leave their husbands and escape the men threatened to kill the first man for causing trouble and the man went out to tell the lark of his problems the lark went and told the women there were no men on the other side of the Danube the women decided to go back to their husbands and they beat their wives but the wives never beat their husbands and if a woman does beat her husband he is not a man but a donkey 4 Two in a Sack Russia man scolded by his wife she beats him with a broom he left and went into the fields because he couldn t bear being beaten anymore and he threw out his nets and caught a crane the crane said he would help him if he let him go the man said he would take him home then the crane said they had better go to his house so they did when they got there the crane took down a sack from the wall and he said two out of a sack and two ladies appeared and made delightful desserts for him the crane said to give the sack to his wife the man went to his cousin s house to rest and they had dinner made he refused to eat and said two out of a sack two boys appeared and made a delightful meal and the cousin decided to steal it she told her daughters to go make a hot bath for him then she had them make a sack just like his and switched them out he went home with the wrong sack and greeted his wife she tried to beat him and he tried to use the sack but nothing came out so he ran out to the field and told the crane so the crane gave him a new sack he had a long way to go and he was hungry so he said two out of the sack and two men came out and started beating him with sticks and told him not to brag to his cousins until …