From the Pen of Christina Rossetti :
GOLDEN-WINGED  -  SILVER-WINGED

Birds of Paradise

Golden-winged, silver-winged,   
           Winged with flashing flame,
Such a flight of birds I saw,             
Birds without a name :
Singing songs in their own tongue -
      Song of songs - they came.

One to each other calling        
Each answering each,    
One to another calling            
In their proper speech :
High above my head they wheeled,
Far out of reach.

On wings of flame they went and came  
With a cadenced clang :     
Their silver wings tinkled,
Their golden wings rang ;  
The wind it whistled throug their wings
   Where in heaven they sang.

      They flashed and they darted
Awhile before mine eyes,
Mounting, mounting, mounting still,    
 In haste to scale the skies,
Birds without a nest on earth,                
  Birds of Paradise.                 

Where the moon riseth not
Nor sun seeks the west,      
There to sing their glory      
Which they sing at rest,       
   There to sing their love-song
  When they sing their best :-

Not in any garden               
That mortal foot hath trod,
Not in any flowering tree                         
       That springs from earthly sod,
But in the garden where they dwell,     
The Paradise of God.       
   

OR MAYBE SOME GOLDEN MOMENTS! HEHE

Cut your nails on Monday,   cut them for good news.
Cut them on Tuesday,           for a nice pair of new shoes.

Cut them on Wednesday,     cut them for good health.
Cut them off on Thursday,   you might have some wealth.

Cut them off on Friday,        a time that's full of woe.
Cut them on Saturday,         a journey you will go,

Cut them on the Sabbath,        the Devil you'll awake
And for the week that follows the evil one you'll take.

MARRY ON MONDAY, AND YOU'LL MARRY FOR WEALTH
MARRY ON A TUESDAY, IS TO MARRY FOR HEALTH
MARRY ON A WEDNESDAY, THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF ALL,

MARRY ON THURSDAY, MUCH STRIFE WILL YOU BEAR.
MARRY ON FRIDAY, MUCH LOSSES TO SHARE.
MARRY ON A SATURDAY, YOU'LL HAVE NO LUCK AT ALL

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Follow the littlest knight as he battles to save the kingdom from the terrible dragon and win the hand of the princess.

A Children's Book

Once upon a time long ago, even before the days of King Arthur, there lived a blacksmith only three feet tall. He was so short that he needed a stool to stand on to shoe the great steeds of the knights. This bothered him not a bit because although he was small he was very brave. In fact, in his heart he secretly longed to become a knight and win the hand of the Princess.

The Princess was the King and Queen's only child and it should come as no surprise that the little blacksmith loved her very much for she was both kind and beautiful. She was even smaller than he, and had dancing eyes and long silken hair which she wore in a coiled braid. But, alas, the little blacksmith could admire the Princess only from afar because she was, after all, a princess and he but a lowly blacksmith--not even that tall.

One day a terrible dragon came to the kingdom. Breathing fire on anyone who crossed its path, it trampled houses and burned fields. Many knights battled the dragon but their swords

could not cut its thick scales. Each night it flew home to its cave in the mountains surrounded by a deep ravine.

He who would break my spell,

Must carry a thousand swords,

And do it well.

Then cross a bridge which isn't there,

If he wants to reach my lair.

And last, not least, my defeat

Will be an empty cup filled.

But with his great wings the dragon took no time in knocking 50 knights from their horses and breathing fire on the rest. He said,

You must think I'm here to fiddle,

1,000 men--that's not the riddle.

One man alone, only one man,

With a thousand swords,

That's the plan.

  In desperation the King proclaimed whosoever solved the riddles and killed the dragon would be granted their heart's desire.

Now the merchants got busy. Suddenly there were swords everywhere: fat swords, skinny swords, sharp swords, dull swords, fancy swords, but mostly tiny swords so that one man might carry many of them. But a tiny sword is more like a dagger and most knights were too proud to carry a sackful of daggers. 

There was also a need for building materials to make the bridge, all kinds and shapes of wood and rock and rope and twine. Of course, with all this material they needed carts to carry it and animals to pull it so there was a run on wagons and horses and donkeys and oxen.  

What was left were sacks and sacks and sacks of money piled everywhere. And did this do any good? No. The knights for all their effort and all their supplies couldn't defeat the dragon and now the countryside was strewn with debris and the kingdom was a mess.

There was a moment of silence, then everyone but the Princess began to laugh. In fact, they laughed and they laughed, which made the little blacksmith's ears turn red. The King said, "You are no match for this dragon. It takes might to fight. You are simply too small."

The little blacksmith squared his shoulders. "I may be slight but I can fight."

The Princess was impressed. It was clear to her he was brave and good. "Father, for my sake, knight him this day. You promised 'whosoever should slay the dragon,' and surely he deserves a chance."

So the littlest knight set out on his pony to find the dragon. He met many tired and injured knights and one helpful fellow told him, "Go back. One man can't carry 1,000 swords, nor can you cross a bridge which isn't there, and if you fill an empty cup it won't be empty any more. It is all a trick." He thought the littlest knight was the biggest fool.

The littlest knight had been traveling half a day when he came upon an object in the road beneath a tree. It was a beehive. Being a kind soul he picked it up to put it back in the tree. Suddenly he heard a tiny, buzzing voice.

"OK," said the littlest knight and carefully tied the beehive to his saddle.It was shortly after that he found the dragon or rather it found him. It landed nearby to look him over, and said,                                   

Pfft, why you're nothing but a pea,

Who doesn't reach my knee

Go home and grow some more.

Fighting you would be a bore.

But the littlest knight charged anyway striking a blow with his sword."Ouch," said the dragon. The littlest knight charged and struck him again. The dragon roared.

Suddenly there was a buzzing from the knapsack. A bee flew out and up to the littlest knight's ear.

We have a way to repay you,

Throw our beehive and we'll save you.

  So the littlest knight grabbed the beehive, throwing it at the dragon's head. Immediately a thousand bees flew out with a thousand stingers. With their tiny swords they stung the dragon again and again. The dragon's eyes began to swell and he could hardly see. With a bellow of pain and anger he leaped into the air and flew off to his cave in the mountains.

The littlest knight followed on his pony. When he reached the dragon's lair he saw that the cliffs of the ravine were so far across that building a bridge would take a year. He sat down to think about it, meanwhile pulling from his pocket the Princess's single silken hair.

The bee did just that. The littlest knight couldn't believe his good fortune until he was fully halfway across the ravine, balancing like an acrobat. The Princess's hair seemed magical for it stretched the whole distance and even with his weight did not break.

He made it across and entered the cave. There he found the dragon in a far corner. It was in misery with its eyes swollen shut and its forked tongue lying on the ground. It hissed at his approach, for it could still smell him. 

  I warn you do not come in here.

I'll kill you if you come near.

It's foolhardy to be involved,

When there's still a riddle to be solved.

But the littlest knight wasn't afraid. With his kind heart all he could feel now was pity. He wanted to help the beast, to give it water to drink and cool its swollen eyes.

Returning outside he climbed down the cliff to the stream below. At the bottom there was plenty of water but nothing with which to carry it. Then he spied a chipped cup some knight had tossed from above. Carefully picking it from the sand he filled it as best as he could and climbed back up.

But when he got back to the dragon he discovered that not only had the cup been chipped but it had a crack he had not seen. What little water there was had drained out while he was climbing. He approached the dragon and said, "I'm sorry. I meant to help you, I really did. But the cup is empty."

The littlest knight was shocked, stunned and delighted. The evil dragon wasn't evil at all, only bewitched, and now that the riddles were solved it was proving to be as kind as its new master.

Then the littlest knight, astride his flying dragon, flew home with his pony galloping beneath.

At first the King and all the kingdom were terrified. All except the Princess, that is. She trusted her littlest knight and upon hearing the whole story set about immediately to make a healing salve for the dragon's eyes.

The littlest knight married her and got half the kingdom. The dragon got back his eyesight and, true to his word, guarded the kingdom faithfully.

Of course, they lived happily ever after.

The End

For more online illustrated stories by this author visit
McFeeglebee's Pond and Buzzy Bee

 Starfish

There was a miller who left no more estate to the three sons he had than his mill, his ass, and his cat. scrivener nor attorney was sent for. They would soon have eaten up all the poor patrimony. The eldest had the mill, the second the ass, and the youngest nothing but the cat. The partition was soon made. Neither The poor young fellow was quite comfortless at having so poor a lot.

"My brothers," said he, "may get their living handsomely enough by joining their stocks together; but for my part, when I have eaten up my cat,1and made me a muff of his skin, I must die of hunger."

The Cat, who heard all this, but made as if he did not, said to him with a grave and serious air:

"Do not thus afflict yourself, my good master. You have nothing else to do but to give me a bag and get a pair of boots made for me that I may scamper through the dirt and the brambles, and you shall see that you have not so bad a portion in me as you imagine."

The Cat's master did not build very much upon what he said. He had often seen him play a great many cunning tricks to catch rats and mice, as when he used to hang by the heels, or hide himself in the meal, and make as if he were dead; so that he did not altogether despair of his affording him some help in his miserable condition.

When the Cat had what he asked for he booted himself very gallantly, and putting his bag about his neck, he held the strings of it in his two forepaws and went into a warren where was great abundance of rabbits. He put bran and sow-thistle into his bag, and stretching out at length, as if he had been dead, he waited for some young rabbits, not yet acquainted with the deceits of the world, to come and rummage his bag for what he had put into it.

Scarce was he lain down but he had what he wanted. A rash and foolish young rabbit jumped into his bag, and Monsieur Puss, immediately drawing close the strings, took and killed him without pity. Proud of his prey, he went with it to the palace and asked to speak with his majesty.He was shown upstairs into the King's apartment, and, making a low reverence,19 said to him:

"I have brought you, sir, a rabbit of the warren, which my noble lord the Marquis of Carabas" (for that was the title which puss was pleased to give his master) "has commanded me to present to your majesty from him."

"Tell thy master," said the king, "that I thank him and that he does me a great deal of pleasure."

Another time he went and hid himself among some standing corn, holding still his bag open, and when a brace of partridges ran into it he drew the strings and so caught them both. He went and made a present of these to the king, as he had done before of the rabbit which he took in the warren. The king, in like manner, received the partridges with great pleasure, and ordered him some money for drink.

The Cat continued for two or three months thus to carry his Majesty, from time to time, game of his master's taking. One day in particular, when he knew for certain that he was to take the air along the river-side, with his daughter, the most beautiful princess in the world, he said to his master:

"If you will follow my advice your fortune is made. You have nothing else to do but go and wash yourself in the river, in that part I shall show you, and leave the rest to me."

The Marquis of Carabas did what the Cat advised him to, without knowing why or wherefore. While he was washing the King passed by, and the Cat began to cry out:

"Help! help! My Lord Marquis of Carabas is going to be drowned."

At this noise the King put his head out of the coach- window, and, finding it was the Cat who had so often brought him such good game, he commanded his guards to run immediately to the assistance of his Lordship the Marquis of Carabas. While they were drawing the poor Marquis out of the river, the Cat came up to the coach and told the King that, while his master was washing, there came by some rogues, who went off with his clothes, though he had cried out: "Thieves! thieves!" several times, as loud as he could.

This cunning Cat had hidden them under a great stone. The King immediately commanded the officers of his wardrobe to run and fetch one of his best suits for the Lord Marquis of Carabas. 

The King caressed him after a very extraordinary manner, and as the fine clothes he had given him extremely set off his good mien (for he was well made and very handsome in his person), the King's daughter took a secret inclination to him, and the Marquis of Carabas had no sooner cast two or three respectful and somewhat tender glances but she fell in love with him to distraction. The King would needs have him come into the coach and take part of the airing. The Cat, quite overjoyed to see his project begin to succeed, marched on before, and, meeting with some countrymen, who were mowing a meadow, he said to them:

"Good people, you who are mowing, if you do not tell the King that the meadow you mow belongs to my Lord Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot."

The King did not fail asking of the mowers to whom the meadow they were mowing belonged.

"To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," answered they altogether, for the Cat's threats had made them terribly afraid.

"You see, sir," said the Marquis, "this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every year."

The Master Cat, who went still on before, met with some reapers, and said to them:

"Good people, you who are reaping, if you do not tell the King that all this corn belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you shall be chopped as small as herbs for the pot."

The King, who passed by a moment after, would needs know to whom all that corn, which he then saw, did belong.

"To my Lord Marquis of Carabas," replied the reapers, and the King was very well pleased with it, as well as the Marquis, whom he congratulated thereupon. The Master Cat, who went always before, said the same words to all he met, and the King was astonished at the vast estates of my Lord Marquis of Carabas.

Monsieur Puss came at last to a stately castle, the master of which was an ogre, the richest had ever been known; for all the lands which the King had then gone over belonged to this castle. The Cat, who had taken care to inform himself who this ogre was and what he could do, asked to speak with him, saying he could not pass so near his castle without having the honor of paying his respects to him.

The ogre received him as civilly as an ogre could do, and made him sit down.

"I have been assured," said the Cat, "that you have the gift of being able to change yourself into all sorts of creatures you have a mind to; you can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, or elephant, and the like."

"That is true," answered the ogre very briskly; "and to convince you, you shall see me now become a lion."

Puss was so sadly terrified at the sight of a lion so near him that he immediately got into the gutter, not without abundance of trouble and danger, because of his boots, which were of no use at all to him in walking upon the tiles. A little while after, when Puss saw that the ogre had resumed his natural form, he came down, and owned he had been very much frightened. 

"I have been, moreover, informed," said the Cat, "but I know not how to believe it, that you have also the power to take on you the shape of the smallest animals; for example, to change yourself into a rat or a mouse; but I must own to you I take this to be impossible."

"Impossible!" cried the ogre; "you shall see that presently."

And at the same time he changed himself into a mouse, and began to run about the floor. Puss no sooner perceived this but he fell upon him and ate him up.

Meanwhile the King, who saw, as he passed, this fine castle of the ogre's, had a mind to go into it. Puss, who heard the noise of his Majesty's coach running over the draw-bridge, ran out, and said to the King:

"Your Majesty is welcome to this castle of my Lord Marquis of Carabas."

"What! my Lord Marquis," cried the King, "and does this castle also belong to you? There can be nothing finer than this court and all the stately buildings which surround it; let us go into it, if you please."

The Marquis gave his hand to the Princess, and followed the King, who went first. They passed into a spacious hall, where they found a magnificent collation, which the ogre had prepared for his friends, who were that very day to visit him, but dared not to enter, knowing the King was there. His Majesty was perfectly charmed with the good qualities of my Lord Marquis of Carabas, as was his daughter, who had fallen violently in love with him, and, seeing the vast estate he possessed, said to him, after having drunk five or six glasses:

"It will be owing to yourself only, my Lord Marquis, if you are not my son-in-law."

The Marquis, making several low bows, accepted the honor which his Majesty conferred upon him, and forthwith, that very same day, married the Princess.

Puss became a great lord, and never ran after mice any more but only for his diversion.

by Charles Perrault;

Perrault was born in Paris to a wealthy bourgeois family, son of Pierre Perrault and Paquette Le Clerc. It wasn't until he was 62 in 1665, that he decided to dedicate himself to his children and published Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé) (1697), with the subtitle: Tales of Mother Goose (Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oie). Its publication made him suddenly widely-known beyond his own circles and marked the beginnings of a new literary genre, the fairy tale. He had actually published it under the name of his last son (born in 1678), Pierre (Perrault) Darmancourt, (Armancourt was the name of a property he bought for him), probably fearful of criticism from the "Ancients".[2] In the tales, he used images from around him, such as the Chateau Ussé for Sleeping BeautyPuss-in-Boots, the Marquis of the Château d'Oiron, and contrasted his folktale subject matter, with details and asides and subtext drawn from the world of fashion. He died in Paris in 1703 at age 75..

 GOLD AND SILVER


SILVER
By Katharine Tynan

'Twas up the hill and down the hill,
     Upon the hottest day,
 And in the wood we found a pool
     Where silver fishes play.

The three tall poplars standing there
     Had caught the wind and kept
  Turning their silver leaves in air
       Though all the breezes slept.

And in the deep and amber pool
   The silver fins and gold
Went turning till the day was cool
     And very nearly cold.

I wish I was a little fish
          All the hot day to swim,
   All the hot night to lie asleep
         In depths so green and dim.
 

Tonight when I shall fall asleep
    It may be I shall dream
Of silver trees that turn a silver leaf
       Of fins a-gleam..

Tynan was born into a large farming family in Clondalkin, County Dublin, and educated at a convent Drogheda. Her poems were first published in 1878. Tynan went on to play a major part in Dublin literary circles, until she married and moved to England; later she lived at Clare morris, County Mayo magistrate there from 1914 until 1919.
For a while, Tynan was a close associate of William Butler Yeats (who may have proposed marriage and been rejected, around 1885), and later a correspondent of Francis Ledwidge. She is said to have written over 100 novels; there were some unsurprising comments about a lack of self-criticism in her output. Her Collected Poems appeared in 1930; she also wrote five autobiographical volumes.

Tynan died in Wimbledon, London, in 1931 at the age of 70.

 

The Three Crowns

The Three Crowns is an Italian literary fairy tale

A childless king heard a voice asking him whether he would rather have a daughter who would flee him or a son who would destroy him. After consulting his wise men, who argued over whether the danger to life or honor was the worse, he concluded that the daughter would be less harmful to his realm; he went back to the garden and answered the voice that he wanted the daughter. She was born, and her father tried to shelter her in a castle, but when she was fifteen, he concluded a marriage for her. When she left to go to her husband, a whirlwind carried her off.

The wind left her at an ogress's house in the forest. An old woman there warned her of the danger, saying the ogress did not eat her only because she needed a servant and the old woman was old and tough; she gave the princess the keys, to go inside and clean the house perfectly, which was her only chance. The princess, Marchetta, cleaned the house. When the ogress returned, the old woman hid Marchetta and claimed the credit. When the ogress left again, the old woman fed Marchetta and told her to prepare a very fine dinner to charm her, warning her that if the ogress swore by all the seven heavens, she was not to be trusted; only her oath by her three crowns was trustworthy. The ogress praised the dinner and made many fine oaths about what she would do for the cook, but only when she swore by her three crowns did Marchetta come out. The ogress said that Marchetta had outsmarted her and could live in the castle as if it were her own; she gave her the keys and warned her against opening one doorway.

One day Marchetta opened it and found three women dressed in gold, sitting on thrones, asleep; these were the ogress's daughters, whom she kept there because they would be in danger if not woken by a king's daughter. They woke, Marchetta feed them each an egg, and the ogress returned. Angry, she slapped Marchetta; then she tried to appease her, but Marchetta insisted on leaving. The ogress gave her a suit of men's clothes and a magic ring, which she should wear with the stone turned inside. If she were ever in great danger, and heard the ogress's name like an echo, she should look at the stone, but not until then.

Marchetta went to the king and, claiming to be a merchant's son driven out by his wicked stepmother's cruelty, took service as a page. The queen desired her as a lover and propositioned her. Marchetta, not wishing to reveal that she was a woman, said that she could not believe that the queen would cuckold the king. The queen told the king that she had tried to seduce her. The king immediately condemned Marchetta to death. Marchetta lamented her fate and asked who would help her; the echo said, "The ogress"; Marchetta remembered the stone and looked at it.

A voice proclaimed that she was a woman, shocking her guards. The king demanded her story, and Marchetta gave it. The king had his wife thrown into the sea, invited Marchetta's parents to his court, and married her.

Compiled by the wonderful people of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basile, Giambattista (1575-1632) and The Tale of Tales

In the group of southern Italian literary figures since the Middle Ages who have expressed themselves in their native, southern language, one of the most important is Giambattista Basile, the author of Il Pentamerone or Li Cunto de li Cunti (The Tale of Tales), known in English as, simply, The Pentameron. It is the first published collection of European fairy tales. It is  a frame-story like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio's Decameron; that is, the telling of tales is presented within the framework of a group of people passing the time by sharing stories. Basile's Pentamerone tells fifty tales over five nights, all of them in Neapolitan. The most famous of the tales is Zezolla, also known as  "The Cat Cinderella," apparently the first published version of the famous fairy-tale, better known to English-language readers in a translation of the later French version by Perault. 

Basile was born in Naples and lived and wrote there. He also traveled to and wrote in Venice and Mantua, but always returned to Naples, where he was the court poet for various families of the nobility, including that of Stigliano Carafa. By 1620 he was among the most respected Neapolitan writers, known for both madrigals and odes in Italian as well as poetry in Neapolitan.

 

Grandfather Clock

He stands on the stairs,
Just half-way down,
Weathered and worn and old and brown,
Stilled is his 'tick' and dumb his chime
And nobdy asks him whats the time,
Nobody asks him,
Nobody cares,
Nobody stops on the way down stairs,
To look at his honest face and see.
That he's never moved on from half past three.

The dining room clock is wound each night,
The clock in the drawing room's always right,

And down in the kitchen cook declares
Her clock goes better than those upstairs.
The clock in the study, the clock in the hall,
The great round clock on the nursery wall,
Yes, every clock may work with a will.
But up on the landing time stand still.

The day has gone since Grandfather Clock
Filled the house with his deep 'tick-tock,'
His 'tick' is still and his chime is dumb,
And he'll stay like that till kingdom come.
But although he is always half-past three,
'Well, once every day I'm right' says he.
'There's little a worn out clock can do,
But once every day my hands point true!

Hugh Chesterman,

        Could you not see in your mind the big Grand Father Clock standing on the corner of the stairs. The old Victorian Houses and Edwardian Houses had three main floors then the cellar. We lived in the bottom floor and bathed in the cellar, tin bath and all. plus the spiders, always the spiders. my Grandmother and Auntie Irene lived in the front of the house and my Auntie Grace, Uncle Bill and cousin on the second floor. They also had a bathroom, wow, we never used it mind. Grandmother's, Grandfathr Clock stood on the landing at the top of the second flight of stairs. Funny how stories can bring back memories of ones own child-hood.   

Here is a picture of a Victorian and Edwardian house together, don't you think that the object outside looks a bit like a grand-father clock ? These pictures come from Canada

THE RIDDLE OF THE

        Amid the vast wastlands of the high Himalayas there walks a giant creature, whose likeness to Man has puzzled scientists for years. Is it, as some people think, merely a bear or a monkey - or even just a fairy tale? Or is it perhaps the long sought "missing link" between the apes and Man?
        The natives who live in the high, lonely valleys of the Himalayas call the strange thing by several names...  Yeti, Meti, Shookpa, Mi-go, or Kang-Mi. The one we hear most of all is of course "Yeti." They have  known. about the Yeti for hundreds of years, but it was not until 1887 that the creature was first heard of in the Western world.
        Colonel W. A. Waddell, a British mountaineer was trudging across a snow-field when he came upon a mystifying set of tracks. They were like the footprints of a gigantic man, stalking along where no one would expect to find a lone human being - least of all barefoot.
Nineteen years later, another explorer not only saw the Yeti's tracks, he caught a glimpse of a great, hairy, two-legged creature. It ran away from him across the snow until it vanished over a ridge in the distance.
        As time went on more climbers and explorers sighted the Yeti. Sometimes it would be seen disapearing into a forest; sometimes walking across a snowfield, stooping now and then to pull up roots and shrubs. It became known as the "Abominable Snowman."

Attacked by a "Snowman"

        In 1948, two Norwegian explorers called Frostis and Thorberg followed some Yeti footprints in the snow. Suddenly they found themselves face to face with a pair of enormous, shaggy-haired, two legged creatures. Quickly the men tried to lasso one of the creatures, but the beast attacked Frostis and savagely mauled his shoulder.  Thorberg saved his friend by firing his rifle and frightening the Yetis away.
        A few years later, a British Mountaineer named Eric Shipton photographed the tracks of a pair of Yetis. For several miles he was able to follow the path made by the creatures. They had walked side by side, with strides longer than a man's, until they had come to a deep crevasse. Here the great creatures leapt  across the gap, they landedo one leg, as a human being would do! Not on all fours as you would expect a bear to do!
        Some scientist still thought the Snowman might only be a imalayan red bear or even a Langur Monkey. But very few red bears walk on their hind legs for more that a couple of steps, and their footprints always show the marks of their claws. Langur Monkeys, too, walk on all fourr when on the ground, but in any case the feet of the Langur's were too small to make tracks the size of the Snowman's.

Hunting the Yeti

       In 1954 The Daily Mail arranged the first Yeti hunting expedition. The hunters took many photographs of the giant tracks, some of which measured as much as thirteen inches, and they discovered another important fact. The Yetis lived not only i the high mountains, but lower down as well. However not one yeti was actually seen by the hunters.
         Three years later, a member of an American expedition followed some Yeti tracks over freshly fallen snow. He saw that the snowman had walke upright down a slope as a man would. Once it had fallen, slid through the snow, and then got up again on to two feet  At another place it had climbed over a fallen tree, putting up a hand - or paw to steady itself! What a strange creature indeed, to behave so like a man, in the wilds of the Himalayas.
        At one village, the Americans were told that a small boy and his sister had met a Yeti while guarding a herd of yaks. The Yeti had walked out of the wood near the frightened children, then they calmly turned around and went back into the trees. The boy discribed it as seven to eight feet tall, and that it looked rather like a gorilla.
        A second American expedition made new plans. The hunters would first find some Yeti tracks. Then they would set up "hides" where they could conceal themselves until the Yeti returned. To catch it, they might use snares specially made so as not to hurt the Yeti. Or they might use a new kind of gun which fired cardridges containing drugs. The drugs would render the snowman unconcious and out of action for a short while.
      The Americans had no trouble in finding the footprints, in fact for two nights running, some inquisitive Yetis actually invaded their camp, overturning cooking pots and other equipment, but frightened by the noise they had made, they made of at great haste before the men could get out of their sleeping bags. When at last the men switched on their torches all they Yetis were gone, nothing in sight, but there in the snow were two sets of ten inch footprints, in a clear trail that vanished where the snow ended on the bare rocky slope.

Snowmen won't be scared 

        Meanwhile one of the explorers, called Gerald Russell, had found more Yeti tracks at a jungle pool some distance away. He set up a hide, and spent ten days watching from behind a thick screen of branches, hopig the creatures would pass by on their way to drink.
       Finally one night, a villager came upon some wet footprints on a rock about 300 yards from Russell's hide. Swinging his torch round he saw a small Snowman, squatting on a boulder across the stream some twenty yards away. At his frightened shout the creature rose slowly to its feet, and stalked unhurriedly into the darkness of the trees. The following night, Russell's guide went out with the villager, hoping to drive the Yeti towards Russell's hide. After an hours wait, they caught the Snowan in the glare of their torches; but instead of retreating towards the hide, the creature advanced threateningly upon the two natives. Afraid of being attacked the natives turned and fled.
        In the weeks that followed, members of the expedition took it in turns to keep watch from a new hide by the pool but the monsoons arrived and that was it, the men were forced to abandon there expedition.

The Riddle Remains

        Once again the hunters were disappointed: a Yeti had not been captured. But more had been learnt about these mysterious creatures.
.        The British expedition had been able to photograph Yeti scalps that had been preserved for hundreds of years by the Lamas of a Himalayan Monastery. They measured tenty-six inches round, and were covered with red bristly hair. Now the American had brought back photographs of a Yeti's hand. The hand was mummified with age, but the length of its fingers and the joints of its bones were quite different from the hands of a human, although the shape of the thumb was like a man's.
        Scientists now at last believe that the Snowman is closely related to primative man and probably looks more like a gorilla than any other living creature. Perhaps explorers will soon bring the mysterious "Creature" down from the mountains and then we shall know the riddle of the Abominable Snowman.
      Me, I hope the never do find them. They will be safer up there, left  by themselves to live their own life......remember E.T. xxx

Sasquatch

The Sasquatch is the most famous cryptid in North America. The term Sasquatch originates from the Salish Tribes of British Columbia and means "wild man of the woods". The Sasquatch is described by most as a hairy creature over six feet tall, with large human like feet. Because of the creatures large feet it has also came to be called "Big Foot" by many.

Other common names for the creature are " The Abominable Snowman" and "The Yeti" (http://www.cryptozoology.com/cryptids/sasquatch.php).