There was once a little boy called Sigli, who, I am sorry to say, took
great pleasure in catching and killing little birds. His father was a
notorious robber, so it was not surprising that Sigli gave way to acts
of cruelty. His mother died when he was little more than a year old, and
he did not know any other relation. In the north of Portugal, bands of
robbers used to frequent the roads, and some of them lived in strong
castles, and had a large retinue of followers. In time of war these
robber-chiefs would side with the king’s party, because after the war
was over they received large grants of land for the assistance they had
rendered the sovereign. Sometimes when the neighbouring kings of Spain
invaded Portugal, these robbers proved of great advantage in repelling
the invaders; but in following up their victories they would despoil
all the churches in the enemy’s country of the gold and silver idols,
which the priests had caused to be made in order to get the ignorant
peasantry to make offerings of money, corn, and oil, in exchange for
which the priests, in the name of the idols, offered all those who gave,
pardon of their sins.
Now, Sigli’s father had on many occasions robbed gold and silver idols,
and had murdered a few brethren of the Holy Inquisition, who, in their
turn, were well known for the wicked deeds they had committed, such as
burning Christian men and women who did not, and could not, profess the
popish faith. But in course of time the Jesuits, for so they were
called, made common cause against these robbers, and either put them to
death, or obliged them to leave off robbing churches and take to
cheating the peasantry.
Sigli, as I said before, was a very cruel boy, and he was the terror of
all the birds and beasts. He would lay traps for them, and when he had
caught them he would take pleasure in tormenting them, which clearly
proved that he was not a Christian, nor possessed of any refinement. But
he took more pleasure in catching Robin-redbreasts than in anything
else, and for this purpose he used bird-lime. He had caught and killed
so many that at last King Robin of Birdland issued invitations to all
his feathered subjects and to the beasts of the field, asking them to a
meeting at which they might discuss the best means of putting Sigli to
death, or punishing him in some other way, for the cruelty of which he
was guilty towards them.
Among the many who accepted the invitation was an old fox, the first of
the Reynards, and when it came to his turn to speak, he said that as
Sigli was so fond of catching redbreasts with bird-lime, he (Mr.
Reynard) would propose catching Sigli in the same manner; and when
caught they might discuss how they should punish him, either by pecking
and biting him, or by getting the wolves to eat him. In order to carry
out this idea, he suggested that the monkeys should be asked to prepare
the bird-lime, which they might use with safety by oiling their hands,
and then gradually make a man of bird-lime close to the robber chief’s
castle. Sigli would probably take it for some poor man, and hit it, and
then he would not be able to get away.
This idea was accepted by all in general, and by Mrs. Queen Bee in
particular, who owed Sigli and his father a grudge for destroying her
hive; and the monkeys cheerfully set to work, while King Robin watched
the putting together of the figure, and was very useful in giving it
most of the artistic merit it possessed when finished. The making took
one whole night, and next morning, almost opposite the castle, stood the
bird-lime figure about the size of a man.
Sigli, seeing it from his dressing-room window, and taking it for a
beggar, was so enraged that he ran out without his shoes and stockings,
and, without waiting to look at the man, he struck at him with his right
hand so that it stuck firmly to the figure.
“Let go,” he cried, “or I will kick you!” And as the figure did not let
go he kicked it, so that his foot was glued. “Let go my foot,” he cried
out, “or I will kick you with the other;” and, doing so, both his legs
were glued to it. Then he knocked up against the figure, and the more he
did so the more firmly he was glued.