“His colour?  He has no colour.”

“He is the colour of a dragon.”

After hearing this evidence the Elders remained uncertain as to what should be done.  Some advised to watch for him, to surprise him and overthrow him by a multitude of arrows.  Others, thinking it vain to oppose so powerful a monster by force, counselled that he should be appeased by offerings.

“Pay him tribute,” said one of them who passed for a wise man.  “We can render him propitious to us by giving him agreeable presents, fruits, wine, lambs, a young virgin.”

Others held for poisoning the fountains where he was accustomed to drink or for smoking him out of his cavern.

But none of these counsels prevailed.  The dispute was lengthy and the
Elders dispersed without coming to any resolution.

VII.  THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)

During all the month dedicated by the Romans to their false god Mars or Mavors, the dragon ravaged the farms of Dalles and Dombes.  He carried off fifty 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.”