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the scarecrow
that not even flies will dare
approach it—if my lady will
allow me to carry her to the
fields in my arms and carry
her back as well.”
At first the belle did not
understand what he meant
by saying he would “carry
her to the fields” in his
arms. She suspected the
matter was some sort of joke
that foreigners enjoy or an
innocent caprice that citizens
encounter in the conduct of
artisans and that the tribes
know in the eccentricities
of poets. She was offended,
however, and bolted away
after doubt whispered in
her breast and she grasped
the hidden meaning of this
allusion. She confided his
offer to her girlfriends, who
winked at each other, laughed,
mocked her, and told their
grannies who then asked her,
“What’s the harm in that?
Will a man do something to a
woman she does not want—
even if he is alone with her in
the fields? Fool, you should
realize that the fool we call
‘man’ is merely a puppet that
only does with a woman what
thewomanwants.Which is the
lesser of the two evils: letting
your herds be destroyed when
their destruction entails your
own, or going to the fields to
play with a doll called ‘man’?”
The beaut i ful woman
hesitated for a time, but her
hesitation did not last long
because the nightly massacres
of her flocks drove her to the
cunning artisan.
5
Once the scarecrow was
erected in the fields to guard
over the herd’s corral, the
unidentified enemy vanished.