Birds and Flowers Talk
This legend of Doctor Theophrast and his servant changed into manifold forms. Both rode together after the servant had tasted of the hazel worm. The magpies cursed, the servant laughed, the master noticed the latter but did not act the same — that is to say, he acted as if he had not noticed the laughter of the servant.
Both riders now passed by a farm where they saw a hen lead her chicks around. And as the hen heard the clopping of the horses, she clucked and shouted at her young to flee. But the gate was in the way, and then the hen shouted to her young: “Whoever can not fly over it should slink through it!” and flew over the gate. And the strongest of her young flew after her, and the weaker ones slinked through the poles of the gate close to the ground.
The servant of Theophrast was greatly amused by this, and he had to laugh loudly — even more so than he had laughed about the curses of the magpies. The doctor heard his servant laugh, but he did not laugh as well, although he made his own conclusions.
Soon after, the riders reached a flower-covered meadow, which was filled with noises. As the flowers and herbs saw the doctor, they instantly rose up and extolled their good properties. The bogbean which was good against fever, valerian which worked against cramps, chamomile which helped with headaches, mint which cured stomach aches, dandelion was good for the chest, sage was good for the teeth, sweet clover good for the stomach, and so were centaury, gentian, and sweet flag.
Suddenly, a tiny red flower jumped up, and screamed with a delicate voice, but so loudly that it echoed in the ears:
“I am good for the s...,
for the red and the white!”
The dear little flower meant dysentery, but as it had never left its meadow and been in more respectable circles, it followed the “rural customs” as it was used to, and expressed itself in the manner of farmers.
But the servant was unable to contain his laughter, for he had never witnessed something like the innocent nature of this flower before. And now, like in the two prior legends, the sad turn followed after the merry joke.