It is for this reason that ducks are so fat, and they seek their food among the dead bodies and dirty places.
It will be seen that we have here a remarkable parallel of the Bluebeard story, but in a much more primitive form, for this Bluebeard does not kill only his wives, but he kills indiscriminately all those upon whom he can lay his hands, and then he uses the flesh of his victims for food. There are dim recollections of cannibalism in this tale, which in a way also reminds us of Polyphemus, who keeps Ulysses and his companions for the purpose of killing them and eating them, and the same story is found in another form in the adventures of Sindbad the Sailor.
LXXXVI.
WHY HAS THE STORK NO TAIL?
The Story of the Water of Life and Death.
This tale, though part of a longer fairy tale, is still complete in itself.
The hero of the tale, Floria, having shown some kindness to a stork, who afterwards turns out to be the king of the storks, receives from him a feather, which when taken up at any time of danger would bring the stork to him and help him. And thus it came to pass that the hero, finding himself at one time in danger, remembered the gift of the stork. He took out the feather from the place where he had hidden it, and waved it. At once the stork appeared and asked Floria what he could do for him. He told him the king had ordered him to bring the water of life and the water of death.[1]