The snail is hatched from an egg; at first its shell is small, but it increases with the growth of the animal. If this shell gets broken, the creature straightway mends it, and makes it just as good as new. It is provided with a bag, in which it has a coloring matter for painting its shell.
At the approach of winter, the snail either retires to some hole, or buries itself in the earth, where it remains, in a torpid state, till spring. In some countries, snails are eaten as food, and they are so much esteemed in France, that the people raise thousands of them.
The Siberian Sable-Hunter.
CHAPTER XII.
The merchant proceeded to relate the story which he had promised, and which we shall call
THE RIVAL MESSENGERS.
In the days of the famous Genghis Khan, there was one of his princes who ruled over a province at a great distance from the seat of government; and he had, at a certain time, occasion to send a messenger to the king, who was then there. The purpose of the message was to communicate some gratifying intelligence, in relation to the conquest of a province of Persia; and the prince knew that whoever should be the bearer of the pleasant tidings, was sure to receive some distinguished mark of royal favor.
In order to provide against the chance of miscarriage, it seemed necessary to despatch two messengers, and by different routes—one of them leading through a pleasant and peaceful country, the other passing over mountainous regions, inhabited by hostile and warlike tribes.
It was a desirable, though a dangerous mission, and many of the young men of the court and the army, hoped the choice might fall on them. It was, at last, decided that the only son of the prince should be one of the messengers, and that he should take the safer and easier route; and that a young officer, the son of a peasant, should be the other, and proceed by way of the mountains. They were soon ready and departed upon their expedition, each being provided with a swift courser, and attended by four well-mounted men, skilled in all the arts of war and horsemanship.
Phalax, the son of the prince, had taken leave of his friends with a haughty confidence of reaching the seat of government before his rival. He not only had an easier and safer route, but he was, in fact, better mounted; his horse was of the famous hollow-backed breed, of King Solomon, and far-famed for his fleetness and endurance. His companions, too, were of the proudest chivalry of Mongolia, all of noble blood, and were in the full flush of youthful manhood. Nothing could exceed the splendor of their equipages, the impatience of their chargers, and the gallant bearing of their riders.