The Ditmarsch Tale of Wonders

I will tell you something. I saw two roasted fowls¹ flying; they flew quickly and had their breasts turned to heaven and their backs to hell, and an anvil² and a mill — stone swam across the Rhine prettily³, slowly, and gently, and a frog sat on the ice at Whitsuntide and ate a ploughshare. Three fellows who wanted to catch a hare, went on crutches⁴ and stilts⁵; one of them was deaf, the second blind, the third dumb, and the fourth could not stir a step. Do you want to know how it was done? First, the blind man saw the hare running across the field, the dumb one called to the lame⁶ one, and the lame one seized it by the neck.

There were certain men who wished to sail on dry land, and they set their sails in the wind, and sailed away over great fields. Then they sailed over a high mountain, and there they were miserably⁷ drowned. A crab⁸ was chasing a hare which was running away at full speed, and high up on the roof lay a cow which had climbed up there. In that country the flies are as big as the goats are here. Open the window, that the lies may fly out.

1 fowls   

鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马

参考例句：

• A great number of water fowls dwell on the island. 许多水鸟在岛上栖息。
• We keep a few fowls and some goats. 我们养了几只鸡和一些山羊。

2 anvil   

n.铁钻

参考例句：

• The blacksmith shaped a horseshoe on his anvil.铁匠在他的铁砧上打出一个马蹄形。
• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly.订书机上的铁砧安装错位。

3 prettily   

adv.优美地；可爱地

参考例句：

• It was prettily engraved with flowers on the back.此件雕刻精美，背面有花饰图案。
• She pouted prettily at him.她冲他撅着嘴，样子很可爱。

4 crutches   

n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑

参考例句：

• After the accident I spent six months on crutches . 事故后我用了六个月的腋杖。
• When he broke his leg he had to walk on crutches. 他腿摔断了以后，不得不靠拐杖走路。

5 stilts   

n.（支撑建筑物高出地面或水面的）桩子，支柱( stilt的名词复数 )；高跷

参考例句：

• a circus performer on stilts 马戏团里踩高跷的演员
• The bamboo huts here are all built on stilts. 这里的竹楼都是架空的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 lame   

adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的

参考例句：

• The lame man needs a stick when he walks.那跛脚男子走路时需借助拐棍。
• I don't believe his story.It'sounds a bit lame.我不信他讲的那一套。他的话听起来有些靠不住。

7 miserably   

adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地

参考例句：

• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。