Text+extracts+-+Monsters

__**MONSTERS IN STORIES**__

1. After days and days of journeying they came to a wide tract of open country, in the midst of which they found a gaunt pillar of black stone like a furnace chimney, and sunk to his armpits in the pillar there was a creature the like of which none had seen before. He had two great wings and four limbs, two like human arms and two like lion’s paws, with claws of iron. The whole of his body was burned black from the desert sun, his hair hung about him like horse’s tails and his eyes blazed like coals, slit upwards in his face, while a third eye in the middle of his forehead gave out sparks of fire. (The Tale of the City Brass; The Arabian Nights)

2. The boy swallowed the pear. A strange burning feeling began to spread through him, from the tips of his toes to the hairs on his head. He ran to the river and drank and drank, gulping down water as fast as he could. But still he burned with the terrible fire. Then his body began to change. He grew bigger. His eyes bulged and popped. His skin became covered in golden-green scales. Horns grew from his head and wings sprouted from his back. (The Dragon Boy’s Pearl - Chinese Folk Tale)

3. Now Kaliya was no ordinary serpent. He had five huge heads, with five sets of poisonous fangs, and coils so strong they could crush you to death. Soon the river was filled with Kaliya’s lethal poison. Deadly fumes rose from the water which bubbled and boiled, black and sinister. Krishna Slays the Serpent King - Indian Folk Tale)

4. Now Medusa had eagle’s wings, claws of bronze, and scales instead of skin. She had two sharp bronze tusks on her face, and writhing snakes, twisting and hissing, instead of hair. Anyone who looked at Medusa’s face was turned to stone. (Perseus and the Gorgon - Greek Myth)

5. The Minotaur was a hideous monster, with the body of a man and the head and shoulders of a bull. It was savage and bloodthirsty, and thrived on human flesh. From deep in the Labyrinth’s centre came a terrible bellowing. The ground shuddered and shook as the mighty monster stamped its feet. (Theseus and the Minotaur - Greek Myth)