Long, long ago, there lived a monster in a tiny village. The villagers were terrified of it and felt that their hamlet was cursed to have such a creature living in their midst. Several men tried to fight the monster. One man attacked it with a sword, but the creature grabbed the weapon, and almost magically pulled out another sword—twice as large, twice as sharp—and cut the attacking man in half. At another time, a villager set off with a huge wooden club to clobber the monster. The monster responded by slamming him with a wooden club twice as heavy as the one he had brought along. On yet another occasion, a villager tried to set the monster on fire. But the monster merely opened its mouth to swallow the fire; and in return, spewed leaping flames that roasted the poor man. Scared by these incidents, the village folk gave up trying to fight the monster. They began to believe that this was their lot and they would have to learn to live with it. Then, one day, a little boy s