Hot and Cold with the Same Breath

foltales of type 1342

edited by

D. L. Ashliman
© 2010-2016

The Man and the Satyr (Aesop).
The Satyr and the Traveler (Jean de La Fontaine).
The Peasant and the Satyrs (Flanders).
The Peasant and the Student (Germany).

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The Man and the Satyr

Aesop

A man and a satyr once poured out libations together in token of a bond of alliance being formed between them. One very cold wintry day, as they talked together, the man put his fingers to his mouth and blew on them. On the satyr inquiring the reason of this, he told him that he did it to warm his hands, they were so cold. Later on in the day they sat down to eat, the food prepared being quite scalding. The man raised one of the dishes a little towards his mouth and blew in it. On the satyr again inquiring the reason of this, he said that he did it to cool the meat, it was so hot.

"I can no longer consider you as a friend," said the Satyr, "a fellow who with the same breath blows hot and cold."

Source: Three Hundred Æsop's Fables, literally translated from the Greek by George Fyler Townsend (London and New York: George Routledge and Sons, 1871), p. 181.
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The Satyr and the Traveler

Jean de La Fontaine

Within a savage forest grot
A satyr and his chips
Were taking down their porridge hot;
Their cups were at their lips.

You might have seen in mossy den,
Himself, his wife, and brood;
They had not tailor-clothes, like men,
But appetites as good.

In came a traveller, benighted,
All hungry, cold, and wet,
Who heard himself to eat invited
With nothing like regret.

He did not give his host the pain
His asking to repeat;
But first he blew with might and main
To give his fingers heat.

Then in his steaming porridge dish
He delicately blew.
The wondering satyr said, "I wish
The use of both I knew."

"Why, first, my blowing warms my hand,
And then it cools my porridge."
"Ah!" said his host, "then understand
I cannot give you storage.

To sleep beneath one roof with you,
I may not be so bold.
Far be from me that mouth untrue
Which blows both hot and cold."

Source: The Fables of La Fontaine, translated from the French by Elizur Wright(London: George Bell and Sons, 1888), book 5, fable 7, pp. 108-109.
Link to La Fontaine's fable in the original French: "Le Satyre et le Passant," Œuvres complètes de Jean de La Fontaine (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1840), livre 5, fable 7, pp. 47-48.
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The Peasant and the Satyrs

Flanders

One cold winter's day a peasant set out on a journey which led him through the depths of a forest into which he had not hitherto been. The result was that he lost his way, and after wandering about for many hours in the hope of finding it again, he found himself, just as dusk was coming on, in a little clearing where he was overjoyed to see a small house with a cheerful light in the window.

"Here is a chance of supper and a bed," thought the peasant, and he made haste to go up to the cottage door.

Now this house in the clearing was not inhabited by men, but by some strange forest folk who were called satyrs. If you want to know what they were like, you must look at the pictures. Certainly the peasant had never seen anything like them before, although he had often heard of them, and when he nearly tumbled over the little satyr children who were playing in the snow outside the house door, he was the most surprised man in all those parts. It was too late to draw back however, so he went boldly up to the door and gave a loud knock.

"Come in!" cried a gruff voice, and the peasant accordingly went in and found himself facing the father of all the satyrs, who had a long beard and a pair of horns jutting from his forehead. The poor fellow's knees trembled underneath him for fright, especially when he saw all the other satyrs, the mother and the uncles and the aunts, glowering at him.

"Please forgive me for my intrusion," said he, "but I have lost my way in the woods, and I am half dead with hunger and cold. It would be an act of great kindness if you would give me some food and allow me to take shelter for the night." So saying, to give point to his remarks, he set to work to blow upon his chilled fingers, which indeed were blue with the cold.

"Why are you blowing your fingers?" asked the father of all the satyrs curiously.

"Why, to warm them," answered the peasant, and he blew harder than before.

"Well, sit down," said the satyr. "As it happens we are just about to have supper, and you are welcome to share it with us."

So the peasant sat down to supper, and all the satyr family sat down too, and watched him with big unblinking eyes, so that he felt very uncomfortable. A big basin of soup was set before him, and finding it very hot, he began to blow upon it.

At this all the satyr family cried out in surprise, and the father satyr said, " Why are you blowing your soup?"

"To cool it," answered the peasant. "It is too hot, and I am afraid it may scald my mouth."

Another and a louder cry of surprise came from all the satyrs, but the father cried out loudest of all, and seemed very indignant. "Come," he said, advancing to the peasant and taking him by the collar. "Out you go! There is no place in my house for a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath. That smells too much of sorcery or magic. Out you go, I say, and practise your spells in the forest."

So the poor peasant had to go supperless and spend the night in the woods, with no shelter but the trees, and the snow for coverlet.

And, if you wish to know when all this happened, all I can tell you is that it was a very long time ago, in the days when fishes flew, and cats had wings.

Source: Jean de Bosschère, Folk Tales of Flanders (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1918), pp. 159-62.
Flanders is the northern part of Belgium, where the native language is Flemish (Dutch).
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The Peasant and the Student

Germany

Once in wintertime a student found shelter with a peasant. Taking a place next to the stove, the student blew onto his hands. The peasant asked him why he was doing that, to which the student answered that he was warming his hands with his breath.

The peasant then invited him to stay for dinner. The student blew on his soup, and the peasant asked him why was doing that.

"To cool off the soup with my breath," was the answer.

"Oho!" said the peasant. "Are you one of those who can blow hot and cold out of their mouths? Be on your way! I learned from my father to be wary of anyone who blows hot and cold out of his mouth."

Source: Conrad Purselt, Fons Aquae Triplici Scaturigine Salientis in Vitam Aeternam: Dritte Quell Sonntäglicher Predigen (Augsburg and Dillingen: In Verlag Johann Caspar Bencards, 1707), vol. 3, p. 118.
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