Valiant Vicky,

The Brave Weaver

(From ‘Tales Of Punjab’)

- Flora Annie Steel

About The Author

 Flora Annie Steel (2 April 1847 – 12 April 1929) was an

English writer who was noted for writing books set in British
India or otherwise connected to it.
 She was born as Flora Annie Webster in Sudbury
 She married Henry William Steel, a member of the Indian Civil
Service, and for the next twenty-two years lived in India (until
1889),chiefly in the Punjab, with which most of her books are
connected.
 The famous works of Flora Annie Steel are Tales of the
Punjab (1894), The Woman Question, Voices in the
Night (1900) etc.
 Writing

 Flora Annie Steel was interested in relating to all classes of Indian

society.
 Her interest in schools and the education of women gave her a special
insight into native life and character.
  When in India, she had been interested in collecting local folk tales,
and this continued, her compilation and re-telling of well-known
English Fairy Tales 
 Flora Annie Steel’s life and writings are rendered with contradictions
and suggest that she had an intriguing personality that is not easy to
grasp, which makes it incredibly fascinating to study how she
experienced her life in British-India and how she fulfilled her role as a
‘memsahib’.
THE PROSE

 There lived a little weaver, by name Victor Prince, but because his head was big, his legs
thin, and he was altogether small, and weak, and ridiculous, his neighbours called him
Vicky–Little Vicky the Weaver.

 But despite his size, his thin legs, and his ridiculous appearance, Vicky was very valiant,
and loved to talk for hours of his bravery, and the heroic acts he would perform if Fate
gave him an opportunity.
SCENE 1

One day when he was sitting at his loom, a mosquito sat on his
left hand. By chance the shuttle hit the mosquito and killed it.
Vicky became elated over his skill and bravery. He boasted that
it required the greatest skill and bravery for a man to kill a
mosquito with a shuttle.

Vicky was anxious to display his mettle in killing anything. He

said it would not be difficult to do when he could kill a
mosquito. He could no longer suffer himself to be called 'Vicky'
No! now that he had shown his mettle he would be called
'Victor' -
 when he announced his determination to the neighbours, they
roared with laughter. Some called him Prince Victor.
.'
Here he met with no better reception, for his wife, a fine
beautiful young woman, was tired to death by her ridiculous
little husband's whims and fancies

Then he resolved to stay no longer in a town where his merits

were unrecognized. He asked his wife to prepare some bread
for the journey and set about packing his bundle.

'I will go into the world; he said to himself,

'The man who can shoot a mosquito dead with
a shuttle ought not to hide his light under a
bushel'
 Vicky reached a city where a dreadful elephant came daily to eat the inhabitants. Many mighty warriors had failed
SCENE 2to kill it. On hearing this the valiant little weaver thought to himself, So he went to the king, and announced that
he proposed single-handed to meet and kill the elephant. Nevertheless, our brave weaver even refused to take
either sword or bow, but strutted out to meet the elephant armed only with his shuttle.

It was a beautiful sight to see little Vicky swaggering out to meet his enemy. On seeing Vicky, the elephant
trumpeted fiercely and charged right at him and then, alas! all the little man's courage disappeared. Forgetting his
new name of Prince Victor, he dropped his bundle, his shuttle, and his bread,. and bolted away as fast as his legs
could carry him.

Now it so happened that his wife had made the bread ever so sweet, and had put all sorts of tasty spices in it,
because she wanted to hide the flavour of the poison she had put in it. She was a wicked, revengeful woman.

She wanted to get rid of her tiresome little husband. That was way she had poisoned the food. As the elephant
charged past, it smelt the delicious spices and catching up the bread with its long trunk, gobbled it up without
stopping an instant.
'None of my warriors and wrestlers, no, not even the heroes of old, could have done
this. I must secure this little man's services if I can.' So he asked Vicky why he was
wandering about the world.

'For pleasure, for service, or for conquest! ' returned Valiant Vicky.

So there was Valiant Vicky a mighty fine warrior, and as proud as a peacock of having
fulfilled his own predictions.
 A terrible tiger was giving a lot of trouble to the people. The
SCENE 3 king asked Vicky to kill the tiger. He promised to give his
daughter in marriage to Vicky if he killed the tiger.

No sooner did he see the tiger charging at him than he ran for the nearest tree,, and
scrambled into the branches There he sat like a monkey, while the tiger sat under the tree
waiting for Vicky to come down.

Vicky sat on the tree for six days. On the seventh day. when he tried to slip past the tiger,
the tiger jumped at him with a roar. At once Vicky swung himself into a branch. While
doing so, his dagger fell out of its sheath into the hungry wide - open mouth of the tiger.
The tiger died on the spot. Vicky cut off its head and went home in triumph to the king.

‘You and your warriors are a nice set of cowards! But I suppose everyone is not a hero as I
am!' So Prince Victor married the King's daughter, and was a greater man than ever
 After a few days the city was invaded by the army of an enemy king. Hearing this, the inhabitants cried with one
accord, of course 'Prince Victor! Victor to the rescue'. The king sought the help of Vicky and promised to give
SCENE 4 him half his kingdom if he defeated the army. But Vicky did not want to fight.
He wanted to run away with his wife to a place of safety. So in the dead of night he bade his wife rise, pack up
her golden dishes, and follow him - 'Not that you will want the golden dishes at my house, he explained
boastfully, 'for I have heaps and heaps, but on the journey these will be useful'.
Then he crept outside the city, followed by his wife carrying the bundle, and began to steal through the enemy's
camp.Just as they were in the middle of it, a big beetle flew into Vicky's face. "Run! Run!' he shrieked to his
wife. On the way Vicky's wife dropped the golden dishes with a clang. The noise in the dark made the enemy
soldiers think that the foes were attacking them.
They began to fight with each other. In the dark they could not distinguish between friend or foe and killed one
another. Next morning none of the enemy soldiers was left alive.. Vicky received half the kingdom from the king
for saving the city from the enemies.
 So he received half the kingdom, and ruled it with great dignity, refusing ever
afterwards to fight, saying truly that kings never fought themselves, but paid others to
fight for them.

Thus he lived in peace, and when he died every one said Valiant Vicky was the greatest
hero the world had ever seen.
 Characteristics
 Victor Prince
 Big head, thin legs, small and weak.
 Over confident
 Braggart
 Coward
 Very lucky
 First Wife
 Young and beautiful.
 Wicked
 Revengeful
 Inhumane
 The King
 Authoritative
 Gullible
 Hasty
 Irrational