`` I 'll be into you , pretty quick , '' said Ricardo . `` But why do I bandy words with a miserable peasant ? '' `` And do n't get much the best of them either , '' said the Dwarf , provokingly . `` But I 'll fight , if you will have it . '' The prince leaped from his horse , leaving Pepper on the saddle-bow . No sooner had he touched the ground than the Dwarf shouted : `` Hi ! to him , Billy ! to him , Daniel ! at him , good lions , at him ! '' and , with an awful roar , two lions rushed from a neighbouring potato-patch and made for Ricardo . These were not ordinary lions , history avers , each having two heads , each being eight feet high , with four rows of teeth ; their skins as hard as nails , and bright red , like morocco . -LCB- 135 -RCB- The prince did not lose his presence of mind ; hastily he threw the cake of crocodiles ' eggs , millet-seed , and sugar-candy to the lions . This is a dainty which lions can never resist , and running greedily at it , with four tremendous snaps , they got hold of each other by their jaws , and their eight rows of teeth were locked fast in a grim and deadly struggle for existence ! The Dwarf took in the affair at a glance . `` Cursed be he who taught you this ! '' he cried , and then whistled in a shrill and vulgar manner on his very dirty fingers . At his call rushed up an enormous Spanish cat , ready saddled and bridled , and darting fire from its eyes . To leap on its back , while Ricardo sprang on his own steed , was to the active Dwarf the work of a moment . Then clapping spurs to its sides -LRB- his spurs grew naturally on his bare heels , horrible to relate , like a cock 's spurs -RRB- and taking his cat by the head , the Dwarf forced it to leap on to Ricardo 's saddle . The diamond sword which slew the king of the Golden Mines -- that invincible sword which hews iron like a reed -- was up and flashing in the air !
At this very moment King Prigio , seeing , in the magic globe , all that passed , and despairing of XXXXX 's life , was just about to wish the dwarf at Jericho , when through the open window , with a tremendous whirr , came a huge vulture , and knocked the king 's wishing cap off !
Billy Daniel Dwarf Ricardo Spanish crocodiles fire millet-seed potato-patch slew