A LAND is sick and the sickness seems to come from its sick ruler. Nothing will grow and no young are born. This is a universal theme for a story. Michael Ende, the author of The Neverending Story, is a German and there is an ancient story from Europe with this same idea. It is said that when a king is ill or injured, his kingdom also suffers, affecting the fertility (肥力) of the land and reducing it to a barren (贫瘠的) wasteland.