The cock-n-bull story is an English phrase which means a far-fetched, rather impossible narrative. This is how in the folk wisdom the bull meets us. Often is the bull the image of brainlessness, for foolishness, especially in educative tales such as by Aesop, for instance.
Otherwise, the bull is a symbol of brutal, thoughtless and bestial force. This is how we find the bull in the Spanish bull-fight or in the Spanish bull-run. Hemingway's novels, too, often refer to this image. Personally though, I have never liked the bloody (literally and figuratively) game. I have always found the torero to be a pathetic figure despite his glitzy wear which indeed is a tear. Either he or the bull is going to be torn, and copious tears would be the only response. Gladiators are hardly heroes! Truly!
The rather sympathetic portrayal of the bull power by George Orwell apart, this mascot is often pitifully portrayed. Actually the best friend of a farmer, he is already withering away in to oblivion as farming gets more and more mechanised, more and more urban, hydroponic, and so on. Very soon a bull would be found in a zoo. That is not a cock-n-bull story though! How tragic!
Pratima@ The bovine eyes may not be limpid like a cow's. Yet they tell their own story of hard work, often thankless. Hence this tribute to the bullish version post-'Pola'.
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