Italian Folktales (44 page)

Her mother gave her the hemp, and Assunta led the cows out. She kept them stepping by whacking them on the rump and the tail until they reached the pasture. Then she put the hemp on their horns, but they didn't budge.

“Get busy! Why aren't you spinning?” screamed Assunta, whacking them with the stick. The cows began twisting their horns until the hemp became so
stringy
that it was nothing but a wad of tow.

That wasn't enough for Assunta, who said to her mother one day, “Mamma, I feel like eating some lamb's lettuce. Send Rosina out tonight to get some from that farmer's field.”

To make her happy, her mother ordered Rosina to go and pick the farmer's lettuce. “What!” exclaimed Rosina. “You want me to go out and steal? But that's something I've never done before. What if the farmer saw someone trespassing in his field at night? He'd be sure to shoot me from his window!”

That's just what Assunta wanted to happen, and as she too had now taken to bossing Rosina about, she said, “Go on, you have to go, or we'll thrash you good!”

So Rosina went out in the dark and climbed over the hedge into the farmer's field; but instead of lamb's lettuce, she found a turnip. She caught hold of the turnip and pulled and pulled. Finally it came up, revealing a toad's nest underneath containing five tiny toads. “Oh, how darling!” she exclaimed, holding them to her bosom and making a fuss over them. But one fell on the ground and broke a leg. “Excuse me, little toad,” said Rosina, “I didn't drop you on purpose.”

The four little toads which she still held, finding her so kind, said, “Lovely maiden, you are kind, and we want to reward you. You shall become the most beautiful girl in the world and shine like the sun, even when it is cloudy. So be it.”

But the lamed toad grumbled. “I certainly don't think she's kind. She has crippled me for life! She could have been more careful! The minute she sees a ray of sun, she shall change into a snake and never turn back into a woman without first passing through a fiery oven.”

Rosina went home half cheerful and half terrified, and her beauty was so radiant that the night around her was like daylight. Seeing her walk in shining like the sun left her stepmother and sister speechless. Right away she told them how it had come about, concluding, “But I'm not to blame for it. Please don't send me into the sunlight, or I'll become a snake.”

From then on, Rosina never went out of doors when the sun was shining, but only after sunset or when the sky was cloudy. She spent her days at the window working and singing. A great light shone from the window and was visible for miles around.

One day the king's son passed by, noticed the glow, and saw the maiden. “What is such a beauty doing in a hovel of peasants?” he wondered, and entered the house. Thus they came to know one another, and Rosina told him her whole story and about the curse placed on her.

The king's son said, “Come what may, you are too beautiful to remain in this hovel, you will be my bride.”

At that point the mother stepped in. “Majesty, be careful, you're asking for trouble. Just realize that the first time a ray of sun touches her she will turn into a snake.”

“This does not concern you,” said the king's son. “You obviously hate this girl, but I order you to send her to my palace. I shall dispatch a sealed carriage for her, so that the sun will not fall on her along the way. From now on, you will have all the money you need. We agree, and goodbye.”

Gritting their teeth, the stepmother and Assunta, unable to disobey the king's son, got everything ready for Rosina's departure. The carriage finally arrived, one of those old-fashioned carriages entirely closed, with only a round vent in the roof, and a groom behind decked in tassels, plumed hat, and sword. Rosina got into the carriage, and her stepmother climbed in after her to keep her company along the way. But the woman had first taken the groom aside and said, “Sir, if you would like a reward of ten crowns, open the vent in the roof when the sun strikes it.”

“Yes, madam, as you say.”

The carriage sped off, and as soon as it was noon and the sun shone straight down on the roof, the groom opened the vent, and a ray of sun fell upon Rosina's head. In a flash she changed into a snake and wriggled off into the woods, hissing.

When the king's son opened the carriage and found Rosina gone, he knew exactly what had occurred. Dismayed and tearful, he was on the verge of slaying the wicked stepmother. But everybody told him that the thing had been bound to happen to Rosina, if not then, at some other time. Finally he calmed down, although he remained sad and disconsolate.

Meanwhile the cooks had everything in the ovens and on the stoves and spits for the wedding feast, and the guests were all at the table. Learning that the bride had disappeared, they said, “Since we are already here, let's have the banquet just the same.” So the cooks were ordered to fire up the oven. One cook was putting into the lighted oven a bundle of brushwood just brought in from the woods, when he spied a snake concealed in the bundle. There was no way to draw the brushwood back out, since it had already caught fire. He peered into the oven to get a look at the snake, and there out of the flames leapt a maiden stark naked, fresh as a rose, and more radiant than fire or sun! Petrified, the cook yelled, “Come here quick! I've just seen a maiden in the oven!”

At that cry the king's son rushed into the kitchen, with the whole court behind him. He recognized Rosina, took her into his arms, and then the wedding was celebrated, and from that time on Rosina lived happily, and no one begrudged her anything more.

 

(
Montale Pistoiese
)

65

There was once a king who had a very beautiful daughter of marriageable age. A neighboring king had three grown sons, who all fell in love with the princess. The princess's father said, “As far as I am concerned, you are all three equal, and I couldn't for the life of me give any one of you preference over the other two. But I wouldn't want to be the cause of any strife among you, so why not travel about the world for six months, and the one who returns with the finest present will be my son-in-law.”

The three brothers set out together, and when the road branched off in three different directions each went his separate way.

The oldest brother traveled for three, four, and five months without finding a thing worth taking home as a present. Then one morning of the sixth month in a faraway city, he heard a hawker under his window: “Carpets for sale! Fine carpets for sale!”

He leaned out the window, and the carpet seller asked, “How about a nice carpet?”

“That's the last thing I need,” he replied. “There are carpets all over my palace, even in the kitchen!”

“But,” insisted the carpet seller, “I'm sure you have no magic carpet like this one.”

“What's so special about it?”

“When you set foot on it, it takes you great distances through the air.”

The prince snapped his fingers. “There's the perfect gift to take back. How much are you asking for it, my good man?”

“One hundred crowns even.”

“Agreed!” exclaimed the prince, counting out the hundred crowns.

As soon as he stepped onto it, the carpet went soaring through the air over mountains and valleys and landed at the inn where the brothers had agreed to meet at the end of the six months. The other two, though, had not yet arrived.

The middle brother also had traveled far and wide up to the last days without finding any suitable present. And then he met a peddler crying, “Telescopes! Perfect telescopes! How about a telescope, young man?”

“What would I do with another telescope?” asked the prince. “My house is full of telescopes, and the very best, mind you.”

“I bet you've never seen magic telescopes like mine,” said the telescope seller.

“What's so special about them?”

“With these telescopes you can see a hundred miles away and through walls as well.”

The prince exclaimed, “Wonderful! How much are they?”

“One hundred crowns apiece.”

“Here are one hundred crowns. Give me a telescope.”

He took the telescope to the inn, found his big brother, and the two of them sat and waited for their little brother.

The youngest boy, up to the very last day, found nothing and gave up all hope. He was on his way home when he met a fruit vendor crying, “Salamanna grapes! Salamanna grapes for sale! Come buy nice Salamanna grapes!”

The prince, who'd never heard of Salamanna grapes, since they didn't grow in his country, asked, “Just what are these grapes you're selling?”

“They are called Salamanna grapes,” said the fruit vendor, “and there're no finer grapes in the world. They also work a special wonder.”

“What do they do?”

“Put a grape in the mouth of someone breathing their last, and they will get well instantly.”

“You don't say!” exclaimed the prince. “I'll buy some in that case. How much are they?”

“They are sold by the grape. But I'll make you a special price: one hundred crowns per grape.”

As the prince had three hundred crowns in his pocket, he could only buy three grapes. He put them in a little box with cotton around them and went to join his brothers.

When they were all three together at the inn, they asked each other what they had bought.

“Me? Oh, just a little carpet . . . ” said the oldest boy.

“Well, I picked up a little telescope . . . ” replied the middle boy.

“Only a little fruit, nothing more,” said the third.

“I wonder what's going on at home right now. And at the princess's palace,” one of the boys said.

The middle boy casually pointed his telescope toward their capital city. Everything was as usual. Then he looked toward the neighboring kingdom, where their beloved's palace was, and let out a cry.

“What's the matter?” asked the brothers.

“I see our beloved's palace, a stream of carriages, people weeping and tearing their hair. And inside . . . inside I see a doctor and a priest at somebody's bedside, yes, the princess's bedside. Shei lies there as still and pale as a dead girl. Quick, brothers, let's hurry to her before it's too late . . . . She's dying!”

“We'll never make it. That's more than fifty miles away.”

“Don't worry,” said the oldest brother, “we'll get there in time. Quick, everybody step onto my carpet.”

The carpet flew straight to the princess's room, passed through the open window, and landed by the bed, where it lay like the most ordinary bedside rug, with the three brothers standing on it.

The youngest brother had already taken the cotton from around the three Salamanna grapes, and he put one into the princess's pale mouth. She swallowed it and immediately opened her eyes. Right away the prince put another grape into her mouth, which regained its color at once. He gave her the last grape, and she breathed and raised her arms. She was well. She sat up in bed and asked the maids to dress her in her most beautiful clothes.

Everybody was rejoicing, when all of a sudden the youngest brother said, “So I'm the winner, and the princess will be my bride. Without the Salamanna grapes she'd now be dead.”

“No, brother,” objected the middle boy, “if I'd not had the telescope and told you the princess was dying, your grapes would have done no good. For that reason I will marry the princess myself.”

“I'm sorry, brother,” put in the oldest boy. “The princess is mine, and nobody will take her away from me. Your contributions are nothing compared with mine. Only my carpet brought us here in time.”

So the quarrel the king had wanted to avoid became ever more heated, and the king decided to put an end to it by marrying his daughter to a fourth suitor who had come to her empty-handed.

 

(
Montale Pistoiese
)

66

A king of long ago had a son named Fiordinando who never took his nose out of his books. He was always shut up in his room reading. From time to time he would close the book and gaze out the window at the garden and the woods beyond, then resume his reading and musing. Never did he leave his room except for lunch or dinner, or maybe for a rare stroll in the garden.

One day the king's hunter, a bright young man who as a child had played with the prince, said to the king, “May I call on Fiordinando, Majesty? I've not seen him for quite some time.”

The king replied, “By all means. Your visit will be a pleasant diversion for my fine son.”

So the hunter entered the room of Fiordinando, who looked him over and asked, “What brings you to the court in those hobnailed boots?”

“I am the king's hunter,” explained the young man, who went on to describe the many kinds of game, the ways of birds and hares, and the different parts of the woods.

Fiordinando's imagination was kindled. “Listen,” he said to the youth, “I too shall try my luck at hunting. But don't say anything to my father, so he won't think it was your idea. I'll simply ask him to let me go hunting with you one morning.”

“At your service, as always,” replied the young man.

The next day at breakfast, Fiordinando said to the king, “Yesterday I read a book on hunting which was so interesting I'm dying to go out and try my luck. May I?”

“Hunting is a dangerous sport,” replied the king, “for someone who is new to it. But I won't keep you from something you think you might like. For a companion I'll let you have my hunter, who is unequaled as a hunting dog. Don't ever let him out of your sight.”

Next morning at sunrise Fiordinando and the hunter mounted their horses with their guns on shoulder straps and off to the woods they galloped. The hunter aimed at every bird or hare he saw and laid it low. Fiordinando tried his best to keep pace, but missed everything he shot at. At the end of the day the hunter's game bag was bulging, whereas Fiordinando hadn't brought down so much as one feather. At dusk Fiordinando spied a small hare hiding under a bush and took aim. But it was so small and frightened he decided he would simply run up and grab it. Just as he reached the bush, the hare darted off, with Fiordinando close behind. Every time he was right upon it, the hare would run far ahead, then stop, as though it were waiting for Fiordinando to catch up, only to elude him again. In the meantime Fiordinando had strayed so far from the hunter that he could no longer find the way back. Again and again he called out, but no one answered. By now it was completely dark, and the hare had disappeared.