Italian Folktales (66 page)

Fourteen handed them the letter from his employer asking for fourteen buckets of gold.

“Come on down,” replied Lucibello.

As soon as he arrived underground, fourteen devils pounced on him to eat him alive. But Fourteen clamped his tongs to the tongue of each devil and tortured them all to death. Now only Lucibello the chief was left.

“How am I going to fill the buckets with gold after you've killed the fourteen devils who were to fill them?”

“I'll fill them myself,” said Fourteen. He filled the buckets and said, “Thanks, and so long.”

“Just a minute,” replied Lucibello. “You don't expect to walk off like that, do you?”

The devil opened his mouth to eat the boy, but Fourteen clamped the tongs to his tongue, picked him up, threw him over his shoulder, and galloped off with the mules laden with gold.

He reached his employer's house and tied the devil to a leg of the kitchen table.

“What do you want me to do now?” asked Lucibello.

“Take my master and return to Hell with him.”

The devil didn't have to be begged, and Fourteen became one of the richest farmers alive.

 

(
Marche
)

97

Once upon a time in Rome there was a woodcutter named Jack. As he was cutting a limb from an oak tree one day, the limb fell on him and broke his leg, putting him in the hospital for three months. When he couldn't stand the hospital a minute longer, he ran away and came down here to Marca. One day he unbandaged the wound, and flies swarmed all over it. So what did Jack do but slap and kill them as fast as they lit.
When no more came buzzing around him, he counted the dead ones on the ground: there were a good five hundred. He made a sign and hung it around his neck:
I AM JACK STRONG, SLAYER OF FIVE HUNDRED
. He went into the city and took lodgings at an inn.

The next morning the governor sent for him. “Since you are so strong,” said the governor, “go after the giant here in the vicinity who is robbing everyone.”

Jack went into the brush and walked until he came upon a shepherd. “Where is the giant's cave?” asked Jack.

“What business have you there? The giant will gobble you up in one mouthful,” replied the shepherd.

Jack said, “Sell me three or four white cheeses.” And he went away with an armload of white cheeses. On reaching the giant's cave, he began stamping his feet to make a racket. Out came the giant. “Who's there?” Jack picked up a cheese and said, “Shut up, or I'll crush you like this stone,” and he squeezed the ricotta until it oozed through his fingers.

At that, the giant asked him if he wanted to be his partner. Jack said yes, threw away the other cheeses, and joined up with the giant.

The next morning, the giant was out of wood, so he took a long, long rope and went into the woods with Jack. He uprooted an oak with one hand, uprooted another with the other hand, and said to Jack, “Now you gather a few oaks yourself.”

Jack answered, “Look here, giant, would you have a slightly longer rope? I'd like to put it all the way around the woods and pull up everything at once so as not to have to make a second trip.”

The giant replied, “Never mind. I don't want you tearing up the whole place. What I've gathered here will be enough for now, so let well enough alone.” He picked up all the uprooted oaks, and Jack didn't have to carry a thing.

One day the giant wanted to have a contest with the spinning top: whoever threw it the greatest distance would win one hundred crowns. For cord he took a windmill cable, for a spinning top a millstone. After making a throw of almost a mile, he walked to the top, pointed out how far it had gone, and said to Jack, “Now it's your turn.”

Jack dared not touch the millstone, which he couldn't have budged an inch, but he began yelling, “Looook out! Loooooooook out, everybody!” The giant squinted. “Who are you calling to? Who's down there? I don't see anybody.”

“I'm talking to the people across the sea!”

“Well, never mind about throwing the top. You would send it so far we would never get it back,” and he gave him the hundred crowns without making him throw the stone.

Jack then proposed a contest himself. “You clever man, let's see which one of us can thrust his finger further into an oak tree trunk.”

The giant accepted. “We'll stake another hundred crowns on that!”

Earlier, Jack had taken a gimlet and a knife and made a hole in an oak, then re-covered it with bark, so you couldn't see it. The contest started, and the giant stuck his finger halfway into the trunk. Jack aimed for the hole he had made and shoved more than half his arm through it.

The giant gave him the hundred crowns, but was no longer at ease with such a strong man around him, so he sent him away. He waited until Jack got part way down the mountain; then he sent a lot of huge rocks rolling after him. But Jack, who distrusted the giant, had hidden in a cave. When he heard the rocks coming down, he yelled, “What's that falling out of the sky, flakes of plaster?”

The giant said to himself, “Heavens! I threw boulders down on him, and he calls them flakes of plaster. It's better to have a man like that for a friend than an enemy.” So he called Jack back to the cave, but still went on thinking how he might get rid of him. One night while the strong man was sleeping, the giant tiptoed up to him and dealt him a blow on the head. But it so happened that every night Jack put a pumpkin on his pillow and slept with his head at the foot of the bed. As soon as the giant smashed the pumpkin, he heard Jack say, “Little do I care if you've beaten in my head. But you're going to pay for disturbing my sleep!”

The giant was now more fearful than ever. He thought, I'll take him into that wood and leave him; then the wolves will tear him to bits. He said to Jack, “Come on, we're going for a walk.”

“All right,” agreed Jack.

“Would you like to run a race?” asked the giant.

“Let's,” answered Jack. “Just let me get a slight head start, since your legs are longer than mine.”

“Fair enough! I'll give you ten minutes.”

Jack struck out and ran until he met a shepherd with his sheep. “Will you sell me one?” he asked. He bought it, pulled out his knife, slit the sheep open and flung its intestines, liver, and innards into the road. “If a giant asks about me,” he said to the shepherd, “tell him that, to run faster, I ripped out my intestines and then ran like the wind; and show him the intestines here on the ground.”

Ten minutes later, here came the giant at top speed. “Did you see a man running this way?” he asked the shepherd.

The shepherd told him about the intestines and pointed to them. The giant said, “Give me a knife so I can do the same thing,” and he ripped open his belly from top to bottom, fell to the ground, and gave up the
ghost. Jack who had climbed a tree, jumped down, borrowed two buffalo, and dragged the giant into the city, where the governor had him burned in the middle of the square. And Jack was rewarded with food for the rest of his life.

 

(
Marche
)

98

There was once a rooster that went strutting about the world. He found a letter lying in the road, picked it up with his beak, and read:

Crystal Rooster, Crystal Hen, Countess Goose, Abbess Duck, Goldfinch Birdie: Let's be off to Tom Thumb's wedding
.

The rooster set out in that direction, and shortly met the hen.

“Where are you going, brother rooster?”

“I'm going to Tom Thumb's wedding.”

“May I come, too?”

“If you're mentioned in the letter.”

He unfolded the letter again and read:
Crystal Rooster, Crystal Hen
 . . . “Here you are, here you are, so let's be on our way.”

They continued onward together. Before long they met the goose.

“Oh, sister hen and brother rooster! Where are you going?”

“We are going to Tom Thumb's wedding.”

“May I come, too?”

“If you're mentioned in the letter.”

The rooster unfolded the letter again and read:
Crystal Rooster, Crystal Hen, Countess Goose
 . . . “Here you are, so let's be on our way!”

The three of them walked and walked and soon met the duck.

“Where are you going, sister goose, sister hen, and brother rooster?”

“We are going to Tom Thumb's wedding.”

“May I come, too?”

“Yes, indeed, if you are mentioned here.” He read:
Crystal Rooster, Crystal Hen, Countess Duck, Abbess Duck
 . . . “You're here all right, so join us!”

Before long they met the goldfinch birdie.

“Where are you going, sister duck, sister goose, sister hen, and brother rooster?”

“We are going to Tom Thumb's wedding.”

“May I come, too?”

“Yes, indeed, if you're mentioned here!”

He unfolded the letter again:
Crystal Rooster, Crystal Hen, Countess Goose, Abbess Duck, Goldfinch Birdie
 . . . “You are here too.”

So all five of them walked on together.

Lo and behold, they met the wolf, who also asked where they were going.

“We are going to Tom Thumb's wedding,” replied the rooster.

“May I come, too?”

“Yes, if you're mentioned here!”

The rooster reread the letter, but it made no mention of the wolf.

“But I want to come!” said the wolf.

Out of fear they all replied, “All right, let's all go.”

They'd not gone far when the wolf suddenly said, “I'm hungry.”

The rooster replied, “I've nothing to offer you . . . ”

“I'll just eat you, then!” He opened his mouth wide and swallowed the rooster whole.

Further on he again said, “I'm hungry.”

The hen gave him the same answer as the rooster had, and the wolf gobbled her up too. And the goose and the duck went the same way.

Now there was just the wolf and the birdie. The wolf said, “Birdie, I'm hungry!”

“And what do you expect me to give you?”

“I'll just eat you, then!”

He opened his mouth wide . . . and the bird perched on his head. The wolf tried his best to catch him, but the bird flitted all around, hopped from branch to branch, then back to the wolf's head and on to his tail, driving him to distraction. When the wolf was completely exhausted, he spied a woman coming down the road with the reapers' lunch in a basket on her head. The bird called to the wolf, “If you spare my life, I'll see that you get a hearty meal of noodles and meat which that woman is bringing the reapers. As soon as she sees me, she'll want to catch me. I'll fly off and hop from branch to branch. She'll put her basket down and come after me. Then you can go and eat everything up.”

That's just what happened. The woman came up, spied the beautiful little bird, and immediately reached-out to catch him. He then flew off a little way, and she put down her basket and ran after him. So the wolf approached the basket and started eating.

“Help! Help!” screamed the woman. The reapers came running with scythes and sticks, pounced upon the wolf, and killed him. Out of his belly, safe and sound, hopped crystal rooster, crystal hen, countess goose, abbess duck, and together with goldfinch birdie they all went to Tom Thumb's wedding.

 

(
Marche
)

99

Once a king issued this decree:

 

The man who builds a boat

That glides o'er land and water

Will surely wed my daughter.

 

Now in that country was a father with three sons, and all he had to his name were a horse, a donkey, and a piglet. When the oldest son heard the decree, he said to his father, “Papa, sell the horse and with the proceeds buy me tools for building boats, and I'll build a boat that glides over land and water and wed the king's daughter.”

He kept after his father, who finally gave in for the sake of a little peace and sold the horse and bought the tools. The son rose bright and early and went off to the woods with the tools to cut the timber for the boat.

He was already halfway through building the boat, when a little old man came walking by. “What are you working on there, my lad?”

“Just what I please.”

“And what pleases you, may I ask?”

“Barrel staves,” replied the boy.

“You shall find barrel staves all cut out for you,” said the old man and left him.

The next morning upon returning to the woods where he had left the boat half built, together with the timber and tools, the young man found only a pile of barrel staves. He went home crying as though his heart would break and told his father what had happened. You can just imag
ine the bad mood that put the man in, who had sold his horse to humor the boy whose neck he now could have wrung!

Less than a month later the middle son was itching to try his luck building such a boat. He went to work on his father and kept begging and pleading until the man finally had to sell his donkey and buy him the proper tools. The lad took them to the woods right away and cut his timber. He had the boat half finished, when the old man showed up asking, “What are you making, my lad?”

“I'm making what I please.”

“And what pleases you, may I ask?”

“Broom handles!”

“You shall find broom handles all cut out for you!” said the old man and turned away.

The boy went home that night, dined, slept, and at dawn returned to the woods. His experience was exactly like his brother's: there lay only a pile of broom handles.

When he too came home heartbroken, his father shouted; “It serves you right! It serves you both right for having such foolish ideas! And it serves me right, too, for ever listening to you!”