Italian Folktales (11 page)

“What are you doing here?” they asked. “Come with us and work in the king's kitchen.”

They called her Perina, and she was such a clever little girl that in no time she was doing the housework better than the king's own maidservants. She was so pretty no one could help loving her. The king's son, who was her age exactly, was always with Perina, and they became very fond of each other.

As the maiden grew up, the maidservants began to envy her. They held their tongues for a while, then accused Perina of boasting she would go and steal the witches' treasure. The king got wind of it and sent for the girl. “Is it true you boasted you would go and steal the witches' treasure?”

“No, Sacred Crown, I made no such boast.”

“You did so,” insisted the king, “and now you have to keep your word.” At that, he banished her from the palace until she should return with the treasure.

On and on she walked until nightfall. Perina came to an apple tree, but kept on going. She next came to a peach tree, but still didn't stop. Then she came to a pear tree, climbed it, and fell asleep.

In the morning there stood a little old woman under the tree. “What are you doing up there, my daughter?” asked the old woman.

Perina told her about the difficulty she was in. The old woman said, “Take these three pounds of grease, three pounds of bread, and three pounds of millet and be on your way.” Perina thanked her very much and moved on.

She came to a bakery where three women were pulling out their hair to sweep out the oven with. Perina gave them the three pounds of millet, which they then used to sweep out the oven and allowed the little girl to continue on her way.

On and on she walked and met three mastiffs that barked and rushed at anyone coming their way. Perina threw them the three pounds of bread, and they let her pass.

After walking for miles and miles she came to a blood-red river, which she had no idea how to cross. But the old woman had told her to say:

 

“Fine water so red,

I must make haste;

Else, of you would I taste.”

 

At those words, the waters parted and let her through.

On the other side of the river, Perina beheld one of the finest and largest palaces in the world. But the door was opening and slamming so rapidly that no one could possibly go in. Perina therefore applied the three pounds of grease to its hinges, and from then on it opened and closed quite gently.

Inside, Perina spied the treasure chest sitting on a small table. She picked it up and was about to go off with it, when the chest spoke: “Door, kill her, kill her!”

“I won't, either, since she greased my hinges that hadn't been looked after since goodness knows when.”

Perina reached the river, and the chest said, “River, drown her, drown her!”

“I won't, either,” replied the river, “since she called me ‘Fine water so red.'”

She came to the dogs, and the chest said, “Dogs, devour her, devour her!”

“We won't, either,” replied the dogs, “since she gave us three pounds of bread.”

She came to the bakery oven. “Oven, burn her, burn her!”

But the three women replied, “We won't, either, since she gave us three pounds of millet, so that now we can spare our hair.”

When she was almost home, Perina, who had as much curiosity as the next little girl, decided to peep into the treasure chest. She opened it, and out came a hen and her brood of gold chicks. They scuttled away too fast for a soul to catch them. Perina struck out after them. She passed the apple tree, but they were nowhere in sight. She passed the peach tree, where there was still no sign of them. She came to the pear tree, and there stood the little old woman with a wand in her hand and hen and chicks feeding around her. “Shoo, shoo!” went the old woman, and the hen and chicks reentered the treasure chest.

Upon her arrival, the king's son came out to meet her. “When my father asked what you want as a reward, tell him that box filled with coal in the cellar.”

On the doorstep of the royal palace stood the maidservants, the king, and the entire court. Perina handed the king the hen with the brood of gold chicks. “Ask for whatever you want,” said the king, “and I will give it to you.”

“I would like the box of coal in the cellar,” replied Perina.

They brought her the box of coal, which she opened, and out jumped the king's son, who was hiding inside. The king was then happy for Perina to marry his son.

 

(
Monferrato
)

12

A farmer went out mowing every day, and at noon one or the other of his three daughters would bring him his lunch. On a certain day it fell to the oldest girl to go. By the time she reached the woods, though, she was tired and sat down on a stone to rest a minute before proceeding to the meadow. No sooner had she taken a seat than she felt a strong thud underneath, and out crawled a snake. The girl dropped the basket and ran home as fast as her legs would carry her. That day the father went hungry and when he came in from the field he scolded his daughters angrily.

The next day the middle girl started out. She too sat down on the stone, and the same thing occurred as the day before. Then the third girl said, “It's my turn now, but I'm not afraid.” Instead of one lunch basket, she prepared two. When she felt the thud and saw the snake, she gave it one of the baskets of food, and the snake spoke. “Take me home with you, and I will bring you luck.” The girl put the snake in her apron and then went on to her father with his lunch. When she got back home, she placed the snake under her bed. It grew so rapidly that soon it was too big to fit under the bed, so it went away. Before leaving, however, it bestowed three charms on the girl: weeping, she would shed tears of pearl and silver; laughing, she would see golden pomegranate seeds fall from her head; and washing her hands, she would produce fish of every kind.

That day there was nothing in the house to eat, and her father and sisters were weak from hunger, so what did she do but wash her hands and see the basin fill up with fish! Her sisters became envious and convinced their father that there was something strange behind all this and that he would be wise to lock the girl up in the attic.

From the attic window the girl looked into the king's garden, where the king's son was playing ball. Running after the ball, he slipped and fell, sending the girl into peals of laughter. As she laughed, gold pomegranate seeds rained from her head on the garden. The king's son had no idea where they came from, for the girl had slammed the window.

Returning to the garden next day to play ball, the king's son noticed that a pomegranate tree had sprung up. It was already quite tall and laden with fruit. He went to pick the pomegranates, but the tree grew taller right before his eyes, and all he had to do was reach for a pomegranate and the branches would rise a foot beyond his grasp. Since nobody managed to pluck so much as one leaf of the tree, the king assembled the wise men to explain the magic spell. The oldest of them all said that only one maiden would be able to pick the fruit and that she would become the bride of the king's son.

So the king issued a proclamation for all marriageable girls to come to the garden, under pain of death, to try to pick the pomegranates. Girls of every race and station showed up, but no ladders were ever long enough for them to reach the fruit. Among the contestants were the farmer's two older daughters, but they fell off the ladder and landed flat on their backs. The king had the houses searched and found other girls, including the one locked up in the attic. As soon as they took her to the tree, the branches bent down and placed the pomegranates right in her hands. Everyone cheered, “That's the bride, that's the bride!” with the king's son shouting loudest of all.

Preparations were made for the wedding, to which the sisters, as envious as ever, were invited. They all three rode in the same carriage, which drew to a halt in the middle of a forest. The older girls ordered the younger one out of the carriage, cut off her hands, gouged out her eyes, and left her lying unconscious in the bushes. Then the oldest girl dressed in the wedding gown and went to the king's son. He couldn't understand why she'd become so ugly, but since she faintly resembled the other girl, he decided he'd been mistaken all along about her original beauty.

Eyeless and handless, the maiden remained in the forest weeping. A carter came by and had pity on her. He seated her on his mule and took her to his house. She told him to look down: the ground was strewn with silver and pearls, which were none other than the girl's tears. The carter took them and sold them for more than a thousand crowns. How glad he was to have taken the poor girl in, even if she was unable to work and help the family.

One day the girl felt a snake wrap around her leg: it was the snake she had once befriended. “Did you know your sister married the king's son and became queen, since the old king died? Now she's expecting a baby and wants figs.”

The girl said to the carter, “Load a mule with figs and take them to the queen.”

“Where am I going to get figs this time of year?” asked the carter. It happened to be winter.

But the next morning he went into the garden and found the fig tree laden with fruit, even though there wasn't a leaf on the tree. He filled up two baskets and loaded them onto his donkey.

“How high a price can I ask for figs in winter?” said the carter.

“Ask for a pair of eyes,” replied the maiden.

That he did, but neither the king nor the queen nor her other sister would have ever gouged out their eyes. So the sisters talked the matter over. “Let's give him our sister's eyes, which are of no use to us.” With those eyes they purchased the figs.

The carter returned to the maiden with the eyes. She put them back in place and saw again as well as ever.

Then the queen had a desire for peaches, and the king sent to the carter asking if he couldn't find some peaches the way he'd found figs. The next morning the peach tree in the carter's garden was laden with peaches, and he took a load to court at once on his donkey. When they asked him what he wanted for them, he replied, “A pair of hands.”

But nobody would cut off their hands, not even to please the king. Then the sisters talked the matter over. “Let's give him our sister's.”

When the girl got her hands back, she reattached them to her arms and was as sound as ever.

Not long afterward, the queen went into labor and brought forth a scorpion. The king nonetheless gave a ball, to which everybody was invited. The girl went dressed as a queen and was the belle of the ball. The king fell in love with her and realized she was his true bride. She laughed golden seeds, wept pearls, and washed fish into the basin, as she told her story from start to finish.

The two wicked sisters and the scorpion were burned on a pyre sky-high. On the same day the grand wedding banquet took place.

 

They put on the dog and high did they soar;

I saw, I heard, I hid behind the door.

Then to dine repaired I to the inn,

And there my story draws to an end.

 

(
Monferrato
)

13

A boy had taken it into his head to go out and steal. He also told his mother.

“Aren't you ashamed!” said his mother. “Go to confession at once, and you'll see what the priest has to say to you.”

The boy went to confession. “Stealing is a sin,” said the priest, “unless you steal from thieves.”

The boy went to the woods and found thieves. He knocked at their door and got himself hired as a servant.

“We steal,” explained the thieves, “but we're not committing a sin, because we rob the tax collectors.”

One night when the thieves had gone out to rob a tax collector, the boy led the best mule out of the stable, loaded it with gold pieces, and fled.

He took the gold to his mother, then went to town to look for work. In that town was a king who had a hundred sheep, but no one wanted to be his shepherd. The boy volunteered, and the king said, “Look, there are the hundred sheep. Take them out tomorrow morning to the meadow, but don't cross the brook, because they would be eaten by a serpent on the other side. If you come back with none missing, I'll reward you. Fail to bring them all back, and I'll dismiss you on the spot, unless the serpent has already devoured you too.”

To reach the meadow, he had to walk by the king's windows, where the king's daughter happened to be standing. She saw the boy, liked his looks, and threw him a cake. He caught it and carried it along to eat in the meadow. On reaching the meadow, he saw a white stone in the grass and said, “I'll sit down now and eat the cake from the king's daughter.” But the stone happened to be on the other side of the brook. The shepherd paid no attention and jumped across the brook, with the sheep all following him.

The grass was high there, and the sheep grazed peacefully, while he sat on the stone eating his cake. All of a sudden he felt a blow under the rock which seemed to shake the world itself. The boy looked all around but, seeing nothing, went on eating his cake. Another blow more powerful than the first followed, but the shepherd ignored it. There was a third blow, and out from under the rock crawled a serpent with three heads. In each of its mouths it held a rose and crawled toward the boy, as though it wanted to offer him the roses. He was about to take them, when the serpent lunged at him with its three mouths all set to gobble him up in three bites. But the little shepherd proved the quicker, clubbing it with his staff over one head and the next and the next until the serpent lay dead.

Then he cut off the three heads with a sickle, putting two of them into his hunting jacket and crushing one to see what was inside. What should he find but a crystal key. The boy raised the stone and saw a door. Slipping the key into the lock and turning it, he found himself inside a splendid palace of solid crystal. Through all the doors came servants of crystal. “Good day, my lord, what are your wishes?”