Italian Folktales (19 page)

He took the crab home on his back and told his wife to put the pot on the fire, for he would return shortly with food. Then he carried the crab to the king's palace.

“Your Highness,” he said to the king, “I've come to see if you will kindly buy this crab from me. My wife has put the pot on the fire, but I have no money to buy anything to go in it.”

The king replied, “But what would I do with a crab? Can't you sell it to someone else?”

Just then the king's daughter came in. “Oh, what a fine crab, what a fine crab! Please buy it for me, Papa, please! We'll put it in the fishpond with the mullets and the goldfish.”

The king's daughter was fascinated by fish and would sit for hours on the rim of the fishpond in the garden watching the mullets and the goldfish swim about. Her father could refuse her nothing, so he bought the crab. The fisherman put it into the fishpond and received a purse of gold coins that would feed his children for a whole month.

The princess never tired of watching the crab and spent all her time by the fishpond. She had become thoroughly familiar with him and his ways, noticing that from noon until three o'clock he always disappeared and went off goodness knows where. One day the king's daughter was there studying her crab, when she heard the doorbell ring. She looked down from her balcony, and there was a poor tramp asking for alms. She threw down a purse of money, but it flew past him into a ditch. The tramp went into the ditch after it, plunged under water, and began to swim. The ditch connected with the king's fishpond by an underground canal which continued on to no telling where. The tramp followed it and came out in a beautiful basin in the middle of a large underground hall hung with tapestries and containing a table sumptuously laid. The tramp stepped from the basin and hid behind the tapestries. At the stroke of noon, up popped a fairy in the middle of the basin, seated on the back of a crab. She and the crab jumped out of the water into the hall, the fairy tapped the crab with her wand, and there emerged from the crab shell a handsome youth. The young man took a seat at the table and the fairy tapped her wand, producing food in the dishes and wine in the bottles. When the youth had finished eating and drinking, he reentered the crab shell, which the fairy touched with her wand, and the crab took her onto his back once more, jumped into the basin, and disappeared underwater with her.

Then the tramp came out from behind the tapestries, dove into the water, and swam back to the king's fishpond. The king's daughter was there looking at her fish and, seeing the vagabond's head bob up, she asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Princess,” said the tramp, “I have a wonderful thing to relate to you.” He came out of the pond and told her the whole story.

“Now I understand where the crab goes from noon to three o'clock!” exclaimed the king's daughter. “Fine, tomorrow at noon we shall go together and see.”

So the next day they both swam the underground canal from the fishpond to the underground hall and hid behind the tapestries. Exactly at noon, up popped the fairy on the crab's back. She tapped her wand and out stepped the handsome young man from the crab shell and took his place at the table. The princess, who already liked the crab, was charmed with the young man and immediately fell in love with him.

Seeing the empty crab shell right there next to her, she hid inside it.

When the youth got back into the shell he found the beautiful maiden there. “What have you done?” he whispered. “If the fairy learns of this, she will put us both to death.”

“But I want to free you from the spell!” whispered the king's daughter. “Tell me what I must do.”

“Impossible,” said the young man. “Only a maiden who loved me enough to die for me could break the spell.”

“I am that maiden,” said the princess.

While this conversation was taking place inside the crab shell, the fairy seated herself on the crab's back, and the youth, working the crab claws as usual, carried her through the underground waterways to the open sea, without her suspecting that hidden inside with him was the king's daughter. On the way back to the fishpond after leaving the fairy at her destination, the young man, who happened to be a prince, explained to his beloved close beside him in the crab shell what to do to free him. “You must climb up on a rock on shore and play and sing. The fairy is enthralled by music and will emerge from the sea to listen to you and say, ‘Play on, lovely maiden, your music is so delightful.' And you will reply, ‘I certainly shall, if you give me the flower in your hair.' When you have that flower in your hand, I will be free, since the flower is my life.”

Meanwhile the crab had reached the fishpond, and he let the king's daughter out of the shell.

The tramp had swum back by himself and, finding no princess, saw himself in serious trouble. But the maiden emerged from the fishpond, thanked him, and gave him a handsome reward. Then she went to her father and told him she wanted to study music and singing. The king, who never refused her anything, sent for the finest musicians and singers to give her lessons.

As soon as she had learned music, the daughter said to the king, “Papa, I want to go and play my violin on a rock by the sea.”

“On a rock by the sea? Have you lost your mind?” But, as usual, he gave in to her and let her go with eight maids of honor dressed in white. As a precaution, he had her followed at a distance by a few armed soldiers.

Seated on a rock, with her eight maids of honor in white dresses on eight rocks around her, the king's daughter played her violin. From the waves rose the fairy. “How beautifully you play!” she said. “Play on, play on, it delights me so to hear you!”

The king's daughter said, “Indeed I shall, if you make me a present of that flower you are wearing in your hair, for I love flowers to distraction.”

“I will give it to you if you can fetch it from where I throw it.”

“I will fetch it,” she assured the fairy, and started to play and sing. When the song was over, she said, “Now give me the flower.”

“Here you are,” said the fairy, and threw it as far as she could out to sea.

The princess dove into the sea and swam toward the flower floating on the waves. “Princess, princess! Help! Help!” screamed the eight maids of honor standing up on the rocks, with their white veils billowing in the wind. But the princess swam on and on, disappearing in the waves and coming back up; she was beginning to doubt whether she would reach the flower, when a big wave swept it right into her hand.

In that instant she heard a voice beneath her, saying, “You have given me back my life, and will be my bride. Now don't be afraid. I am under you and will carry you to shore. But say nothing of this, not even to your father. I must go and tell my parents, and within twenty-four hours I'll come and ask for your hand.”

“Yes, yes, I understand” was all she could answer, since she was out of breath, while the crab underwater carried her to shore.

So when she got back home, all the princess told the king was that she had enjoyed herself immensely.

The next day at three, there was a roll of drums, a flourish of trumpets, a prancing of horses, and in walked a majordomo saying the son of his king requested an audience.

The prince put the customary request to the king for the princess's hand and then told the whole story. The king was somewhat taken aback, for he had been in the dark about everything. He sent for his daughter, who came running in and threw herself into the prince's arms, exclaiming, “This is my bridegroom, this is my bridegroom!” The king realized there was nothing to do but conclude the marriage as soon as possible.

 

(
Venice
)

31

There was once a mother and father with two little boys and a girl. The father was often away from home traveling and one day when he was away the two little boys said to their mother, “We are going to meet Papa!” Their mother replied, “Yes, yes, go ahead.”

When they reached the woods the children stopped to play. Shortly afterward, they saw their father approaching and ran up and grabbed him around the legs, saying, “Papa! Papa!”

The father was in a bad humor that day and replied, “Don't bother me! Go away!” But the boys paid no attention and went on pulling on his legs.

Thoroughly irritated, the father yelled, “The Devil take you both!” In that moment the Devil came out and took them away before the father knew what had happened to them.

When the mother saw the father return without the children, she became worried and started crying. Her husband first told her he didn't know where they were, then he admitted cursing them, after which they disappeared from sight.

At that, their little sister spoke up. “Even if it means losing my own life, I'm going out to look for them.” Ignoring her parents' protests, she got together a little food and departed.

Coming to a palace with an iron door, she went in and found herself before a gentleman, whom she asked, “Have you by any chance seen my brothers who were kidnapped by the Devil?”

“I can't say that I have. But go through that door into a room with twenty-four beds and see if the boys are there.”

In effect, the maiden found her brothers in bed and was overjoyed. “So you are here, little brothers! That means you're safe after all!”

“Take a closer look,” replied the brothers, “and see whether we are safe.”

She peered beneath the bedclothes and beheld countless flames. “Oh, my brothers! What can I do to save you?”

“If you do not speak for seven years you will save us. But in that time you must go through fire and water.”

“Don't worry, you can count on me.”

She left them and walked back through the other room past the gentleman sitting there. He motioned to her to approach, but she shook her head, made the sign of the cross, and left the palace.

After walking and walking she found herself in a forest. Exhausted, she lay down and went to sleep. A king out hunting passed by and saw her sleeping. “What a beautiful girl!” he exclaimed, then woke her up to ask whatever brought her to the forest. With her head she made a sign that she was not there by her will. The king then asked, “Would you like to come with me?” and she nodded yes. Taking her at first for a deaf-mute, the king spoke loudly, but shortly realized she could hear even a whisper.

He got home and took her out of the carriage, telling his mother he had found a speechless maiden asleep in the forest, whom he was going to marry.

“I'll never consent to it!” exclaimed his mother.

“But here,
I
make the decisions,” he snapped, and the wedding took place.

The mother-in-law was wicked-hearted and treated her daughter-in-law shamefully, but the daughter-in-law endured all in silence. Meanwhile she found herself with child. The mother-in-law forged a letter to her son calling him to a certain city where he was supposedly being swindled. The king said goodbye to his expectant wife and went off to attend to the matter. The wife gave birth to a baby boy, but the mother-in-law, in league with the midwife, placed a dog in bed beside the new mother and took the baby stuffed in a box to the palace roof. The poor young woman looked on frantically, but then remembered her condemned brothers and bit her tongue.

The mother-in-law wrote her son immediately that his wife had given birth to a dog. The king replied that he wished to hear no more about his wife. He ordered that she be given a little money for food and turned out of the palace before he got home.

But the old woman told a servant to take the young wife off, kill her, throw her body into the sea, and bring back her clothes.

When they reached the seashore, the servant said, “Please bow your head now, madam, as I'm obliged to kill you.” With tears in her eyes, the young woman sank to her knees and joined her hands. Moved to pity, the servant merely cut off her hair and took all her clothes, leaving her his own shirt and trousers to put on.

Alone on the deserted shore, the young woman at last spotted a ship at sea and signaled to it. The ship carried soldiers who asked her who she was, never once suspecting she was a girl. In sign language she explained she was a sailor from a shipwrecked vessel and its sole survivor. The soldiers said, “Even if you can't talk, you can still help us wage war.”

There was a battle, and the young woman fired her share of cannon shots. Because of her bravery, her comrades in arms made her a corporal right away. Once the war was over she requested a discharge, which was granted.

Back on land, she didn't know which way to turn. At night she spied a tumbledown house and went inside. Hearing footsteps at midnight, she peeped out and saw thirteen murderers go out the back door. She let them get well out of sight, then went to the rear of the house and found a large table laid for a feast. Thirteen places were set, and she went around the table taking just a tiny bit of food at each place, so that the murderers would find nothing missing when they came back. Then she returned to her hiding place, but forgot to remove her spoon from one of the plates before she left. The murderers came home in the middle of the night, and one of them noticed the spoon at once. “Look! Some stranger has been in here meddling.”

“Well,” replied another murderer, “let's go back out while one of us stays behind to keep watch.” And so they did.

Thinking they had all left, the girl jumped out and the murderer grabbed her. “I have you now, you rogue! You just wait!”

Thoroughly frightened, she explained by signs that she was a mute and had come in because she was lost. The murderer comforted her and gave her food and drink. The others came home, heard the tale, and said, “Now that you are here you shall remain with us. Otherwise we'd have to kill you.”

Nodding her agreement, she stayed on with them.