Italian Folktales (91 page)

One evening after walking quite a distance, he saw a little light far ahead of him and said, “If the Lord so wills, I must get to that place.” He thus came to a house and knocked. Accompanied by seven ladies, Beauty-with-the-Seven-Dresses came down and offered him food and shelter. In the morning Beauty got into conversation with the young man, and was so taken with his good looks and manners, that she ended up saying she wanted him for her husband. She was a very beautiful and gracious maiden, and a few days later they got married.

One day while they were looking out the window at the garden, Beauty said to her husband, “Ciccillo, do you see that fine seven-part frock there?” (She spoke of it that way, since it included seven dresses, one inside the other.) “Do you see that seven-part frock hanging on the tree?”

“I certainly do!” he answered. “Why do you ask me?”

“I'm going to tell you. If a bird should light on the frock and you caught it, you wouldn't see me any more. If you shot the bird, the frock would fly away, and I would go through fire and water. Should worse come to worst, dress in a red outfit, which has already been laid out in this room, and leave home in search of me. I'll see to it that you find me again.”

It happened one day that while the husband was out hunting and shooting birds, a bird lit right on the seven-part frock. So wrapped up in the hunt was Ciccillo that, without thinking, he fired at the bird. The seven-part frock immediately soared into the air and vanished from sight. Ciccillo then remembered his wife's warning. Frantic, he ran back to the palace at once, fearing the worst. When Beauty saw him, she asked, “What's the matter?” but he dared not tell her. Then she looked up at the tree and found the seven-part frock gone. At that, she began pulling out her hair and saying, “I've been betrayed! Betrayed! Now they'll come and take me away. Remember, if that happens, husband, to dress in red and don't abandon me.”

Let's leave them and follow the seven-part frock which had taken flight at the shot. On and on it flew until it reached a palace, went through the window, and came to rest before the table of a king who was in the process of writing. The king scrutinized the seven-part frock and wondered whose it was. He asked all around, but no one knew a thing about it. Then an old woman, aware of the king's inquiries about the owner of the seven-part frock, went to the palace, announcing, “Majesty and lords, I can find the owner of this dress.”

“What will it take to do so?” asked the king.

“Here's what I need. Fix me a bottle of drugged rosolio and a pound of sweets that have also been drugged. Leave everything else to me. Then I'll need a carriage with a good driver; I'll ride in it with a dagger concealed in my bosom.”

The king provided her with all those things, and the old woman rode off in style.

When they had gone a certain distance, she said to the coachman, “Wait for me here and be sure to come when I call you.” It was raining, but the old woman walked straight up to the palace of Beauty-with-the-Seven-Dresses. She knocked at the front door, and the husband came down with the seven ladies to let her in. The old woman asked for shelter for the night because it was raining, and he gladly welcomed her and invited her to table with them. At the table the old woman pulled out the rosolio and sweets, which were all drugged, and said, “These are not fit for important people like you, but do eat them for my sake. My daughter has just married, and I brought along this little bit so that you can celebrate the occasion too.”

Once the sweets were eaten, the couple and all the other guests dropped to the floor like pears. The old woman then pulled out the dagger and thrust it all the way through the husband. Then she called the coachman, who was waiting outside, and the two of them together picked
up Beauty, one by the head, the other by the feet, and carried her into the carriage as she slept. Once they had her inside, they galloped off to the king.

The king was anxiously awaiting them, and when the old woman arrived, he had Beauty-with-the-Seven-Dresses put in a room by herself until she should awaken. In the morning he went to her and found her awake and weeping over her misfortune. He tried to comfort her a bit, then all of a sudden asked, “When shall we get married?” At that proposition, Beauty began screaming at the top of her voice. Since there was no way to quiet her, the king took to his heels. A month later, he returned and repeated his proposal. Beauty replied, “When you find a man dressed entirely in red.” The king drew a sigh of relief, and telegraphed at once throughout the world. But Ciccillo was dead, stabbed by that old woman, and the man dressed in red was not to be found.

One day the big brother who had opened up a café went broke; reduced to poverty, he decided to change countries and try his luck elsewhere. He happened to take the same road as his brother Ciccillo, and when the seven ladies answered the door, they thought he was the dead man, so much did the two resemble one another.

“You've risen from the dead?” they asked.

“What!” he replied, amazed.

“Or maybe you had a brother who looked like you?”

“Yes, I did,” he said. “But why do you ask me?”

“Come with us and you will see,” answered the ladies, drawing him into a room where there was a dead man. This dead man was his brother, and the minute he saw him he began weeping and wailing. “Oh, my brother! My brother!” The ladies comforted him, telling him how Ciccillo had been treacherously slain, and they invited him to remain there with them.

While this youth was standing on the doorstep one morning, he saw two lizards, a little one and a big one. The big one killed the little one, then went and pulled up a herb, with which it rubbed the dead little lizard until it revived. Seeing that, the young man thought, Who knows but what my brother might revive if rubbed with that same herb. It certainly won't hurt to try. He pulled the herb, rubbed his brother's entire body with it, and he too came back to life. He asked about his wife at once and, remembering her warning, he dressed in red and left home to look the world over for her.

New that very day Beauty was to marry the king: they'd not been able to find the man in red, whom she had finally given up for dead. He came into the city where the marriage was to be celebrated, and the inhabitants, at the sight of a man dressed in red after so much fruitless searching
on their part, stopped him and carried him to the king. The king hastened to tell Beauty that the man in red had been found, thus fulfilling her one condition and clearing the way for the wedding. Beauty replied that she first had to talk to the man in red, alone and behind closed doors, so he was brought into her room, where they spent the night relating their misfortunes and making plans for the future. Beauty had all the keys of the palace, and once the king was fast asleep, they got up, loaded two donkeys with sacks of money, and fled.

After traveling all day long it grew dark again and they saw a stable. They made their bed the best they could on the hay under a loft. In the loft above, a drunkard snored and tossed in his sleep. Tossing and turning, he fell from the loft and ended up between the husband and wife, sinking down into the hay without even waking up or ceasing to snore. In the morning Beauty was the first one awake, and called her husband, “Ciccillo, get up, it's late. Let's get on our donkeys with the money and be off.” Her husband was still fast asleep, though, and didn't hear her. But the drunkard, at the mention of money, answered right off the bat, “By all means, let's be on our way!” It was still dark, and the two of them groped their way to the donkeys laden with money and left. When it was day, Beauty realized her companion was not her husband and began to protest. His only response was to reach out and knock her to the ground, leaving her there weeping as he made off with the two donkeys. She had no idea how to find her husband again, for she had already gone a good way with the drunkard. She went back until she came to a haystack and saw a farm boy. She begged and pleaded with him until he gave her his clothes, and thus dressed as a man, she was able to continue her journey in less peril.

Not a trace of her husband was to be found. In order to support herself, she therefore decided to work for a miller, who happened to be miller to the king's notary. She kept the miller's accounts and wrote such a beautiful hand that the notary, who had never seen such fine writing, asked the miller who kept his accounts. Learning that a farm boy did, the notary took Beauty into his service, and she kept the notary's accounts, which were presented to the king. The king too was impressed with the beautiful writing and just had to have the talented farm boy to work for him.

In the meantime, the other king who wanted to marry Beauty-with-the-Seven-Dresses had died. He had taken his own life, butting his head against the wall upon finding his bride missing the morning of the wedding. Who should inherit his kingdom but the king who kept the farm boy in his service! This king called in the farm boy and ordered him to go to the dead king's city and announce throughout the realm that he would
govern them on behalf of their new king. The farm boy replied that if he was to govern, he needed absolute authority over every citizen, which the king granted him.

On his arrival at the dead king's, he had the news published in all the towns, inviting everybody marked by any unusual event to come before the new governor, who would give them each a purse of money.

The news spread, and the first person to show up to tell her story was the old woman who had stabbed the husband and kidnapped his wife. “You old wretch!” exclaimed the governor. “You have the nerve to come and tell me that?”

He ordered her seized and thrown into a caldron of boiling water.

The old woman was followed by the drunkard, who told his story. “You thief!” exclaimed the governor. “You robbed a woman and have the nerve to admit it?” He had him dragged to the gallows and hanged as a dangerous thief. After those two were taken care of, here came the husband to tell his story.

They recognized one another and fell into each other's arms. Then the governor went and changed clothes, reappearing in the seven-part frock and every bit as lovely as a rosebud. They had a fine dinner and were reunited with the big brother and the seven ladies. Ciccillo was named king, and thus ended his misfortunes.

 

(
Calabria
)

144

A king and a queen had no children. The queen would pray and fast, but still no children were born to her. She happened to be walking in the fields one day and saw animals of all kinds—lizards, birds, snakes—together with their offspring, and said, “All the animals have young ones—just see the little lizards, the baby birds, the tiny snakes—while I bear nothing at all!” A serpent passed by, with his brood crawling along behind. “I would be satisfied with just a serpent child!” exclaimed the queen.

Now it happened that she too found herself with child, and the whole court rejoiced with her. At last came the day, and what should she be delivered of but a serpent! The court was dumbfounded, but the queen recalled her remark, realizing her prayer had been answered exactly, and she loved that serpent son as much as if it were a baby boy. She put it in an iron cage and fed it the same thing they ate—soup and meat—at midday and in the evening.

The serpent ate enough for two and grew bigger every day. When he was enormous, he said to the maid one day when she went into his cage to make up his bed:

 

“Tell Papa dear

That a wife I want in here

With beauty and money!”

 

The maid took fright and didn't want to enter his cage any more. The queen, however, required her to take his meals in to him, and the serpent repeated:

 

“Tell Papa dear

That a wife I want in here

With beauty and money!”

 

The maid told the queen, who wondered, “What can we do?”

She called in one of their tenant farmers and said, “I'll pay whatever you ask if you'll bring me your daughter.”

The wedding was celebrated. The serpent seated himself at the banquet table. In the evening the newlyweds went off to bed. At a certain hour the serpent awakened and asked his bride, “What time is it?”

It was around four in the morning, and the bride replied, “It's the hour when my father rises, takes his hoe, and goes off to the fields.”

“So you're a farmer's daughter!” exclaimed the serpent, and he bit her on the throat and killed her.

When the maid came in with breakfast in the morning, she found the bride dead. The serpent said:

 

“Tell Papa dear

That a wife I want in here

With beauty and money,

BEAUTY AND MONEY
.”

 

The queen then called in a cobbler who lived across the street and who also had a daughter. They agreed on the price, and the wedding was celebrated.

Around five o'clock in the morning the serpent awakened and asked his bride what time it was. “It's the hour,” she replied, “when my father gets up and starts hammering at his cobbler's bench.”

“So you're a cobbler's daughter!” said the serpent, and killed her with one bite on the throat.

Next time, the mother asked for the daughter of an emperor. The emperor was reluctant to give his daughter in marriage to a serpent. He took counsel with his wife who, as the girl's stepmother, was dying to get rid of her and persuaded her husband to marry his daughter to the serpent king. The emperor's daughter went to her dead mother's grave and asked, “Dear Mother, what am I to do?”

From the grave her mother answered, “Go ahead and marry the serpent, my daughter. But on your wedding day, put on seven dresses, one over the other. When bedtime comes around, say you want no maid, that you will undress by yourself. When you are finally alone with the serpent, say to him, ‘I'll take off one piece of clothing, and you'll take off one piece of clothing.' Then you'll take off your first dress, and he his first skin. Again say, ‘I'll take off one piece of clothing, and you'll take off one piece of clothing.' He will remove his second skin, and so forth.”