The Coyote Under the Table/El Coyote Debajo de la Mesa (14 page)

 

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his story is about the richest and most powerful king in the world. Because he was so rich and powerful, he didn't have enough worries on his mind and was always coming up with ridiculous ideas.

This rich and powerful king had no children, and one day the queen said to him, “Husband, even though you are the richest and most powerful man in the world, you won't live forever. Who will be king after you are gone?”

The king decided that he would think of a way to find a proper successor to the throne. “I know what I'll do!” he said to his wife. “I'll issue a proclamation. I'll say I want to find the strongest man in the land. I'll have a contest. Any man can come and compete. And the one who proves himself to be strongest will be the next king.”

“But what if the people don't like the strongest man in the land?” the queen asked. “Or what if he turns out to be foolish or cruel?”

But the king just waved his hand and said, “The king has spoken!” And so the word was sent throughout the country, and strong men from all over came to the palace to try their strength and demonstrate their skill.

In a faraway corner of the country, a young shepherd heard about the king's proclamation. The boy wasn't even the strongest man in his own village, but he said to himself, “What if I should turn out to be the strongest man in the land? What if I should become the next king? What a life I could have then!”

He began thinking about it all day long as he watched over the sheep, and he dreamed about it at night as he slept next to his flock. Finally he told his mother what was on his mind. She said, “Don't be silly. Why would you want to waste your time with the king and his contests? If he had any sense, he wouldn't be holding such a contest in the first place.”

But the boy kept insisting that he would like to try his luck, and finally his mother gave him her blessing. “But before you leave for the king's palace,” she told him, “go and visit our neighbor. You know she's a sorceress. Maybe she can help you in some way.”

So before he left for the palace, the shepherd visited their neighbor. “I'm going to the king's palace to see if I can prove to be the strongest man in the land,” he told her. “Do you have anything that can help me?”

The old sorceress opened a trunk and dug down to the bottom. She pulled out a little gold ring and told him to wear it on his right hand. She said that every time he blessed himself with the sign of the cross, his strength would double. If he made the sign of the cross backwards, his strength would be cut in half.

The shepherd boy thanked his neighbor and hurried off toward the king's palace. As he walked along, he saw a wagon load of hay sitting outside a house by the side of the road. He thought he would find out if the sorceress had told him the truth.

He walked over to the wagon and tried to lift a wheel off the ground. It didn't budge. He put the ring on his right hand and then blessed himself. “
En el nombre del padre y del hijo y del espíritu santo
.” Now he should be twice as strong. When he tried to lift the wheel it moved slightly from the ground.

The shepherd blessed himself again. Since he was already twice as strong as usual, he should now be four times as strong. He lifted the wheel clear to his waist. Again he blessed himself. He should have eight times his normal strength! The wagon tipped over when he lifted it with one hand, and hay scattered all over the ground!

The young man hurried to set the wagon upright and reload the hay before the owner noticed what he had done. He made the sign of the cross backwards to reduce his strength before it got him into trouble. He took off the ring and put it in his pocket, and then went on his way.

That night the shepherd slept under a tree beside the road. And in the night, the ring fell from his pocket. The next morning he woke up and stretched, and then traveled on toward the king's palace, leaving the ring on the ground under the tree.

The boy had hardly left when a priest came traveling along on his donkey. He noticed the shady tree beside the road and stopped to rest under it for a while. When he was ready to leave, he saw something shiny on the ground. “Oh, a ring!” he said. “That must be worth something. I'll just wear it until I get to the next town, and then sell it and give the money to the church.”

But before he resumed his journey, the priest knelt to say a prayer. He blessed himself, “
En el nombre del padre y del hijo y del espíritu santo
,” and then began to pray. He didn't know that he was twice as strong.

When he finished his prayer, he blessed himself again. He was four times as strong. As he rose from his knees, he reached out and grabbed a branch to steady himself. He tore the branch from the tree. “Oh!” he said to himself. “That looked like a solid branch, but it must have been rotten.” He gave the branch a toss and it flew out of sight across the field.

The priest shrugged his shoulders and walked over to where his little burro was eating grass. “Well, little friend,” he said, “we'd better be on our way.” He patted the burro's neck, and the poor animal was knocked to the ground. Its neck was almost broken.

The priest gasped, “Heaven help us! Is this place enchanted?” And he blessed himself again. Now he was eight times as strong! He took hold of the burro's saddle and pulled to help it back to its feet. The little beast flew ten feet into the air.

“I'm getting out of here!” said the priest. And the sound of his voice blew all the leaves off the tree. The priest hurried on down the road, praying and blessing himself as he walked along.

In the meantime, the shepherd had reached a village. When he put his hand into his pocket for a coin to buy a bite to eat, he noticed that his ring was gone. He started back to find it. Soon he saw someone coming toward him, knocking down trees, pulling up fences and raising a great cloud of dust.

The priest saw the shepherd boy and tried to warn him. “DON'T COME NEAR ME.” His voice was like the bellow of a bull. “JUST THE SOUND OF MY VOICE MIGHT HURT YOU!”

The shepherd stopped and called out, “Father, did you find a ring?”

The priest tried to whisper his reply. It was a deafening: “YES!”

“Bless yourself backwards, Father,” the young man told him. “Your strength will return to normal.”

The priest began to make the sign of the cross backwards. Each time he did it, his voice grew softer, and his feet stirred up less dust when he moved. Finally he thought his strength was reduced to normal, and he said to the shepherd, “Here, take your ring back. I want no part of it.” He threw the ring to the boy.

But the priest was still twice as strong as normal, and the ring shot right past the boy. It landed in the tall grass beside the road about a hundred yards beyond him. “That's all right, Father,” the shepherd said. “I'll find the ring. Go on to the village. The people are waiting for you at the church.”

The priest went on, and the shepherd stayed to look for his ring. But he couldn't find it. He walked up and down parting the grass. He crawled on his hands and knees. The ring was too well hidden. Finally the shepherd boy decided he would go into the village for something to eat and then return to search some more.

He had hardly left, when a little old woman came walking up the road, leaning on her cane. She was on her way to church, praying softly to herself as she walked along. She saw the ring in the grass beside the road and picked it up. She slipped it on her finger.

Before long she blessed herself, “
En el nombre del padre y del hijo y del espíritu santo
.” She reached up to take out the handkerchief she had stuffed into her sleeve, and tore the sleeve off her dress. “Oh, my goodness!” she said. “How did that happen?”

Soon she blessed herself again, and then again. She came upon two men who were trying to move a stubborn mule. One man was tugging on the reins in front of the mule and the other was pushing from behind, but the mule had its hooves dug in and wouldn't move an inch.

“Shame on you, you stubborn old mule,” the old woman said to the animal. “Stop being so lazy.” And she nudged the mule with her cane. The mule flew past the man in front. It didn't touch the ground until it was fifty feet beyond him. It hit the ground running and disappeared down the road.

The old woman went back to her praying. By the time she reached the church, she was so strong she pulled the door from its hinges. As she walked up the aisle, she knocked over benches and sent people rolling onto the floor.

The priest looked up from his book. Before he even saw the ring on her finger, he knew what had happened. “
Señora
,” he told her, “make the sign of the cross backwards.”

She obeyed him, and her strength grew less and less. When she had only the strength of a young woman left, he told her to stop. Then he sent someone to find the shepherd and tell him to come for his ring. The shepherd put the ring on his finger, and didn't take it off until he arrived at the king's palace.

When he got to the palace, he saw that the courtyard was full of strong men. They were wrestling and fighting with swords. Some of them had broken arms and broken legs from the wrestling matches. Some had big gashes from sword fights. Some young men were trying to throw big rocks over houses. Some could do it, but some couldn't and the rocks would fall on the houses and break holes in the roofs. Finally one of them, a handsome prince in fine clothes, defeated all the others. The king declared that the strongest man had been found. “If there is anyone else who wishes to challenge the prince,” called out the king, “let him say so now.”

The shepherd raised his hand. “Your Majesty,” he said, “maybe I could be stronger than the prince.” Everyone turned to look at the ragged shepherd. He wasn't especially tall. His shoulders weren't very broad. His legs were long and thin.

The king frowned. “You can't challenge a prince,” he said. “You don't even own a decent suit of clothes.”

But the shepherd said, “Your Majesty, your proclamation said that anyone could enter the contest. I want to challenge the prince.”

So the king said that in one week the prince and the shepherd would compete to see who was stronger.

The king ordered his craftsmen to make four great pillars—one of wood, one of stone, one of iron and one of solid gold. He said that anyone who could lift a pillar of each material would surely be the strongest man in the world.

All week long the prince trained for the contest. He lifted big rocks over his head and wrestled with ten men at a time. The shepherd slept all day long in the hay in the king's barn. When the week had passed, a crowd gathered to watch the prince and the young shepherd compete.

First the king led them to the pillar of wood. “Which of you can lift this?” he asked.

The prince huffed and puffed and stretched and twisted, and then wrapped his arms around the pillar. He lifted it from the ground. A cheer went up from the crowd.

The shepherd blessed himself. And then he blessed himself again for good measure. He placed a hand on either side of the pillar and then threw it into the air. It rose until it was just a tiny speck in the sky. When it fell to earth, it shook the windows in the king's palace.

The king was very surprised, and the prince began to look worried. Next they walked to the pillar of stone. For a long time the prince stretched and groaned and then wrapped his arms around the pillar. He lifted it a few feet from the ground, and then dropped it. Again the crowd cheered.

The shepherd blessed himself again. He threw the pillar over his shoulder. Into the air it sailed. When it hit the ground, a crack appeared in the wall of the king's palace.

The king led the prince and the shepherd to the pillar of iron. The prince threw all his strength into the task. He lifted the pillar an inch or so from the ground.

The boy blessed himself. He launched the pillar into the air. When it landed, the ground shook like an earthquake and the palace cracked in two.

Finally, the king conducted them to the pillar of gold, but the prince had used up all his strength and couldn't even try. The king said to the shepherd, “If you lift the pillar of gold you will be king after I die, and in the meantime, you can keep all this gold!”