Italian Popular Tales Part 32

The servant went and delivered the letter to the commandant, who opened it, and read: "The commandant will give my servant, who is a rascal, a hundred lashes, and then send him back to me." The order was carried out, and the poor servant returned to the palace more dead than alive.

When Firrazzanu saw him, he burst out laughing, and said: "My brother, for me and for you, better you than me."

This story is told in Gonzenbach (No. 75) as the way in which the queen tried to punish Firrazzanu for the joke he played on her by telling her his wife was deaf.

There are other stories told of Firrazzanu, but they do not deserve a place here, and we can direct our attention at once to Giufa, the typical b.o.o.by, who appears in the various provinces of Italy under different names.[10]

The first story told of him in Pitre's collection (No. 190) is:

XCIX. GIUFa AND THE PLASTER STATUE.

Once upon a time there was a very poor woman who had a son called Giufa, who was stupid, lazy, and cunning. His mother had a piece of cloth, and said one day to Giufa: "Take this cloth, and go and sell it in a distant town, and take care to sell it to those who talk little." So Giufa set out, with the cloth on his shoulder.

When he came to a town, he began to cry: "Who wants cloth?" The people called him, and began to talk a great deal; one thought it coa.r.s.e, another dear. Giufa thought they talked too much, and would not sell it to them. After walking a long way, he entered a court-yard where he found nothing but a plaster image. Giufa said to it: "Do you want to buy the cloth?" The statue said not a word, and Giufa, seeing that it spoke little, said: "Now I must sell you the cloth, for you speak little;" and he took the cloth and hung it on the statue, and went away, saying: "To-morrow I will come for the money."

The next day he went after the money, and found the cloth gone. "Give me the money for the cloth." The statue said nothing. "Since you will not give me the money, I will show you who I am;" and he borrowed a mattock, and struck the statue until he overthrew it, and inside of it he found a jar of money. He put the money in a bag, and went home to his mother, and told her that he had sold the cloth to a person who did not speak, and gave him no money; that he had killed him with a mattock, and thrown him down, and he had given him the money which he had brought home. His mother, who was wise, said to him: "Say nothing about it, and we will eat this money up little by little."[11]

Another time his mother said to him: "Giufa, I have this piece of cloth to be dyed; take it and leave it with the dyer, the one who dyes green and black." Giufa put it on his shoulder, and went off. On his way he saw a large, beautiful snake, and because it was green he said to it: "My mother has sent me with this cloth which she wants dyed. To-morrow I will come for it." And there he left it.

He went home and told his mother, who began to tear her hair. "Ah!

shameless fellow! how you ruin me! Hasten and see whether it is there still!" Giufa went back, but the cloth had disappeared.[12]

C. GIUFa AND THE JUDGE.

One day Giufa went out to gather herbs, and it was night before he returned. On his way back the moon rose through the clouds, and Giufa sat down on a stone and watched the moon appear and disappear behind the clouds, and he exclaimed constantly: "It appears, it appears! it sets, it sets!"

Now there were near the way some thieves, who were skinning a calf which they had stolen, and when they heard: "It appears, it sets!" they feared that the officers of justice were coming, so they ran away and left the meat. When Giufa saw the thieves running away, he went to see what it was and found the calf skinned. He took his knife and cut off flesh enough to fill his sack and went home. When he arrived there his mother asked him why he came so late. He said it was because he was bringing some meat which she was to sell the next day, and the money was to be kept for him. The next day his mother sent him into the country and sold the meat.

In the evening Giufa returned and asked his mother: "Did you sell the meat?" "Yes, I sold it to the flies on credit." "When will they give you the money?" "When they get it." A week pa.s.sed and the flies brought no money, so Giufa went to the judge and said to him: "Sir, I want justice.

I sold the flies meat on credit and they have not come to pay me." The judge said: "I p.r.o.nounce this sentence on them: wherever you see them you may kill them." Just then a fly lighted on the judge's nose, and Giufa dealt it such a blow that he broke the judge's head.

The anecdote of the fly in the latter part of the story is found independently in a version from Palermo. "The flies plagued Giufa and stung him. He went to the judge and complained of them. The judge laughed and said: 'Wherever you see a fly you can strike it.' While the judge was speaking a fly rested on his face and Giufa dealt it such a blow that he broke the judge's nose."

This story, which, as we shall see, has variants in different parts of Italy, is of Oriental origin and is found in the _Pantschatantra_. A king asked his pet monkey to watch over him while he slept. A bee settled on the king's head; the monkey could not drive it away, so he took the king's sword and killed the bee--and the king, too. A similar parable is put into the mouth of Buddha. A bald carpenter was attacked by a mosquito. He called his son to drive it away; the son took the axe, aimed a blow at the insect, but split his father's head in two, in killing the mosquito. In the _Anvar-i-Suhaili_, the Persian translation of the _Pantschatantra_, it is a tame bear who keeps the flies from the sleeping gardener by throwing a stone at his head.[13]

The only popular European versions of this story, as far as we know, are found in Italy. Besides those from Sicily, there are versions from Florence, Leghorn, and Venice. The first is called:

CI. THE LITTLE OMELET.

Once upon a time there was a little woman who had a little room and a little hen. The hen laid an egg and the little woman took it and made a little omelet of it, and put it to cool in the window. Along came a fly and ate it up. Imagine what an omelet that must have been! The little woman went to the magistrate and told him her story. He gave her a club and told her to kill the fly with it wherever she saw it. At that moment a fly lighted on the magistrate's nose, and the woman, believing it to be the same fly, gave it a blow and broke the magistrate's nose.

The versions from Leghorn and Venice are in almost the same words.[14]

The literary versions are quite abundant, four or five being found in Italy, and a number in France, the best known of which is La Fontaine's fable of "The Bear and the Amateur Gardener," Book VIII. 10.[15]

One morning, before Giufa was up, he heard a whistle and asked his mother who was pa.s.sing. She answered that it was the morning-singer. One day Giufa, tired of the noise, went out and killed the man who was blowing the whistle, and came back and told his mother that he had killed the morning-singer. His mother went out and brought the body into the house and threw it into the well, which happened to be dry. Then she remembered that she had a lamb, which she killed and also threw in the well.

Meanwhile the family of the murdered man had learned of the murder and had gone to the judge, with their complaint, and all together went to Giufa's house to investigate the matter. The judge said to Giufa: "Where did you put the body?" Giufa, who was silly, replied: "I threw it in the well." Then they tied Giufa to a rope and lowered him into the well.

When he reached the bottom he began to feel around and touched wool, and cried out to the son of the murdered man: "Did your father have wool?"

"My father did not have wool." "This one has wool; he is not your father." Then he touched the tail: "Did your father have a tail?" "My father did not have a tail." "Then it's not your father." Then he felt four feet and asked: "How many feet did your father have?" "My father had two feet." Giufa said: "This one has four feet; he is not your father." Then he felt the head and said: "Did your father have horns?"

"My father did not have horns." Giufa replied: "This one has horns; he is not your father." Then the judge said: "Giufa, bring him up either with the horns or with the wool." So they drew up Giufa with the lamb on his shoulder, and when the judge saw that it was a real lamb, they set Giufa at liberty.

In a variant of the above story Giufa's mother, to get rid of him, one day tells him to take his gun and go off and shoot a cardinal-bird.

Giufa asks what a cardinal is, and his mother tells him that it is one that has a red head. Giufa, of course, shoots a cardinal and carries him home. The remainder of the story is as above. In another variant Giufa's mother has a c.o.c.k which she cooks one day, and Giufa, who had never eaten anything of the kind before, likes it greatly and asks what it is. His mother tells him it is the night-singer. One evening Giufa saw a poor man singing behind a door, and thinking he was a night-singer, killed him and carried him home. The rest of the story is like the first version.[16]

Giufa is not without an occasional gleam of wit, as is shown in the following story (Pitre No. 190, -- 8), ent.i.tled:

CII. EAT, MY CLOTHES!

As Giufa was half a simpleton no one showed him any kindness, such as to invite him to his house or give him anything to eat. Once Giufa went to a farm-house for something, and the farmers, when they saw him looking so ragged and poor, came near setting the dogs on him, and made him leave in a hurry. When his mother heard it she procured for him a fine coat, a pair of breeches, and a velvet vest. Giufa dressed up like an overseer, went to the same farm-house, and then you should see what great ceremonies they made! they invited him to dine with them. While at the table all were very attentive to him. Giufa, on the one hand, filled his stomach, and on the other, put into his pockets, coat, and hat whatever was left over, saying: "Eat, my clothes, for you were invited!"

It is interesting to note that this story is told of no less a person than Dante, about whom cl.u.s.ter more popular traditions than many are aware of. It is the subject of one of Sercambi's novels, and will be found with many other interesting traditions of the great poet in Papanti's _Dante secondo la Tradizione e i Novellatori_, Leghorn, 1873.[17]

Giufa was not a very safe person to leave alone in the house. Once his mother went to church and told him to make some porridge for his little sister. Giufa made a great kettle of boiling porridge and fed it to the poor child and burned her mouth so that she died. On another occasion his mother, on leaving home, told him to feed the hen that was sitting and put her back on the nest, so that the eggs should not get cold.

Giufa stuffed the hen with the food until he killed her, and then sat on the eggs himself until his mother returned.[18]

Giufa's mother went to ma.s.s once and said to him: "Pull the door to!"

When his mother had gone out Giufa took hold of the door and began to pull it, and pulled and pulled until it came off. Giufa put it on his back and carried it to the church, and threw it down before his mother, saying: "There is the door!"[19]

A number of other stories about Giufa are found in Gonzenbach (No. 37) which we give here for completeness.

CIII. GIUFa'S EXPLOITS.

After Giufa had scalded his little sister to death, his mother drove him from the house, and he entered the service of a priest. "What wages do you want?" asked the priest. "One egg a day, and as much bread as I can eat with it; and you must keep me in your service until the screech-owl cries in the ivy." The priest was satisfied and thought he could not find such a cheap servant again. The next morning Giufa received his egg and a loaf of bread. He opened the egg and ate it with a pin, and every time he licked off the pin he ate a great piece of bread. "Bring me a little more bread," he cried; "this is not enough;" and the priest had to get him a large basket of bread.

So it was every morning. "Alas for me!" cried the priest; "in a few weeks he will reduce me to beggary." It was winter then and would be several months until the screech-owl cried in the ivy. In despair the priest said to his mother: "This evening you must hide in the ivy and scream like an owl." The old woman did as she was told and began to cry: "Miu, miu!" "Do you hear, Giufa?" said the priest, "the screech-owl is crying in the ivy; we must part." So Giufa took his bundle and was going to return to his mother.

As he was going by the place where the priest's mother was still crying "Miu, miu," he exclaimed: "O you cursed screech-owl suffer punishment and sorrow!" and threw stones into the ivy and killed the old woman.

Giufa's mother would not allow him to remain at home, and made him take service as a swineherd with a farmer, who sent him into the woods to keep the swine until they were fat and then drive them back. So Giufa lived several months in the woods until the swine were fat. As he was driving them home he met a butcher and said to him: "Would you like to buy these swine? I will sell them to you at half price if you will give me back the ears and tails." The butcher bought the whole herd, and paid Giufa the money, together with the ears and tails.

Giufa then went to a bog near by and planted two ears close together and three spans off a tail, and so with all of them. Then he ran in great trouble to the farmer and cried: "Sir, imagine what a great misfortune has happened to me. I had fattened your swine beautifully and was driving them home when they fell into a bog and are all swallowed up in it. The ears and tails only are still sticking out." The farmer hastened with all his people to the bog, where the ears and tails still stuck out. They tried to pull the swine out, but whenever they seized an ear or a tail it came right off and Giufa exclaimed: "You see how fat the swine were: they have disappeared in the marsh from pure fatness." The farmer was obliged to return home without his swine, while Giufa took the money home to his mother and remained a time with her.

One day his mother said to him: "Giufa, we have nothing to eat to-day; what shall we do?" "Leave it to me," said he, and went to a butcher.

"Gossip, give me half a _rotulu_ of meat; I will give you the money to-morrow." The butcher gave him the meat and he went in the same way to the baker, the oil-merchant, the wine-dealer, and the cheese-merchant and took home to his mother the meat, macaroni, bread, oil, wine, and cheese which he had bought on credit, and they ate together merrily.

The next day Giufa pretended he was dead and his mother wept and lamented. "My son is dead, my son is dead!" He was put in an open coffin and carried to the church and the priests sang the ma.s.s for the dead over him. When, however, every one in the city heard that Giufa was dead, the butcher, the baker, the oil-merchant, and the wine-dealer said: "What we gave him yesterday is as good as lost. Who will pay us for it now?" The cheese-dealer, however, thought: "Giufa, it is true, owes me only four _grani_[T] but I will not give them to him. I will go and take his cap from him." So he crept into the church, but there was still a priest there praying over Giufa's coffin. "As long as the priest is there, it is not fitting for me to take his cap," thought the cheese-merchant, and hid himself behind the altar. When it was night the last priest departed and the cheese-merchant was on the point of coming out from his hiding-place when a band of thieves rushed into the church.

They had stolen a large bag of money and were going to divide it in the dark church. They quarrelled over the division and began to cry out and make a noise. Thereupon Giufa sat up in his coffin and exclaimed: "Out with you!" The thieves were greatly frightened when the dead man rose up, and believed he was calling to the other dead, so they ran out in terror, leaving the sack behind. As Giufa was picking up the sack, the cheese-merchant sprang from his hiding-place and claimed his share of the money. Giufa, however, kept crying: "Your share is four _grani_."

The thieves outside thought he was dividing the money among the dead and said to each other: "How many he must have called if they receive but four _grani_ apiece!" and ran away as fast as they could run. Giufa took the money home to his mother, after he had given the cheese-merchant a little to say nothing about what had happened.