Tales of Giants from Brazil Part 2

III

THE BOY AND THE VIOLIN

Once upon a time there was a man who had an only son. When the man died the son was left all alone in the world. There was not very much property--just a cat and a dog, a small piece of land, and a few orange trees. The boy gave the dog away to a neighbour and sold the land and the orange trees. Every bit of money he obtained from the sale he invested in a violin. He had longed for a violin all his life and now he wanted one more than ever. While his father had lived he could tell his thoughts to his father, but now there was none to tell them to except the violin. What his violin said back to him made the very sweetest music in the world.

The boy went to hire out as shepherd to care for the sheep of the king, but he was told that the king already had plenty of shepherds and had no need of another. The boy took his violin which he had brought with him and hid himself in the deep forest. There he made sweet music with the violin. The shepherds who were near by guarding the king's sheep heard the sweet strains, but they could not find out who was playing. The sheep, too, heard the music. Several of them left the flock and followed the sound of the music into the forest. They followed it until they reached the boy and the cat and the violin.

The shepherds were greatly disturbed when they found out how their sheep were straying away into the forest. They went after them to bring them back, but they could find no trace of them. Sometimes it would seem that they were quite near to the place from which the music came, but when they hurried in that direction they would hear the strains of music coming from a distant point in the opposite direction. They were afraid of getting lost themselves so they gave up in despair.

When the boy saw how the sheep came to hear his music he was very happy. His music was no longer the sad sweet sound it had been when he was lonely. It became gayer and gayer. After a while it became so gay that the cat began to dance. When the sheep saw the cat dancing they began to dance, too.

Soon a company of monkeys pa.s.sed that way and heard the sound of the music. They began dancing immediately. They made such a chattering that they almost drowned the music. The boy threatened to stop playing if they could not be happy without being so noisy. After that the monkeys chattered less.

After a while a tapir heard the jolly sound. Immediately his threetoed hind feet and fourtoed front feet began to dance. He just couldn't keep them from dancing; so he, too, joined the procession of boy, cat, sheep, and monkeys.

Next the armadillo heard the music. In spite of his heavy armour he had to dance too. Then a herd of small deer joined the company. Then the anteater danced along with them. The wild cat and the tiger came, too. The sheep and the deer were terribly frightened, but they kept dancing on just the same. The tiger and wild cat were so happy dancing that they never noticed them at all. The big snakes curled their huge bodies about the tree trunks and wished that they, too, had feet with which to dance. The birds tried to dance, but they could not use their feet well enough and had to give it up and keep flying. Every beast of the forests and jungles which had feet with which to dance came and joined the gay procession.

The jolly company wandered on and on until finally they came to the high wall which surrounds the land of the giants. The enormous giant who stood on the wall as guard laughed so hard that he almost fell off the wall. He took them to the king at once. The king laughed so hard that he almost fell off his throne. His laugh shook the earth. The earth had never before been shaken at the laugh of the king of the giants, though it had often heard his angry voice in the thunder. The people did not know what to make of it.

Now it happened that the king of the land of giants had a beautiful giantess daughter who never laughed. She remained sad all the time.

The king had offered half his kingdom to the one who could make her laugh, and all the giants had done their very funniest tricks for her.

Never once had they brought even a tiny little smile to her lovely face. "If my daughter can keep from laughing when she sees this funny sight I'll give up in despair and eat my hat," said the king of the land of giants, as he saw the jolly little figure playing upon the violin and the a.s.sembly of cat, sheep, monkeys and everything else dancing to the gay music. If the giant king had known how to dance he would have danced himself, but it was fortunate for the people of the earth that he did not know how. If he had, there is no knowing what might have happened to the earth.

As it was, he took the little band into his daughter's palace where she sat surrounded by her servants. Her lovely face was as sad as sad could be. When she saw the funny sight her expression changed. The happy smile which the king of the land of giants had always wanted to see played about her beautiful lips. A gay laugh was heard for the first time in all her life. The king of the land of giants was so happy that he grew a league in height and n.o.body knows how much he gained in weight. "You shall have half my kingdom," he said to the boy, "just as I promised if any one made my daughter laugh."

The boy from that time on reigned over half of the kingdom of giants as prince of the land. He never had the least bit of difficulty in preserving his authority, for the biggest giants would at once obey his slightest request if he played on his violin to them. The beasts stayed in the land of the giants so long that they grew into giant beasts, but the boy and his violin always remained just as they were when they entered the land.

IV

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS

Long ago there was a king who was very ill. He wanted a hare killed to make him some broth. His only son, the prince, set out to find one. As the prince walked along the path to the forest a pretty little hare ran out of the hedge and crossed his path. He at once started in pursuit. The hare was a very swift runner. The prince followed her into the deep forest. Suddenly the hare ran into a hole in the ground.

The prince kept in sight of her and soon found to his dismay that he was in a big cave. At the very rear of the cave there was the most enormous giant he had ever seen in his life.

The prince was terribly frightened. "Oh, ho!" said the giant in such a deep savage voice that the cave echoed and re-echoed with his words.

"You thought you'd catch my little hare, did you? Well, I've caught you instead!"

The giant seized the prince in one of his enormous hands and tossed him lightly into a box at one end of the cave. He put the cover on the box and locked it down with a big key. The prince could get only a tiny bit of air through a little hole in the top, and he thought that he never could live. Hours pa.s.sed. Sometimes the prince slept, but more often he lay there thinking about his sick father and what he could ever do to get out of the box and back once more to his father's side.

Suddenly he heard the key turn in the lock. The cover was lifted, and he saw standing before him the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen or dreamed of. "I am the hare you followed into the cave," said she with a smile. "I am an enchanted princess and, though I have to take the form of a hare in the daytime, at night I am free to resume my own shape. You got into this trouble following me into the cave and I am so sorry for you that I am going to let you out."

[Ill.u.s.tration: He saw standing before him the most beautiful maiden he had ever dreamed of]

"You are so beautiful that I could stay here for ever and gaze into your lovely eyes," said the prince.

"You would see only a hare in the daytime," replied the princess. "It is not always night. Besides, the giant may return at any moment. He just went out on a hunting trip because he thought that you would not make a sufficiently big supper for him. Don't be foolish. I'll show you the way out of the cave and then you must hurry home as fast as possible."

The prince thanked her for all her great kindness to him and acted upon her advice. He went home by the nearest path, but when he reached the palace his father was already dead. The palace was wrapped in mourning.

The prince was so overcome with grief that he felt that he could not keep on living in the palace. After his father's funeral he went away as a wanderer. He changed clothes with a poor fisherman whom he met by the river, for he did not wish to be recognized as the prince.

Dressed as a poor fisherman he wandered from one kingdom to another.

He caught fish for his food, and he soon recognized the fact that the net which the fisherman had given him as part of his outfit was a most wonderful net. The biggest fish in the sea could not break through.

"This net must have the special blessing of _Nossa Senhora_ upon it,"

said the prince.

In the course of his wanderings the prince arrived at a city where a great _festa_ was being held. The palace was decked with gay banners.

Every afternoon the messenger of the king rode up and down the city streets proclaiming, "The princess of our kingdom is the most beautiful princess in all the world."

The prince remembered the beautiful princess who had let him out of the giant's cave. "Surely this princess cannot be as beautiful as she," said the prince. "I am going to see this princess with my own eyes and find out."

Accordingly the prince went to the palace gate to watch for the princess. Soon she came to the balcony and leaned over the railing.

She was very beautiful, but her nose was just a tiny bit crooked. She did not compare at all with the princess of the cave.

"This princess is not by any means the most beautiful one in the world," said the prince dressed as a fisherman. "I know where there is a princess who is much more beautiful."

The people standing by heard him. His words were at once reported to the royal guards. They seized him roughly and took him to the king.

"So you are the fisherman who says that my daughter is not the most beautiful princess in the world?" said the king sternly. "You say, I hear, that you know a princess who is much more beautiful. I am a just king or else I should order that you be put to death immediately. As it is, I'll give you the chance to prove what you say. If you are unable to fulfil your boast and show me this princess who in the opinion of my court is more beautiful than my daughter, you shall lose your life. Remember that you will have to bring her here to my court to have her beauty proven."

"Thanks, your majesty," said the prince. "If you will allow me two weeks to fulfil the contract, and if you'll prepare a _festa_ for the night two weeks hence, I'll endeavour to present the most beautiful princess in the world to your a.s.sembled court."

The king was astonished at the fisherman's words, for he had not thought that a poor fisherman like him knew many princesses. However, he allowed him to depart in search of the princess.

Then the prince hurried home and once more walked toward the forest by the same path he had gone the day he went in search of the hare for his father's broth. He soon found the place where the hare had crossed his path, and he did his best to remember the course they had followed as he pursued her into the forest.

In the forest he saw evidences of what looked like a flood. The water had washed away every trace of the entrance of the cave. He dug and dug at the place where he thought it ought to be. He found nothing which seemed like the cave's entrance.

He dug and dug at a new place near by and soon he found his way barred by a ma.s.sive door. The entrance to the cave was securely shut by it.

The prince knocked at the door with all his might.

Soon the door was opened a tiny bit and the face of a little old woman looked out. "I am the _ama_ of the princess," she said. "I think you are the prince she was expecting to return to deliver her from all the terrible calamities which have befallen her."

"What has happened to my beautiful princess who saved my life?" asked the prince. "I am indeed the prince, but I am surprised that you should recognize me in my fisherman's garb."

"The princess told me that I would know you by the smile in your eyes," replied the old _ama_. "I did not look at your clothes at all.

I looked at your eyes. You have the smile in them though your face is sad. Come into the cave, and I will tell you all that has happened."

When the prince was inside the cave she hastily barred the door and said, "When the giant returned he was terribly angry at the princess because she had let you escape. He seized her roughly and put her into the box in your place. The princess had thrown away the key to the box when she let you out; and, search as he would, the giant was unable to find it again anywhere. That made him even angrier than before. All day he sits on the top of the chest when the princess is in the form of the hare. At night when he goes away he causes a great river to flow around the entrance to the cave. He has placed a huge fish as guard to the entrance. This fish swims up and down before our door and calls out such vile names at the princess, that, when she is in her own form, she stays in the box and stuffs cotton in her ears. You got here just as the giant had left. The water must have risen as soon as you were inside our door. I hear the fish now."

Even as she spoke the prince heard the voice of the fish. It said such terrible words that the prince was glad that the princess was in the box with cotton in ears. "You get into the box with the princess," he said to the _ama_. "I am a good swimmer and I am going to open the door and swim out. The box is made of wood that will float; so, inside of it, you and the princess will float out to safety."

"How will you ever swim past this terrible fish?" asked the old _ama_.