he saw her he could hardly believe his eyes. Instead of being a tall,
tall giantess with her head up in the clouds, she reached just to D.
Joaõ's own shoulder. D. Joaõ was so surprised that he had to sit down
in a chair and be fanned. He couldn't say a single word for eighteen
minutes and a half--his breath had been so completely taken away.
"It is a good thing that you happened to think of me just as soon as
you did," remarked Guimara. "I was getting smaller and smaller. If you
had neglected to think of me for another minute I should have faded
away entirely and you would have never known what had become of me."
When Guimara became small she lost her power as an enchantress
entirely. Her lovely eyes were always a trifle sad because D. Joaõ had
forgotten her that one little minute. She never went back to Giantland
but reigned as queen of D. Joaõ's kingdom for many years.
VIII
THE ADVENTURES OF A FISHERMAN'S SON
Long ago there was a man and woman who lived in a little mud hut under
the palm trees on the river bank. They had so many children they did
not know what to do. The little hut was altogether too crowded. The
man had to work early and late to find food enough to feed so many.
One day the seventh son said to his father, "O, father, I found a
little puppy yesterday when I was playing on the bank of the river.
Please let me bring it home to keep. I have always wanted one."
The father consented sadly. He did not know how to find food for the
children, and an extra puppy to feed seemed an added burden. He went
to the river bank to fish that day with a heavy heart. He cast his net
in vain. He did not catch a single fish. He cast his net from the
other side with no better luck. He did not catch even one little
_piabinha_.
Suddenly he heard a voice which seemed to come from the river bed
itself, it was so deep. This is what it said: "If you will give me
whatever new you find in your house when you go home I will give you
fisherman's luck. You will catch all the fish you wish."
The man remembered the request which his seventh son had made that
morning. "The new thing I'll find in my house when I get home will be
that puppy," said the man to himself. "This will be a splendid way to
get rid of the puppy which I did not want to keep anyway."
Accordingly the man consented to the request which came from the
strange voice in the depths of the river. "You must seal this covenant
with your blood," said the voice.
The man cut his finger a tiny bit with his sharp knife and squeezed a
few drops of blood from the wound into the river. "If you break this
vow the curse of the river giant will be upon you and your children
for ever and ever," said the deep voice solemnly.
The fisherman cast his net where the river giant commanded, and
immediately it was so full of fish that the man could hardly draw it
out of the water. Three times he drew out his net, so full that it was
in danger of breaking. "Truly this was a fortunate bit of business,"
said the man. "Here I have fish enough to feed my family and all I can
sell in addition."
As the fisherman approached his house with his enormous catch of fish
one of the children came running to meet him. "O father, guess what we
have at our house which we did not have when you went away," said the
child.
"A new puppy," replied her father.
"O no, father," replied the child. "You have not guessed right at all.
It is a new baby brother."
The poor fisherman burst into tears. "What shall I do! What shall I
do!" he sobbed. "I dare not break my vow to the river giant."
The fisherman's wife was heartbroken when she heard about the business
which her husband had transacted with the river giant. However she
could think of no way to escape from keeping the contract which he had
made. She kissed the tiny babe good-bye and gave it her blessing. Then
the fisherman took it down to the river bank and threw it into the
river at the exact spot from which the deep voice had come.
There in the depths of the river the river giant was waiting to
receive the new born babe. He took the little one into his palace of
gold and silver and mother-of-pearl with ornaments of diamonds, and
there the baby received excellent care.
Time passed and the little boy grew into a big boy. At last he was
fifteen years old and a handsome lad indeed, tall and straight, with
eyes which were dark and deep like the river itself, and hair as dark
as the shades in the depths of the river. All his life he had been
surrounded with every luxury, but he had never seen a single person.
He had never seen even the river giant. All he knew of him was his
deep voice which gave orders in the palace.
One day the voice of the river giant said, "I have to go away on a
long journey. I will leave with you all the keys to all the doors in
the palace, but do not meddle with anything. If you do you must
forfeit your life."
Many days passed and the lad did not hear the voice of the river
giant. He missed its sound in the palace. It was very still and very
lonely. At last at the end of fifteen days he took one of the keys
which the river giant had left and opened the door which it fitted.
The door led into a room in the palace where the boy had never been.
Inside the room was a huge lion. The lion was fat and well nourished,
but there was nothing for it to eat except hay. The boy did not meddle
with anything and shut the door.
Another fifteen days passed by, and again the lad took one of the
keys. He opened another door in the palace which he had never entered.
Inside the room he found three horses, one black, one white, and one
chestnut. There was nothing in the room for the horses to eat except
meat, but in spite of it they were fat and well nourished. The boy did
not touch anything and when he went out he shut the door.
At the end of another fifteen days all alone without even the voice of
the river giant for company, the lad tried another key in another
door. This room opened into a room full of armour. There were daggers
and knives and swords and muskets and all sorts of armour which the
boy had never seen and did not know anything about. He was very much
interested in what he saw, but he did not meddle with anything.
The next day he opened the room again where the horses were kept. This
time one of the horses,--the black one,--spoke to him and said, "We
like hay to eat very much better than this meat which was left to us
by mistake. The lion must have our hay. Please give this meat to the
lion and bring us back our hay. If you will do this as I ask I'll
serve you for ever and ever."
The boy took the meat to the lion. The lion was very much pleased to
exchange the hay for it. The lad then took the hay to the horses. All
at once he remembered how he had been told not to meddle with
anything. This had been meddling. The boy burst into tears. "I shall
lose my life as the punishment for this deed," he sobbed.
The horses listened in amazement. "I got you into this trouble," said
the black horse. "Now I'll get you out. Just trust me to find a way
out."
The black horse advised the boy to take some extra clothes and a sword
and musket and mount upon his back. "I have lived here in the depths
of the river so long that my speed is greater than that of the river
itself," said the horse. "If there was any doubt of it before, now
that I have had some hay once more I am sure I can run faster than any
river in the world."
It was true. When the river giant came back home and found that the
boy had meddled he ran as fast as he could in pursuit of the lad. The
black horse safely and surely carried the lad beyond his reach.
The black horse and his rider travelled on and on until finally they
came to a kingdom which was ruled over by a king who had three
beautiful daughters. The lad at once applied for a position in the
service of this king. "I do not know what you can do," said the king.
"You have such soft white hands. Perhaps you may serve to carry
bouquets of flowers from my garden every morning to my three
daughters."
The lad had eyes which were dark and deep like the depths of the
river, and when he carried bouquets of flowers from the garden to the
king's daughters the youngest princess fell in love with him at once.
Her two sisters laughed at her. "I don't care what you say," said the
youngest princess. "He is far handsomer than any of the princes who
have ever sung of love beneath our balcony."
That very night two princes from neighbouring kingdoms came to sing in
the palace garden beneath the balcony of the three princesses. The two
oldest daughters of the king were proud and haughty, but the youngest
princess had love in her heart and love in her eyes. For this reason
she was one whom all the princes admired most.
The lad from the river listened to their songs. "I wish I looked like
these two princes and knew songs like theirs," said he. Just then he
caught sight of his own reflection in the fountain in the garden. He
saw that he looked quite as well as they. "I too will sing a song
before the balcony of the princesses," he decided.
He did not know that he could sing, but in truth his voice had in it
all the music of the rushing of the river. When he sang even the two
rival musicians stopped to listen to his song. The two older
princesses did not know who was singing, but the youngest princess
recognized him at once.
The next day a great tournament took place. The lad from the river had
never seen a tournament, but after he had watched it for a moment he
decided to enter. He went to get the black horse which had carried him
out of the depths of the river and the arms he had brought with him
from the palace of the river giant. With such a horse and such arms he
carried off all the honours of the tournament. Every one at the
tournament wondered who the strange _cavalheiro_ could be. No one
recognized him except the youngest princess. She knew who it was the
moment she saw him and gave him her ribbon to wear.
The next day all the _cavalheiros_ who had taken part in the
tournament set out to slay the wild beast which often came out of the
jungle to attack the city. It was the lad from the river who killed
the beast, as all the _cavalheiros_ knew. When they returned to the
palace with the news that the beast had been slain, the king said,
"Tomorrow night we will hold the greatest _festa_ which this palace
has ever witnessed. Tomorrow let all the _cavalheiros_ who are here
assembled go forth to hunt for birds to grace our table."
The next day the _cavalheiros_ went out to hunt the birds, and it was
the lad from the river who succeeded in slaying the birds. None of the
other _cavalheiros_ were at all successful. The two neighbouring
princes who were suitors for the hand of the youngest princess made a
contract. "We cannot let this stranger carry off all the honours,"
said one to the other. "You say that you killed the beast, and I will
say that it was I who killed the birds."
That night at the _festa_ one prince stood up before the king and told
his story of slaying the beast, and the other prince stood up and told
how he had killed the birds. The other _cavalheiros_ knew that it was
false, but when they looked around for the _cavalheiro_ who had done
the valiant deeds they could not find him. The lad from the river had
on his old clothes which he wore as a servant in the garden and stood
at the lower part of the banquet hall among the servants.
When the king had heard the stories of the two princes he was greatly
pleased with what they had done. "The one who killed the beast shall
have a princess for a bride," said he, "and the one who killed the
birds he too shall have a princess for his bride."
The youngest princess saw the lad from the river standing among the
servants and smiled into his eyes. The lad came and threw himself
before the king. "O my king," said he, "these stories to which you
have listened are false, as all these assembled _cavalheiros_ will
prove. It is I who killed the beast and all the birds. I claim a
princess as my bride."
All the assembled _cavalheiros_ recognized the lad in spite of his
changed appearance in his gardening clothes. "_Viva!_" they shouted.
"He speaks the truth. He is the valiant one of us who killed the beast
and the birds. To him belongs the reward."
The youngest princess had a heart filled with joy. The wedding feast
was celebrated the very next day. The river giant found out about it
and sent a necklace of pearls and diamonds as a wedding gift to the
bride of the lad whom he had brought up in his palace. The fisherman
and his wife, however, never knew the great good fortune which had
come to their son.
IX
THE BEAST SLAYER
Once upon a time there was a man and his wife who were very poor. The
man earned his living making wooden bowls and platters to sell and
worked early and late, but wooden bowls and platters were so very
cheap that he could barely support his family no matter how hard he
worked. The man and his wife were the parents of three lovely
daughters. They were all exceedingly beautiful, and the man and his
wife often lamented the fact that they did not have money enough to
educate them and clothe them fittingly.
One day there came to the door of the poor man's house a handsome
young man mounted on a beautiful horse. He asked to buy one of the
poor man's daughters. The father was very much shocked at this
request. "I may be poor," said he, "but I am not so poor that I have
to sell my children."
The young man, however, threatened to kill him if he refused to do his
bidding; so finally, after a short struggle, the father consented to
part with his eldest daughter. He received a great sum of money in
return.
The father was now a rich man and did not wish to make bowls and
platters any longer. His wife, however, urged him to keep on with his
former occupation. Accordingly he went on with his work. The very next
day there came to his door another young man, even handsomer than the
other, mounted upon even a finer horse. This young man made the same
request that the other had done. He wanted to buy one of the
daughters.
The father burst into tears and told all the dreadful happenings of
the day before. The young man, however, showed no pity and continued
to demand one of the daughters. He made fearful threats if the man
would not yield to his request, and the father became so frightened
that he at length parted with his second daughter. The first young man
had paid a great sum of money, but this one paid even more.
Though he was now very rich the father still went on making bowls and
platters to please his wife. The next day when he was at work the
handsomest young man he had ever seen appeared riding upon a most
beautiful steed. This young man demanded the third daughter. The poor
father had to yield just as before, though it nearly broke his heart
to part with his only remaining child. The price which the young man
paid was so very great that the family was now as rich as it had once
been poor.
Their home was not childless very long, for soon a baby son came to
them. They brought up the boy in great luxury. One day when the child
was at school he quarrelled with one of his playmates. This taunt was
thrown in his face: "Ah, ha! You think your father was always rich, do
you? He is a rich man now, it is true, but it is because he sold your
three sisters." The words made the boy sad, but he said nothing about
the matter at home. He hid it away in his mind until he had become a
man. Then he went to his father and mother and demanded that they
should tell him all about it.
His parents told the young man the whole story of the strange
experiences through which they had obtained their wealth. "I am now a
man," said the son. "I feel that it is right that I should go out into
the world in search of my sisters. Perhaps I might be able to find
them and aid them in some way. Give me your blessing and allow me to
go."
His father and mother gave him their blessing, and the young man
started out to make a search through all the world. Soon he came to a
house where there were three brothers quarrelling over a boot, a cap,
and a key. "What is the matter?" asked the young man. "Why are these
things so valuable that you should quarrel over them?"
The brothers replied that if one said to the boot, "O Boot, put me
somewhere," the boot would immediately put him anywhere he wished to
go. If one said to the cap, "O Cap, hide me," immediately the cap
would hide him so he could not be seen. The key could unlock any door
in the whole world. The young man at once wanted to own these things
himself, and he offered so much money for them that at last the three
brothers decided to end their quarrel by selling the boot, the cap,
and the key and dividing the money.
The young man put the three treasures in his saddle bag and went on
his way. As soon as he was out of sight of the house he said to the
boot, "O Boot, put me in the house of my eldest sister."
Immediately the young man found himself in the most magnificent palace
he had ever seen in his life. He asked to speak with his sister, but
the queen of the palace replied that she had no brother and did not
wish to be bothered with the stranger. It took much urging for the
young man to gain permission from her to relate his story; but, when
she had once heard it, everything sounded so logical that she decided
to receive him as her brother. She asked how he had ever found her
home, and how he had come through the thicket which surrounded her
palace. The young man told her about his magic boot.
In the afternoon the queen suddenly burst into tears. Her brother
asked what the trouble was. "O dear! O dear! What shall we do! What
shall we do!" sobbed the queen. "My husband is King of the Fishes.
When he comes home to dinner tonight he will be very angry to find a
human in his palace." The young man told her about his magic cap and
comforted her fears.
Soon the King of Fishes arrived, accompanied by all his retinue. He
came into the palace in a very bad temper, giving kicks and blows to
everything which came in his way, and saying in a fierce, savage
voice, "_Lee, low, lee, leer_, I smell the blood of a human, here. I
smell the blood of a human, here."
It took much persuasion on the part of the queen to get him to take a
bath. After his bath he appeared in the form of a handsome man. He
then ate his dinner, and when he had nearly finished the meal his wife
said to him, "If you should see my brother here what would you do to
him?"
"I would be kind to him, of course, just as I am to you," responded
the King of the Fishes. "If he is here let him appear."
The young man then took off the magic cap by which he had hidden
himself. The king treated him most kindly and courteously. He invited
him to live for the rest of his life in the palace. The young man
declined the invitation, saying that he had two other sisters to
visit. He took his departure soon, and when he went away his
brother-in-law gave him a scale with these words: "If you are ever in
any danger in which I can help you, take this scale and say, 'Help me,
O King of the Fishes.'"
The young man put the scale in his saddle bag. Then he took out his
magic boot and said, "O Boot, put me in the home of my second sister."
He found his second sister queen of even a more wonderful palace than
his eldest sister. Her husband was King of Rams and treated the newly
found brother of his queen with great consideration. When the young
man had finished his visit there the King of Rams gave him a piece of
wool saying, "If you are ever in any peril in which I can help you
pull this wool and ask help of the King of Rams."
With the aid of his magic boot the young man went to visit the home of
his youngest sister. He found her in the most magnificent palace of
them all. Her husband was King of Pigeons. When the young man departed
he gave him a feather telling him if he was ever in any danger that
all he had to do was to pull the feather and say, "Help me, O King of
the Pigeons."
All three of the young man's brothers-in-law had admired the power of
his magic boot and they had all advised him to visit the land of the
King of Giants by means of it. After having left each of his three
sisters full of happiness in her costly palace he felt free to act
upon this advice, so by means of his magic boot he again found himself
in a new country.
He soon heard on the street that the King of the land of Giants had a
beautiful giantess daughter whom he wished to give in marriage if she
could be persuaded to choose a husband. She was such a famous beauty
that no one could pass before her palace without eagerly gazing up in
hopes of seeing her lovely face at the window. The giant princess had
grown weary of being the object of so much attention, and she had made
a vow that she would marry no one except a man who could pass before
her without lifting his eyes.
The young man became interested when he heard this and at once rode
past the palace with his eyes fixed steadily on the ground. He did not
give a single glance upward in the direction of the window where the
beautiful giant princess was watching him. The princess was overcome
with joy at the sight of the handsome stranger who appeared as if in
response to her vow. The king summoned him to the palace at once and
ordered that the wedding should be celebrated immediately.
After the wedding the giant princess soon found out that her husband
carried his choicest treasures in his saddle bags. She inquired their
significance and her husband told her all about them. She was
especially interested in the key. She said that there was a room in
the palace which was never opened. In this room there was a fierce
beast which always came to life again whenever it was killed. The
giant princess had always been anxious to see the beast with her own
eyes, and she suggested that they should use the key to unlock the
door of the forbidden room and take a peep at the beast.
Her husband, however, gave her no encouragement to do this. He decided
that it was too risky a bit of amusement; but one day when he had gone
hunting with the king and court the princess was overjoyed to find
that the magic key had been left behind. She at once picked it up and
opened the forbidden door. The beast gave a great leap, roaring out at
her, "You are the very one I have sought," as he seized her with his
sharp claws.
When her husband and father returned from their hunting trip they were
very much worried to find that the princess had disappeared. No one
knew where she was. After searching through the palace and garden all
in vain they went to the place where the beast was always kept. The
prince recognized his magic key in the door, but the room was empty.
The beast had fled with the giant princess.
Once more the young man made use of his magic boot and soon was by the
side of the princess. The beast had hidden her in a cave by the sea
and had gone away in search of food. The giant princess was delighted
to find her husband whom she had never expected to see again and
wanted to hasten away from the cave with him at once.
"You have got yourself into this affair," said her husband. "I can get
you out again, I think, but I believe that it is your duty to at least
make an effort to take the beast's life. Perhaps when he comes back to
the cave you can extract from him the secret of his charmed life."
The princess awaited the return of the beast. Then she asked him to
tell her the secret of his charmed life. The beast was very much
flattered to have the giant princess so interested in him, and he told
it to her at once. He never thought of a plot. This is what he said:
"My life is in the sea. In the sea there is a chest. In the chest
there is a stone. In the stone there is a pigeon. In the pigeon there
is an egg. In the egg there is a candle. At the moment when that
candle is extinguished I die."
All this time the prince had remained there, hiding under his magic
cap. He heard every word the beast said. As soon as the beast had gone
to sleep the prince stood on the seashore and said: "Help me, O King
of the Fishes," as he took out the scale which his brother-in-law had
given him. Immediately there appeared a great multitude of fishes
asking what he wished them to do. He asked them to get the chest from
the depths of the sea. They replied that they had never seen such a
chest, but that probably the sword-fish would know about it.
They hastened to call the sword-fish and he came at once. He said that
he had seen the chest only a moment before. All the fishes went with
him to get it, and they soon brought the chest out of the sea. The
prince opened the chest easily with the aid of his magic key, and
inside he found a stone.