he crossed the sea without getting wet. His ship was close by the
cavern, all rigged and ready to set sail. He stepped on board, and the
fairy Gladieuse, who was on the deck, said to him,--
“This ship will sail under the water, as well as on it, in the air as
well as in the water, just as you wish.”
Then she went back to the land, and the sailors of the cavern came on
board; immediately the wind swelled out the sails, and the ship started
off like lightning.
It sailed as fast as the wind, which blew always right aft; they never
had to tack about, they never had head winds, and there was no need
of holding the helm nor of hauling in the sails; a fairy man, who was
unseen, directed everything as he wished. At the end of a fortnight he
steered the ship into a port, and the anchor was immediately thrown out.
The port was in an island where fairy men and women lived, and they
heartily welcomed the captain and his crew.
The next day after their arrival in the island, while all the sailors
were on shore, and the captain was alone on board, the fairy man
appeared and said to him,--
“It is I, who by my will, have brought your ship into this port; it is
I who guided it here, and you had no trouble in steering it, because
the wind was always right aft. Now you are to take on board some fairy
men to help us fight the fairies of Chêlin.”
“Very well, Mr. Fairy; I shall go ashore at once and take the
passengers aboard according to your orders.”
“As soon as they are on board,” said the fairy man, “you must set sail
for Saint-Briac; but I shall leave the ship, which, hereafter, will
sail only under your own command. Here is a little whistle which I give
you; as soon as you reach the shore, you have only to whistle, and
immediately your sailors and the fairy men who are to take part in the
war will come on board.”
The captain went ashore on the island, and as soon as he had blown his
whistle, five hundred fairy men, and the thirty tiny fairies that he
had brought with him, jumped aboard. In less than ten minutes the ship
spread her sails and went out of the port. During the whole voyage he
had a wind right aft, and in less than three weeks from the time he set
sail he arrived at Saint-Briac.
The five-hundred fairy men disembarked, and went into the cavern, where
they were well received. Three days after they went to war against the
fairies of Chêlin; but they were not the stronger, and they asked for
peace.
The war was ended, and there were great rejoicings at the cavern and at
Saint-Briac; the captain carried the fairy men back to their island,
then he went to Antwerp to take a load of sea-coal for the fairies.
They were very much pleased with him, and when he returned, they paid
him a hundred thousand francs for his voyage.
Two days after, the ship stood out to sea; for three whole years it
sailed over the seas without touching at any land, and sometimes they
were left without provisions; but then the captain made use of the ring
that the fairy Gladieuse had given him, and he obtained as much of
everything as he needed.
At the end of the third year they came in sight of a little island, and
the captain and the tiny fairy sailors went ashore. Among the trees
there were fruits of every kind; the brooks were of wine, cider, and
all sorts of good things to drink, and the ground was covered with
precious stones of gold and with diamonds. The tiny fairies tasted
everything; then they loaded the ship with diamonds and precious stones
of gold. Just as they were ready to leave they saw an old fellow
coming, so old that he looked as if his years numbered a thousand. He
was the only inhabitant of the island, and he begged them to take him
on board so that he could go to Saint-Briac.
He was so very, very ugly that the captain himself was afraid of him;
and he was right, for it was a demon. As soon as the old fellow came on
board he tried to take command of the ship; but the captain resisted
him and forced him to obey.
They set sail again, and when they were on the broad sea they were
attacked by pirates, who for a long time had been chasing the golden
ship. At least two hundred of them leaped aboard, and the old demon
took their side; but the tiny fairies killed them all, and also killed
the devil. They threw the dead bodies into the sea; but the pirates who
were left on their ship ordered the powder to be set on fire so as to
blow themselves up with the golden ship. Then the captain said,--
“By the power of my ring, let my ship sail under the water as it does
on top of it.”
Immediately the ship plunged under the sea, and the pirates could not
do it any harm.
Since that time the demon, to whom all the race of fairies was subject,
and who was coming to Saint-Briac to punish them, having been cut to
pieces by the tiny fairies, dare not command them any longer; and since
then neither fairy men nor women belong to him any more.
The golden ship continued its voyage and returned to the Cavern of
Saint-Briac. The fairy men and women were so pleased with the load that
the captain brought them, that they married him to the fairy Gladieuse,
and he lived happily with her in the grotto.
I picked up this story at the little port of Saint-Cast
(Côtes-du-Nord).
PAUL SEBILLOT.
THE SHEPHERD WHO WON THE KING’S DAUGHTER BY A SINGLE WORD
A TALE OF LOWER BRITANNY
Once upon a time there was a king who never told a single lie in his
life. As he heard the people about his court constantly saying to each
other, “That is not true! You are a liar,” he was very much displeased;
so much so that he said one day,--
“I am astonished at you; a stranger who should hear you speak in this
way would not fail to say that I am the king of liars. I do not wish to
hear any more such language in my palace. He who hears me say to any
one, no matter who he may be, ‘You are a liar!’--well, I will give him
the hand of my daughter.”
A young shepherd, who was present at the time, having heard these words
of the king, said to himself, “Good! we will see about this.”
The old king loved to hear the old Giverziou and the new Soniou sung,
and marvelous tales told. Often after supper he came into the kitchen,
and took pleasure in listening to the songs and stories of his footmen.
Each one sang or related something in turn.
“And you, young shepherd, do you know nothing?” said the king one
evening.
“Oh, yes! my king,” answered the shepherd.
“Let us see what you know, then.”
And the shepherd told what follows:--
“One day, as I was going through a wood, I saw an enormous hare coming.
I had in my hand a ball of wax; I threw it at the hare, and struck it
just in the middle of the forehead, where it stuck. Then the hare ran
faster than ever with the ball of wax on its forehead. He met another
hare which was coming from an opposite direction; they struck against
each other’s foreheads and stuck together so that they could not get
apart, and thus I caught them very easily. How do you like that, sire?”
“Very much,” answered the king; “but go on.”
“Before coming to your court as a shepherd, sire, I was a miller’s boy
in my father’s mill, and I went every day with an ass to carry the
flour to the customers. One day I had such a load on my ass that, upon
my word, his spine broke!”
“Poor beast!” said the king.
“Then I went to a hedge nearby, and with my knife I cut a hazel-stick,
which I stuffed into the body of my ass to take the place of its
spine. Then the animal got up and carried its load gently along to its
destination as if no harm had happened to it. What do you say to that,
sire?”
“That is very good; and what next?”
“The next morning I was very much astonished (for it was then the month
of December) to see that branches, leaves, and even hazel-nuts had
grown upon the hazel-stick; and when I took my ass out of the stable,
the branches continued to grow up so very, very high that they reached
up to the sky.”
“That is first-rate!” said the king; “but what happened after that?”
“Seeing that, I began to climb from branch to branch on the hazel-tree,
so high and so safely that at last I reached the moon.”
“That is first-rate, first-rate! but go on.”
“There I saw some old women who were winnowing oats from the chaff and
straw, and I stopped to look at them. But I soon got tired of looking
at these old women, and wanted to descend to the earth again. But my
ass had gone away, and I could no longer find the hazel-tree by which I
had climbed up. What was to be done? Then I went to work to tie the oat
straw together, head to head, so as to make a cord by which I could go
down.”
“This is certainly first-rate!” said the king; “and what next?”
“Unfortunately my cord was not long enough; it was too short by thirty
or forty feet, so that I fell on a rock head-foremost, and so heavily
that my head sank down into the rock as far as my shoulders.”
“That is first-rate, first-rate; and what next?”
“I struggled so vigorously and successfully that my body became
detached from my head, which latter remained buried in the rock. I ran
at once to the mill to find an iron crow-bar, with which to pry my head
out of the rock.”
“Better and better!” said the king; “but what next?”
“When I returned, there was an enormous wolf that also wished to pull
my head out of the rock, in order to eat it! I gave him a blow on the
back with my crow-bar, but such a very, very heavy one, that a letter
flew out of him!”
“Oh! a better one than that could not be told!” cried the king; “but
what was written on that letter?”
“On that letter, my king, with all due respect to you, was written that
your father had formerly been mill boy at my grandfather’s mill.”
“It’s a lie, you young rascal!” cried the king, immediately rising up,
furious.
“Holloa, sire; I have won!” said the shepherd quietly.
“How is that? What have you won?”
“Did not you say, my king, that you would willingly give the hand of
the princess, your daughter, to the first one who would make you say,
‘That is a lie,’ or ‘You are a liar’?”
“It is true,” replied the king, growing calmer; “I did say so. A king
should always keep his word; therefore your betrothal to my only
daughter shall be celebrated to-morrow, and the wedding in a week!”
And thus it was that the shepherd won the king’s daughter by a single
word.
F. M. LUZEL, “Archives des Missions Scientifiques.”
[Illustration: “I GAVE HIM A BLOW ON THE BACK WITH MY CROW-BAR.”]
THE ENCHANTED RING
A CORSICAN STORY
Before the invasion of the Saracens there were six brothers and their
sister who were very, very poor; their parents were sick and not able
to work. One day when they had been hunting for chestnuts in the
neighboring wood and had scarcely been able to find any, the smallest
said to his brothers,--
“I want to go out into the world to see if I can make a fortune. At the
end of the week I will come back to tell you what has happened to me.”
And the little brother went away. He traveled for several days, and at
last he saw a small house in the midst of a forest.
“At last,” said he to himself, “I shall be able to rest myself a few
moments and eat a piece of bread.”
Tap! tap!
“Who is there?”
“It is I.”
Seeing it was a man, the mistress of the house, who was a fairy,
dropped her ring as if by mistake.
The little brother saw it and put it on his finger, saying,--
“Ah! what a beautiful ring!”
But immediately his body was covered with hairs, two horns grew out
from him, his ears became long, and his two hands were changed into the
feet of a goat.
In fact, he was altogether changed into a goat.
“Baa! baa! baa!” said the little brother; but nothing could bring him
back to his original shape.
The fairy tied him, put him down in the cellar; and gave him some very
fresh grass.
Seeing that their brother did not come back, the other five wished to
go and look for him.
They started out one after the other; but when they reached the fairy’s
house, they each put on the ring that she threw to them, and all shared
their youngest brother’s fate.
The sister wanted to go too.
She was beautiful and well formed, with blue eyes and black hair; her
name was Milia.
As she was going along, the little sister came upon a large bird caught
in a bush; it could not get out in spite of all its efforts.
The young girl took her knife, cut off the briers and set free the
bird, which flew away, saying,--
“Thanks, thanks, Milia; thanks, thanks, Milia.”
The latter continued her journey; as night came on, she sat down under
a tree to eat a piece of bread.
As she was making her frugal meal, she saw a poor old woman coming, who
could scarcely drag herself along.
Milia ran to meet her, saying to her,--
“My good mother, lean on me; come rest yourself a moment and have part
of the small quantity of bread that I have left.”
Milia had scarcely uttered these words when she was completely dazzled.
The old woman was changed suddenly into a beautiful fairy, adorned with
a lovely necklace of fine pearls, and dressed in a magnificent robe of
blue and rose-color, all embroidered with gold.
“What do you wish for? I am powerful; ask, and it shall be granted you.”
“I wish to know where my brothers are; are they dead or alive?”
“Your brothers are living, but it will be very difficult for you to
recognize them. To find them you have only to go on straight before
you. They are shut up in the first house that you will find on your
way.”
“Thanks, good fairy.”
And Milia set out.
After having walked hours and hours, the little sister saw a house.
“This is where they are, doubtless,” she thought, and she walked more
rapidly.
Milia was not more than fifty paces from it when the wicked fairy saw
her.
She threw out her ring quickly.
But a large bird flew by and carried it off in its beak.
It was the bird that the young girl had set free.
Tap! tap!
“Come in.”
Milia entered.
“Sit down a moment, while I go to find you something to eat; you must
be tired,” said the old woman to her; then she went out.
Then the bird came and tapped at the window.
“Milia, take nothing from that wicked old woman, or you will be turned
to stone. Your brothers, changed to goats, are shut up in the cellar.”
The old fairy came in at that moment.
“Here, eat a piece of this cake and drink a little of this exquisite
wine.”
“Thanks, madam; I am neither hungry nor thirsty.”
“What, after such a long journey?”
“I do not want anything; if you wish to please me, let me sleep quietly
in this corner.”
“Make yourself comfortable, my poor child.”
However, the fairy thought,--
“This little one must not escape me; I wish to have her at all hazards.”
And she went for a necklace of gold and robes changeable as the sky.
“Since you will not accept anything to eat, take these things, at
least; for it must not be said that any one rests at my house without
taking away some token of my good will.”
“What do you wish a poor girl to do with all these wonderful things?
Robes and necklace would soon be torn up among the bushes through which
I must pass.”
Seeing that all her designs were baffled, the perfidious fairy
stretched herself on her bed, and slept soundly.
The bird came again and tapped at the window.
“Milia, wake up! wake up, Milia!”
“What do you want?”
“Kill that wicked fairy, or she will soon find means to destroy you.
Then take the chemise that she wears, put it on yourself, and you will
possess her magic power.”
Milia got up softly, and taking a knife which was on the table, killed
the wicked old woman; then she undressed her, took her chemise and put
it on herself.
Her mind was enlightened in a moment. A number of things which she had
thought impenetrable mysteries were now explained to her.
Before trying her power, Milia went over the whole house. In a hall
were a number of statues, two of which were in a niche. They were a
king and queen laid under a spell by the magician.
Then Milia went down into the cellar. There she saw six goats,
extremely emaciated, though they had an abundance of food.
“Ah, poor beasts! and to think they are my brothers!”
And Milia, good sister that she was, began to cry. She would have
restored them to their original shape at that moment, but she did not
know how to manage it.
Happily, she remembered that on the fairy’s chemise was written,--
“Chemise, chemise, until death,
Obey me in everything.”
Milia repeated these words, then thought,--
“Chemise, chemise, cause these goats to become men again as they were
before!”
And immediately the goats lost their hair, their horns fell off, and
their feet were changed into the two hands and feet of a man.
Imagine Milia’s joy! She threw herself on her brothers’ necks, for
she knew them at once; and for a long time they embraced each other
joyfully.
“Where is the old fairy who changed us to beasts?”
“She is dead; and I have all her power.”
“How did it happen? In what does this power reside?”
“I cannot tell you my secret. I am going now to set free all those who
are in the castle.”
This was quickly done.
The king and the queen and all the other persons thanked Milia very
much, as you may suppose. They wished to bestow castles and villas on
her; but she refused them all. Had she not the fairy’s chemise to put
her in possession of all that she desired?
By means of her magic power the young girl made handsome carriages come
up out of the ground, and distributed them among all those who were
there, so that they could return to their homes.
She bestowed one of them upon herself, and harnessed to it two
beautiful horses as fleet as the wind.
Thus she went back to the home of her parents, who were amazed to see
her with her brothers in such an equipage.
“Ah! our daughter has a fortune,” said they to themselves.
And they were happy.
Unfortunately, the chemise became so very, very dirty that one day
Milia wanted to have it washed.
It was spread in the sun to dry.
A tramp saw it, seized upon it, and ran away.
They sought for it a long time in vain; they could never find it.
Milia died in despair at having lost the precious chemise from which
she derived all her power.
As for her brothers, who went in search of the thief, nothing more was
heard of them. If I learn anything about them, you may be sure I will
tell you of it.
ORTOLI, “Contes de l’ile de Corse.”
THE SIREN OF LA FRESNAYE
A STORY OF UPPER BRITANNY
Once upon a time there was in the woods of the isle of Aval, in the
parish of Saint-Cast, a wooden-shoe maker, who lived with his wife and
two children in a poor little mud hut which he had built himself by the
seashore, just at the end of the valley. There are those who say that
the ruins of it may still be seen; but that is hardly credible, for it
is a long time since then, and usually the cabins of wooden-shoe makers
do not last very long.
They were not rich; for they had only their work to live on; and you
know wooden-shoe makers rarely buy small farms. The husband dug out the
wooden shoes, his wife helped him as well as she could, and the little
boy and girl, who were not large enough to work in the wood, went every
day to fish along the shore.
One day when the little boy was fishing among the rocks, he heard
suddenly a sweet, musical song, and looking in the direction from which
it seemed to come, he saw the Siren, who was singing as she swam among
the waves; and around her the sea was so brilliant that it dazzled you
to look at it.
He ran very quickly to the cabin where his father was working.
“Ah, papa!” said he to him, “do come and see! there is a fish in the
bay of Port-au-Moulin more beautiful than any I have ever seen; it
sings, and it shines like gold!”
“Like fire, papa,” added the little girl, who had seen it also.
The wooden-shoe maker and his wife hastened to follow their children;
but when they reached the shore, the Siren had disappeared; they saw
nothing on the sea and heard no singing.
“It was nothing,” said the mother; “the children dreamed it all.”
But the wooden-shoe maker was not so incredulous as his wife. The next
morning he said to the children,--
“Go back again to the edge of the water, and watch attentively to see
if the beautiful singing fish will show herself again.”
The little boy went out; but as soon as he had gone a few steps from
the cabin he ran back, crying out,--
“Ah, papa! the beautiful fish has returned; you can hear it sing from
here.”
When they went outside, they heard a delicious music in the distance;
and they hastened to go to the seashore, where they saw the Siren, who
sang as she played about on the waves, and leaped sometimes more than
three feet above the water.
“It is not an ordinary fish,” said the wooden-shoe maker; “it looks
like a human being.”
“Ah!” said his wife, “we must get the lines; perhaps you can catch it.
I should like very much to see it close by.”
They all went to work to get the lines ready: and when the sea was
high, they set them; but in vain. They put the choicest bait on the
hook; the singing fish did not come to take it, although they saw it
every day.
The wooden-shoe maker thought often of the wonderful fish, and devised
means to possess himself of it. One day as he was walking on the shore,
he saw the Siren, who, cradled by the waves, and fast asleep, was
floating at a short distance from the shore. He went into the water
without making any noise, and slipped a large basket that he had, under
her, and carried her off in it to the land without waking her.
She was about the size of a child of eight years. She had golden hair
on her head, and her white and polished body resembled that of a woman;
but instead of feet she had fins, and her body ended with the tail of a
fish.
“Ah!” said the wooden-shoe maker, as he looked at her, “my little brats
did not lie; it is really the most curious thing that ever was seen.
It is doubtless a siren; for it is half woman and half fish.”
He made these reflections on his way back to his cabin, and he had
almost reached it when the Siren awoke and said to him,--
“Ah, wooden-shoe maker! you surprised me while I was asleep; I beg you
to take me back to the water, now that you have seen me close, and I
will protect you, you and all your family, as long as you live.”
“No,” answered the wooden-shoe maker; “I will not put you back into the
sea; I have watched for you for a long time, and so have my wife and
children. I am going to take you to the house so that they can see you;
but when you have sung a song, if my wife wishes, I will carry you back
to the place from which I took you.”
He called his wife, who was named Olérie, and cried to her,--
“Olérie, come here and see, and bring the children; I have the singer
in my basket.”
The good woman ran, full of joy, followed by the little boy and girl,
and began to examine the Siren.
“She asks to be taken back to the water,” said the wooden-shoe maker;
“she will sing you a song first. Do you agree to that?”
“No,” she answered; “it is too beautiful a fish; I have never seen one
like it; we must eat it.”
“Ah!” said the Siren, “if you feed upon my flesh, if you feast upon
my fish, you will never eat anything else in this world, for you will
perish. I am not a fish like the others; I am the Siren of Fresnaye,
and your husband surprised me while I was sleeping. Ask of me what
you will, and I will grant it, for I have the power of a fairy. But
make haste to carry me back to the sea, and do not lose any time; I am
already growing weak and I shall soon die.”
“What do you say about it?” asked Olérie of her husband.
“If you consent to it, I am very willing to put her back into the sea;
it would be a shame to kill her, she is so pretty and has never done
any harm to any one.”
They each took hold of one end of the basket, and carried the Siren
gently to the sea, and let her plunge into it again without thinking of
asking anything of her.
When she felt the freshness of the water, she shouted with laughter,
for joy that she was no longer in captivity, and she said to the
wooden-shoe maker,--
“What do you ask of me now?”
“I ask,” said he, “for some bread, some fish, and clothing for my wife
and my children.”
“You shall have all that in twenty-four hours,” said the Siren.
“I should like very well also,” added he, “if it is in your power, to
have a little money to pay my master, for I am not at all rich.”
The Siren did not make any reply, but she begun to flap the water with
her fins, and each time that she struck the waves they flashed up in
little drops, and all that went up in the air became gold which fell
down at the feet of the wooden-shoe maker. The shore was soon covered
with it; then she became still and said to the wooden-shoe maker and
his wife,--
“All that is for you, good people; you can pick it up.”
They thanked the Siren, who went off singing; then they filled their
pockets with gold and returned to their cabin very happy.