A tribe of hunchbacks came out and danced round him, and sung--

Sabbato!

Domenica!

Lunedì!

to which the bad son of the stepmother added in his rough voice,

all out of tune--

Martedì!

Immediately all the hunchbacks came round him and gave him a drubbing,

and the chief of them stuck on him a hump in front as well as behind.

Thus they sent him home to his mother.

When his mother saw him come home in this plight, she turned upon

the stepson and abused him for having misled her son to injure him;

and both mother and son set upon him and belaboured him after their

wont. But he had only told the truth, without intention to deceive;

and the stepmother's son had incurred the anger of the dwarfs by

his discordant addition to their chant. So the first hero took out

his wand and said, 'At 'em, good stick!' and the wand flew out of

his hand and administered on mother and son a sounder drubbing than

that they had themselves been administering. Ever after that he was

able to live at home in peace, for everyone was afraid to injure him

because of the power of his stick.

[Next we have a group where a younger sister of three comes to

supernatural good fortune, without any previous envy or ill-treatment

on the part of her elders.]

Roman Legends: A collection of the fables and folk-lore of Rome · 第 37 / 148 题