She tells him that it is impossible; that there are twenty-one
doors. This young man touches them with his sword, and they open of
themselves. This young man says to her, giving her the bottle,
"When the serpent shall say, 'If I had a spark between my head and
my tail, I would burn you,' I shall say to him, 'If I had a drop
of the good-scented water under my nose;' you will take the bottle,
and throw some over me in a moment."
He then makes her look into his ear, and, while she is looking, he
cuts off twenty-one pieces from her twenty-one dresses that she was
wearing. At the same moment comes the serpent, saying, with joy,
"Instead of one, I shall have four to eat."
The young man said to him,
"And you shall not touch one of us, at any rate."
He leaps on his spirited horse, and they fight more fiercely than
ever. The horse leaped as high as a house, and the serpent, in a rage,
says to him,
"If I had a spark of fire between my tail and my head, I would burn
you and your lady, and this horse and this terrible dog."
The young man says,
"I, if I had the good-scented water under my nose, I would cut off
one of your heads, and the horse another, and the dog another."
As he said that, the young lady jumps up, opens the bottle, and very
cleverly throws the water just where it was wanted. The young man cuts
off a head with his sword, his horse another, and the dog another;
and thus they make an end of the serpent. This young man takes the
seven tongues with him, and throws away the heads. Judge of the joy
of this young lady. She wanted to go straight to her father with her
preserver (she says), that her father must thank him too; that he
owes his daughter to him. But the young man says to her that it is
altogether impossible for him; that he must go and meet his cousin
at Rome; that they have made a vow, and that, on their return, all
three will come to her father's house.
The young lady is vexed, but she goes off without losing time to tell
her father what has happened. The father is very glad that the serpent
was utterly destroyed; and he proclaims in all the country that he
who has killed the serpent should come forward with the proofs of it.
The young lady goes again with the dinner to the gardener. He says
to her,
"I told you true, then, that you would not be eaten? Something has,
then, killed the serpent?"
She relates to him what had taken place.
But, lo! some days afterwards there appeared a black charcoal-burner,
who said that he had killed the serpent, and was come to claim
the reward. When the young lady saw the charcoal-burner, she said
immediately, that most certainly it was not he; that it was a fine
gentleman, on horseback, and not a pest of a man like him. The
charcoal-burner shows the heads of the serpent; and the king says
that, in truth, this must be the man. The king had only one word to
say, she must marry him. The young lady says, she will not at all;
and the father began to compel her, (saying) that no other man came
forward. But, as the daughter would not consent, to make a delay,
the king proclaims in all the country, that he who killed the serpent
would be capable of doing something else, too, and that, on such a
day, all the young men should assemble, that he would hang a diamond
ring from a bell, and that whosoever riding under it should pierce
the ring with his sword, should certainly have his daughter. [28]
From all sides arrive the young men. Our Petit Yorge goes off to the
Tartaro, and tells him what has happened, and that he has again need
of him. The Tartaro gives him a handsome horse, a superb dress, and
a splendid sword. Equipped thus, Petit Yorge goes with the others. He
gets ready. The young lady recognizes him immediately, and says so to
her father. He has the good luck to carry off the ring on his sword;
but he does not stop at all, but goes off galloping as hard as his
horse can go. The king and his daughter were in a balcony, looking
on at all these gentlemen. They saw that he still went on. The young
lady says to her father:
"Papa, call him!"
The father says to her, in an angry tone,
"He is going off, because apparently he has no desire to have you." And
he hurls his lance at him. It strikes him on the leg. He still rides
on. You can well imagine what chagrin for the young lady.
The next day she goes with the gardener's dinner. She sees him with
his leg bandaged. She asks him what it is.
The young lady begins to suspect something, and goes to tell to her
father how the gardener had his leg tied up, and that he must go and
ask him what is the matter. That he had told her that it was nothing.
The king did not want to go, (and said) that she must get it out of
the gardener; but to please his daughter, he says he will go there. He
goes then, and asks him, "What is the matter?" He tells him that
a blackthorn has run into him. The king gets angry, and says "that
there is not a blackthorn in all his garden, and that he is telling
him a lie."
The daughter says to him,
"Tell him to show it us."
He shows it to them, and they are astonished to see that the lance
is still there. The king did not know what to think of it all. This
gardener has deceived him, and he must give him his daughter. But Petit
Yorge, uncovering his bosom, shows the "fleur-de-lis" there. The king
did not know what to say; but the daughter said to him,
"This is my preserver, and I will marry no one else than him."
Petit Yorge asks the king to send for five dressmakers, the best in
the town, and five butchers. The king sends for them.
Petit Yorge asks the dressmakers if they have ever made any new dresses
which had a piece out; and on the dressmakers saying "No," he counts
out the pieces and gives them to the dressmakers, asking if it was
like that that they had given the dresses to the princess. They say,
"Certainly not."
He goes, then, to the butchers, and asks them, if they have ever
killed animals without tongues? They say, "No!" He tells them, then,
to look in the heads of the serpent. They see that the tongues are
not there, and then he takes out the tongues he has.
The king, having seen all that, has nothing more to say. He gives
him his daughter. Petit Yorge says to him, that he must invite his
father to the wedding, but on the part of the young lady's father;
and that they must serve him up at dinner a sheep's heart, half cooked,
and without salt. They make a great feast, and place this heart before
this father. They make him carve it himself, and he is very indignant
at that. The son then says to him:
"I expected that;" and he adds, "Ah! my poor father, have you
forgotten how you said that you wished to eat the heart, half cooked,
and without salt, of him who let the Tartaro go? That is not my heart,
but a sheep's heart. I have done this to recall to your memory what
you said, and to make you recognize me."
They embrace each other, and tell each other all their news, and what
services the Tartaro had done him. The father returned happy to his
house, and Petit Yorge lived very happily with his young lady at the
king's house; and they wanted nothing, because they had always the
Tartaro at their service.
Laurentine.
In a variation of the above tale, from the narration of Mariño
Amyot, of St. Jean Pied de Port, the young prince, as a herdsman,
kills with a hammer successively three Tartaros who play at cards
with him; he then finds in their house all their riches and horses,
barrels full of gold and silver, etc., and also three "olano,"
which is described as an animal who serves the Tartaro, like a dog,
but much larger and more terrible, but also more intelligent and able
to do any message. He kills the serpent with the aid of the "olanos,"
and the princess helps by striking the serpent's tail with a sword,
[29] instead of sprinkling the "sweet-scented water." The "olano" then
steals dishes off the king's table for the prince. The charcoal-burner
comes; but at last the prince shows the tongues and pieces of dress,
and all ends happily, except for the charcoal-burner, who is placed
on the top of seven barrels of powder, and fire is applied beneath,
and then nobody sees him any more.
The commencement of the next is so different that we give it at length.