Like many others in the world, there was a cobbler who had three
daughters. They were very poor. He only earned enough just to feed
his children. He did not know what would become of him. He went about
in his grief, walking, walking sadly on, and he meets a gentleman,
who asks him where he is going, melancholy like that. He answers him,
"Even if I shall tell you, I shall get no relief."
"Yes, yes; who knows? Tell it."
"I have three daughters, and I have not work enough to maintain
them. I have famine in the house."
"If it is only that, we will manage it. You will give me one of your
daughters, and I will give you so much money."
The father was very grieved to make any such bargain; but at last he
comes down to that. He gives him his eldest daughter. This gentleman
takes her to his palace, and, after having passed some time there,
he said to her that he has a short journey to make--that he will
leave her all the keys, that she might see everything, but that
there is one key that she must not make use of--that it would bring
misfortune on her. He locks the door on the young lady. This young
girl goes into all the rooms, and finds them very beautiful, and she
was curious to see what there was in that which was forbidden. She
goes in, and sees heaps of dead bodies. Judge of her fright! With
her trembling she lets the key fall upon the ground. She trembles
for the coming of her husband. He arrives, and asks her if she has
entered the forbidden chamber. She tells him "Yes." He takes her and
puts her into an underground dungeon; hardly, hardly did he give her
enough to eat (to live on), and that was human flesh.
This cobbler had finished his money, and he was again melancholy. The
gentleman meets him again, and says to him,
"Your other daughter is not happy alone; you must give me another
daughter. When she is happy, I will send her back; and I will give
you so much money."
The father did not like it; but he was so poor that, in order to have
a little money, he gives him his daughter. The gentleman takes her
home with him, like the other. After some days he said to her too,
"I must take a short journey. I will give you all the keys of the
house, but do not touch such a key of such a room."
He locks the house-door, and goes off, after having left her the
food she needed. This young girl goes into all the rooms, and, as she
was curious, she went to look into the forbidden chamber. She was so
terribly frightened at the sight of so many dead bodies in this room,
that she lets the key fall, and it gets stained. Our young girl was
trembling as to what should become of her when the master should come
back. He arrives, and the first thing he asks--
"Have you been in that room?"
She told him "Yes." He takes her underground, like her other sister.
This cobbler had finished his money, and he was in misery; when the
gentleman comes to him again, and says to him,
"I will give you a great deal of money if you will let your daughter
come to my house for a few days; the three will be happier together,
and I will send you the two back again together."
The father believes it, and gives him his third daughter. The gentleman
gives him the money, and he takes this young girl, like the others. At
the end of some days he leaves her, saying that he is going to make a
short journey. He gives her all the keys of the house, saying to her--
"You will go into all the rooms except this one," pointing out the key
to her. He locks the outside door, and goes off. This young girl goes
straight, straight to the forbidden chamber; she opens it, and think
of her horror at seeing so many dead people. She thought that he would
kill her too, and, as there were all kinds of arms in this chamber,
she takes a sabre with her, and hides it under her dress. She goes a
little further on, and sees her two sisters almost dying with hunger,
and a young man in the same condition. She takes care of them as well
as she can till the gentleman comes home. On his arrival, he asks her--
"Have you been in that room?"
She says, "Yes;" and, in giving him back the keys, she lets them fall
on the ground, on purpose, and at the instant that this gentleman
stoops to pick them up, the young lady cuts off his head (with her
sword). Oh, how glad she was! Quickly she runs to deliver her sisters
and that young man, who was the son of a king. She sends for her
father, the cobbler, and leaves him there with his two daughters,
and the youngest daughter goes away with her young gentleman, after
being married to him. If they lived well, they died well too.
In another version, by Estefanella Hirigaray, we have the more ordinary
tale of "Blue Beard"--that of a widower who has killed twenty wives,
and marries a twenty-first, who has two brothers. She drops the key
in the forbidden chamber, and is detected by the blood on it. She
manages to write to her brothers, and the dialogue by which she
endeavours to gain time is rather spirited. She is allowed to put on
her wedding-dress, etc., to die in. She goes to get ready, and she
hears the cries of her husband, "Are you ready?" "I am putting on
my dress." He bawls out again, "Are you ready?" "Give me a moment
more." "Are you ready?" "I am fastening my dress." "Are you ready
yet?" "I am putting on my stockings." And she kept constantly
looking out of window to see if her brothers were coming. "Are
you ready?" "Stop one moment; I am putting on my shoes." "Are you
ready?" "I am brushing my hair." "Are you ready?" "Let me put on my
wreath." And she sees her brothers coming on horseback in the forest,
but a very long way off. She hears again, "Are you ready?" "I am
coming in an instant." "You are coming? I'll come, if you do not come
down." "Don't come; I will come down myself, without you." He seizes
her on the stairs to kill her; but the brothers rush in just in time
to prevent her death, and they put him in prison.
We heard, also, another version, which, unfortunately, we did not
take down. It had something about a horse in it, and was like "The
Widow and her Daughters," in Campbell, Vol. II., Tale xli., p. 265.
THE SINGING TREE, THE BIRD WHICH TELLS THE TRUTH, AND THE WATER THAT
MAKES YOUNG.
Like many others in the world, there were three young girls. They
were spinning together, and as girls must always talk about something
while they are spinning, the eldest said:
"You will not guess what I am thinking about?"
"Tell it us, tell it us," (said the other two).
"That I should like to be married to the king's valet."
"And I with his son-in-law," said the second.