Lilac Fairy Book

Chapter 18 The One-Armed Girl (1)
Once upon a time there was an old couple who lived in a small hut among a palm grove.The couple have a son and a daughter, and the family has lived happily together for many years.Later, the father became seriously ill and felt that he was going to die, so he called the children to the bed on the floor—in that country, no one had a bed.The father said to his son, "I have no cows for you, but the few things in the house. I am a poor man, and you know that. Make up your mind: it is mine. Blessing, or want my property?"

"Of course it is your property," replied the son.Father nodded.

"What about you?" the old man asked the girl.She was standing beside her brother.

"I want your blessing," she replied.So her father gave her many blessings.

That night, the father passed away. His wife and two children mourned for seven days, and then buried him according to the customs of that nation.The mourning period had just ended, and my mother caught the epidemic again.

"I will leave you too," she said in a weak voice to the children. "My sons, first decide what you want: a blessing or a fortune?"

"Of course we need property." The son replied.

"What about you, girl?"

"I want your blessing," said the girl.So her mother gave her many blessings.That night, she died.

After the mourning period was over, the elder brother told the younger sister to move all the things left by their parents outside the house.So the girl moved everything out.He left with these things, leaving only a small pot and a stone mortar for pounding rice.But she has no rice to pound.

She sat at home sad and hungry.Just then, a neighbor knocked on the door.

"My pot is burnt, lend me yours to cook dinner, and I'll give you a handful of rice."

The girl was very happy, that night, she had dinner.The next day, another woman came to borrow pots from her, followed by a third, and a fourth. There had never been so many broken pots in the village before.The girl's pot helped her earn a lot of food, and she soon gained weight.Then, one night, she picked up a pumpkin seed in the corner of the house and planted it by the well.The seeds sprouted, and a lot of pumpkins came out.

Later, a boy in the village happened to pass by the girl's brother's residence, and the two met and talked.

"Any news about my sister?" asked the brother.He is idle, and now he is not doing well.

"She has gained weight and is very beautiful," the young man replied. "The women in the village borrowed her stone mortar to pound rice and her pot to cook rice. For this reason, they couldn't finish the food they gave her." After speaking, he continued on the road.

After hearing that man's words, my brother's heart was filled with jealousy.He set off at once, and returned to the little thatched hut before daybreak, saw the pot and mortar outside the hut, shook them over his shoulder, turned and left, proud of his cleverness.After my sister woke up, she looked for a pot to cook breakfast, but she couldn't find it everywhere.Finally, she said to herself:

"Ah, some thief must have stolen them while I was sleeping. I'm going to see if my pumpkins are ripe." The pumpkins were all ripe, and had grown so much they almost broke the tree .So she ate up the pumpkin and took the rest back to the village to exchange the pumpkin for food.The women in the village said that no one's pumpkins were so sweet, and told her to exchange them no matter how many pumpkins she picked every day.In this way, she got more grain than she could eat, and soon she could exchange grain for a stone mortar and a cooking pot.At this time, she thought she was very rich.

Unfortunately, someone else thought the same way, and that was her sister-in-law.After the sister-in-law heard the story of the pumpkin tree, she sent a slave with a handful of grains to buy a pumpkin from her.At first the girl told him that there were not many pumpkins left, and she could not give him any of them; but when she found out that he was her brother's slave, she changed her mind, went out of the house, went to the pumpkin tree, and plucked it. One of the largest and ripest pumpkins.

"Take this one," she said to the slave, "and take it back to your mistress, and tell her to keep the corn. This pumpkin is a present from me to her."

The sister-in-law was overjoyed when she saw the pumpkin. After tasting the pumpkin, she claimed that she had never eaten such a good pumpkin.She thought about the pumpkin all that night, and early next morning she called another slave (she was rich) and bade him go and get another pumpkin.The girl had just looked at her pumpkin tree, and told the slave that all the pumpkins had been eaten, so he went back to his mistress empty-handed.

That night, the husband came back from hunting far away and found his wife crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I sent a slave to bring some grain to your sister to buy pumpkins, but she would not sell me any of them, and told me that there were none left, but she sold them to other people."

"Well, never mind, go to bed," he said, "tomorrow I'll uproot that pumpkin tree, and punish her for treating you like that."

So, before the sun rose, he got up and walked to her sister's house, and found her pounding rice.

"My wife wanted to buy a pumpkin yesterday, why didn't you sell it to her?" he asked.

"The old pumpkins are sold out, and the new ones haven't come out yet," answered the girl. "When she sent her slave two days ago, I had only four pumpkins left. her food."

"I don't believe it, you sold all the pumpkins to other people. I'm going to cut down that pumpkin tree," my brother yelled.

"If you want to cut the pumpkin tree, cut off my hands together." The girl shouted, ran to the pumpkin tree, and hugged the pumpkin tree.The elder brother ran over and cut down the pumpkin tree with one knife, and also cut off the younger sister's hand.

Then he went inside, removed everything he could find, and sold the house to a friend who had long coveted it.My sister is now homeless.

Meanwhile, the younger sister washed her arm carefully, wrapped the wound with a healing leaf that grew nearby, and wrapped a cloth around the leaf, and ran into the forest and hid, so that her brother would never find him again. Not her anymore.

For seven days she walked aimlessly, eating only some wild fruits hanging from the branches above her head.Every night, she climbed into the vines that were tightly wrapped around the big branches and hid carefully, so that no lion, tiger, or leopard could hurt her.

On the morning of the seventh day, when she awoke, from where she was staying, she saw a puff of smoke rising from a small town on the edge of the forest.Seeing those huts, she felt more and more alone and helpless.She longed desperately for a drink of milk from the gourd, for she was very thirsty and there was no stream in that place.She only has one hand now, what can she do?At the thought of this, she was discouraged and burst into tears.

It so happened that the king's son came out of the city early in the morning to shoot birds.When the sun was shining on people, he was tired from beating and stopped beating.

"I will lie down under this tree for a while and have a rest," he said to his followers. "You can go on hunting birds, and let this slave stay with me!" After they left, the prince fell asleep, and slept for a long time. long time.Suddenly, something wet and salty fell on his face and woke him up.

"What is it? Is it raining?" he said to the slave. "Go and see."

"No, master, it is not raining," replied the slave.

"Then climb up the tree and see what it is." So the slave climbed up the tree, and when he came back, he told his master that there was a beautiful girl sitting on the tree, and the things that fell on the prince's face must be her tears. .

"Why is she crying?" asked the Prince.

"I don't know, I didn't dare to ask her. But she will probably tell you." The master felt very strange, so he climbed up the tree.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked softly, but she just cried louder.So he went on to ask:

"Are you a man or an elf in this forest?"

"I'm human." She replied slowly, wiping her tears with a leaf from the vine hanging beside her.

"Then why are you crying?" he continued.

"There are a lot of things that make me cry," she replied, "more than you can imagine."

"Come home with me," said the Prince, "my house is not far from here. Go home and meet my parents. I am the King's son."

"Then why are you here?" she said, opening her eyes and looking at him.

"My friends and I come to this forest to shoot birds once a month," he replied. "I'm tired and tell them to let me stay and rest. But you—what are you doing in this tree?" ah?"

At this she began to weep again, and told the prince all that had happened to her after her mother's death.

"I can't go down with you, I don't want anyone to see me." She cried and said nothing.

"Oh! I will take care of everything," said the prince.He descended to a lower branch, and told his slaves to hurry to the city and ask four strong men to bring a palanquin with curtains.After the slave had gone, the one-armed girl climbed down the tree and hid herself among the bushes on the ground.Soon the slave came back with his palanquin, and parked it beside the bush where the girl was hiding.

"You all go, go and call all my followers back, I don't want to stay here anymore." He said to his subordinates.As soon as they were out of his sight, he put the girl into the sedan chair and drew the curtains tightly.Then he got into the litter from the other side and sat in it until his followers arrived.

"Your Highness, what's the matter?" They asked out of breath one by one.

"I think I must be sick, I'm so cold," he said, beckoning the bearers to get up, and then drew the curtains.They rode the sedan chair through the forest and went directly to the prince's bedroom.

"Tell my parents that I have a fever and want some porridge," he said, "and have someone bring it quickly."

So the slave hurried to the palace to report.Hearing this news, the king and queen were very disturbed.A pot of hot porridge was ready immediately and delivered to the patient.As soon as the ongoing council was over, the king and his ministers came to visit him, with a message from the queen that she would come to him shortly.

The prince pretended to be sick in order to soften the hearts of his parents.The next day, claiming that he felt better, he got into the sedan chair and walked to the palace with drums and gongs.

He got off the sedan chair before the steps, and then went up the steps.A slave holds a huge parasol over his head.Then he went into the cool, dark hall where his parents were sitting, and said to them: "Yesterday, I saw a girl in the forest and wanted to marry her. My bedroom. Promise me, I beg you, although she has only one hand, no one can satisfy me like her!"

Of course, the king and queen prefer a daughter-in-law who has two hands and can bring a lot of wealth, but they can't bear to say "no" to their son, so they say they respect their son's choice, and that the wedding banquet will be ready soon.

The girl could hardly believe her good fortune, and, out of gratitude for their kindness to her, she behaved so competently and pleasingly to her in-laws, who soon took a liking to her.

Not long after, she gave birth to a baby.Not long after that, the prince's father sent the prince to visit distant towns to correct what had been wronged before.

Not long after his departure, the girl's brother had squandered all his wife's dowry carelessly and stupidly, and was now a pauper.He came to the capital by chance, and when he passed by a man, he heard the man say: "You know? The prince married a woman with one hand." Hearing these words, the elder brother stopped and asked: "Is he here?" Where was such a woman found?"

"It was found in the forest," replied the man.So the cruel brother immediately guessed that it must be his sister.

Thinking that the girl he tried to destroy had a better life than himself, he couldn't help feeling angry and vowed to make her miserable.So that afternoon he went to the palace and asked to see the king.

When he was allowed to see the king, he knelt down and knocked his head to the ground.The king told him to stand up and say something.

"Oh, your Majesty, you were too kind to be deceived," said he, "your son married a girl who lost her hand. Do you know why she lost her hand? She was a witch, and Married three husbands, and she killed each of them by trickery. So the people in the city cut off her hands and drove her into the forest. I'm telling the truth, we live in the same house In the city."

As he listened, the king's face darkened.Coincidentally, he was impatient, and he didn't send anyone to that city to find people who knew his daughter-in-law, who could tell him how hardworking and poor her daughter-in-law had been, but he didn't even think about it. He believed his brother's lies, and made the queen believe those lies as well.The couple discussed and finally decided to drive her out of the capital.My brother was not satisfied with this.

"Kill her," he said, "for she has dared to marry the King's son, and she has done so unforgivably. Kill her, and she will never hurt anyone again."

"We cannot kill her," they answered, "our sons will surely kill us if we kill her. Let us drive her out of the city as they did." The jealous brother had no choice but to do so.

(End of this chapter)