Chapter 18 creek and crocker

Crick and Crocker & Italian Fairy Tales In a far off town there lived a famous thief, nicknamed Crick, who thought he would never be caught.The thief really wanted to get to know another thief named Crocker who was equally famous as him, and wanted to join hands with him in committing crimes.One day, Crick was eating in a tavern, and a stranger was sitting at the same table.When Klick wanted to check the time, he realized that the pocket watch had disappeared.Crick thought: If this man could steal my watch without me noticing, it must be Crocker.He returned and stole the man's wallet.When the stranger was about to pay the bill, he found that his wallet was gone, so he said to the person at the same table: "It seems that you are Crick."

The other answered, "Then you must be Crocker." "right." "Great, let's partner up." In this way, the two thieves joined hands. The two entered the city and came to the king's treasury, which was closely guarded by guards.They dug a tunnel to the treasury and stole some of its contents.Seeing the treasure house being stolen, the king couldn't find any clues about the thief, so he went to a thief in prison, known as the mortar basin, and the king said to him: "If you can tell me who stole the treasure house, I will help I let you go and made you a Marquis."

The mortar basin replied: "It must have been done by Creek and Crocker, two of the best thieves. But I can catch them. You order the price of meat to be raised to a hundred lire a pound." , whoever still buys meat must be a thief." According to the king's plan, the price of meat was raised to one hundred lire per pound, and no one went to buy meat anymore.At last someone reported that a monk had bought meat from a butcher shop.The mortar basin said: "This must be Crick or Crocker in disguise. I also disguised myself as a beggar, and went from house to house begging. Whoever gave me meat to eat, I would draw a red mark on the door of his house, so that the guards can catch him.”

But when he put a red mark on the Crick's door, Crick found out.Crick had scratched the same mark on the doors of every house in the city, and found nothing for the mortar basin. The mortar basin offered advice to the king again: "Didn't I tell you that they are two very cunning people? But there are people who are more cunning than them. Here's what you do: Have someone put a bucket of boiling water under the steps of the treasury." Pine oil, anyone who goes in and steals will fall, and we can sit and wait for the body to be collected." Crick and Crocker soon ran out of money they had stolen and had to steal from the treasury again.Crocker walked ahead in the dark, only to fall into the bucket.When Klick saw his friend fell into the pine oil barrel and died, he wanted to fish out the body and take it away, but he couldn't.He had to chop off Crocker's head and take it away.

The next day, the king came to the scene and said, "This time we have caught it, this time we have caught it!" However, only a headless corpse was found, and it was impossible to identify the identity and determine who was the accomplice. The mortar basin said again: "I have another plan. You have the corpse dragged by two horses around the city, and if you hear any cries, it must be the house of the thieves." Indeed, Crocker's wife cried and howled when she saw her husband's body being dragged through the streets from the window.Crick was there, too, and he realized immediately that he would be exposing himself.So he started throwing plates, smashing bowls, and beating Crocker's wife.At this moment, the guards came in following the sound of crying, but what they saw was a woman who broke plates and bowls, and the man slapped her several times, and the woman burst into tears.

The king had nothing to do, so he had notices posted all over the city saying that he would forgive anyone who had the ability to steal the sheets on his bed.Crick came when he heard the news, saying that he had the ability to do it. In the evening the king undressed and went to bed, waiting for the robbers with a musket in his hand.Crick asked for a corpse from the gravediggers, dressed him in his own clothes, and carried him to the roof of the palace.In the middle of the night, Creek hung the body with a rope in front of the window of the king's bedroom.The King, thinking it was Crick, shot him once, and saw him fall down with the rope.The king ran down to see if the man was dead.But at the same time, Crick went down from the roof to the king's bedroom and stole the king's bed linen.Creek was pardoned by the king, and since he had stolen everything, the king married his own daughter to him.

(Monferrato area) ①The nicknames "Click" and "Crocker" of the two thieves in this story are both onomatopoeias for breaking and breaking. Crack and Crook In a distant town there was a famous thief known as Crack, whom nobody had ever been able to catch. The main ambition of this Crack was to meet Crook, another notorious thief, and form a partnership with him. One day as Crack was eating lunch at the tavern across the table from a stranger, he went to look at his watch and found it missing. The only person in this world who could have taken it without my knowledge, he thought, is Crook. So what did Crack do but turn right around and steal Crooks purse. When the stranger got ready to pay for his lunch, he found his purse gone and said to his table companion, "Well, well, you must be Crack."

"And you must be Crook." "Right." "Fine, well work together." They went to the city and made for the kings treasury, which was completely surrounded by guards. The thieves therefore dug an underground tunnel into the treasury and stole everything. Surveying his loss, the king had no idea how he might catch the robbers. went to a man named Snare, who had been put in prison for stealing, and said, "If you can tell me who committed this robbery, I'll set you free and make you a marquis." Snare replied, "It can be none other than Crack or Crook, or both of them together, since they are the most notorious thieves alive. But Ill tell you how you can catch them. Have the price of meat raised to one hundred dollars a pound. The person who pays that much for it will be your thief."

The king had the price of meat raised to one hundred dollars a pound, and everybody stopped buying meat. Finally it was reported that a friar had gone to a certain butcher and bought meat. Snare said, "That had to be Crack or Crook in disguise. Ill now disguise myself and go around to the houses begging. If anybody gives me meat, Ill make a red mark on the front door, and your guards can go and arrest the thieves." But when he made a red mark on Cracks house, the thief saw it and went and marked all the other doors in the city with red, so there was no telling in the end where Crack and Crook lived.

Snare said to the king, "Didnt I tell you they were foxy? But theres someone else foxier than they are. Heres the next thing to do: put a tub of boiling pitch at the bottom of the treasury steps. Whoever goes down to steal will fall right into it, and his dead body will give him away." Crack and Crook had run out of money in the meantime and decided to go back to the treasury for more. Crook went in first, but it was dark, and he fell into the tub. Crack came along and tried to pull his friends body out of the pitch, but it stuck fast in the tub. He then cut off the head and carried it away.

The next day the king went to see if he had caught the thief. "This time we got him! We got him!" But the corpse had no head, so they were none the wiser about the thief or any accomplices he might have had . Snare said, "Theres one more thing we can do: have the dead man dragged through the city by two horses. The house where you hear someone weeping has to be the thiefs house." In effect, when Crooks wife looked out the window and saw her husbands body being dragged through the street, she began screaming and crying. But Crack was there and knew right away that would be their undoing. thrashing the poor woman at the same time. Attracted by all that screaming, the guards came in and found a man beating his wife for breaking up all the dishes in the house. The king then had a decree posted on every street corner that he would pardon the thief who had robbed him, if the thief now managed to steal the sheets out from under him at night. Crack came forward and said he could do it. That night the king undressed and went to bed with his gun to wait for the thief. Crack got a dead body from a gravedigger, dressed it in his own clothes, and carried it to the roof of the royal palace. At midnight the cadaver, held by a rope, was dangling before the kings windows. Thinking it was Crack, the king fired one shot and watched him fall, cord and all. He ran downstairs to see if he was dead. While the king was gone, Crack slipped into his room and stole the sheets. He was therefore pardoned, and so that he wouldn't have to steal any longer, the king married his daughter to him. (Monferrato) NOTES: "Crack and Crook" (Cric e Croc) from Comparetti, 13, Monferrato, Piedmont. This is one of the oldest and most famous tales, which has occupied the attention of scholars for generations. The Piedmontese version I followed is faithful to the oldest tradition and includes the curious character-names and a brisk dose of rustic cunning. Herodotus (Histories ) tells in detail about Egyptian King Rhampsinituss treasure, chief source of the vast narrative tradition concerning wily robers put to the test by a ruler. The beheading of a cadaver so it will not be recognized is also encountered in Pausanias, who presents the myth of Trophonius and Agamedes (Description of Greece, IX, 372). Either through the Greeks or through oriental tradition the tale entered medieval literature, in the various translations of the Book of the Seven Sages and other Italian, English, and German texts. Literary versions by Italian Renaissance story writers are numerous. Copyright: Italian Folktales Selected and Retold by Italo Calvino, translated by George Martin, Pantheon Books, New York 1980