Chapter 35 34. Half-body man

There was a woman who was pregnant, and she had a craving for celery.Near her house lived a witch who was famous and had a vegetable garden full of celery.The door of the vegetable garden is always open, and anyone who wants to eat can pick it, because there are plentiful.The woman who wanted to eat celery came to the vegetable garden and ate one by one until she had eaten her fill until she ate up half of the garden.After the witch returned home, she saw that half of the garden had been eaten up to the point where not even a single leaf was left, and she thought to herself: Hey! ...they're going to eat up this place... tomorrow I'll stay and see who did it.

The next day, the pregnant woman came again and began to eat the remaining celery.She had just put the last celery in her mouth when the witch jumped out and said, "Ah...! You ate all my celery?" The pregnant woman was taken aback and begged, "Please, let me go. I'm pregnant..." "I will let you go," said the witch, "but when your child is seven years old, half will be yours and the other half will be mine." The pregnant woman timidly agreed to her, so she fled home. She gave birth to a boy.When the boy was six years old, one day he met the witch on the road. The witch looked at him and said, "Remember to tell your mother that there is still one year left."

When the boy got home, he said, "Mom, an old lady told me there is one year left." "Remember," said mother, "if she ever tells you anything like that again, you tell her she's crazy." The boy was three months away from turning seven, and the witch said to him again, "Go and tell your mother that it's three months away." The boy said, "What are you talking about, madman!" And the old woman said, "Yes, yes, then you'll know if I'm crazy or not." Three months passed, and the witch caught the boy on the road and took him home.She laid the boy flat on a table, and then used a knife to cut him in half from top to bottom, and each half had only half the body and half the head.

She said to one half of her body, "You go home," and then to the other half, "You stay with me." Half of the body stayed, and the other half went back.When he got home, he said to his mother, "You see, mother, that old woman made me like this! And you call her crazy!" Mother opened her arms, but couldn't say anything. The half-sized little boy grew up slowly, but he didn't know what kind of work he could do, so he decided to become a fisherman.One day he went to hunt eels, and he caught an eel as long as him.After he pulled the eel up, the eel said to him, "You will catch more eels if you let me go." The boy put it back in the water, and then cast a net again, and this time it really caught the eel. A net full of eels.He rowed his boat and came back to shore laden with eels, and sold the fish for a whole bag of money.

The next day, he brought up the big eel again, and the eel said to him, "Let me go. Whatever you want to do in the future, you can do it with your love for the eel." Let the eels go. One day, he went fishing as usual and passed the king's palace.The king's daughter and some ladies-in-waiting stood on the balcony of the palace.The princess couldn't help laughing when she saw that the boy had only half body, half head and one leg.The young man looked up at the princess and said, "Okay, let you laugh... With my love for eels, let the princess bear me a son." Soon the princess became pregnant, and her parents found out about it and asked her, "What is the matter with you?"

The girl said, "Who knows, I don't understand at all." "What? You don't understand at all? Who is the father of the child?" "I really don't understand, I don't know anything." Although her parents asked her repeatedly, telling her that they would forgive her if she just explained the matter, the princess still said she didn't know anything.As a result, her parents began to humiliate her and abuse her, and she lost her peaceful life ever since. The child was born, a very handsome little boy, but the king and queen wept sadly because the birth of an illegitimate child ruined the family tradition.They invited a wizard and wanted him to see what was going on, and the wizard said, "Let's see when the child is a year old."

When the child was one year old, the wizard said: "Now you want to call a palace meeting, and invite all the big men in the city to attend. When everyone has arrived in the hall, let the child bring a golden apple and a silver apple." , holding him around. The golden apple, the child will give to his father, and the silver apple, the child will give to his grandfather." The King sent for the posters to be posted, and at the same time had a great hall furnished, and the chairs arranged in a circle in the hall.When all the dignitaries in the city were seated, the king asked the nurse to take out the baby, put two apples in his hands, and said, "This one is for your father, and this one is for your grandpa."

The nurse carried the child around and went back to the king, and the child gave the silver apple to the king. The king said, "I am your grandfather, I know that, but I want to know who is your father." But the boy walked round and round the hall, and gave the golden apple to no one. The king had to invite the wizard again.The wizard said: "Now, you call the poor people in the whole city to discuss." So the king sent someone to post a notice. When the halfling heard that the palace was going to call all the poor to the palace, he said to his mother: "Find me the half shirt, half coat, my one-leg trousers, one shoe and half top." hat, the king invites me to the palace."

The halls of the palace were crowded with paupers, fishermen, and beggars.The king had already ordered a circle of benches to be set up.The nurse came out with the child in her arms, and began to walk about the hall, and the child held the golden apple in his hand.The nurse said, "Good boy, go quickly, and give this apple to Daddy." She turned around while talking.When the child saw the halfling, he smiled, and he threw himself around his neck and said, "Daddy, here's an apple!" All the poor people sitting on the benches in a circle burst into laughter, "Ah! Look who the princess is in love with!"

Among the crowd, only the king remained calm and said, "Anyway, this man is my daughter's husband!" The wedding was about to take place, and the newlyweds came out of the church expecting a carriage waiting for them, but it turned out to be a wooden barrel, a large empty wooden barrel.The halfling, his new wife, and child were put in a barrel, sealed inside, and thrown into the sea. There was a storm at sea, and the barrel appeared and disappeared among the waves until it was seen no more, and the people in the palace said it must have sunk to the bottom of the sea. But the barrel had been floating on the sea, and the halfling saw the princess in the barrel, and he was terrified, and said to her, "My wife, do you want this barrel to be brought to the shore?"

The princess said in a trembling voice, "If you can bring it to shore, of course." He did what he said, and with his love for eels, the wooden barrel stopped on the shore.The halfling punctured the bottom of the barrel, and all three emerged.It was mealtime, and out of love for eels, a dining table appeared with something to eat and drink for three people.After eating and drinking enough, the halfling asked, "Bride, are you happy to marry me?" "I would be happier if you were not a half body but a whole person," said the princess. So the young man immediately said to himself: "With my love for eels, I have become a whole person, and more handsome than before." One place is incomplete, and it is dressed in the clothes of a nobleman. "Are you happy now?" "Yes, I'm so happy, but I'd be happier if instead of this deserted beach we lived in a beautiful palace." When the young man heard this, he read again: "For the love of eels, let us live in a beautiful palace. In the palace there are two apple trees, one on each side, one with golden apples and the other with silver apples." , and let the palace have some attendants, stewards, ladies-in-waiting and everything that should be in the palace." As soon as he finished speaking, everything appeared in front of his eyes, the palace, the apple, and the housekeeper. A few days later, the halfling, who was no longer half but full, hosted a banquet in his palace for all the kings and queens around him, and the bride's father also came.The halfling stood at the gate to welcome the guests, and told everyone: "Please remember one thing, that is, don't touch those golden and silver apples, whoever touches it will be at their own risk." The guests all said: "Don't worry, don't worry, we won't mess around." As the host and guest began to drink and eat, the halfling whispered, "For the love of the eels, let a golden apple and a silver apple run into my father-in-law's pocket." After the banquet, the young man took all the guests for a walk in the garden. When he saw two apples missing from the tree, he asked, "Who took them?" All the kings said, "Not me, I didn't touch anything." The halfling said: "I informed you in advance that I don't want anyone to touch them, and now I have to search your honorable majesty." As he spoke, he began to search king by king, queen by queen.No one hides apples.Finally, when it was his father-in-law's turn, the two apples were found on him. The young man said, "Look, among all the guests, no one dared to touch anything, and you stole my two apples! Now , I want to settle accounts with you!" "But I don't know anything..." said the King uneasily, "I don't know what it is...I haven't touched them, I can swear it!" The halfling said, "Now, with all the evidence and witnesses here, do you still dare to say that you are innocent?" The king said, "Yes." "Well, your daughter is as innocent as you, and it is only fair that I treat you as you do to your daughter." Just then, the princess appeared and said, "I will never let my father suffer because of me, although he has treated me cruelly, he will always be my father anyway, please let me go." him." The halfling's heart softened at his wife's words, and he promised her.The king, who had thought his daughter was dead, was overjoyed at this reunion, and he knew that she was innocent.He brought his daughter's family of three back to the palace and lived with them in harmony. If they hadn't all died, they would still be living there together now. (Venice area)