Chapter 38 37. The little boy in the big cloth bag

Pierino Pierone is a little boy, old enough to go to school.On the way he went to school there was a vegetable garden with a pear tree on which Pierino Pierone used to climb to pick pears and eat them.The witch Bysterlega passed under the pear tree and said: "Pierino Pierone, with your little white hands, Pass me a pear, Tell the truth, seeing them, I'm drooling! " Pierino Pierone thought: She is drooling because she wants to eat me, not the pear.I don't want to get down from the tree.Just picked a pear and threw it to the witch.But the pear fell to the ground just as a cow passed by and left a lump of dung on the pear.

The witch Bysterlega said again: "Pierino Pierone, with your little white hands, Pass me a pear. Tell the truth, seeing them, I'm drooling! " But instead of coming down from the tree, Pierino Pierone threw down another pear, which fell to the ground just as a horse passed by and pissed heavily on the pear. The sorceress Bistroga begged Pierino Pierone again, and Pierino Pierone thought it best to satisfy her, so he came down from the tree and handed her a pear, the sorceress Bistroga opened the big cloth bag, put Pierino Pierone instead of pears in it, tied the top of the bag, put it on his back, and went away.

After walking for a while, the witch Bistroga stopped to relieve herself. She put the cloth bag on the ground and hid in a bush.Pierino Pierone took advantage of this opportunity to use his mouse teeth to bite through the string that held the bag's mouth, slipped out, and then, slipping a large stone into the bag, he fled.The witch Bistroga came back, picked up the bag and set off again. "Pierino Pierone, You are as heavy as a boulder. " She said, and came to the front of her house.The door was closed, and the witch Bistroga called to her daughter: "Margherita Margheritone,

come down and open the door Get the big pot ready, Cook this Pierino Pierone. " Margherita Margheritone opened the door and set a cauldron full of water over the fire.As soon as the water boiled, the witch Bysterlega poured the cloth bag into the cauldron, mouth down. "Plop!" The big stone made a loud noise, and the pot leaked. The water in the pot extinguished the fire and splashed everywhere, and the witch's body was also burned. "Mom, what's the matter with you, Bring back a stone to cook? " Margherita Margheritone said.The witch Bistriga was so hot that he jumped and said:

"Daughter, light the fire again, I'll be back as soon as I go. " She changed her clothes, put on a blond wig, and went out with a cloth bag on her back. Pierino Pierone also did not go to school, but returned to the pear tree.Passing by the disguised witch Bysterlega again, hoping to be unrecognized, said to him: "Pierino Pierone, with your little white hands, Pass me a pear, honestly, see them I'm drooling! " But Pierino Pierone still recognized her, but refused to descend, saying: "I don't give pears to Bistroga the witch, Lest she bag me and tie me up. "

The witch Bysterlega coaxed him by saying: "I'm not the witch you say I am, Honestly, I've been here this morning, Pierino Pierone, with your little white hands, Pass me a pear. " After so many pleas from the witch, Pierino Pierone had to come down and hand her a pear.As a result, the witch pulled him into the cloth bag. When they reached the grove again, the witch stopped again to urinate, but this time the bag was tied so tightly that Pierino Pierone could not escape.So he pretended to call a quail, and it happened that a hunter with a dog was hunting quail, and when he heard the call, he found it and opened his pocket.Pierino Pierone jumped out of the bag and begged the hunter to put the dog in the bag instead of him.After the witch came back, she carried the bag on her back and walked forward. The dog inside was barking wildly while struggling to move around, so the witch said:

"Pierino Pierone, Don't bark and jump like a dog. " When she got to her house, she greeted her daughter again, saying: "Margherita Margheritone, come down and open the door Get the cauldron ready, Cook this Pierino Pierone. " But just as she was about to pour the bag over the boiling water, the dog slipped out like a madman, bit her calf, and then jumped out into the yard and started chasing the chickens.Margherita Margheritone says: "Mother, you are so strange, Want a dog for dinner? " Witch Bysterlega says: "Daughter, light the fire again,

I'll be back as soon as I go. " She changed her clothes again, put on a red wig, and came under the pear tree again.Persuaded by her rhetoric, Pierino Pierone was again caught by her.This time, the witch didn't stop along the way, and went home directly with the cloth bag on her back, and her daughter was waiting for her at the door. The witch said to her daughter, "Catch him and put him in the chicken coop first. Tomorrow morning, when I go out, you will cut him into cubes and stew them with potatoes." The next morning, Margherita Margheritone took out the vegetable pier and the kitchen knife, opened the door of the chicken coop and said:

"Pierino Pierone help me, Put the head on the vegetable mound. " Pierino Pierone says: "How to stretch? Demonstrate for me." Margherita Margheritone put her neck on the vegetable mound, and Pierino Pierone picked up the kitchen knife, chopped off her head, and fried it in a pan. The witch Bistroga came back, looked at it, and screamed: "My lovely daughter Margheritone. Who put you in this pot? " "Me!" said Pierino Pierone, standing on the top of the chimney. "How did you get there?" asked the witch. "I stacked the pots one by one, and then they came up."

So the witch Bistregga made herself a ladder out of the cauldron, trying to go up and catch Pierino Pierone, but when she was about to climb to the top, the cauldron collapsed and she fell into the fire. In the end, it was burnt so that even a little slag could not be seen. (Friuli region)