Chapter 100 99. Amphibians

A king posted this notice: Who can build a boat, Can fly on land and slide on water, I will marry my daughter to him. In that country there was a father who had three sons.All the father's possessions are a horse, a donkey, and a pig.When the eldest son heard about this notice, he said to his father, "Father, sell this horse and buy me some boat-building tools. I want to build a boat that can fly on land and glide on water. marry the king's daughter." He was always haunting his father, who had sold his horses and bought tools in order to make peace.The eldest son got up early in the morning, took his tools and left the house, and went into the woods to cut wood and build a ship.

Just when the boat was half built, a little old man came to him. "What are you doing there, boy?" "Do what I enjoy doing." "What are you happy to do, may I ask?" "Buck staves," answered the lad. "Then, you will find that all you make are barrel staves." The old uncle said and left him.In the evening the boy left his tools, wood, and half-built boat in the wood, and went home. The next morning, the boy went back to the woods and found that his wood and boat were gone, but a pile of staves.He was so sad that he went home crying and told his father what had happened.You can imagine how annoyed this father must be!To satisfy the boy's wish he had sold a horse, and now he was so angry that he would break his neck!

In less than a month, the second son was also eager to try his luck and wanted to build that kind of boat.He went to persuade his father and kept begging him to make mushrooms with him.In the end, the father had to sell the donkey and bought him tools for building a boat.The young man took his tools and went to the woods to cut wood.Just when the boat was half built, the old man appeared again and asked: "What are you doing, boy?" "I'm doing what I enjoy doing." "So, what are you happy to do, may I ask?" "Broom handle!" "You will see that all the wood you cut are broom handles!" said the old man, turned and left.

The young man went home at night, ate and slept.At daybreak he returned to the woods.What happened to him was exactly what happened to his brother: there was just a pile of broomsticks! He went home sad.His father yelled, "You deserve it! You two toads deserve it for wanting to eat swan meat! It's my retribution for me to listen to your nonsense!" At this time, the youngest son who had been listening to the side said: "Things have come to this point, we'd better keep going. Dad, I want to try it too. Sell that pig and get some more Tools. Maybe because they failed, I could succeed."

Long story short.After selling the pig, the younger son left the house with his tools and went into the woods.When the boat was half built, the old man showed up: "Young man, what are you doing?" "I'm building a boat that can fly on land and glide on water." "You will see a fully built boat, ready to fly and glide on land and water," said the old man, and left him. The young man went home at night, ate and slept.At daybreak he returned to the woods.In the woods, there is a small boat that has been installed even the small parts, and it is sailing and waiting to sail.He got into the boat and ordered: "Small boat, let's fly on the land." Then, the boat sailed steadily out of the woods as if sailing on the water, and came to his door.His father and two older brothers were stunned.

Then, the young man commanded: "Small boat, glide on the land." So, the boat glides to the king's palace.Along the way, the boat glides over mountains and plains; of course, when it encounters rivers, it floats on the water. At this time, the young man had a boat, but no sailors.He came to a dry river, into which the water from the mountain stream could not flow, because at the mouth of this river a giant was kneeling on the bank, and drank up the mountain stream. "My God, what a drink!" exclaimed the boy, looking at the giant. "Will you come with me to the king's palace?"

The giant took another swig, laughed, and said, "Well, anyway, I'm not very thirsty now." After that, he boarded the boat. The boat glided across the water and across the land to where another giant lived.The giant was holding a large buffalo with an iron fork. "Hello!" cried the boy from the boat, "will you come with me to the king's palace?" "That would be kind," he replied, "wait for me a moment, and let me have a bite here." "Go ahead and eat." So the giant raised the iron fork, and put the buffalo into his mouth, as if the buffalo were a roasted bird.Then he boarded the boat.Then, they continued to slide forward.

The boat sailed across the lake and across the fields to another giant.The giant is holding a mountain on its shoulders. "Hello!" cried the captain of the boat, "will you go with me to the king's palace?" "I can't go away." "Why can't you go away?" "If I don't stand up to this mountain, it will collapse." "Let it collapse." The giant left and held the mountain with one hand.He jumped into the boat, and as soon as the boat left, there was a loud boom and the mountain collapsed. The boat passed through roads and byways, over hills and slopes, and finally landed in front of the king's palace.The young man got out of the boat and said: "My lord, I built this boat with my own hands that can fly on land and glide on water. Please keep your promise and let me marry your daughter."

The king was surprised, regretted posting the notice, and was very unhappy.Now, he had to marry his daughter to this poor man whom he had never met. "I will give you my daughter in marriage," replied the King, "but on one condition: I will give you and your sailors a great feast, and you must eat it all, not even a chicken wing or a Not a single grape is allowed to remain." "Well, when is the banquet?" "Tomorrow." So the king ordered a banquet with a thousand dishes.Surely, he thought, the ragged lad couldn't afford to hire so many sailors to eat up such a feast.

The captain of the boat brought only one sailor to the banquet, and he was the sailor who ate the buffalo as a bird.He ate and ate, chewing and devouring ten dishes and ten dishes, swallowing a hundred dishes and a hundred dishes, and finally ate up a thousand dishes.The king stared at him dumbfounded. He was very surprised and asked the servants, "Is there anything else to eat in the kitchen?" "There's a little leftover." The rest of the dish was brought, but the Giant ate so much that there was not even a scrap of it left. "Of course, you can marry my daughter, but first I will give your sailors to drink all the wine in the cellar, and you must drink every drop."

In came the giant who drank the river.He drank bucket after bucket, jar after jar.He even took the two bottles of white wine which the King had set aside for himself, and drank them upside down. "I see," said the King, "I have nothing against you marrying my daughter. But the question is her dowry: wardrobe, chest, bed, washstand, cloth, jewel-box Well, there are other things in the house, you must take them all at once, and my daughter will sit on these dowries." "Would you like to do some work?" the boy asked the giant who stood against the mountain. "Yeah!" he replied, "I like working." They went up to the palace, and the young man said to the bearer, "Are you all ready? Put all the things you want to carry on his back." They brought out great wardrobes, tables, and jewel-chests, and piled them on the Giant's back as high as the roof.In order to sit on top of this pile of dowry, the King's daughter had to climb up to the attic of the palace, and from there to the top of the dowry.As soon as she was seated, the Giant cried out, "Hold on, Princess!" Taking all his things, the Giant ran all the way to the boat, and jumped into it. "Fly now, my boat," ordered the lad.So the boat sailed through the streets, through the city squares, and across the fields. The king watched from the balcony, and cried out, "Follow them! Catch them! Put them in chains and bring them back to me!" The guards hurried after them, but were stopped by a cloud of dust raised by the boat. The boy's father was overjoyed when he saw his little boy come back with a shipload of treasure and a princess in her wedding dress.The young man built the most beautiful palace in the world, and gave one floor of it to his father and brother, and another floor to each of his three companions, and kept the rest for himself and his bride, the King's daughter. . (Rome area) -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Notes: Source of material: Chapter 21 of "Short Stories and Fairy Tales in Roman Dialect" (Turin-Rome, 1907 edition) edited by Gigi Zanazzo; collection area: Rome. This is a story of traditional hyperbole, employing the technique of "numbers" used in the description of Gargantua.There are many variants of this story throughout Italy (see "Five Rascals" 126th of this volume). -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ [1] Gargantua is the protagonist of a political satire written by Renaissance French writer Rabelais (1494-1553). "Number" techniques refer to the exaggerated descriptions in the book, for example, Gargantua can talk at birth, drink the milk of more than 17,000 cows, and his clothes are made of more than 12,000 feet of cloth, etc. .