Chapter 108 107. The love of three pomegranates (as white as milk and as red as blood)

A king's son was sitting at a table eating.He cut a finger while cutting the cheese, and a drop of blood dripped on the cheese.So he said to his mother, "Mom, I want to have a wife whose skin is as white as milk and as red as blood." "Well, my child, a person with fair skin is not red, and a person with red skin is not white. But you can also look for it and see if you can find it." The kid started his journey.Walking and walking, he met a woman: "Young man, where are you going?" "I'll tell you later, because you're a woman." He walked and walked, and met a kind old man: "Young man, where are you going?"

"I can tell you. Old sir, because you must know better than I. I am looking for a girl whose skin is as white as milk and as red as blood." The kind old man said: "My child, people with fair skin are not red, and people with red skin are not white. However, take these three pomegranates and open them to see what comes out. But you can only Open by the spring." The young man opened a pomegranate, and out jumped a beautiful girl, whose skin was as white as milk and as red as blood, and she cried out at once: "The boy with the golden lips Give me water quickly, or I'll die of thirst. "

The prince hastened to hold the water in his hand and give her a drink, but it was too late.The beautiful girl died. He opened the second pomegranate, and a beautiful girl jumped out, saying: "The boy with the golden lips Give me water quickly, or I'll die of thirst. " He brought her water, but she was dead. He opened the third pomegranate, and a girl jumped out, more beautiful than the two just now.The boy poured water on her face and she came alive. She was completely naked, as if she had just left her mother's womb. The young man put his cloak on her body and said, "Climb up this tree and wait for me. I will go back and find clothes for you, and then drive the carriage to take you back to the palace." .”

The girl stayed on the tree by the spring and waited.Every day the ugly woman Saracina came to draw water from the spring.This time, when she scooped up water with an earthen jar, she saw the reflection of the girl in the tree in the water. "I am so beautiful, should I Use broken cans to fetch water? " Without thinking about it, she threw the crock pot on the ground and smashed it into pieces.When she got home, the hostess said, "Sarachina, the ugly woman! You didn't bring back the water and you lost the pot!" So she returned to the spring with another pot.At the spring she saw the shadow in the water again. "Oh, how beautiful I am!" she thought to herself:

"I am so beautiful, should I Use broken cans to fetch water? " She smashed the jar again, and the mistress scolded her again.She went back to the spring and broke another jar.The girl on the tree was just watching, but now she couldn't help laughing. The ugly woman Saracina looked up and saw her: "Oh, it was you! You made me drop three earthen pots? You are so beautiful! Wait a minute, I want to comb your hair." The girl refused to come down from the tree, but the ugly woman Saracina tried to persuade her again and again: "Let me comb your hair, you will be more beautiful."

She let the girl down, let her hair loose, and saw a hairpin pinned to her head.Ugly Saracina pulled out her hairpin and stuck it in the girl's ear.A drop of blood fell from the girl, and she died.But as soon as the drop of blood fell to the ground, it turned into a beautiful dove, and the dove flew away. So the ugly Saracina climbed up the tree.The king's son came back in his carriage and saw her and said, "You were as white as milk and as red as blood, why did you become so black?" Ugly Saracina replied: "The sun is coming out, color me. " The king's son asked, "But why did your voice change?"

She replied: "The wind picked up, changed my voice. " The king's son said: "You were so beautiful before, but now you are so ugly!" She replied: "And the breeze came, changed my appearance. " Helpless, the king's son had no choice but to take her home in a carriage. From then on, the ugly woman Saracina lived in the palace as the prince's bride.And the beautiful pigeon flew to the kitchen window every morning and asked the cook: "Cook, cook in a bad kitchen, What did the prince and the ugly Saracina do? " "He just eats, drinks, and sleeps alone," the cook replied.

beautiful dove says: "You let me drink soup, I give you the golden feather. " The cook handed it a plate of soup, and the beautiful dove fluttered its wings, dropped some golden feathers, and flew away. The next morning, it came back: "Cook, cook in a bad kitchen, What did the prince and the ugly Saracina do? " "He just eats, drinks, and sleeps alone," the cook replied. beautiful dove says: "You let me drink soup, I give you the golden feather. " It drank the soup, and the chef got the golden feather. After some time the cook thought it right to report all these things to the prince.After listening carefully, the prince said: "When the beautiful dove comes again tomorrow, catch it and bring it to me. I want to keep it by my side."

Ugly Saracina, who eavesdropped on their conversation from the shadows, felt that the beautiful dove would do her no good.The next morning, when the beautiful dove flew to the kitchen window, the ugly Saracina came ahead of the cook and stabbed it to death with a spit. The beautiful dove died.But a drop of blood fell on the garden, and suddenly a pomegranate tree grew on the very spot. This tree has miraculous effects, and a dying person can be restored to health by eating a pomegranate from the tree.In this way, people always lined up like a long queue to ask the ugly woman Saracina for a pomegranate.

At last there was only one pomegranate left on the tree, and it was bigger than the others. The ugly woman Saracina said, "I want to keep this pomegranate for myself." An old woman came and begged her, "Give me this pomegranate, my husband is dying." "I have only one left, and I will keep it to admire," said the ugly Saracina, but the king's son interrupted her, saying: "Poor old woman, her husband is dying, you should give her the pomegranate." .” In this way, the old woman went home with the pomegranate.When she got home, she found her husband dead.She thought: "In this case, I will keep this pomegranate for appreciation."

The old woman goes to mass every morning.While she was going to mass, the girl would run out of the pomegranate, light a fire, tidy up the room, cook and set the table, and then go back to the pomegranate.When the old lady came home, she found that everything was in order, and she didn't understand what was going on. One morning, when the old woman went to confess, she told the priest all about it.The priest said to her, "Do you know what to do? Tomorrow morning you pretend to go to Mass and hide at home. Then you will see who is cooking for you." The next morning, the old woman pretended to go out and closed the door behind which she hid.The girl came out of the pomegranate and began to sweep and cook.The old woman entered the house, and the girl had no time to go back to the pomegranate. "Where are you from?" the old woman asked her. She said, "Good old grandma, don't kill me, don't kill me." "I won't kill you, but I want to know where you came from." "I live in this pomegranate..." She told the old woman about her life experience. The old woman dressed her in peasant clothes, just as she had worn herself (for the girl was always naked, as she had been at birth).On Sunday, the old woman took her to go to mass together.The king's son was also at mass, and he saw her. "Oh, Jesus! That seems to be the girl I met by the spring!" The king's son stopped the old woman on the road. "Tell me where that girl comes from!" "Don't kill me!" cried the old woman. "Don't be afraid. I just want to know where she came from." "She came out of that pomegranate you gave me." "She too came out of a pomegranate!" cried the King's son, and turning to the girl, "How did you get into a pomegranate?" She told him her story. He went back to the palace with the girl, and let the girl tell the story of her life again in front of the ugly Saracina. "Did you hear?" said the king's son to the ugly Saracina when the girl had finished speaking, "I do not want to condemn you to death, but punish yourself." Seeing that she was not spared, the ugly woman Saracina said, "Smear me with asphalt and burn me in the middle of the square." So the ugly Saracina died, and the king's son married the girl. (Abruzzo region)