Chapter 162 189. The Horned Princess

Once upon a time, there was an old man who had three sons.The old man has only one house and nothing else.Later, he sold the house as well, and according to regulations, the three bricks in one wall of the house must be returned to the original owner.When he was dying, he wanted to make a will. "What inheritance have you left to your son? You have nothing!" asked the neighbors.His three sons were also reluctant to go to the notary, but the notary was called anyway.The dying old man wrote a will: "Give my eldest son the first brick; give my second son the second brick; give my younger son the third brick."

These three sons are idlers.After the old man passed away, the boss said: "I don't want to hang out in this place anymore. Now I want to take back the brick my father left me, and go outside for a break." When the boss went to get the brick, the landlady said to him: If the brick is dug up, the wall will be damaged; if the boss does not move the brick, she will pay for it.The eldest disagreed and said, "No, ma'am, the brick was left to me by my father. I will dig it up and take it away." While digging the brick, the eldest found a money bag.So he took the purse and the bricks away.On the way, he felt a little hungry, so he took out his purse and said, "Purse, purse, will you give me two granos, please, and let me buy a piece of bread?" He opened the purse , Sure enough, two granos were found inside.

"Ah, purse, purse, then please give me a hundred gold coins!" There were one hundred gold coins in the bag. In this way, no matter how much money he wants, there will be money in his pocket. Soon, he became so rich that he built a palace opposite the royal palace.He looked out from the palace, and it happened that the king's daughter was also looking out from the palace, and the two gradually fell in love with each other.The eldest also made friends with the king and became a frequent visitor to the palace.When the princess saw that he was richer than her father, she asked him, "If you tell me where your money comes from, I will marry you."

The boss was a fool, he believed the princess's words, and showed her the purse.The princess pretended nothing had happened, put sleeping pills in his wine, and while he was asleep, changed him into a fake money bag that was exactly the same.The poor boy found out he had been cheated and had to sell his property to live.In the end, he became impoverished and almost died without a place to bury him. At this time, he heard that his second brother had made a fortune.So, he found his second brother.When the two brothers met, they embraced warmly.The eldest brother cried out his misfortune to his brother, and then asked the second brother how he got rich.The second brother said that when he was poor, he went to dig the brick left by his father and found a cloak.After wearing it, others can't see themselves.When he was hungry, he went to the shop to get bread, and no one could see him.Later, he stole the belongings of the owners of silverware shops and clothing shops, and finally became a rich man.

"In that case, dear brother," said the eldest brother, "can you please do me a favor, lend me your cloak, and I'll return it to you someday." I lent it to my brother. The eldest left the second's house in a cloak, and no one saw him.He immediately started stealing things, even more fierce than his brother.After he had accumulated a great deal of wealth, he returned to the king.Seeing that he was richer than before, the princess asked, "Where did you get all this money? If you tell me, we will get married right away." Like last time, the boss was fooled again and showed the princess the cloak.The princess put sleeping pills in the wine again, and while he was asleep, she exchanged an ordinary cloak for the cloak of invisibility.When the boss woke up, he put on the false cloak, thinking that he was still invisible, and searched for his purse everywhere in the palace.The guards saw him, took him for a thief, caught him, beat him up, and drove him out of the palace.

The poor boy didn't know what to do, so he decided to return to his hometown and find another job to make a living.When he returned to his hometown, he heard that his third brother had become a rich man and lived in a big palace. "I'm going to my brother," he thought, "he'll never drive me away." The third brother thought he was dead, but now he was back, very happy, and told him how he got rich. "One day, I was short of money, so I dug up the brick my father left me and prepared to sell it. But I found a horn behind the brick. As soon as I saw this horn, I immediately wanted to blow it. It. When I blew it, there were many soldiers in front of me, and they said, 'Your order, General!' But I took the horn away from my mouth, and the soldiers disappeared. Now I understand how it happened It happened. I led them through the villages and cities, and fought wars everywhere, and accumulated money. When I had accumulated enough money to spend a lifetime, I returned to my hometown and built this palace."

After hearing this, the boss borrowed the horn from the third son, saying that he would return it when he was done using it.With this horn, the boss came to a rich city.As soon as he blew, soldiers rushed out all over the mountains and plains.The boss ordered the soldiers to sack the city.The soldiers snatched a lot of gold and silver treasures back without waiting for him to say it a second time.Therefore, when he saw the princess again, he was already richer than before. Although the eldest fell into the princess's trap twice, this time he was fooled again: he told the princess the secret, and the princess gave him wine with sleeping pills and secretly changed his horn.After he woke up, the king and the queen expelled him on the pretext that he was greedy for drinking.The boss felt deeply insulted, so he took the money and went to another country.

When he was passing through a forest, twelve robbers rushed out suddenly, trying to rob him of his money.The boss blew his horn, hoping that soldiers would rush out to protect him.The robbers ransacked him, though he blew his trumpet very loudly, and nay, the robbers saw that he was very conceited, and gave him a good lesson.He was beaten half to death, lying on the ground, still holding the false horn in his hand, puffing out his cheeks and blowing vigorously.Only then did he realize that what he was blowing was a false horn.He thought that he had not only harmed himself, but also his two brothers.So, he wanted to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

He found a steep cliff, climbed to the edge of the cliff, and jumped.But when he jumped halfway up the mountain, he was caught by a fig tree protruding from a crack in the stone.The trees were laden with black figs.He thought: Even if you die, you can’t be a starving ghost. Let’s eat first.So he feasted on figs. He ate one, twenty, thirty, but he found that there were many branches on his body.For on his head, on his face, and on his nose, there grew many horns: as many figs as he ate, as many horns grew.His previous situation was miserable enough, but now that he had turned into a monster again, he was even more determined to commit suicide.

He got down from the fig tree, and jumped down again, but he had too many horns on his head, and got tangled up in another tree.It was a white fig tree bearing more fruit. "I won't have horns on my head anymore. Anyway, I'm going to die anyway, let's fill my stomach first." Thinking of this, he began to eat white figs.As soon as he ate three, he felt that three horns were missing from his head; he continued to eat, and with each white fig he ate, a horn was missing from his head.He kept eating until finally the horns on his head disappeared and his skin became much smoother and more tender than before.

When the horns on his head were gone, the eldest jumped down from the tree and climbed up the cliff.When he reached the black fig tree, he picked a handkerchief full of figs, and walked towards the palace.Figs were not in season at that time: the guards immediately stopped him and let him into the palace.The king bought all his figs, kissed the king's knee, and hurried away. At noon, the king's family began to eat figs.The princess, who loves figs the most, devoured them hungrily.They were so excited to eat that they didn't even bother to look up.When they raised their heads, they found that each other's heads were covered with horns.The princess is almost like a forest.They were so frightened that they called all the doctors in the city, but none of them could help them.The king had to post a notice: Whoever can cure the king's family can get whatever he wants. When the eldest heard the news, he went back to the white fig tree, picked a basket full of white figs, and then, disguised as a doctor, came to see the king. "Your Majesty, I can cure your whole family and remove the horns on your head." When the princess heard what he said, she couldn't wait to shout: "Father, please let him remove the horns on my head first." The king agreed. When the doctor was alone in a room with the princess, he took off his disguise and said to the princess: "Do you still know me? Please listen, if you take that purse that turns money, the one that makes people invisible If you return me the cloak and the horn that can summon soldiers, I will remove the horns from your body. Otherwise, I will make more horns grow on your head." The princess could no longer bear the pain of the horns on her head.She felt that this young man could do magic, so she believed him. "I will give you everything back," she said, "but first you must take off the horns on my head, and then you will marry me." So saying, the princess handed over her purse, her cloak, and her horn. As many horns grew on the princess's head, the boss ate as many white figs as she wanted.Then, in the same way, he removed the horns from the heads of the king and the rest of the palace.The king agreed to the marriage of the elder brother and the princess, and they got married.The eldest gave back the cloak and the horn to the two brothers, but kept the purse for himself, and stayed in the palace as the king's son-in-law.A year later the king died, and the eldest and his wife became king and queen. (Acireale region) -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ [1] An ancient small coin equivalent to one fiftieth of a lire.