Chapter 167 194. Lion grass

Once upon a time, there was a carpenter whose daughter was very beautiful, but their family was very poor.The girl's name was Maria Orsola.Because she was so pretty, her father didn't let her go out, not even let her look out of the window.Opposite the carpenter lived a merchant. His family was very rich and had a son.The son heard that the carpenter had a daughter, so he went to the carpenter's house and asked, "Master Anto, can you make me a table?" "Give me the wood, and I will make it for you," said the carpenter, "because I have no money to buy wood."

The young man brought the wood with his parents behind his back.Because the merchant couple did not want their son to go to a poor family.The merchant's son was looking around at the carpenter's house to see Maria Orsola.Maria Orsola thought the boy had gone and came down from the stairs.When Pepino saw her, he fell in love with her at once. He said to the carpenter: "Master Anto, I beg you to marry me Maria Orsola." The carpenter replied: "Oh, my child, don't play tricks on us. Maria Orsola is a poor girl, and your parents will not like it." "I'm not kidding," Pepino said, "don't worry about my parents. I like Maria Orsola and I'm going to marry her."

So Pepino married the carpenter's daughter without telling his parents. Pepino's mother heard from neighbors that her son had just married and immediately told her husband about it. "What is to be done?" said the merchant, "we must put him on board." In the evening, when Pepino came home, his father said to him: "Son, I am old and useless, and now you must transport the goods to the mainland." The son said, "Well, just let me know when you want me to go." Pepino told Maria Orsola the day of departure. "I have to leave home to do business." The wife burst into tears when she heard the news.He left his wife some money and said to her, "Well, don't be sad. Don't worry. Don't forget to think of me!"

The next day, when Pepino walked out of the house, Maria Orsola looked at him from the window and listened to him say to the people on the street: "Please don't worry, I will die after I go out for a year." Will be back." Hearing Pepino's voice, Maria Orsola fainted.She fell ill in bed and had been half dead since the day Pepino left home. A year later, Pepino returned to Porto Torres.He immediately sent someone to report to his family, saying that he had returned, and asked his family to send a car to pull the goods.His parents and friends went to pick him up at the port.After the greeting, he suddenly asked: "How is our neighbor?"

"It's all well," he was told. "I heard that Maestro Anto's daughter, Maria Orsola, is very ill. She is not dead, but she will not live long. Since the day you left home, she has been Bedridden." Pepino fainted immediately when he heard the news.They loaded him into a carriage and drove him home, and then the doctor was called in.He was sick from Maria Orsola's pain, but the doctors didn't know what it was.His parents were very sad. There is a need to explain here: before Pepino left home, he told two of his good friends about his marriage with Maria Orsola.The two good friends went to the doctor and said to him: "This young man has recently married without his parents' knowledge. Since he left home, his wife has been bedridden with a serious illness. This is the root of his disease. Just take the young woman Come here, and he will be cured."

The doctor told Pepino's parents about it. "What shall we do?" the businessman asked his wife.When Pepino's mother heard that her son had married the daughter of a poor family, she was even more saddened. "It would be better to see him marry a carpenter's daughter than to see him die," said the mother, and she sent to see Maria Orsola. "Maria Orsola is dying," said the carpenter's wife. "She has been ill for so long that you never bothered to ask about her, and now she is dying and you are thinking of her." "I'm going to take her into my house," said Pepino's mother.

"Please don't touch her, she is dying." However, under the repeated insistence of Pepino's mother, Maria Orsola was finally lifted up and taken to the merchant's house, where she was laid on the sofa next to Pepino's bed. "Pepino," cried his mother, "look at your Maria Orsola." Hearing this, Pepino gradually regained consciousness and sat up from the bed: "Maria Orsola!" Maria Orsola gradually regained consciousness when she saw Pepino beside her. They are all cured.After they recovered their health, the wedding ceremony was officially held, and they lived happily ever after.

But the good times didn't last long, and Maria Orsola fell ill. "Pepino," she said, "you will say your prayers beside my dead body when I am dead." And she was dead. Her body was carried away, but Pepino forgot Maria Orsola's words. That night, he suddenly remembered this matter, "My God, I forgot!" He immediately ran to the door of the church and knocked hard on the door. "Who is it?" asked the sexton. "Please help me, go downstairs and open the door." After the sexton opened the door, Pepino said: "Open the grave of the dead woman for me, and I will give you ten scudos."

"How can I do that? If anyone knows, it's all right!" "It's so dark, no one will know." So the sexton opened the tomb and went away.Pepino knelt down and prayed.While praying, he suddenly heard the roar of lions, and the two lions rushed into the church yard and started fighting.One of the lions threw the other to the ground and killed it bite by bite.Then, the living lion ran into the courtyard, took a bunch of grass in its mouth, lifted the dead lion's mouth, and wiped its teeth with the grass.The dead lion came back to life and ran away together. Pepino finished his prayer at this time and thought: Let me see if I can bring Maria Orsola back to life!He picked some of that grass, rubbed it on his wife's teeth, and she woke up at once, and said to him: "What have you done, Pepino? I was very comfortable that way."

Pepino threw his cloak over her, and took her arm. "What's the matter?" asked the sexton, "you dare to take the dead away?" "Let me go, my wife lives again!" He took his wife home, put her to bed, covered her warm, and put her to sleep.Then he lay down next to her again. About seven o'clock the next morning, Pepino's mother knocked at the door. "Who is it?" Maria Orsola asked. Hearing the sound of a dead person coming from the house, the mother-in-law was so frightened that she fell down on the steps, hit her head on the ground and died.

After a while, the maid knocked on the door. "Who is it?" Maria Orsola asked, "Why are you still knocking?" The maid, too, was frightened out of her wits when she heard the voice of the dead man, and fell at the door, hitting her head on the steps, and died. When Pepino woke up, Maria Orsola said to him: "It is impossible to sleep in this room, there is always someone knocking on the door." "Did you promise?" "of course." "What have you done! They thought you were dead." Pepino opened the door and saw his mother and maid dead at the foot of the steps. "Oh, I'm so unlucky," he said to himself, "but I can't say anything about it, lest I frighten my wife." Then he revived the two women with lion grass. Maria Orsola made a wish when she was sick: she would go to San Gavino church to worship.She said to her husband: "Tomorrow we will go to San Gavino Church and fulfill our vows." They set off.But after walking for a while, the wife said: "Pepino, I forgot the ring on the balcony." "Oh, forget it, let's continue on our way." "No, I must go back and get it, a gust of wind may blow it away." "I'll get it for you. Don't forget, you don't want to go to the sea, because King Moskvia's ship is there." And he went away. Maria Orsola, however, made it to the sea.The king of Moskva captured her and took her away. When Pepino returned with the ring, he looked for Maria Orsola everywhere, but she had long since disappeared.So he jumped into the sea and swam forward.He saw a boat ahead and waved his white handkerchief at it. "Quick, there's a man in the sea!" said the captain.They brought him up, and Pepino asked: "Have you ever seen King Moskvia's ship?" "No, I haven't seen it." "Please do me a favor and take me to the Kingdom of Moscowvia." In Moskva, he saw Maria Orsola in queenly clothes.Pepino smiled at her as soon as he saw her, but she turned away immediately.Pepino could not approach her at all, so he asked to be the king's servant.He was hired to serve the king and queen at dinner.When he saw Maria Orsola alone at the table, he said to her: "Hey, my Maria Orsola, don't you know me?" She straightened her face immediately and turned to ignore him.At this time, she had already thought up a plot to entrap him.She said to one of the king's squires, "Put these silver utensils into the pocket of that manservant." The silver tableware disappeared, and the queen immediately ordered: "Search the footman." They found the cutlery from Pepino's pocket. "Here is the silverware thief! Throw him into prison, and hang him before my bed." Pepino still had some lion grass on him at the time.When the executioner led him to the gallows, he said to the confessor: "I am innocent. When they hang me, please don't let them break my neck. Then, please carry me back At your house, rub this grass on my teeth, and I will be resurrected." In this way, on the gallows, the priest said to the executioner: "Be careful, don't break his neck." Then he asked the king to carry the criminal's body back to the monastery.The executioner took care not to break his neck while hanging him, and the confessor had the body carried to the abbey.As soon as the priest wiped his teeth with lion grass, Pepino came back to life.After thanking the priest, he left there. He came to the country of the king with seven crowns.The king's wife had just died, and the palace was covered with black veils. "I want to go to the palace," said Pepino to the guards. "Do you think the people in the palace will need you now?" the guard snapped. "Please go in and report, I want to enter the palace." He insisted on going in, and finally the guards had to let him in. "Your Majesty, I would like to be alone with the dead queen." So the king ordered everyone to leave the room. Pepino closed the door, carried the queen out of the coffin, put her on the bed, and rubbed the lion grass in her mouth, and the queen came back to life.Pepino opened the door and shouted: "Your Majesty, look at your wife!" The black veil was immediately removed in the palace, and the people rejoiced. From that day on, the king has kept him with him.One day, the king said to him: "Pepino, I am old, and now you are our son, and I will pass on my seven crowns to you." Pepino asked: "Which kings will come to attend the coronation ceremony of the seven crowns?" "The king of Spain, the king of Italy, the king of France, the king of Portugal, the king of England, the king of Austria, and the king of Moscovia will come, and seven of them will crown the king of seven crowns." "Well, I accept the seven crowns," said Pepino. Invitations have been sent out.King Moskva was ready to leave, and his wife, Maria Orsola, had prepared a suit of clothes for the coronation.They came to the palace of the King of the Seven Crowns. All the kings and queens were sitting in the hall, and Pepino recognized Maria Orsola at a glance, but she did not recognize Pepino.After the coronation ceremony, a grand banquet was held.After the banquet, Pepino, wearing seven crowns, said: "Now we each have a story to tell." So, one by one, they all told a story.When it was Pepino's turn, he said: "Now I will tell my story, but no one is allowed to leave here until I finish." all the experience so far.At this time, Maria Orsola seemed to be sitting on coals, disturbed and disturbed.She tried to leave there, citing a headache, but Pepino said: "No one is allowed to leave." After Pepino finished speaking, he asked King Moskvia: "What should be done with such a woman?" "Hang her first, then burn her, and finally let the wind carry her ashes away," replied King Moskvia. "Well then," said Pepino, "take the wife of King Moskvia!" She was strangled on the spot. Pepino continued there as king with seven crowns. (Nura Region)