Inter- cool- tural stories Italy2

The poor man

There was once an old man who went around in search of alms, and fortunately had put a bag of chickpeas. So as not to show it to people he thought of leaving it over to a woman saying that it would be catch it again during the night. The woman took the bag and laid it in a room where she weaved in a beautiful cock’s company.
The old that night didn’t see. Then the cock, without the lady noticing, he ate the whole bag of chickpeas. She desperated for nothing. When the old man appeared at the end, the woman told him what had happened. The old shouted as a damned and wanted the cock. So he left with the cock. After walking a long way, he arrived in an isolated house and he asked the lady if she could keep the cock. She answered yes and put the cock in a stable where there was a pig. The day after this is that the old man appeared to recover the cock, but in the stable only some feathers were scattered on the ground. The pig ate him. Heavens, the punishment of the owner and the anger of the old! The poor man did not want to hear excuses and asked him in exchange for the pork. “What wickedness” said the woman crying, but she couldn’t do anything else that to give him the pig. After walking a long way, here is that the old man came to another house and asked the lady if she could keep the pig in the stable.
“Put him well there” she replied. “There is already a calf and they will bear them company”.At the beginning, the calf showed gentle, when left alone with the pig and this went to the shooting, gave him a kick in the stomach and made him to bring the soul to St. Anthony.It happened with the old the same story of past. The calf came to him in tears of the lady. After walking a long way, the old man brought the calf in the house of an acquaintance. He gave her some money to buy the straw and hay, then he left. During the night, the daughter of the mistress were strange pain.
Her mother sent for the doctor and he said that she had to eat a very warm calf’s heart. If she had not eaten it, she would have died. The woman became crazy to think where to find it. In the end, the daughter, wringing on the bed as if at any moment she kicked the bucket, said in a weak voice: “Mom, there is down below the calf that gave you the old man”. “It’s true! What a stupid I am! You’re right. I’m going to kill him”. And she really killed him. We didn’t to add that she had just eaten the heart of the calf, the daughter recovered. But no one thought that the old man would come.
When he arrived, mother and daughter didn’t know which way to turn in order to find a convincing excuse. The old would not care about the pains of the young lady. So there was a very big row and screams came up to heaven. “ Listen” cried at last the old ”I will take your daughter instead of the calf”. “ What?” said the furious woman. “ You don’t touch my daughter, and if you touch her poor you!”. And so saying, she seized a stick and began to beat him everywhere. The old man tried to escape, ran here and there and the neighbourhood cried because she stopped to beat him. At the end she was exhausted and stopped to stick. And then she gave the old man her daughter. The old put her into a bag and loaded it on his back. Then he went away. After walking a long way, suddenly he realized that he didn’t do more. He knocked at the first house he saw and asked for a place to rest. He was satisfied. The old man went into a room to sleep, leaving the bag in a small room near the kitchen, and he recommended they did not touch it. The old could not know that the family of the girl lived in the house. He just felt asleep, the women of the house, always curious, wanted to see what was inside the bag, and they remained in amazement when, instead of crusts of bread they imagined they saw their granddaughter, who, recognizing their relatives, she all told. “Now we need to think about how to save her” said the lady of the house. As you do, as there is, in the end another woman said: “We put inside the bag a cat and a stick with long branches, which seems that opens its arms like a man. In this way the old will remain deceived”. Then she turned to the girl:” In the meantime you run by your mother, who’s crying by despair. Goodness knows how she’ll give you a hearty welcome!”. While the girl ran from her mother the old awoke. He went to take his bag, he put it on his shoulder and went away all happy. Arrived near a fountain, he began to sing:
From chickpea has become cock,
from cock has become pig
from pig has become calf,
from calf has become a girl,
here, I open again slowly,
exit out and give me a kiss.
He opened the bag again and fell to the ground furious and frightened. The cat went out very angry and scratched him in all his body.
So the old man, twisting about in pain and blushing , went home and was left empty-handed.
This happens to whom wants too much.