Inter- cool- tural stories Italy3

THE LAST CACANIZZOLO

Nicetta, a ten years old girl, usually brought some pigs near the river so that they could “strufolare”(rub their snout against the grass) looking for something to eat, in this way she helped her family, a farmers family of the thirties. She was doing this even during that hot August afternoon. She was not alone because Peppe, her cousin, was in the field looking after some sheep and uncle Gioanne was cutting down some trees in order to have some poles for the vines and some wood to burn during the winter.
It was a big herd of swine, there was the sow, all her “cioncarini”(the youngest pigs), the “salvatorelli”(pigs who are about one month old) and the “salvatori” (pigs who are about three months old), from more than a brood and finally there was the last one of the “cacanizzoli”, that is the last born, the smallest, not for age but for size, the one who was the smallest either because the “matrana”( the sow who feeds all the little pigs) didn’t have enough teats or because his brothers, who were born before him and who were more expert than him, left for him the teat with less milk. He could survive the first difficult days and now, even if very small, he was part of the herd of swine. They were ugly, nearly disgusting, of a strange breed with dark skin, but if you could peer into their eyes, they were flashing and gentle.
During that afternoon there was a storm on the mountain but there it didn’t rain at all , even if the sky became dark and the swallows flew down in sight of a possible storm that could drive all the insects out. The pigs were scratching about and “sgaucciavano”(were searching something moving the earth) along the large shingle of the river near the dike where the water was diverted towards the miller and it let the millstones turn. There the river made a waterfall of ten metres, impressive and beautiful to see, so beautiful that some people used to come from the town to see it, when there was a lot of water.
A pouring noise was getting closer and suddenly the flood appears in front of Nicetta.
Water took some time to fill the bed of the river because first it filled the holes made by farmers coming by carts to take some gravel at the river: the little girl could step back but the pigs, more placid than her, were carried away one after the other by the strong current, they arrived at the waterfall and flew disorderly in a spectacular way on the water, they fell down again in the whirling whirlpool and were carried away again. Peppe and Gioanne had immediately rushed but in vain.
Everybody ran along the banks to follow the animals’ destiny, Nicetta, with a frightened look, saw the “cacanizzolo” disappearing among the cloudy waters. At last the weave weakened and the feverish rescue operations started . Slowly the pigs got up to the bank of the river, pushed by some poles and attracted by the cries and by the noise of the rattling iron “caldarole” (buckets). All of them except one: the “cacanizzolo”.
They went as far as more than half a kilometre from the waterfall towards San Lorenzo, but there was no trace of the “cacanizzolo” and, as it was getting dark, they reluctantly interrupted their search and went back home drenched to the skin, tired and sad.
The pigsty had remained opened: who was there crouched in a corner, half-covered by some straw? The “cacanizzolo”!
Pigs can’t talk or, if they can, humans don’t understand them, so no one will ever know how he could save himself and how he could found his way home by himself.
Nicetta felt her hearth ached by the excitement and happiness.
In the evening, at dinner, all of them were very happy.
The pigsty was crowded by dreams of flying and of finned animals and probably someone even thought about shooting a short film.

Inter- cool- tural stories Spain

We have choosen three legends, each legend has been studied by different classes:
• The witch of the cathedral

. The lioness
• Saint Narcissus and the flies
THE LIONESS

There is a popular legend: If you go to Girona you have to kiss the lioness' bottom. It is an easy way to express a wish to come back to the town, or stay there forever or to become a citizen. It goes without saying that someone is not considered a good Girona inhabitant if they haven't completed the ritual. The final argument: this is the only place in the world where you can kiss a lioness' bottom without getting into trouble.
THE WITCH OF THE CATHEDRAL

A witch threw stones at people who attended the numerous processions which took place in Girona. On the day of Corpus Christi when she was about to throw a stone a voice thundered out across the town saying: “Throw stones, throw stones and stone you will become!”. And to this very day she can be seen as a gargoyle on the Cathedral.

SAINT NARCISSUS AND THE FLIES
During the siege of 1285, a group of French soldiers managed to penetrate the church of Sant Feliu. A swarm of big flies came from the tomb of the Patron Saint of Girona causing death to the French troops and their horses. Faced by this unexpected miraculous situation the French troops started to retreat. Since then, every time Girona was involved in a new conflict, the intervention of Saint Narcissus and his flies was assured.
WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR VISIT TO GIRONA… YOU’LL BE ABLE TO LIVE THESE LEGENDS “in situ”!!!

Inter- cool- tural stories Slovenia2

WATER SPRITE
At first he lived in a stinky pond in a village. From an unknown reason he moved to mount Uršlja Gora. How he succeeded we unfortunately don't know…
His pond was exactly there where there is a church today, consecrated to St. Ursula. When St. Ursula came to Mount Uršlja Gora she really liked it there, so she called Water Sprite and asked him to move his lake. Water Sprite was bored on Mount Uršlja Gora because he didn't meet anyone but shepherds all year long, and they always sang the same songs which he already knew by heart. He liked St. Ursula's idea. When he promised her to move the lake and himself to another hill, he, as a typical man, didn't think of how easy it is to promise something to a woman and how hard to fulfil it. He didn't want to carry the water on his head as a woman. Not at all! At last he was the ruler of all the waters. He kept thinking and he got an idea. At a nearby farmer, who didn't like the idea at first, he borrowed two oxen, Suri and Muri, which helped him carry the water night after night to the other hill until the pond was empty. When he finished and moved away himself, he well repaid the farmer. The oxen had a bag full of gold on each of their horns. Don't ever say that it's not worth helping Water Sprite.
And now back to the first residence of Water Sprite, the stinky pond.
A shepherd tended his flock by that pond every day. He didn't know what to do, so he sat down by the pond, threw pebbles and tried to make them leap to the other shore. When he grew weary of this, he started throwing bigger stones into the middle of the pond. He admired the circles that occured on the water. Once he threw a very big stone. Big circles occured and they didn't disappear. They got bigger and bigger as if bigger and bigger stones were falling into the water.The shepherd thought there was a storm on the bottom of the pond. A huge storm! Water Sprite!!!Water Sprite raged: »Who has knocked the spoon out of my son's hands?« The shepherd ready-wittedly pointed to a poor animal: “It was this sheep.”
Water Sprite grabbed the sheep and dragged it into the pond.
That’s how we know Water Sprite really exists.

Inter- cool- tural stories Slovenia

THE STORY ABOUT SLOVENJ GRADEC
It`s not about the real rising of the town but it stirs people`s imagination.
Once upon a time, when poeople lived together in concord and harmony, there was a big lake between Plešivec and the hill-side of western Pohorje. On one side of the wide water there was a castle and in the castle “Grad” lived a count, who had a very beautiful daughter. On the other side of the bank in a manor-house on Gradišče lived another count and his young and handsome son. By boat they often visited each other, the youngsters also in secret. One day when the contess was travelling again by boat across the water to embrance her sweet-heart, suddenly in the middle of the lake a strong north-east wind caught her, which raised high waves and turned over her boat. The young daughter drowned. The count wanted to find his daughter’s dead body at any price. They were searching for her day and night continuously for 14 days, however without success. At one point between Rahtel and the hill-side of Kremžarica the count ordered to dig through the hill and the water flew away. On the bottom of the dry lake in the middle of the arising valley he found in the mud the body of the young girl. In endless grief he ordered to build the church on the place where she drowned. Later, the town Slovenj Gradec arose around the church .

Inter- cool- tural stories Portugal

Legend of the Lady of Alcamé
In the place where today is built the chapel of the Lady of Alcamé, lived some cattle shepherds in straw tents. One day a teeny snake appeared there and one of them took off the milk of the cows and gave it to the snake. Then he started to call the snake whistling. He whistled and the snake came and he gave it milk. This happened during much time.
One day, the shepherd went to other lands where he lived for a long time. Years went by and he came back to see the place where the cattle grazed, and he remembered the snake. He decided to whistle and it appeared. But when it appeared, it has become a wild and very big snake and it started creeping around him.
As he hasn’t got any milk to give it the snake attacked him.
Very frightened he screamed at the top of his voice:
- “Our Lady, help me”.
Then Our Lady appeared, and threw a mace to the mouth of the snake and She put Her feet on the snake’s head. The snake stopped and didn’t attack the man anymore, so Our Lady saved him.
To pay homage to Our Lady who saved the man, a chapel was built in the middle of the plains near river Tejo. It was called Lady of Alcamé Chapel. Every year a pilgrimage and a procession take place from the chapel to Samora Correia.

LEGEND OF THE SOUP OF STONE

One friar walked begging some food as he was very hungry. Then he arrived at the door of a farmer, who didn’t want to give him any food. The friar was so hungry that he said with a very weak voice,” As you don’t give me any food I’m going to make a broth of stone”.
He picked up a stone from the soil, cleaned it very well and looked at it to see if it was good to make a broth. The people of the house began laughing because of this strange attitude of the friar. “Then haven’t you ever eaten a rock broth? I only can tell you that it is a good meal”, the friar said. Laughing the people of the house replied: “I want to see it”! These were the words the friar wanted to hear. After having washed the rock, he asked: “Can you lend me a pot?”
They gave him an adobe pot. He filled it with water and put down the stone inside it. “Now, if you let me to put the pan near the fire… “ They said so. As soon as the water started boiling, he said very quietly:
“With a little bit of grease, the broth would be a beauty”!
They gave him a piece of grease. The broth boiled, boiled, boiled… and everybody was astonished with what they were watching. The friar, tasted the broth and said: “Oh! It’s a little bit insipid! With a lump of salt it would be wonderful!”
So they gave him the salt. He flavoured the broth, proved it and declared: “Now, with some cabbage the broth would be eaten by the angels!”
The owner of the house went to the kitchen- garden and brought two tender cabbages.
The friar washed them and cut them to pieces and put them inside the pan.
When the cabbages were already boiled said the friar: “A bit of sausage would give it a delicious flavour!…”
They brought him a piece of it and he put it inside the pan. While it boiled, he took off of his saddlebag bread and prepared himself to eat calm and quietly….
The broth smelled so good that he ate it licking his lips! He poured out the pan but the stone remained at the bottom of the pan! The people of the house, who were staring at him asked: “Oh, Mr. Friar what about the stone?”
The friar answered: “I’ll wash it and take it with me for another time.”
And so he ate where nobody wanted to give him any food!

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.