Fairy Tales from Spain — J. Muñoz Escámez
FAIRY TALES FROM SPAIN You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Fairy Tales from Spain Creator : José Muñoz Escámez Illustrator : William Matthews Release date : July 13, 2013 [eBook #43212] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43212 Credits : Produced by Al Haines *** START OF C. TILNEY He found Himself tied by the Neck, Wings and Feet. FAIRY TALES FROM SPAIN By J. MUNOZ ESCOMEZ Illustrated by W. MATTHEWS LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS LTD NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC. All rights reserved Made in Great Britain at The Temple Press Letchworth for J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd Aldine House Bedford St London First Published in this Edition 1913 Reissued at a cheaper price 1936 Reprinted 1940 CONTENTS Khing-Chu-Fu The City of Fortune The Garden of Health Carabi! Carabo! The Author of the Wall The Devil's Tournament The Treasure of the Dragon The Man with the Two Faces The Treachery of Micifuf Trompetilla and Trompetin The Quack Doctor The Drawing School The Man with the Nose The Island of Brilliants The Judgment of the Flowers The Three Questions The Captain's Exploit The Topsy-Turvy World Don Suero the Proud LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS He Found Himself tied by the Neck, Wings, and Feet . . . Frontispiece "Rise, Wise Man," said the Empress sweetly The Vulture carried Him to the other side of the abyss She transformed Herself into a Lovely Girl "What are You doing here, Boy?" The Quack Doctor. He met Two Dwarfs who were playing Marbles Pero Gil at one Bound Approached the Statue headpiece to Khing-Chu-Fu KHING-CHU-FU Khing-Chu-Fu, Empress of China, was doing her hair when her maids who, on their knees witnessed the delicate operation of artistically arranging the imperial hair of her majesty, burst into cries of admiration scarcely repressed by the etiquette of the palace. "What is the matter?" Khing-Chu-Fu deigned to ask, turning her head. "Ah, lady!" exclaimed the maids in a chorus. "Brahma has deigned to favour you with a sign of his protection." "And what is that?" inquired the empress. "A silver thread which appears amidst your beautiful hair." "That is to say I have a white hair." "So it is called amongst simple mortals, but in the Daughter of the Sun they are threads of silver, to which poets spontaneously sing verses under the penalty of being quartered like dogs." "Let the seers and astrologers come at this very moment. I must know what this foretells." Five minutes afterwards the royal boudoir was full of moustached men with eye-protectors, who, kneeling, waited to be consulted. "To-day a white hair has appeared in my head!" exclaimed the empress. The seers tugged at their moustaches in desperation, leaving the floor covered with hairs. "Hail!" said the eldest, "Daughter of the Sun, who hast all the brilliance of the diamond, the beauty of the iris, the wisdom of Confucius, and the sweetness of the honey! This silver thread foretells a terrible calamity in the empire. Know that Brahma has decreed—it horrifies me to say so!—that one of your imperial teeth will commence to ache." Terror was depicted on every countenance, and all who witnessed this scene pulled their pigtails, a sign of terrible desperation among the Chinese. The pages and maids groaned in chorus; the mandarins sat down on their hats, passing the time by eating tangerine oranges and rubbing their eyes with the peel. The news spread into the city, and very soon the whole of Pekin came out into the streets and places weeping salt tears over the terrible aching of the too —, for simple subjects were forbidden to pronounce completely the names of the imperial members or other parts of their illustrious sovereign's body. "The too—, the too—!" shouted the maddened people, making Pekin seem like an immense enclosure of bulls: and as if to make the illusion still more complete, there were not lacking people who produced cattle-bells with which the faithful are called to the pagoda—the church of the Chinese. In those days there came to Pekin a young Spaniard, a native of Seville, a sharp and witty youth, who had arrived at the capital of the Chinese Empire after having wandered over half the world on foot, without money and without shame. He was thought to be very wide-awake and even clever, and all because he had been a groom and bull-ring attendant in his own town where he was nicknamed Pinchauvas. Well, our Pinchauvas was astonished to see the desperation of those Chinese and above all when he heard the sound of too—! too—! which made him fear he was going to meet a drove of bulls. In case it was so, he thought it better to climb up to the first window which came to hand. He had hardly reached the window, when from the interior of the house came forth a hand, and then an arm, which, catching hold of him firmly by the neck, pulled him up and made him enter the house in a most original way. The arm was that of a palace guard who, on seeing our Sevillian climbing up to a window of one of the imperial rooms, detained him in order to deliver him up to justice. This crime was a terrible one. In China it was something daring to profane one of the windows of the empress! That crime was punishable, at the least, with death. The worst of it was that Pinchauvas did not know a word of Chinese, and was therefore amazed when the guard said to him, with a terrible air: "Kun-chin-pon-ton!" "What is this fellow saying to me?" thought Pinchauvas. "He seems to have a stomach-ache and is telling me that he has indigestion. Well, let him get better." And he shrugged his shoulders. But the guard was nasty and, seizing him again by the neck, took him through the passages of the palace to the rooms of the great chancellor. The latter was found praying to God that the terrib