Fairy Tales from Brazil — Elsie Spicer Eells
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 Brazil: How and Why Tales from Brazilian Folk-Lore Author : Elsie Spicer Eells Release date : February 28, 2008 [eBook #24714] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24714 Credits : E-text prepared by Sankar Viswanathan, Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, *** START OF pgdp.net) FAIRY TALES FROM BRAZIL HOW AND WHY TALES FROM BRAZILIAN FOLK-LORE BY ELSIE SPICER EELLS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HELEN M. BARTON This special edition is published by arrangement with the publisher of the regular edition, Dodd, Mead & Company. CADMUS BOOKS E. M. HALE AND COMPANY CHICAGO COPYRIGHT, 1917, By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Thanks are due to the publishers of Little Folks , Kindergarten-Primary Magazine , Everyland , Mayflower and Story Tellers' Magazine for the privilege of reprinting stories which they have published. ELSIE SPICER EELLS PREFACE t is late afternoon in my Brazilian garden. The dazzling blue of sea and sky which characterises a tropical noonday has become subdued and already roseate tints are beginning to prepare the glory of the sunset hour. A lizard crawls lazily up the whitewashed wall. The song of the sabiá , that wonderful Brazilian thrush, sounds from the royal palm tree. The air is heavy with the perfume of the orange blossom. There is no long twilight in the tropics. Night will leap down suddenly upon my Brazilian garden from out of the glory of the sunset sky. Theresa, the ama , stands before us on the terrace under the mango trees, and we, her yáyázinhas and yóyózinhos , know that the story hour has come. Theresa, daughter of the mud huts under the palm trees, ama in the sobrado of the foreign senhora , is a royal queen of story land. For her the beasts break silence and talk like humans. For her all the magic wonders of her tales stand forth as living truth. Her lithe body sways backwards and forwards to the rhythm of her words as she unfolds her tales to us. She is a picture to remember as she stands under the mango trees on our terrace. Her spotless white " camiza " is decorated with beautiful pillow lace, her own handiwork. Her skirt of stiffly starched cotton is red and purple in colour. A crimson flowered folded shawl hangs over her right shoulder and great strings of beads ornament the ebony of her neck and arms. To sit at the feet of Theresa, the ama , is to enter the gate of story land. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Preface vii I. How Night Came 3 II. How the Rabbit Lost His Tail 15 III. How the Toad Got His Bruises 23 IV. How the Tiger Got His Stripes 33 V. Why the Lamb Is Meek 47 VI. Why the Tiger and the Stag Fear Each Other 61 VII. How the Speckled Hen Got Her Speckles 73 VIII. How the Monkey Became a Trickster 87 IX. How the Monkey and the Goat Earned Their Reputations 95 X. How the Monkey Got a Drink When He Was Thirsty 105 XI. How the Monkey Got Food When He Was Hungry 115 XII. Why the Bananas Belong to the Monkey 123 XIII. How the Monkey Escaped Being Eaten 135 XIV. Why the Monkey Still Has a Tail 145 XV. How Black Became White 155 XVI. How the Pigeon Became a Tame Bird 165 XVII. Why the Sea Moans 177 XVIII. How the Brazilian Beetles Got Their Gorgeous Coats 201 I How Night Came ears and years ago at the very beginning of time, when the world had just been made, there was no night. It was day all the time. No one had ever heard of sunrise or sunset, starlight or moonbeams. There were no night birds, nor night beasts, nor night flowers. There were no lengthening shadows, nor soft night air, heavy with perfume. In those days the daughter of the Great Sea Serpent , who dwelt in the depths of the seas, married one of the sons of the great earth race known as Man . She left her home among the shades of the deep seas and came to dwell with her husband in the land of daylight. Her eyes grew weary of the bright sunlight and her beauty faded. Her husband watched her with sad eyes, but he did not know what to do to help her. "O, if night would only come," she moaned as she tossed about wearily on her couch. "Here it is always day, but in my father's kingdom there are many shadows. O, for a little of the darkness of night!" Her husband listened to her moanings. "What is night?" he asked her. "Tell me about it and perhaps I can get a little of it for you." "Night," said the daughter of the Great Sea Serpent , "is the name we give to the heavy shadows which darken my father's kingdom in the depths of the seas. I love the sunlight of your earth land, but I grow very weary of it. If we could have only a little of the darkness of my father's kingdom to rest our eyes part of the time." Her husband at once called his three most faithful slaves. "I am about to send you on a journey," he told them. "You are to go to the kingdom of the Great Sea Serpent who dwells in the depths of the seas and ask him to give you some of the darkness of night that his daughter may not die here amid the sunlight of our earth land." The three slaves set forth for the kingdom of the Great Sea Serpent . After a long dangerous journey they arrived at his home in the depths of the seas and asked him to give them some of the shadows of night to carry back to the earth land. The Great Sea Serpent gave them a big bag full at once. It was securely fastened and the Great Sea Serpent warned them not to open it until they were once more in the presence of his daughter, their mistress. The three slaves started out, bearing the big bag full of night upon their heads. Soon they heard strange sounds within the bag. It was the sound of the voices of all the night beasts, all the night birds, and all the night insects. If you have ever heard the night chorus from the jungles