Hej :3
How are you guys? Today I found this tale and it's the most Brazilian thing I've ever read. I mean, it's the only one that I can really imagine happening here.
Once upon a time there was a father with three sons who had reached
the age when they must go out into the world to earn their own living.
When the time for parting came he gave to each of them a large melon
with the advice that they open the melons only at a place where there
was water nearby.
The three brothers set out from their father's house, each taking a
different path. As soon as the eldest son was out of sight of the
house he opened his melon. A beautiful maiden sprang out of the melon
saying, "Give me water or give me milk." There was no water nearby and
neither did the young man have any milk to give her. She fell down
dead.
The second son left his father's house by a path which led over a
steep hill. The large melon was heavy to carry and in a little while
he became very tired and thirsty. He saw no water nearby and feared
that there was no possibility of finding any soon, so he thought he
would open the melon and use it to quench his thirst. Accordingly he
opened his melon. To his great surprise, a beautiful maiden sprang
forth saying, "Give me water or give me milk." Of course he had
neither to give her and she fell down dead.
The third son also travelled by a path which led over a steep hill.
He, too, became very tired and thirsty and he often thought how much
he would like to open his melon. However, he remembered his father's
advice to open it only where there was water nearby. So he travelled
on and on hoping to find a spring of water on the hillside. He did not
have the good fortune to pass near a spring either going up the hill
or coming down on the opposite side. At the foot of the hill there was
a town and in the centre of the town there was a fountain. The young
man hurried straight to the fountain and took a long refreshing drink.
Then he opened his melon. A beautiful maiden sprang forth saying,
"Give me water or give me milk." The young man gave her a drink of
water. Then he helped her to a hiding place among the thick branches
of the tree which grew beside the fountain and went away in search of
food.
Soon a little black servant girl came to the fountain to fill a big
water jar which she carried on her head. The maiden in the tree above
the fountain peeped out through the branches. When the little black
servant girl bent over the water to fill her jar she saw the
reflection of a charming face in the water. "How beautiful I have
become," she said to herself. "How ridiculous that any one as
beautiful as I am should carry water on her head." She threw her water
jar upon the ground in disdain and it broke into a thousand pieces.
When the little maid reached home with neither water nor water jar her
mistress punished her severely and sent her again to the fountain
with a new water jar to fill. This time the maiden in the tree gave a
little silvery laugh when the black servant girl bent over the water.
The little maid looked up and spied her in the tree. "O, it is you, is
it, who are responsible for my beating?" she said. She pulled a pin
out of her camisa and, reaching up, she stuck it savagely into the
beautiful maiden in the tree. Then a strange thing happened. There was
no longer any beautiful maiden in the tree. There was just a pigeon
there.
At that moment the young man came back to the tree with the food he
had procured. When the little black maid heard his footsteps she was
frightened nearly to death. She hid herself quickly among the thick
branches of the tree. The young man was very much surprised to find a
little black maid in the tree in the place of the beautiful maiden he
had left there. "What has happened to you during my absence" he asked
in horror as soon as he saw her. "The sun has burned my complexion.
That is all. It is nothing. I shall be myself again when I get away
from this hot place," the little maid replied.
The young man married the little black maid and took her away out of
sunny places hoping that she would soon be again the beautiful maiden
she was when he left her by the fountain in search of food. But she
always remained black.
Years passed and the young man became very rich. He lived in a
beautiful mansion. All around the house there was a wonderful garden
full of lovely flowers and splendid trees where birds loved to sing
sweet songs and build their nests. In spite of his beautiful home the
young man was not very happy. It was a great trial to have a wife who
was so black. He often walked up and down the paths in his garden at
the close of the day and thought about how beautiful his wife had been
the first time he ever saw her. As he walked in the garden there was
always a pigeon which followed him about. It flew about his head in a
way that annoyed him, so one day when his wife was sick and asked for
a pigeon to be roasted for her dinner he commanded that this
particular pigeon should be killed.
When the cook was preparing the pigeon for her mistress to eat for
dinner she noticed a black speck on the pigeon's breast. She thought
that it was a speck of dirt and tried to brush it away. To her
surprise she could not brush it off easily because it was a pin firmly
embedded in the pigeon's breast. She pulled and pulled but could not
pull it out so she sent for her master to come and see what he could
do to remove it. He at once pulled out the pin and then a wonderful
thing happened. The pigeon was transformed into a beautiful maiden. He
at once recognised her as the same lovely maiden who had sprung forth
from his melon by the fountain and whom he had left hidden in the
tree.
When the young man's black wife learned that her husband had found the
beautiful maiden again after all these years she confessed her deceit
and soon died. The young man married the beautiful maiden who was
still just as beautiful as she was the first time he saw her. They
were very happy together but the wife never forgot about the time she
had been a pigeon.
Up to that time pigeons had been wild birds who built their nests in
the deep forest. The wife often wished that they would build their
nests in her beautiful garden so she had little bird houses built and
set up there.
One day a pigeon, bolder than the rest, flew through the garden and
spied the little bird houses. He moved his family there at once and
told the other pigeons that there were other houses there for them
too. The other pigeons were timid and so they waited to see what
terrible calamity might happen to the bold pigeon and his family, but
not a single unpleasant thing occurred. They were just as happy as
happy could be in their new home.
After a while other pigeon families moved into the garden and were
happy too. Thus it came about that after years and years the pigeons
no longer build their nests in the deep forest, but they always make
their homes near the homes of men. The pigeons, themselves, do not
know how it all came about, but the beautiful woman who was once a
pigeon, when she had children of her own, told them about it, and they
told their children.
Source: http://fairytalesandfolklore.com/tale.php?tale=538
That's it :3
Hej då
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