Latin American Folktales (36 page)

7.
Mistress Lucía, tr. from Corona, pp. 43–50. AT type 403 The Black and White Bride (California, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe, India, Middle East).

Alacrán:
lime prickly ash (
Zanthoxylum
fagara
), an old-fashioned remedy for migraine.

8.
St. Peter’s Wishes, tr. from Feijóo 1960, pp. 48–9. AT type 759.

See comment to no. 27.

9.
The Coyote Teodora, tr. from Izaguirre, pp. 168–70. Motifs G211 Witch in animal form; G266 Witches steal; G271.2.2 Witch exorcised by holy water; G271.4.5 Breaking spell by beating the person or object bewitched.

One of the most unusual of the Latin American Witch Wife tales. The more familiar types are represented by nos. 30 and 98.

10.
Buried Alive, tr. from Miller, pp. 266–8. AT type 612 The Three Snake-Leaves (California, Mexico, New Mexico, Panama, Europe, India, Middle East).

The helpful mouse, who drops the flower that revives the wife, is typical of the American versions. In Grimm’s (no. 16) the helper is a snake, who uses three green leaves.

11.
The Three Gowns, tr. from Mason 1925, pp. 572–4. AT type 510B The Dress of Gold, of Silver, and of Stars (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe, India, Middle East).

The not-so-hidden subtext of this provocative Cinderella tale concerns the parents of the young couple. The girl’s marriage-minded father gets left behind for making his intentions too plain. His more subtle counterpart, the boy’s mother, is less easily separated from her son and, together with her disarming touch of insanity, is incorporated in the new
ménage.

The lion skin, perhaps, is a development from old Spanish versions in which the orphaned heroine has no proper clothes to wear. A modern variant from the Spanish province of Cáceres begins, “Once there was an orphan girl and she went about the world dressed in an animal hide” (Taggart 1990, p. 101).

12.
The Horse of Seven Colors, tr. from Sojo, pp. 183–8. AT type 530 The Princess on the Glass Mountain (Cuba, Mexico, New Mexico, Venezuela, Europe, India, Middle East). With the addition of motifs D1234 Magic guitar; B401 Helpful horse; Q2 Kind and unkind; L13 Compassionate youngest son; S165 Mutilation: putting out eyes; N452 Secret remedy overheard in conversation of animals (witches). The helpful horse appears in Old World variants, but that it must be “of seven colors” is a Latin American requirement.

A parody of the Cinderella stories, with the sexes reversed, this richly developed tale might have been called “The Three Fancy Suits.” The vanity of the hero as he changes from one dazzling outfit to the next matches Cinderella herself, while the exaggerated cruelty of the two older brothers far outstrips the stepsisters of the classic versions. To be compared with nos. 11 and 28.

13.
The Cow, tr. from Rael, no. 55. AT type 1415 Lucky Hans (New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe, India, Middle East).

Compadrazgo,
the institution that binds the community, at least in theory, spells trouble in folktales. It is one of the signature themes of Latin American folklore, in which the mere mention of the endearing term of address, compadre, is a signal that someone is about to be victimized or betrayed. In practice, the compadre is the godfather of one’s child; the godfather’s wife is called comadre. Reciprocally, the godparents use the same terms in addressing the child’s parents, establishing a social kinship that implies trust and mutual aid. The story “Antuco’s Luck,” no. 5, is most unusual for treating the relationship without a hint of derision. Typical tales, in addition to no. 13, are nos. 22, 23, 92, 93, 96, and 101. In no. 84 the witches comfortably address each other as comadre.

14.
Death and the Doctor, tr. from Andrade 1930, no. 230. AT type 332 Godfather Death (Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, New Mexico, Panama, Europe, India, Middle East).

Once again, as in no. 4, sheer storytelling saves a human life.

15.
What the Owls Said, tr. from Portal, pp. 89–90. Hansen type 613 [Hero Overhears Secrets and Cures Illness] (Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico).

In spite of its American Indian flavor, the tale is an Old World type found throughout Europe, where it is usually embedded in a somewhat longer narrative classified as The Two Travelers (AT 613). The remedy overheard in a conversation of animals or witches (motif N452), traceable to the
Pentamerone
and the
Panchatantra,
appears also in nos. 12, 80, and 84 of the present collection. But the details of the remedy at hand, as well as the satire on Western-style doctoring, are particular to this Mazatec version from Oaxaca State. The casting of corn kernels, the identification of an animal as the cause of disease, the liquid medicine (rum, or
aguardiente,
in this case), and the egg (which must be passed over the patient’s body) are standard features of Oaxaca folk medicine—probably indigenous except for the egg treatment, which is most likely of Spanish origin (Parsons 1936, pp. 120–2, 376, 493–8). Note that the offending animal is a toad, as also in the old Peruvian variant (see comment to no. 84).

16.
Aunt Misery, tr. from Ramírez de Arellano, no. 95. AT type 330D Bonhomme Misère. Closely related to AT type 330 The Smith Outwits the Devil (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe).

The hero of the story is always male, except here.

17.
Palm-tree Story, tr. from Reichel-Dolmatoff and Reichel-Dolmatoff 1956, no. 70. Type AT 327 The Children and the Ogre (Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, New Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Europe, India).

The strange opening, in which the hero is expelled from his mother’s womb and immediately tries to help people, makes little sense until the last line of the story. No other version has either the surprise ending or the initial episode that sets it up.

18/I.
The Letter Carrier from the Other World, tr. from Laval 1968, no. 67. AT type 1540 The Student from Paradise (Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Europe, India, Middle East).

In Old World versions a student tells a woman he comes from Paris. She understands him to say paradise and gives him money and goods to take to her deceased husband. In a Mexican variant he tells her that her husband is in Hell. She asks what her husband needs for his journey home and gives the trickster a horse, clothing, and money.

18/II.
The King’s Pigs, tr. from Lara Figueroa 1981, no. 4. AT type 1004 Hogs in the Mud (Argentina, Arizona, California, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas, Europe, India, Middle East).

One of the most commonly recorded stories about Pedro de Urdemalas. Often told in series with other, similar tales. Outside the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world the trickster is given different names. The version in Grimm’s (no. 192) is told of the “master thief.”

18/III.
The Sack, tr. from Laval 1968, no. 68. AT type 1737 The Parson in the Sack to Heaven (Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe, India, Middle East).

Once again the old contrast between town and country, as in no. 75, where the man from the city goes out to the country to fleece the mourners at a wake. Here, Pedro de Urdemalas dresses up as a friar and heads for the countryside to beg for alms. The implication is that country people are easily duped. But in no. 14, “Death and the Doctor,” the man from the country goes to the city with a trick for working cures; and in no. 18/I Pedro himself is the country boy who rides into town with a money-making scheme.

18/IV.
Pedro Goes to Heaven, tr. from Chertudi 1964, pp. 97–9. AT type 330 The Smith Outwits the Devil (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe).

The middle part of the story, with the Devil stuck in the tree, is a variation on no. 16.

Old namesake: St. Peter, i.e., San Pedro, who shares his name with Pedro de Urdemalas.

19.
A Voyage to Eternity, tr. from Anibarro Halushka, no. 25. AT type 470 Friends in Life and Death (Bolivia, Colombia, Europe).

Though rare in Latin America, the story is an established folktale type heavily reported from Iceland to Russia and from Spain to Turkey. The storyteller, who says, “I’m not sure, but I think this was in Spain,” shows that he considers the tale to be legendary rather than strictly fictional. For more on this narrator see introduction, pp. 13–4.

20.
Mother and Daughter, tr. from Reichel-Dolmatoff and Reichel-Dolmatoff 1956, no. 84.

The little tale, barely more than a motif, may be regarded as a pious variant of AT type 310 The Maiden in the Tower, widespread in Europe, with variants in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. In that story a virgin kept in a tower is visited by a witch who climbs up on the girl’s hair. Here the witch has become the heroine’s own mother, caught in Purgatory. She does her time there, however, since apparently the narrator does not wish us to think she has cheated by climbing up too soon.

21.
The Bird Sweet Magic, tr. from Lyra, pp. 112–20. AT type 551 The Sons on a Quest for a Wonderful Remedy for Their Father (Argentina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, New Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Europe, India, Middle East) + AT type 505 The Grateful Dead (essentially the same distribution).

The Grateful Dead is the story of a hero who pays for the burial of a penniless stranger; the dead man’s grateful spirit then follows the hero and helps him. In combination with the tale of the young son who seeks a cure for his father’s blindness and in the process wins a princess, as here, the story has an antecedent in the Book of Tobit in the Hebrew Apocrypha. Tobit, who buried the penniless dead, was himself stricken by blindness; and the spirit who followed his questing son was the angel Raphael. With the angel’s help the son finds a miraculous cure for his father’s blindness and wins the hand of Sarah, daughter of Raguel.

This Costa Rican version comes from the woman we know only as Panchita, who nonetheless emerges as an imposing figure in Latin American folklore. Her stories have been indexed and repeatedly cited by folklorists. She had a wide-ranging repertoire of tales, and it is said that she possessed the “charm and wit” (
el
gracejo y la agudeza
) that were required of storytellers who performed at wakes (Noguera, p. xv). For more on tía Panchita see introduction, pp. 12–3.

22.
Death Comes as a Rooster, tr. from Feijóo 1960, p. 80. AT type 1354 Death for the Old Couple (Cuba, New Mexico, Europe, India).

23.
The Twelve Truths of the World, tr. from J. M. Espinosa, no. 50. Motifs S224 Child promised to devil for acting as godfather; H602.1.1 Symbolic meaning of numbers one to [ . . . ] twelve.

The prayer, sometimes called “The Twelve Words Turned Back,” is thought to have originated in India and to have traveled to Europe by way of the Middle East. Aurelio Espinosa says the earliest known version is in a Persian tale from the
Book of Arda Viraf,
in which the questions and answers begin as follows: What is the one? The good sun that lights the world. What are the two? Drawing breath and exhaling. What are the three? Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. What are the four? Water, earth, plants, and animals. What are the five? The five Persian kings, Kai-Kabad, Kai-Khusrov, Kai-Lorasp, etc. In a Jewish version the twelve words are God, the two tablets of Moses, the three patriarchs, the four mothers of Israel, and so forth (A. M. Espinosa 1946–47, vol. 3, pp. 119–20, 133). A non-Jewish Venezuelan version likewise includes the two tablets of Moses (Olivares Figueroa, pp. 86–9). Other Latin American versions—of the prayer only—have been recorded from Argentina, Chile, and Puerto Rico. Versions of the story without the prayer come from Ecuador (Carvalho-Neto 1994, nos. 48–50).

An old Spanish belief is that it is necessary to know the twelve “words” because the soul on its journey to the hereafter must cross a bridge where the Devil is waiting to ask the twelve questions (Espinosa).

Folk Prayers.
I and VI, tr. from Vázquez de Acuña, pp. 38 and 35. II, tr. from Laval 1916, p. 25. III, IV, and V, tr. from Olivares Figueroa, pp. 85, 86, and 84–5.

These are not canonical prayers, and no. III is actually a curse. The Reichel-Dolmatoffs have written that death is almost always taken to be the result of black magic; and during the wake “suspicions are voiced concerning the dead person’s enemies, but a name is never mentioned” (Reichel-Dolmatoff and Reichel-Dolmatoff 1961, p. 381).

The brief
ensalmo
(incantation) to St. Anthony, patron saint of courtship, has been included as a bridge to the story that follows.

24.
The Mouse and the Dung Beetle, tr. from Rael, no. 32. Robe type 559 Dung Beetle (Colorado, Mexico). The similar tale from which this one has evidently been derived, AT type 559 Dung Beetle, is widespread in Europe and known also from Mexico and New Mexico.

St. Anthony, who finds lost objects and helps lovers, is probably the most frequently mentioned saint in Latino folktales. It is said that in New Mexico, if the saint refused to grant a petition, his image used to be hung upside down in a well with the head submerged until he changed his mind (A. M. Espinosa 1985, p. 74).

25.
The Canon and the King’s False Friend, tr. from J. M. Espinosa, no. 3. AT type 883A The Innocent Slandered Maiden (New Mexico, Europe, India, Middle East).

Well known in medieval literary sources, including the
Gesta Romanorum,
but evidently rare in Latin America.

26.
The Story that Became a Dream, tr. from Laval 1920, no. 19. AT type 1364 The Blood-brother’s Wife (Argentina, Chile, Europe, Middle East).

The Chilean storyteller brings the old tale down to contemporary reality. The two knights who swear blood brotherhood in the old European versions are now a pair of idlers making their daily rounds through the city streets.