082. Maria [with] White Hands (María Manos Blancas)
A poor baker from a small town in Extremadura had three daughters who captured everyone’s attention due to how beautiful they were. The baker left each morning to cut [gather] firewood for his oven, and it happened that one day he found a holm oak of good size and he thought that, if he cut it and chopped it up, he would have many baking days and very fine [fire]wood to mix [use] with those he’d normally find. He swung his axe decisively and, on the first blow that landed on the trunk, a black man came down and threatened him in this manner:
– If you don’t bring me one of your daughters by tomorrow, you are a dead man.
After the scare, the baker returned to his house without [any] firewood and felt tense with the sadness that he carried, because he knew that if he did not fulfill the black man’s order, he would get killed. So when he arrived at his house, he told his daughters what had happened.
– Ah, that black man will not take me away! – said the eldest.
And the middle said:
– Well in my case, I am not going with him.
Then Maria, the youngest, who loved her father very much, threw her arms around his neck and said:
– Don’t worry father, if my sisters do not want to go for you, I will.
The next morning, the baker, sadder than ever, took his daughter Maria to the tree where the black man was and there he handed her over. He returned home heartbroken and cursed the time when that idea of cutting down the holm oak occurred to him.
The black man fell in love with Maria as soon as he saw her. He led her by the hand to a nearby garden and said:
– All that you have to do is to take care of this garden.
Maria did this, and when night came she slept in a large bed in the garden house; she was already lying down when she noticed a weight in the bed, but she remained still and fell asleep. This happened every night, and although she was intrigued by that which was weighing [down] on the bed, she always slept soundly and without worries because she was [getting] used to it.
A year went by and Maria wanted to go back to visit her father and sisters. She asked for permission from the black man and he agreed to it with the [warning] condition that she must return in three days. Maria agreed to this and the black man gave her a magnificent coach carriage, with a coachman and all, and the young woman went off to see her father. Needless to say of the joy the father had when he saw her, and the envy aroused in her sisters and all the neighbors.
She was very happy staying there those three days and, shortly before leaving [for her return trip], an old woman from town, whom she had known since she was a child, came to say goodbye. She was recounting to her how her life was at the black man’s house, and also, about the strange weight which she felt in her bed every night. The old woman listened to her attentively and later said:
– Take this box of matches and this candle, and when you feel the weight, light the candle.
The stagecoach and the coachman arrived at this moment, and Maria made her return trip back [to the house].
That night, when she once more felt the weight in her bed, she quietly lighted the candle and raised it [up] to see what she had by her side. With such bad luck that she leaned over by too far and a drop of wax fell on that which was on the bed. It gave a shriek on feeling the burn and then Maria was able to see that it was the black man, who said this to her:
– Aye, wretches me! I am near the end of my curse and you have put me back at the beginning of it!
Maria became afraid and greatly saddened by this, and the black man continued:
– Anyway, as you have been good to me, take this, I am giving you this ring; and whenever you are in a predicament, you need not do anything but say: “Little ring, I want this or that,” and the ring will grant it to you.
Having said this, the black man disappeared and with him the bed, the house, and the garden, leaving Maria in the middle of a field that she did not know.
Maria was saddened and full of repentance for what had happened. She began walking through tears of sorrow, and she walked for three days without encountering anyone. Finally, she came across some muleteers who, on seeing her, asked her to be their servant. And as she had nowhere to go nor any means to support herself, Maria said yes to them. One of them [the leader], however, was struck by Maria’s demeanor and her very white hands, as beautiful and slender as ones could be, and he said:
– It seems to me that your hands are too white to be a servant.
But the others insisted and insisted that she come along with them and in the end, to Maria’s great satisfaction, he agreed to take her.
When they arrived at the house of one of the muleteers, they dropped Maria off and the muleteer’s wife took her in. She was amazed by Maria’s white and delicate hands, and told her that these were not appropriate for servant tasks that they were expecting of her. Maria humbly replied that this was beside the point, as she would work like anyone else. She stayed in the house and soon her mistress was able to see how diligent and clean she was, and she liked her immensely.
The lads from town, on seeing how beautiful she was, were wanting a chance to talk to her and they began to hang out close to the house.
One day, the mistress was very busy sifting [through] the flour to make bread for the week so she sent Maria on an errand. A good-looking lad, who was in love with her, came out on the road and told her that he had desires to talk to and accompany her, [and] that at what hour he would be able to see her, and Maria told him that she would wait to see him at eight. The lad arrived punctually at the house just as Maria was sifting flour; the lad saw her at work and he believed that, being so beautiful, she never had worked [before] and never would have to work [in the future]. He said:
– Those white hands are not [meant] for sifting [flour].
On hearing this, Maria remembered the ring, and seeing where the lad had come from, she took it out and said:
– Little ring, little ring, may this lad sift in my place through the night.
This happened; the lad began to sift and not able to stop; and by dawn, Maria took pity on him and said to the ring:
– Little ring, little ring, may this lad stop sifting and go back to his house – and the lad went back to his house exhausted while griping about all that sifting that he had to do.
The following evening, Maria again went on an errand and another lad approached her with the same intentions as the prior one. He asked her for a date and Maria told him this time that she would wait for him at nine. The lad also arrived punctually and was at Maria’s house by nine, when he found Maria shoveling coal in the cellar. The lad, on seeing her with those white hands, which seemed like snow between the coals, said this:
– Those hands are not meant for shoveling coals.
On hearing this, Maria again took out her ring and said:
– Little ring, little ring, may this lad shovel [coal] in my place through the night.
This happened, and by dawn she felt sorry for the lad [so that she] asked the ring to make him cease shoveling, and the poor chap went back to his house all exhausted and blackened for working so much with the coal.
The following afternoon, another lad approached her with the same intention as those before him and Maria gave him a date at ten. When the lad arrived at ten, Maria was bustling about in the hayloft, and on approaching her the lad said that her hands, being so white and pretty, were not appropriate for working with straws. Maria punished him as she did the others with her ring, and she made him worked with the hay until she felt bad for him and [then] allowed him to return to his home, more dead than alive.
The three mocked young men got together with their friends the next day and recounted what had happened to each of them. Once they have told it, everyone began to think that Maria was a witch and so they went to tell this to her mistress. The mistress told them that she was no witch but a hard-working and honest girl, but the lads became more agitated and began to shout and made a commotion, and in the end they carried her away to be burnt at the stake.
They arrived at the town square and began to gather firewood until they made a large pile, and put Maria on top of it with the idea of burning her as soon as possible. And the three mocked young men, encouraged by the others, each took hold of three rocks to stone her before lighting fire to the firewood. Maria was not afraid because she trusted in her ring, and when she saw that things were truly being carried out and they began the stoning, she took out the ring and said:
– Little ring, little ring, may all these brutes begin to crash into one another like the rams do.
And [this was] said and done. They began to butt [their heads] against one another with such blows that soon they were so sore and tired that they were no longer able to stand. But as they were not able to stop because they were under the power of the ring, there they continued to give such blows without being able to avoid them.
Then a luxurious coach with a coachman appeared in the square, the same one which Maria rode in to go visit her father. In it she saw a young man who was pleasant to look at due to how handsome and elegant he was. The coach stopped and the young man got out, walked to the pile of firewood where they had placed Maria, untied her, gave her his hand to help her [come] down and spoke to everyone who was there in this way:
– There are no evil nor witchery in this maiden, but only the power that is in this ring that I gave her some time ago, for her being a good daughter and did not object to giving her life for her father’s. I am the black man, now free of my curse – then he addressed Maria – and I came to marry you.
Maria took out her ring one last time and asked for the lads to stop crashing against one another, and all that were present recognized the right of that young man to marry Maria.
And as no one was [being] resentful, the couple gave a grand wedding reception in which everyone attended: the lads, the muleteers, the mistress, and the townsfolk. And later the newlyweds departed for the young man’s house, where they lived happily forever.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Agotado – (tired) exhausted; (unavailable) sold out; (used up) exhausted
Alboroto – (clamor) racket; (uproar) disturbance, commotion; (revolt) riot
Andar – (to operate) to work
Animados – encouraged
Apearse – to get off (bus, train, horse); to get out of (car)
Apedrear – (to hit with rocks) to throw stones at; (to kill with rocks) to stone
Apropiado – (fitting) suitable, appropriate
Apuesto – (attractive) handsome, good-looking
Apuro – (difficulty) predicament, difficult situation, tight spot
Arriero – (occupation) muleteer, mule driver
Asistir – to attend
Burlar – (to dodge) to evade, to get past; (to deceive) to cheat; burlarse – (to ridicule) to mock, to tease, to make fun of
Caja – box, crate
Calentar – (to make hot) to heat, to heat up, to warm up;
Carbonera – coal cellar (room); coal bunker (container)
Carnero – (animal) ram; (culinary) mutton;
Carrasca – holm oak, kermes oak
Cerilla – earwax; wax; (matchstick) (Spain) match
Cera – wax; earwax
Cerner – (to strain) to sift, to sieve
Cesar – to cease
Chocar – (to run into) to crash, to collide, to bump; (to confront) to clash
Cita – appointment, meeting, date
Cochero – coachman, driver
Compadecer – to pity
Conceder – (to bestow) to give, to grant, to award (a prize); (to acknowledge) to admit, to concede
Cuanto antes – as soon as possible
De partir de – leaving; departing from; departing; to depart from
Desatar – (to release) to untie, to undo, to loosen
Desconsolado – disconsolate, heartbroken, inconsolable
Desconsuelo – (sorrow) grief, distress
Despertar – to arouse; to awaken
De un tirón – straight through; in one breath, in one read, etc.
Empajar – to cover with straw; to fill with straw
Entregar – (to hand in or over) to turn in, to submit, to give; (to transport) to deliver; (to transfer) to hand over
Habitualmente – usually
Hace tiempo – a while ago, for some time
Hachazo – (cutting blow) ax blow
Hoguera – bonfire
Humildemente – (meekly) humbly; (simply) humbly
Inclinar – (to slant) to tilt, to lean; (to angle) to bend, to bow; (to convince) to persuade, to incline
Inconveniento – (bother) objection, inconvenience
Lujoso – (lavish) luxurious
Madera – (of a tree) wood, timber (for construction); (figurative) (necessary elements) makings
Madrugada – (early morning) dawn; (early hours after midnight) small hours
Maduro – (ready for harvest) ripe; (fully developed) mature; (advanced in years) mature, older; (fit) ready
Maldad – evil, wickedness
Maldecir – (to regret) to curse; (to blaspheme) to swear, to curse
Mezclar – (to combine) to mix, to blend
Montón – (large amount) a ton, a lot, lots, loads; (mountain) pile, heap
No tener nada que ver – to not be the point; to be neither here nor there
Oficio – (occupation) trade, job; (purpose) function; (written communication) official letter
Palear – (to move with a shovel) to shovel, to dig; (to steal) to swipe, to lift
Pajar – hayloft
Pegar – (used with ‘con’, ‘para’) to complement, to match, to go (with)
Pena – (sympathy) pity, shame, sad; (sadness) sorrow; (trouble) problem
Pensar en – to think about
Pesarosa – sorrowful, full of repentance; restless, uneasy
Pillar – (to grab) to catch, to get; (to capture) to catch; (to surprise) to catch
Porte – (look) demeanor, bearing; (freightage) carriage, transport; (volume) capacity
Pretensión – (ambition) aspiration; (intention) aim; (legal) claim
Quieto – (immobile) still, motionless; (peaceful) calm, quiet
Recado – (correspondence) message; (task) errand
Recién – (in the near past) newly, recently
Refunfuñar – (to complain) to grumble, to growl, to gripe
Rencoroso – (spiteful) resentful, bitter
Rondar – (to guard) to patrol; (to annoy) to pester; (to attract) to court; (to be more or less) to be about
Sigilosamente – stealthily
Toparse – (to meet someone by chance) to run into, to bump into; (to encounter something) to come across; topar – (to strike with the head) to butt
Trajinar – (to rush about) to bustle about; (to carry) to transport
Trocear – to cut up; to cut into pieces
Tronco – (botany) trunk; (lumber) log
Virtud – (capacity) power, ability; (quality) virtue