quoth she, "for the king would be angry with me if I were to do so." "And who is to tell him about it, little lady? only come down; your ladyship must be tired of staying up there." So much did the black woman urge her, that at last the damsel came down, and laid herself in the black woman's lap, and the latter scratching her head for her, she went to sleep. When the black woman saw this, she stuck three pins into her head, and she changed into a turtle-dove and went away flying. Then the black woman trimmed herself up very nicely, and got up into the tree in the damsel's place.
When the king came back, he ran to look for his wife in the tree, and instead of a comely damsel he found a black woman. "Aye! darling child," he said to her, " how is it that I find thee so black?" "Aye!" quoth she, "the winds have made me thus." The king very sorrowful took her to his house.
Some time had gone by already, and the black woman would soon have a baby.[1] One day that she was walking in the garden with the king, she saw a turtle-dove which perched on an orange-tree, and said to the gardener:—
"O gardener of the king, what is the king doing with his Moorish[2] black woman?"
The gardener answered her:—
"At times he goes singing and at times he goes weeping."
The little bird flew away, saying:—
"Wēe—wēe—wēe. Woe is me in the fields all lonely!"
The black woman who heard this was seized with a great fright, believing that she was going to be found out.
The next day it was the king by himself who was walking in the garden, and saw the turtle-dove, who came to perch on an orange-tree, and said to the gardener:—
- ↑ The original word is Huauhua, a Quichua word, commonly used in Chili.—(Translator.)
- ↑ Although there is no doubt that this tale is of Spanish origin, the use of the word Moorish here is no evidence of this. Any one, not a Catholic, is still in Spain and Spanish America called familiarly Moro or Mora, without implying that such persons are Moors. A child dying unbaptized is said to die moro or mora.—(Translator.)
