Translation:The girl with a turned up nose/Chapter 3

by Monteiro Lobato

IN THE ROYAL PALACE

Back at the royal palace, the girl had the chance to visit numerous rooms, beautifully decorated with evergreens, ferns and mosses of all colors. She also saw the library, full of books in which the wise men had written down the entire history of the kingdom. She was still there, leafing through them one by one, when a menseger cricket came to call her for dinner. She went and sat down at the table next to the prince, and admired the good taste with which everything was arranged.

— It's the art of the leaf-cutters, said Scaly. They're the ones who pick the flowers from the field and decorate these vases.

The plates were beautiful pink shells, and the tureens were brightly enameled sea snails. Green crickets served as servants and brought from the kitchen the plates on which a fat crab in a white apron and cap was putting the finishing touches. A delicious shrimp beard soup came, followed by seafood loin, cicada fillet, mother-of-pearl ribs and mullet egg omelette. For dessert, they brought jitai honey in magnolia petals, and a thousand other delicacies.

While they dined, an excellent orchestra of cicadas and mosquitoes performed beautiful music composed by the maestro Chalk-browed mockingbird. Then the blue manakin dancers came and danced graceful dances.

Next came a royal parrot who had a reputation as an orator. He climbed up to the rostrum from a golden perch and gave a beautiful speech on the art of speaking. In this speech he proved that men had learned to speak from parrots, and not parrots from men, as the latter's science says. A shower of applause welcomed his words.

The same didn't happen, however, with the poetess Tropidurus, who began to recite a long poem and choked in the middle, ending the recitative in a cry and a whimper. To destroy this bad impression, three magical fireflies came and performed various magic tricks, with the illusion of eating fire being very popular.

Narizinho, delighted, clapped her hands at every novelty and laughed a lot at the jokes the court jester made. This was the beetle Carlito Pirulito, a little hunchback inside a corn kernel, created by the prince to amuse the court. During dinner he sat next to Narizinho and didn't stop playing pranks the whole time. And so the happy meal went, leaving unforgettable memories in the girl's mind.

As soon as she left the table, Narizinho went back to her room to prepare for the evening dance. To serve her, she met Mrs. Spider, the best seamstress in the kingdom, as well as several ant maids. Mrs. Spider stood up and said respectfully:

— Would you like to see our collection of ball gowns?

— With pleasure," replied Narizinho, delighted.

The ants immediately opened their closets and took out a number of luxurious dresses, each one more beautiful. One was made of a blue sky decorated with little stars. Another was made of rose petals with forget-me-nots in between. What enchanted Narizinho the most, however, was a dress with a tail, made of spider's web and decorated with little diamonds of dew.

There couldn't have been anything more beautiful and Narizinho clapped her hands with joy, leaving the spider full of herself, because this dress was all her own work; she had made the thread, woven the gauze and sewn it herself.

- I see you have very good taste," said the flattered spider. And, beautiful as you are, if you go with him to the party, you'll certainly be the queen of the evening.

Mrs. Spider dressed her in front of a silver mirror. She combed her hair in the fashion of the kingdom, put beautiful gold pumps on her feet and gloves made of peach skin on her hands. She then gave her a wonderful fan embroidered with sunbeams on mother-of-pearl wings.

Narizinho couldn't get enough of it and, looking at herself in the mirror, she doubted her own eyes:

— Could I be a fairy from One Thousand and One Nights?

When she thought she was ready, the Spider came with several coffers full of diadems, necklaces, rings and bracelets that would make the most opulent princesses in the world envious.

Narizinho chose the most beautiful ones and so, covered in gold and glitter, she sparkled like the sun.

— You're "almost" ready, said the Spider.

— Almost? said Narizinho, smiling. Is there anything left?

The spider replied by sending over some dust from the wings of the rarest butterflies and sprinkling it all over with blue steal-color.^[1] What a marvel! The mirror itself even opened its mouth, amazed at such beauty.

Suddenly the door opened and the prince appeared.

— Madam," he said, "the court gathered in the great hall is eagerly awaiting the queen of the party. Come with me!

And, taking her hand, he led her with great ceremony to the ball.

As soon as Narizinho entered, there was a murmur of admiration in the royal hall, which was quite understandable, given that such a dazzling creature had never appeared in Clear Waters before. And they began to whisper that it was surely the Fairy of the Rivers herself who had incarnated herself in the girl. Some ladies even bit their lips in envy as Narizinho passed in front of them, on the prince's arm, towards the throne. And an ugly peeled cockroach, yellow with envy, whispered in the ear of a stumpy-legged beetle, wrinkling its nose:

— She's not even worth that much!

But a gentle green cricket in the back heard the envious roach's outburst and punished her by taking a terrible bite out of her scrawny leg. The cockroach groaned in pain but took the lesson in its stride and kept quiet for the rest of the night.

The room was like an open sky. Instead of light bulbs, there were beautiful bouquets of morning sunbeams on the ceiling, on the walls and in the vases. Flowers galore, beautiful field flowers, arranged in festoons by the bee ladies. Around the room, seated in mother-of-pearl armchairs, the nobility of the court, in gala attire, awaited the prince's orders.

There was everything. Serious beetles with glasses and black coats. Cockroaches in mantillas, with forget-me-nots in their hair. Very thin golden bees with ribbons on their wings. Blue flies; frogs of all colors; beautiful water-mothers with slender bodies as light as ballerinas; mice with white collars and buckled shoes; butterflies with gauze headdresses; moths, bumblebees... There were also fish of all shapes, big crabs that only walk sideways; shrimps that got in the way with so many legs; shellfish with open shells like books; snails that carry the house on their backs and feel their way with their trunks. There was even an old Austro-South American side-neck turtle with little black eyes and a re-varnished shell.

The orchestra was made up of cicadas and small birds: canaries, siskin, seadeaters, house wren, tyrants. At its head was a chalk-browed mockingbird, a famous conductor. This orchestra performed the most beautiful music in the world, nightingale fados, plumbeous seedeater songs, kingfisher barcaroles. It was beautiful!

At last the prince gave the order for the quadrille. The orchestra broke into a composition by the conductor Double-collared seedeater and the gentlemen began to choose the ladies to dance. The marker was a lively blue manakin, a famous master in the courtroom. Narizinho, sitting on the throne, was itching to dance. But the quadrille passed and no one came to take her away. Soon afterwards, however, the orchestra broke into the Royal Waltz and the prince stood up and said to the girl:

— Our turn has come. Would you do me the honor of this waltz?

Narizinho, who wanted nothing more, climbed down from the throne and, in the prince's arms, spun around the room so fast that she looked like a living spinning top. When the South American side-neck turtle saw this, he whispered to the snail: "If that lively little fellow took you out to dance, what would become of you, buddy?"

Replied the snail:

— Maybe I'd do better than a thick shell like you! And they each laughed inside at the sad picture the other would make of them, because in the animal kingdom, as well as among men, nobody knows each other.

When the waltz was over, Narizinho returned to the throne and watched a polka danced by a crab and a giant red silkworm moth, very fat, with a large gorgon sash around its waist.

Despite the respect due to the prince, the court laughed its ass off, and Narizinho even lost her breath. Because there was nothing more comical than Mr. Crab skipping polka steps in the arms of Mrs. Giant Silkworm Moth, who was sweating profusely. When the music stopped, she was so tired, that the lady couldn't even stand up, and they had to carry her in their arms and hand her over to Doctor Snail. After this comical incident, dragonfly dancers appeared in the room. A blue one, a red one and an emerald green one, all very light and nervous, began to dance, their beautiful transparent wings trembling. Their movements were so lively and fast that it was more like a ballet of brightly colored rays of light.

It was dazzling. And everyone was in awe, suspended in the air in admiration, when a rush was heard in front of the palace.

It was the crickets of the guard who came in breathless and pale with terror.

— The black scorpion! they announced, their eyes wide.

— The scorpion!" the guests repeated in terror.

It was like announcing the plague. Nervous ladies fell backwards, fainting; others climbed onto their chairs, screaming with terror. The giant silkworm moth, in a fit of nerves, fell unconscious into Crab's arms. The South American side-neck turtle closed itself inside its shell. The snails shrank into their shells. And there weren't any winged bugs left that didn't fly to the ceiling.

The time had come. The hideous Black Scorpion loomed at the palace door with its sting outstretched. It stopped. He snorted in anger and cast a challenging glance around the room.

— Who is this little human girl who dares to enter the realm of animals?" he said, cracking his fangs.

Then, seeing Narizinho standing on the back of the throne, pale with astonishment and fumbling with her tailed dress, he grinned fiercely, marked her well and charged at her.

A scream of horror filled the room, and all eyes closed to avoid seeing the catastrophe. The Black Scorpion advanced, his body swinging. He's already a meter away from the girl. One more step and it will reach her with its venomous sting.

Narizinho, distraught, looked at the prince, begging for help. He was her last hope.

Scaly didn't hesitate for a moment: he pulled out his sword and threw himself at the monster. A fearsome duel ensues. The beast launches successive stinging shots, but the prince parries them with his sword and, after many blows, manages to hit his enemy in the head. The Scorpion lets out a cry of pain and charges with redoubled fury.

Everyone trembles for the prince, who is in serious danger because his strength is unequal to that of a monster of that size. But the prince defends himself heroically, throwing blow after blow at the Scorpion's head, even though he was already feeling tired. The fight would have ended tragically if an astonishing event hadn't changed the situation. And it was at the height of the battle that a rag-witch unexpectedly appeared from the kitchen, armed with a spit for roasting pork loin.

— Emilia!... shouted Narizinho, who had completely forgotten about her beloved doll since the incident with the frog on the day of her arrival.

Emilia, in her underwear, advanced towards Scorpio and hit him! Strike here! She pierced both his eyes in a flash. The monster roared so loudly that the palace shook, and then rolled over on the floor, foaming with cholera and pain. Hurrah! The battle was won, thanks to the spear of the strange, practically naked creature.

— Who is it? Who is it? the little animals asked from all sides, very curious to know who the exotic heroine was. Narizinho jumped down from the throne and came towards her with open arms.

— Forgive me, good Emilia, for forgetting you! But don't worry, I'll ask the prince to make you a countess of this court - and she embraced her, crying. Then he went to the prince and kissed his hands in thanks for risking his precious life for her love. It was a moving scene. But, despite the seriousness of the moment, the jealous cockroach peeked out to see if the cricket was nearby and said in the beetle's ear:

— You'll see that this ends in marriage...

And sighed. Poor thing! It was jealousy. Despite being old and ugly, this spinster cockroach had never given up hope of marrying the prince. The old woman couldn't see her own self...

The party ended at that point, even if it was before the hour. The guests went back to their homes, still frightened, while five hundred powerful hives dragged the Scorpion away. He struggled, but ended up in a stone jail, with an iron chain around his neck...

— Play the bully now, thief! said a Cricket from the guard, giving him a brave kick in the snout.

— Halt! shouted the Captain. It's cowardly to hit enemies who can't defend themselves. And he ordered the entrance to the prison to be closed with a heavy stone to prevent the people from lynching the prisoner.

1. Wikisource note: from the original, furta-cor.