Next morning my farmer desired to speak with me alone, and told me,
I come, says he, to tell you a piece of news, for which I hope you
will return me thanks. I have a daughter that has some skill in
magic. Yesterday, as I carried back the calf which you would not
sacrifice, I perceived she laughed when she saw him, and in a moment
after fell a weeping. I asked her why she acted two such contrary
parts at one and the same time. Father, replied she, the calf you
bring back is our landlord’s son: I laughed for joy to see him
still alive, and I wept at the remembrance of the sacrifice that was
made the other day of his mother, who was changed into a cow. These
two metamorphoses were made by the enchantments of our master’s
wife, who hated both the mother and son. This is what my daughter
told me, said the farmer, and I come to acquaint you with it.
At these words, the old man adds, I leave you to think, my lord
genie, how much I was surprised: I went immediately to my farmer, to
speak with his daughter myself. As soon as I came, I went forthwith
to the stall where my son was: he could not answer my embraces, but
received them in such a manner as fully satisfied me he was my son.
The former’s daughter came: My good maid, says I, can you restore
my son to his former shape? Yes, says she, I can. Ah! says I, if you
can, I will make you mistress of all my fortune. She replied to me,
smiling, You are our master, and I know very well what I owe to you;
but I cannot restore your son into his former shape but on two
conditions: the first is, that you give him me for my husband; and
the second is, that you allow me to punish the person who changed
him into a calf. For the first, says I, I agree to it with all my
heart; nay, I promise you more --a considerable estate for yourself,
independent of what I design for my son: in a word, you shall see
how I will reward the great service I expect from you. As to what
relates to my wife, I also agree to it; a person who has been
capable of committing such a criminal action deserves very well to
be punished: I leave her to you, only I must pray you not to take
her life. I am just going then, answers she, to treat her as she has
treated your son. I agree to it, says I, provided you restore my son
to me beforehand.
Then the damsel took a vessel full of water, pronounced over it
words that I did not understand, and, addressing herself to the
calf, O, calf, says she, if thou wast created by the almighty and
sovereign Master of the World such as you appear at this time,
continue in that form; but, if thou be a man, and art changed into a
calf by enchantment, return to thy natural shape, by the permission
of the sovereign Creator. As she spoke these words, she threw water
upon him, and in an instant, he recovered his first shape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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