Austria -- Fiction; Devil -- Fiction; Middle Ages -- Fiction
“You are only an apprentice; you don’t know your trade. Give me the
seed. I will show you.” He took the seed and said, “What shall I raise
from it?”
“It is a cherry seed; of course you will raise a cherry.”
“Oh no; that is a trifle; any novice can do that. Shall I raise an
orange-tree from it?”
“Oh yes!” and the juggler laughed.
“And shall I make it bear other fruits as well as oranges?”
“If God wills!” and they all laughed.
Satan put the seed in the ground, put a handful of dust on it, and
said, “Rise!”
A tiny stem shot up and began to grow, and grew so fast that in five
minutes it was a great tree, and we were sitting in the shade of it.
There was a murmur of wonder, then all looked up and saw a strange and
pretty sight, for the branches were heavy with fruits of many kinds
and colors--oranges, grapes, bananas, peaches, cherries, apricots, and
so on. Baskets were brought, and the unlading of the tree began; and
the people crowded around Satan and kissed his hand, and praised him,
calling him the prince of jugglers. The news went about the town, and
everybody came running to see the wonder--and they remembered to bring
baskets, too. But the tree was equal to the occasion; it put out new
fruits as fast as any were removed; baskets were filled by the score
and by the hundred, but always the supply remained undiminished. At
last a foreigner in white linen and sun-helmet arrived, and exclaimed,
angrily:
“Away from here! Clear out, you dogs; the tree is on my lands and is my
property.”
The natives put down their baskets and made humble obeisance. Satan
made humble obeisance, too, with his fingers to his forehead, in the
native way, and said:
“Please let them have their pleasure for an hour, sir--only that, and
no longer. Afterward you may forbid them; and you will still have more
fruit than you and the state together can consume in a year.”
This made the foreigner very angry, and he cried out, “Who are you, you
vagabond, to tell your betters what they may do and what they mayn’t!”
and he struck Satan with his cane and followed this error with a kick.
The fruits rotted on the branches, and the leaves withered and fell.
The foreigner gazed at the bare limbs with the look of one who is
surprised, and not gratified. Satan said:
“Take good care of the tree, for its health and yours are bound
together. It will never bear again, but if you tend it well it will
live long. Water its roots once in each hour every night--and do it
yourself; it must not be done by proxy, and to do it in daylight will
not answer. If you fail only once in any night, the tree will die, and
you likewise. Do not go home to your own country any more--you would
not reach there; make no business or pleasure engagements which require
you to go outside your gate at night--you cannot afford the risk; do
not rent or sell this place--it would be injudicious.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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