ILLUSTRATED LETTERS

 

Once upon a time there was a King.  And this King, one day, proclaimed throughout the land, that he would voluntarily give his daughter to whomever looked after his seven hares.  But whoever did not care for them well, he would cut off his head.

And there was in a far off country a poor widow who had three sons.  Now the eldest, who loved traveling the world, thought that even he would go and see if he could care for these seven hares, in order to marry the daughter of this King.  No sooner said than done, he took his haversack, his good walking stick, and took off.

Walking, walking, walking, without ever complaining, he became very tired and hungry.  So he stopped to take a rest on a low wall, to eat in peace a bit of bread.  While he was eating, behold a cat came along, a large white and black cat encircled him, caterwauling with its mouth open exactly like a Christian who himself was hungry.  But the young man, what did he do?  He gave him a kick that knocked him three steps away.  The cat got up the best he could, glared at him, made a great snort, looking like the devil and walked away.

The young man, having finished eating, put the leftovers in his haversack and continued on his way.  

Having arrived at the King, he immediately told him what he had come to do.

"I'm going to care for the seven hares in order to marry your daughter."

"Very well," said the King, "but see to it that not even one escapes, otherwise I will cut off your head.  So tomorrow I'll give you the hares, and we'll see what kind of man you are."

In fact, early, early in the morning, the King gave him a cage containing seven hares to be let out to graze.

The young man took the cage and when he went to the meadow and opened it, the hares quickly scampered away into the bushes, all seven like arrows.

When evening arrived, he searched here, and searched there, finding not even one hare.  
And he, not knowing what to do, threw himself against the trees and cried, "Now how can I return to the King with an empty cage?"

And when he went to the royal palace and was led before the King, he did not listen to his excuses and had him incarcerated in his highest tower, saying, "One of these days I will order that they cut off your head."

Now this poor young man's mother, seeing that he was not returning, was lost in worry, poor woman, and his brothers were also despairing, because they loved him very much.

Then the middle son, mustering a bit of courage decided to also set out.  "Oh, Mother, don't worry, because I will go and see my brother again, and I will have more luck than he did."

No sooner said than done, he set off down the road.

Going, going, going, without stopping to take a breath, at the end of the day he also felt weary, and couldn't go any further because of hunger.

So he leaned against the same wall his brother had and began to eat a bit of bread.  And while he was eating that same cat returned.  But he, the middle one, what did he do?  He threw stones at it, so the poor beast ran away, mewling loudly.  Meowing noisily, it returned every now and then to glare at him with frightening yellow eyes.  But he, without giving the cat, nor anything else, a thought, resumed his journey, and the next evening arrived at the royal palace.

"What do you want?" asked the King.

"Sir, I've come to find out something of my brother, to care for the seven hares, and to marry your daughter."

"Good," said the King, "your brother is incarcerated in that tower, at the top, because he caused my hares to escape, so one of these days I'm going to cut off his head.  If instead you are good at looking after them for me, I will return your brother to you, and you will marry my daughter.  So be wise, young man, and we'll see each other tomorrow morning."

So the next morning the King gave him a cage with seven hares inside.  But when he went to the meadow and opened the cage he didn't even have time to see whereto they scampered.  And in the evening he looked here, he looked there for any sign of them, but of the hares there was not even a shadow.

So even he was taken and imprisoned in the tower, at the very top.

And his mother, poor woman, crying there with only her youngest, and sighing, day and night pining, for these two sons she did not see return, knowing nothing of their wellbeing.

"What shall I do, now that I have only one left?"

"I, Mother," said the youngest son finally, "I want to go and see what happened to my brothers."

"No, son, you I will not send."

"Mother, it's that I want to go.  What will I do here all alone?"

And his mother, poor woman, was begging him not to leave her.  But he would not listen to reason:  he loved his brothers so much that even he wanted to go.

Walking, walking, walking, along that road, through those scrublands, he became dead tired and with a great hunger he found himself at the low wall where his brothers had stopped and so he brought out his bread and began to eat it there.  Now it happened that the white and black cat came around, rubbed against his legs, meowing, purring, so he softened and threw him a piece of bread.  But upon gnawing it, because the bread was hard, it so happened that the cat lost a tooth; then he turned toward the young man and spoke to him like this:

"You are better than your brothers and I want you to succeed.  Take this tooth that fell out and see that it will help you."

The young man picked up the tooth and put it in his pocket and began walking again and the cat accompanied him a good distance down the road.

He arrived at the King and threw himself down on his knees before him, this young boy, and asked him immediately about his brothers.  And he was crying, this little lad, he despaired that his mother did not know how to live anymore without her sons, so he had come to retrieve them.  It didn't even matter to him to care for the seven hares in order to marry the Princess.  It would be enough for him to get his brothers....

But the King, completely enraged, answered him like this:

"They are in prison, your brothers, and tomorrow I'm going to cut off their heads.  They caused fourteen of my hares to escape, and I only have seven left.  Now I'm putting you to the ultimate test.  If you are good at caring for these seven hares, I'll give you your brothers and allow you to marry my daughter."

"Majesty, you will see that I am good!"

But he, poor lad, couldn't close his eyes all night, turning, tossing and turning on his bed, because he had a great fear that he wouldn't know how to care for the hares either, and he thought:  "What will our mother do when she no longer has any of us anymore?!..."

It was already dawn and he had not slept at all when here came the King, entering his bedroom with a cage of seven hares.  They were seven beautiful little hares, lively, lively, who seemed to have the joy of life.

The young man was lacking any courage at all and he just didn't want to do anything more.  "Who am I to grasp these thunderbolts?"  But then he thought of his two brothers, and even more of his mother far away, and that caused him to leap out of bed.  He quickly dressed and took off with the cage.

When he arrived at the meadow and opened the cage the seven hares took off into the bushes, seeming like seven frenzied cats.

"How will I retrieve them, and who will help me?" 

And he was despairing, looking here and there among the trees, not even able to cry, so great was his pain of not being able to save his brothers, nor seeing his mother ever again, and even more the fear of having to present himself to the King that evening.

And so until evening, he wore himself out looking, calling over and over again, but the hares did not want to return.  He was so desperate and crazed that he was reaching into his pocket for his knife in order to plunge it into his heart, when here in his hand he found that tooth, the very tooth that had belonged to the white and black cat.

"Look!" he said, "Who knows, but this might help me for sure!"

And what he did was to put it in his mouth and blow.  And the tooth that he had blown began to whistle.  It seemed to whistle in every direction, and from everywhere there was a scurry, scurry of hares, first seven, then another seven, and even another seven: every hare returned to the cage like good little lambs.  "How well I have herded them!  Who knows how pleased the King will be!"....

 

And the King was very pleased indeed:

--"I'll give you my daughter in marriage...."

--"Yes, but please return my brothers to me."

--"Very well," said the King, "I'll give you everything you want."

 

So the King, who was after all a good man, returned to him his brothers.  They hugged each other, all of them so happy that it seemed they had not seen each other for a thousand years.

 

Now since he was going to marry the daughter of the King, and since there was going to be a grand celebration, they also went and summoned the mother, with the greatest team of horses in the Kingdom.

 

And she arrived, poor little woman, not having done anything but cry, and she was still crying, but this time of great joy at being reunited with her sons.

 

So the marriage took place with beautiful festivities, still the most beautiful throughout the land.  And the King, who was truly an honorable man (with his ideals, anyone realizes that) didn't want the mother and brothers of his son-in-law to go away:

 

--"Here in my palace there is plenty of extra space, and besides, I would love the company.  What I'm trying to say is remain here with me:  we are altogether one family...."

 

 

 

 

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There are at least 8 variations of this story easily found online, mostly from Sweden and Germany;  one claims that the story line is scandanavian. 

 

In each of the stories the hares are retrieved by a whistle or a flute, and most of the stories have 100 hares. One clever whistle called the hares to come home when it was blown through in one direction; blown through in the other direction the hares would scatter.

 

Argenta’s story is unique in this aspect with the cat’s tooth. The boy puts it into his mouth and makes a whistle out of it like an Italian Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.

 

• Muezza (Arabic: معزة) was the Prophet Muhammad's favorite cat. The most famous story about Muezza recounts how the call to prayer was given, and as Muhammad went to put on one of his robes, he found his cat sleeping on one of the sleeves. Instead of disturbing the cat he cut off the sleeve and let him sleep.
• A similar legend states that when Jesus Christ was born, he would not stop crying no matter what anyone did, and what finally calmed him was when a tabby cat jumped into the manger, and its purring lulled him to sleep. The Virgin Mary petted the cat in gratitude, and the "M" on the forehead of the tabby cat is for her name.

 

The King’s Hares is a true children’s fairytale with the lesson: don’t kick cats.

 

illustration from a 1914 book of stories on characters from Argenta’s time and place:

 

Su i Monti Pistoiesi by Alfonso Pisaneschi

 

Mistigri is the name of the cat…..