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Half Rooster
Once upon a time there was an old
man and an old woman who owned nothing but a cat and a rooster.
One day they got into a terrible argument and shouted at one
another so furiously that they decided to separate forever. The
old couple divided everything they had and the woman got the
cat  and
the man got the rooster. The cat caught birds every day which
the old woman cooked, so that she at least had something to live
on.
But the old man had nothing to eat. So
one day he said to the rooster, "Dear rooster, I am so sorry,
but I really don't know what to do. I am going to have to eat
you." The rooster understood and nodded. The old man sliced
the rooster into two halves, cooked and ate one half and kept
the other. From then on the second half of the rooster was known
as 'Half Rooster'.
Half Rooster decided that it was time
to go on a journey and earn some money. And so he set off, hopping
on one leg. At the edge of a pond, he met a frog and said to
it, "Frog, why don't you come with me. I'm on a journey
to earn some money." "All right, I will," said
the frog. It had a last drink of water, as much as it could swallow,
and leapt into Half Rooster's belly. Half Rooster continued on
his way and met a fox. "Fox, let us become friends."
"All right, little Half Rooster," replied the fox,
"but where are you going?" "I'm off to see the
world. Do you want to come with me?" "Sure, I'll come,"
said the fox and crawled into Half Rooster's belly.
After continuing on his journey for a
short time, Half Rooster met a wolf who asked him where he was
going. "To make some money, dear wolf. Do you want to come
with me?" "Oh yes, I'll come," it replied and
crawled into Half Rooster's belly too. They all set off and after
a while met a mouse. The little mouse laughed and asked Half
Rooster, "Aren't you getting tired, Half Rooster, if you
have to hop on one leg all the time?" "Not at all,"
replied Half Rooster. When the mouse asked where he was going,
Half Rooster replied that he wanted to see the world and make
some money. Half Rooster persuaded the mouse to come along too,
and the little mouse jumped into his belly, which was now almost
bursting because it was so full.
One day Half Rooster got hungry. He hopped
into a vegetable garden and began to crow, "Cock a doodle
doo! Look, I'm here!" The king heard him and gave orders
that the rooster be caught. The servants rushed out and surrounded
the garden. But though Half Rooster was still crowing, they could
not find him, so they cut off all the heads of cabbage in the
garden to see where he was. Finally they found him in the last
head of cabbage, seized him and stuck him in the oven to roast.
Half Rooster was in a desperate situation
and cried out, "Frog, if you've ever been my friend, help
me now!" The frog leapt out right away, spewed out all the
water it had swallowed and put out the fire. Then the servants
locked Half Rooster in a stable so that the horses would trample
him to death with their hooves. "Wolf," Half Rooster
cried out, "if you've ever been my friend, help me now!"
So the wolf leapt out and bit all the horses until they died.
The king's servants seized Half Rooster for the third time and
locked him up with the geese so that they would peck at him with
their beaks. But Half Rooster called his friend the fox who leapt
out and ate up all the geese.
The king's servants did not know what
to do, so they locked Half Rooster up in a chest of gold, the
strongest one they had. Half Rooster swallowed as many pieces
of gold as he could and then called the mouse, "Mouse, if
you've ever been my friend, help me now!" The mouse leapt
out of his belly and gnawed a big hole in the chest so that both
of them could escape.
Half Rooster hopped home quickly. On
his way, he lost a piece of gold. When he got back to the old
man, he said to him, "Master, from now on give me enough
to eat and a soft place to sleep. Take the rod and hit me on
the back with it every day." The old man did as the rooster
had told him. Every day, Half Rooster got plenty to eat and a
soft place to sleep and every day the old man hit him on the
back with the rod. Every time he hit the rooster, a piece of
gold fell out and with the money the old man was able to live
a good life.
When the old woman found out what had
happened, she was furious and green with envy. She screamed at
her cat, "Go on, you good for nothing! Go on a journey and
make some money!" The cat obeyed, and on its way found and
swallowed the piece of gold which Half Rooster had lost. It also
found a lot of insects, salamanders, snakes and mice and ate
them all, returning home to its mistress with a full belly. Just
as Half Rooster had done, the cat said to the old women, "Give
me enough to eat every day and a soft place to sleep, because
I was on a journey and have made money."
The old woman did as the cat had said
and hit it on the back with a rod every day. The first day, a
piece of gold fell out, but on the days that followed, only salamanders,
snakes, mice and other little creatures came out to the fury
of old woman. In her rage, she killed the cat and then died herself
of anger and envy.
[Source: Pralla popullore
shqiptare (Tirana: Instituti i Shkencave 1954). Translated
from the Albanian by Robert Elsie.]
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Albanian Literature in Translation
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