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The Grateful Snake and the Magic
Case
Once upon a time there was a poor
man who had one son. One day the son found a snake almost frozen
to death and took it home with him. When the little snake had
recovered in the warmth of the house, it said to the boy, "I
cannot repay you for what you have done but come with me to my
father. When he asks you what he can do to repay you, ask only
for his cigarette case. In the case is a strand of hair, and
when you shake it, it will make all your wishes come true."
 They
went off to the little snake's parents who were overjoyed to
see their son again. The snake's father asked the youth what
he wanted as a reward for having saved their son's life and the
youth asked for the case as the little snake had told him. The
father became angry and refused to part with his cigarette case.
He said to the youth, "I'll give you absolutely anything
you want, except for this case." When the youth got up to
leave and the little snake set out to follow him, the mother
began to weep and implored her husband, "It is better to
give him what he wants than for us to lose our son." She
would not let her son leave and both of them begged the father
until at last he gave in. The little snake called the youth back
and the father gave him the cigarette case. Then the youth returned
home.
At that time, the king had just proclaimed
throughout his territories that all the young men of the country
were to assemble in front of his palace because his daughter
wished to choose a husband. The princess would throw an apple
to the man she wanted. So the youth set out for the assembly.
On his way, he shook the case and received handsome garments
and a white horse. He let all the other young men go before him
and was the last to arrive in front of the palace. The maiden
did not care for any of the men who were already assembled there
and when the youth finally appeared, she threw him the apple.
The king summoned the youth and they agreed to hold the wedding
celebration in four months' time. A few days later, the youth
went back to his home.
As the wedding approached, he shook his
case and a palace appeared. When the villagers woke the next
morning, they looked at one another in utter amazement and wondered
who could possibly have built the palace in such a short time.
Finally, one Saturday evening, the youth went to fetch his bride
and they celebrated for several days. The bride and groom spent
a week with the king and then returned to the youth's own palace.
After a while, the youth's father in
law went to war with another king and summoned all his warriors.
He called his son in law too and made him commander in chief
of the army. While the youth was at war, the king called his
daughter to him and asked her whether she was happy with her
husband. She told him that she had no maids or butlers and that
all her wishes were granted whenever her husband shook his cigarette
case. The king convinced his daughter to steal the case from
her husband, but she did not know where he kept it hidden.
In this long ago time all the birds and
animals could speak, so the king asked the animals which one
of them could find out where his son in law had hidden the cigarette
case. "I'll find it," promised the mouse. "When
you go to bed, just set out a lamp with some petroleum in it."
When everyone had gone to bed and was fast asleep, the mouse
dipped its tail into the petroleum and stuck it in the son in
law's nose. The youth sneezed and the case fell out. The mouse
seized the case and ran off with it to the king.
The son in law understood at once that
he had lost the case when he sneezed and immediately got up to
look for it. He searched the palace from top to bottom but could
not find it anywhere, and thought that it must have fallen into
a mousehole. He knew that without his case he would become poor
again.
But the king, who now knew best of all
where the case was, summoned his son in law and daughter to him
and bestowed upon them a kingdom of their own where they lived
happily ever after.
[Source: Manuel de la
langue chkipe ou albanaise par Auguste Dozon, consul de France.
Grammaire, vocabulaire, chrestomathie (Paris: Ernest Leroux,
1879), reprinted in Folklor shqiptar 1, Proza popullore
(Tirana 1963). Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie.]
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Albanian Literature in Translation
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