d the owner of the horse
did not wish his horse's legs cut off, and hence this disturbance. Then
the traveller said: "Just wait," and came up to the bride and gave her a
slap that made her lower her head, and then he gave the horse a kick,
and so they passed through the gate and entered the city. The groom and
the owner of the horse asked the traveller what he wanted, for he had
saved the groom his bride, and the owner of the horse his horse. He
answered that he did not wish anything and said to himself: "Two and one
make three! that is enough; now I will go home." He did so and said to
his wife: "Here I am, my wife; I have seen three greater fools then you;
now let us remain in peace and think about nothing else." They renewed
the wedding and always remained in peace. After a time the wife had a
son whom they named Bastianelo, and Bastianelo did not die, but still
lives with his father and mother.[2]

* * * * *

There is a Sicilian version of this story (Pitre, No. 148) called, "The
Peasant of Larcara," in which the bride's mother imagines that her
daughter has a son who falls into the cistern. The groom (they are not
yet married) is disgusted and sets out on his travels with no fixed
purpose of returning if he finds some fools greater than his
mother-in-law, as in the Venetian tale. The first fool he meets is a
mother, whose child, in playing the game called _nocciole_,[R] tries to
get his hand out of the hole while his fist is full of stones. He
cannot, of course, and the mother thinks they will have to cut off his
hand. The traveller tells the child to drop the stones, and then he
draws out his hand easily enough. Next he finds a bride who cannot enter
the church because she is very tall and wears a high comb. The
difficulty is settled as in the former story.

[Footnote R: A game played with peach-pits, which are thrown into holes
made in the ground and to which certain numbers are attached.]

After a while he comes to a woman who is spinning and drops her spindle.
She calls out to the pig, whose name is Tony, to pick it up for her. The
pig does nothing but grunt, and the woman in anger cries: "Well, you
won't pick it up? May your mother die!"

The traveller, who had overheard all this, takes a piece of paper, which
he folds up like a letter, and then knocks at the door. "Who is there?"
"Open the door, for I have a letter for you from Tony's mother, who is
ill and wishes to see he