It is related that once upon a time there lived two sisters, Lucetta and Troccola hight, who had two daughters, named Marziella and Puccia. Marziella was as charming and beauteous of face as she was beautiful of heart; whilst on the contrary Puccia, by the same rule, had a face of ugliness and an heart of pestilence; and the damsel resembled her parent, for Troccola, her mother, was an harpy within and a bawd without.

Now one day of the days so it fortuned that Lucetta had a few carrots to warm up in order to fry them with some green sauce, so she said to her daughter, ‘Marziella mine, go, my dearling, to the fountain, and bring me a pitcher of water.’ ‘With good will, O my mother,’ answered the daughter, ‘but, an thou lovest me, do thou give me a cake, that I may eat it near the fountain, and drink some fresh water after it.’ ‘Willingly,’ said the mother; and from a basket which depended upon a hook from the roof beam she took a fine cake, which she had baked the day before with the bread, and gave it to Marziella, who put the pitcher on a pad upon her head, and fared to the fountain, which, like unto a charlatan, upon a stone or marble bench, to the music of the falling waters, was selling secrets to drown thirst. And whilst her pitcher was filling, up came an old woman, who upon the scaffold of a great hump represented the tragedy of time, and she, beholding the nice cake, which Marziella was just putting to her mouth for a bite, said ‘O my beauteous child, may Heaven send thee a good lot and fortune, give me a morsel of that cake.’ Marziella, who was in her ways a queen, answered ‘Take it all, and eat it, my good woman; and I regret, that it is not made of sugar and almonds, for I would even so give it to thee with all my heart.’

The old woman seeing the loving kindness of Marziella, said to her ‘Go, and may Heaven always prosper thee for this thy goodness which thou hast shown to me, and I pray all the stars that thou mayst be ever happy and content; that when thou breathest, from thy lips may come forth roses and jasmines; when thou combest thine hair, may ever from thine head drop pearls and garnets; and when thou settest thy foot upon the ground, may there spring up under thy step lilies and violets.’ The damsel thanked the old woman for her good wishes, and went her way home, where after the mother had cooked the dinner, and given satisfaction to the natural debt of the body, they spent that day in their usual way. When the next morning came, and at the market of the celestial fields the sun made show of his merchandise of light which he brought from the cast, Marziella began to comb her hair, when she saw a rain of pearls and garnets fall around her, whereupon calling her mother, with great joy they put the gems into a large basket, and Lucetta fared forth to a banker friend of hers to sell him some.

In the meanwhile arrived Troccola to visit her sister, and finding Marziella busy gathering those pearls, she asked her how, when, and where she had gotten them? But the damsel, who knew not how to trouble water, and perhaps had not heard that proverb, ‘ Do not all thou canst do, eat not all thou canst eat, spend not all thou hast to spend, and tell not all thou knowest,’ related the whole affair to her aunt, who no longer cared to await for her sister, for the time till she reached home again seemed to her a thousand years. Then giving a cake to her daughter, she sent her to the fountain, where Puccia found the same old woman. And when the old woman begged of her a small piece of cake, the damsel, who was greedy and selfish, answered, ‘Have I naught else to do than give the cake to thee? dost thou take me for an ass, that I should give thee whatso belongeth to me? Go thy ways, for our teeth are nearer than our relatives.’ And thus saying, she ate up the cake in four mouthfuls, playing for spite of the old woman, who, when she saw the last piece disappear, and her hopes of a bite buried with it, exclaimed with great wrath, ‘Go thy ways, and when thou breathest, mayst thou send forth froth, like a doctor’s mule; when thou combest thine hair, may the lice fall from thine head in heaps; and wherever thou steppest may there spring forth wild herbs and prickly ferns.’

Puccia took her pitcher, and returned homewards, where her mother impatiently waited for the hour to comb her hair; and putting a fine towel upon her knees, she laid her daughter’s head upon it, and began to comb her hair, when, behold, there fell a flood of alchymist animals, which stopped even quicksilver; at the sight of which her mother to the snow of her envy added the fire of her wrath, casting forth flames and smoke from mouth and nostrils.

Now it chanced after a time that the brother of Marziella, Ciommo hight, was at the court of the King of Chiunzo, and the discourse turning on the beauties of several damsels, he stood before the king unasked, and said that all the beauties mentioned and unmentioned could go fare and pick up bones at the bridge, if his sister appeared, for beside the grace, and beauty, and comeliness which were a counterpart of her soul she possessed a great virtue in her hair, in her mouth, and in her feet given to her by a fairy. The king, hearing these praises, told Ciommo to bring his sister before him, and if he found her to be as he had boasted, he would take her to wife. Now Ciommo thought that this was an opportunity too good to be lost; so he forthwith sent a messenger to his mother, relating to her what had occurred, and beseeching her to come at once, in order not to let her daughter lose such good fortune. But Lucetta, who was lying ill at the time, recommended the sheep to the wolf, and begged her sister to accompany Marziella to the court of Chiunzo, whereupon Troccola, seeing that the matter fell nicely into her hands, promised her sister to carry Marziella safe and well to the hands of her brother, and embarking on board a ship with Marziella and with Puccia, sailed away. When they were amiddlemost the main, and the sailors were asleep, Troccola threw Marziella into the sea, and just as she was drowning there came a beautiful mermaid, who held her up by an arm, and carried her away. Such was her case.

Now when Troccola arrived at Chiunzo, Puccia was received by Ciommo, who had not seen his sister for so long a time, and thus could not recognise her, as if she had been Marziella; and instantly he led her before the king. But no sooner did she stand before the king, than he bade the handmaidens to comb her hair, and when they obeyed him, behold there rained a shower of those animals which are such great foes to truth, that they for ever offend their witnesses; and when the king looked at her face, he saw that as she breathed hard from the fatigue of her wayfaring she made quite a lather at her mouth which seemed a boat of soapy clothes; and lowering his glance to the ground, he beheld a field of stinking herbs, the sight of which turned the stomach sick. Thereupon he drove away Puccia and her mother, and to punish Ciommo for his boast, sent him to guard the geese of the court.

And Ciommo was in despair for this business, not knowing what had happened to him; and he followed the geese in the fields, and allowed them to feed as they liked and to go their way along the shore, whilst he entered a hayloft, and wept, and wailed, and lamented therein his bad lot and fortune. Now whilst the geese ran about the shore, the mermaid and Marziella came forth from the waters, and fed them with sweet pastry, and gave them rose-water to drink, so that the geese after a time grew as large as rams, each one, and they could hardly see out of their eyes, and when at night they came to a small orchard which was under the king’s window, they began to sing,

Pire, pire, pire,
Very beautiful are the sun and the moon,
But much more beautiful is she who feedeth us.

The king, hearing this goose-music every evening, sent for Ciommo, and asked him the meaning of this song, and where, and how, and of what food he fed his geese. And Ciommo answered, ‘I do not let them eat aught but the fresh grass from the fields.’ But the king, who did not like the answer, sent a faithful servant behind him, to watch where he drove the geese. Then the man followed his footsteps and saw him enter the hayloft, and leave the geese alone to go their way; and when they arrived at the shore, Marziella came forth from the sea (and I do not believe that so beauteous a being came forth of the waves in the mother of that blind god, who, as a poet said, will take no other alms than tears). The king’s servant, beholding this sight, was out of himself with wonder and surprise, and ran to his master, and related to him the wonderful sight he had witnessed upon the sea-shore.

The curiosity of the king was aroused by what the man told him, and a great longing and desire seized him to go himself and behold this enchanting view, so in the morning, when the cock, chief of the bird-folk, awakens them all to arm the living against the night, Ciommo having gone with the geese to the usual place, the king followed him, never for a moment losing sight of him, and when the geese reached the sea-shore without Ciommo, who had remained in the same place as usual, the king beheld Marziella come forth from the water. And after giving the geese a quantity of pastry to eat, and a kettle full of rose water to drink, she seated herself upon a stone and began to comb her hair, from which fell pearls and garnets in handfuls; and at the same time from her mouth came forth clouds of flowers; and under her feet was formed a Syrian carpet of lilies and violets. When the king beheld this sight, he sent for Ciommo, and showing Marziella to him, said, ‘Dost thou know this beauteous damsel?’ And Ciommo recognized her, and ran to embrace her, and in the presence of the king she explained the treachery done by Troccola, that hideous pestilent creature, who had caused this beautiful fire of love to inhabit the waters of the sea. The joy felt by the king in having become the owner of such a rare gem is not to be told; and turning to her brother, he said that he had right to praise her, and indeed that he found her two-thirds more beautiful than he had described; he thought her, therefore, the more worthy to become his wife, if she would be content to accept the sceptre of his kingdom.

‘Oh, if the sun in Lion would let me,’ answered Marziella, ‘and I could come and serve thee even as thy slave, and servant of thy crown. But seest thou not this golden chain which holdeth me by the foot, by which I am kept a prisoner by the mermaid ; and when I tarry too long to breathe the fresh air, or to sit by the sea-side, she draweth me within the main, keeping me in rich captivity chained with a golden chain.’ ‘What remedy can there be,’ enquired the king, ‘to enable us to withdraw thee from the grasp of this mermaid?’ The remedy would be,’ answered Marziella, ‘to file with a soft file this chain, and thus could I make my escape.’ ‘Expect thou me to-morrow morning,’ replied the king, ‘and I will come with all the matter ready, and I will lead thee to my house, where thou shalt be my right eye, and the eye-babe of mine heart, and the entrails of my soul.’ And thus, plighting their love with a clasping of hands, she withdrew within the main, and he within the fire, into such a fire indeed that he found no rest all that day, and when the murk of night came forth to play and dance Tubba Catubba, with the stars, he never closed his eyes, but kept ruminating with the jaws of memory the beauty, grace, and comeliness of Marziella, discoursing within his mind of the marvellous hair, of the wonderful mouth, of the astounding feet, and applying the gold of her graces to the touchstone of judgment, he found them of twenty-four carat gold. And he disliked the night for tarrying so long at her embroidery of stars, and cursed the sun for his slowness, which arrived not soon with his coach full of light to enrich his house with the longed-for good; to enable him to carry in his chambers the mint of gold, which casteth pearls, a quail of pearls, which casteth flowers. But as he was lost in a sea of thoughts of the one that lived in the sea, behold, the sappers of the sun straightened the road whereon he should pass with the army of his rays. Then the king arose, and arrayed himself, and with Ciommo wended towards the sea-shore, where they found Marziella, and with the file they had brought the king filed with his own hand the chains from the foot of his beloved; all the while forging another and a stronger chain within his heart; and at last lifting on his horse’s crupper the one who rode upon his heart, he fared towards the royal palace, where Marziella found all the handsomest women of that country assembled to receive her as their mistress by order of the king. And with great joyance, and feasting, and burning of casks for illumination, the king ordered that the person of Troccola should be included amid the fire, so that she should pay for the deceit which she had practised upon Marziella; and sending for Lucetta, he gave her and Ciommo enough to live upon as rich folk; whilst Puccia, sent forth from that kingdom, went about as a beggar; and because she would not sow a small piece of cake had now to suffer a famine of bread, for it is the will of Heaven, that:

‘Whoso hath no pity, findeth none.’