of the hill there was
a town and in the centre of the town there was a fountain. The young
man hurried straight to the fountain and took a long refreshing drink.
Then he opened his melon. A beautiful maiden sprang forth saying,
"Give me water or give me milk." The young man gave her a drink of
water. Then he helped her to a hiding place among the thick branches
of the tree which grew beside the fountain and went away in search of
food.
Soon a little black servant girl came to the fountain to fill a big
water jar which she carried on her head. The maiden in the tree above
the fountain peeped out through the branches. When the little black
servant girl bent over the water to fill her jar she saw the
reflection of a charming face in the water. "How beautiful I have
become," she said to herself. "How ridiculous that any one as
beautiful as I am should carry water on her head." She threw her water
jar upon the ground in disdain and it broke into a thousand pieces.
When the little maid reached home with neither water nor water jar her
mistress punished her severely and sent her again to the fountain
with a new water jar to fill. This time the maiden in the tree gave a
little silvery laugh when the black servant girl bent over the water.
The little maid looked up and spied her in the tree. "O, it is you, is
it, who are responsible for my beating?" she said. She pulled a pin
out of her camisa and, reaching up, she stuck it savagely into the
beautiful maiden in the tree. Then a strange thing happened. There was
no longer any beautiful maiden in the tree. There was just a pigeon
there.
At that moment the young man came back to the tree with the food he
had procured. When the little black maid heard his footsteps she was
frightened nearly to death. She hid herself quickly among the thick
branches of the tree. The young man was very much surprised to find a
little black maid in the tree in the place of the beautiful maiden he
had left there. "What has happened to you during my absence" he asked
in horror as soon as he saw her. "The sun has burned my complexion.
That is all. It is nothing. I shall be myself again when I get away
from this hot place," the little maid replied.
The young man married the little black maid and took her away out of
sunny places hoping that she would soon be again the beautiful maiden
she was when he left her by the fountain in search of food. But she
always remained black.
Years passed and th
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