Free Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino

on whose shore stood the castle of Body-without-Soul. Jack changed into an eagle and flew straight to the edge of a closed window. Then he changed into an ant and crawled into the room. It was a beautiful bedchamber where, beneath a canopy, lay the king’s daughter asleep. Still an ant, Jack went crawling over her cheek until she awakened. Then he removed the tiny ant leg, and the king’s daughter suddenly beheld a handsome youth at her side.
    â€œDon’t be afraid,” he said, signaling silence. “I’ve come to free you. You must get the sorcerer to tell you what could kill him.”
    When the sorcerer returned, Jack changed back into an ant. The king’s daughter made a big to-do over Body-without-Soul, seating him at her feet and drawing his head onto her lap. Then she began: “My darling sorcerer, I know you’re a body without a soul and therefore incapable of dying. But I live in constant fear of someone finding your soul and putting you to death.”
    â€œI can tell
you
the secret,” replied the sorcerer, “since you’re imprisoned here and can’t possibly betray me. To slay me would require a lion mighty enough to kill the black lion in the forest. Out of the belly of the dead lion would leap a black dog so swift that only the fastest dog on earth could catch it. Out of the belly of the dead black dog would fly a black eagle that could withstand every eagle under the sun. But if by chance that eagle were slain, a black egg would have to be taken out of its craw and cracked over my brow for my soul to fly away and leave me dead. Does all that seem easy? Do you have any real grounds for worry?”
    With his tiny ant ears, Jack took in every word, then crawled back under the window to the ledge, where he again turned into an eagle and soared into the forest. There he changed into a lion and stalked the underbrush until he came face to face with the black lion. The black lion jumped him, but Jack, being the strongest lion in the world, tore it to bits. (Back at the castle, the sorcerer felt his head spin.) The lion’s belly was slit open, and out bolted a swift-footed black dog, but Jack turned into the fastest dog on earth, caught him, and they rolled together in a ball, biting each other until the black dog lay dead. (Back at the castle, the sorcerer had to take to his bed.) The dog’s belly was slit open and out flew a black eagle, but Jack became the most powerful eagle under the sun and they soared through the sky pecking and clawing each other until the black eagle folded its wings and fell to earth. (At the castle, the sorcerer ran a high fever and curled up under the bedclothes.)
    Jack changed back into a man, opened the eagle’s craw, and removed the black egg. He returned to the castle and gave it to the king’s daughter, who was overjoyed.
    â€œHow on earth did you do it?” she asked.
    â€œNothing to it,” replied Jack. “The rest is now up to you.”
    The king’s daughter entered the sorcerer’s bedchamber, asking, “How do you feel?”
    â€œWoe’s me! I’ve been betrayed . . . 
    â€œI brought you a cup of broth. Drink some.”
    The sorcerer sat up in his bed and bent over to drink the broth.
    â€œHere, let me break an egg into it and give it more body.” At that, the king’s daughter broke the black egg over his brow and Body-without-Soul died on the spot.
    Jack took the king’s daughter home to her father. Everyone was overjoyed, and the young couple was married forthwith.
    Â 
    (
Riviera ligure di ponente
)

7
Money Can Do Everything
    There was once a prince as rich as cream, who took it into his head to put up a palace right across the street from the king’s, but a palace far more splendid than the king’s. Once it was finished, he put on its front in bold lettering: MONEY CAN DO EVERYTHING .
    When the king came out and saw that, he sent immediately