K56a5. An old woman becomes beautiful, ATU 877.

.14.15.17.23.27.-.29.31.

An old or ugly woman, without expecting to become a young beauty or finding wealth. Usually another tries to repeat her actions and dies or suffers damage.

Arabs of Algeria, Egypt, Catalans, Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, Corsicans, Sicilians, Palestinians, Tamils, Malayals, Greeks, Poles, Belarusians, Turks, Danes, Latvians. (In Uther 2004, No. 877, a reference to a French index, in which the only text on this story is Corsican).

North Africa. The Arabs of Algeria (Tiaret Plateau) [the evil old woman called the good "one-toothed"; decided to pass her off as a prince; dressed her up, introduced her daughter; when the prince saw who he married, he threw her away the old woman out the window; the angels picked her up, made her a beautiful 18-year-old girl; the prince remarried her; the first old woman came, the former old woman said she was rejuvenated by a blacksmith; she demanded her from the blacksmith rejuvenate, lay down on an anvil, he crushed it with a hammer]: Aceval 2005, No. 16:33-34; Egyptian Arabs (one entry) [Beauty and youth bestowed magically - fatal imitation by rival; rejuvenation by changing skin; man declined into marrying an ugly woman: the veiled (bashful) female; bethrothal of the veiled female (unseen)]: El-Shamy 2004, No. 877:512; (cf. Berbers Beni Menacer, Kabylia [one wife is smart, the other is stupid; they quarreled, separated the only rooster; one part fried, the other kept; Half-rooster (one wing, one leg) went on a pilgrimage; he rushes at the jackal, at the lion, pulls it out by a hair, hides it under his wing; asks for the stubble of a wild boar, he gives it; in the king's house he shouts that he will die tomorrow and he will take his wife; the king orders throw it to sheep and goats; he burns the jackal's hair, he asks not to burn, calls all the jackals, they have gnawed sheep and goats; the same is thrown to the bulls (the lions have torn them to pieces); the king orders to lock the Half-Rooster, to kill with his own hands; he calls the wild boar, the boars broke the door, the Half-Rooster left, taking the gold in the room; asks his mistress to beat him, gold falls; seeing gold, the stupid wife offers to divide the dog; the clever gives her half to it; the stupid sends the dog on a pilgrimage; she saw a yellow stone in the spring, grabbed it, brought it, ordered to beat herself; she killed her and found it in herd a yellow stone]: Basset 1887, No. 42:83-89).

Southern Europe. The Sicilians [the king wanted to marry a beautiful woman more beautiful than the sun, sent a servant to look for water; he asked for water in the house, an 80-year-old woman handed him water from outside the door; he saw only his hand white and thin from spinning; told the king; he sent for the bride; she replied that she was 15 years old, which would turn black from the sun, she was brought in a closed wagon; at night the king saw her, threw her out the window, she caught on a nail on the wall; the fairies felt sorry for her, gave her beauty, youth, wisdom, courtesy; the king saw, told her to get it, was happy with her; her 90-year-old roommate came, recognized her, asked how to be younger; she replied that the old skin should be removed, there would be a new one; she went to the barber, who began to peel off her skin, she died]: Gonzenbach 2004a [1870], No. 39:263-265 (retelling in Crane 1985, No. 25:97- 100); Portuguese: Cardigos 2006, No. 877 [an old woman convinces a prince or a wealthy passer-by to marry her ugly granddaughter or sister and claims that the eau de toilette she poured is hers urine; the old woman tells her not to look at the bride so that her tender skin does not suffer in the sunlight; when she sees the freak, her husband throws her out the window, she clings to her clothes, the fairies turn her into a young beauty and a person really marries her; an old woman's sister or companion asks a younger woman how she did it; misunderstands the answer that she is younger when she was skinned; tells the butcher ( barber, blacksmith) peel off his skin and dies]: 213-214; Braga 2002 (Algarve) [example of such a text; the king puts the old woman's ugly niece on the veranda; fairies try to help the prince, who he forgot how to laugh; when he saw the naked freak frozen, the prince laughed; the fairies, out of gratitude, turned the freak into a beautiful woman, the king married her; the old woman asked her niece how she had changed; she answered: I was done (fararam-me), and the old woman heard "my skin was ripped off" (esfolaram-me)]: 156-158; Coelho 1879, No. 65 (Coimbra) []: 147-149; Catalans (incl. Mallorca and Ibiza) [the king marries an old woman, mistaking her for the young girl whose finger he saw; after making a mistake, he throws the old woman out the window; the fairies turn her into a young girl, king on her is getting married; her sister asks the blacksmith to make her skin soft so that she looks younger too, but the result is only uglier]: Oriol, Pujol 2008, No. 877:171-172; Spaniards: Uther 2004 (1) , No. 877:500; Corsicans [the mother has an ugly daughter with one eye; once she ate 7 bread at a time, the mother screamed, and the prince passing by the house asked what was going on; the mother replied that the daughter had hidden it seven skeins of silk; the prince wished such a craftswoman for his wife; the prince's men were amazed at the master's choice; when the bride was on her way to the wedding, three fairies saw her; one laughed, something stuck in her throat, jumped out; the other burst into tears, an abscess in her eye burst; the third started dancing, a splinter came out of her heel; for this, the first made the bride beautiful, the second let any of her clothes be gold, the third let her go to heaven after death; when her mother visited the prince's wife, she said that she became beautiful after the shepherds at the spring ripped off her skin; the mother paid the shepherds to also her skin was ripped off; she screamed terribly, but it didn't help; they buried her]: Massignon 1984, No. 12:27-29 (=Tenèze, Bru 2000, No. 877:49-54); Italians: Basile 2018 (Naples) []: 130-141; Calvino 1980, No. 29 (Venice) [three old maidens 67, 75 and 94 years old sit on the balcony; the oldest takes a fragrant variety in her mouth and spits out; the spit fell on a young king who is passionate about a beauty with such a with a fragrant breath; the king came to the old women; the one who opened the door said that it was impossible to see the beauty before the wedding, but if she came tomorrow, she would show her finger; the old women make an artificial finger, the king is preparing the wedding; when the couple is alone, the king sees the old woman, throws her out the window; she remains hanging on the grill for grapes winding along the wall; three fairies passing by laughed so much that the award was given to the old woman the appearance of a young beauty, a wonderful husband and a happy marriage; in the morning the king saw a beautiful woman, pulled her out of the window and was happy; when another old woman saw her younger, she asked how she did it; she replied that she had been cut off; the old woman went to the carpenter and died when he began to cut her off]: 80-83, 721; Pentameron I,10 [two ugly old women without showing themselves they constantly complain outside the king's window that a fallen grain of sand has injured his knee, a jasmine flower has filled a bump, etc.; the king dreams of seeing beauties; they lick their finger and the one they have it for 8 days softer, puts him outside; when one of them put her finger through the keyhole, the king believed that he was beautiful in front of him; at night he realized that he had been deceived, told the servants to throw the liar out the window; she hung in a tree; the fairies passing by laughed and gave the woman youth, beauty and all virtues; the king married her; the young queen told another old woman that she was younger after when the barber took off her old skin; she persuaded her to peel her skin off and died].

(Wed. Western Europe. The French have no plot; the text from the French index referred to by Uther 2004 (Tenèze, Bru 2000, No. 877:45-48) is Corsican.

Western Asia. The Palestinians [two ugly old women, one tooth and two teeth, poured an infusion of flowers on the head of a prince passing by, loudly saying that this is the water the beauty used to wash; the prince thinks that there is a young beauty in the house, sends her mother to marry her; an old woman, who has two teeth, hides in the closet and sticks out a candle with rings on it instead of a finger; when he sees the bride's face, the prince throws away her out of the window; the Genie Sultan laughs and an abscess in his throat bursts; his seven beautiful sisters give the old woman their youth and beauty; the prince marries her again; one-toothed the old woman asks her ex-two-toothed how she managed to change her appearance; she replies to go through the cotton machine; she was ground to shreds]: Littmann 2016:413-417 (=Bushnaq 1987:170- 171, briefly in Nowak 1969, No. 458:367); Palestinians [two ugly old women, one tooth and two teeth, poured an infusion of flowers on the head of a prince passing by, loudly saying it was water, whom the beautiful woman washed; the prince thinks that there is a young beauty in the house, sends her mother to marry her; an old woman with two teeth hides in the closet and sticks out a candle with rings on her instead of her finger ; seeing the bride's face, the prince throws her out the window; the Genie Sultan, who is nearby, laughs and an abscess in his throat bursts; his seven beautiful sisters give the old woman their youth and beauty; The prince marries her again; a one-toothed old woman asks her ex-two-toothed how she managed to change her appearance; she replies to go through a cotton machine; she was ground to shreds]: Littmann 2016:413-417 (=Bushnaq 1987:170-171, briefly in Nowak 1969, No. 458:367).

South Asia. The Tamils [the grumpy wife tortured the poor mother-in-law so much that she ran away and spent the night in the temple of Kali; seeing that the old woman's story was true, Kali gave her a mango; after eating it, her mother-in-law became young and She could fight back her daughter-in-law; she sent her own mother to the temple; realizing the falsity of the story, Kali gave a fruit that the old woman ate turned into a donkey]: Natesa Sastri 1884-1988, No. 9:99-103; Malayali : Beck et al. 1987, No. 31 [the younger sister is ugly and remains an old maid; began to live with her older sister and her children; there is little help from the weak old woman, so her nephews decided to burn her; tied up hands and feet, gag in her mouth, were brought to the cremation site and covered with firewood; but they forgot the matches and went to look for them; the woman managed to free herself and climbed a tree; from there she watched her own a funeral fire; the nephews left, and three robbers were being built under the tree; the woman fell on them, they ran away in horror, she got all their gold; she brought it to her sister and nephews, who became treat her better; decided that her mother would get even more money; tied her to her consent, set fire to a fire; she twitched and burned down], 40 [daughter-in-law does not love her mother-in-law and leaves her less and less every day food; the son asks the mother what is wrong with her, but she does not complain; the wife says that the mother-in-law wants to remarry; they decide to take the mother in a sack to the forest and burn her alive; but the son only leaves the mother in the woods in a sack; those who passed by released her; she came to the temple, where the robbers left half of the loot; brought treasures to her son; his wife asks her to leave her in a bag in the forest too; he did so, but set fire bag]: 110-112, 141-142.

The Balkans. The Greeks [old woman (Mary) married the prince for her sister, who is just as old; adds fragrances to her urine; the bride sucks her finger to make the skin tender, lets the groom feel, not lets you see her in the light; she has a beautiful voice; one of her sisters helps the snake and it rejuvenates the bride; or the prince discovers that the bride is old and throws her out the window; she hangs on a tree; it they see three fairies starting to laugh; one of them has not laughed for 40 years; fairies give her various charms, make her 18- (or 12) years old; a younger woman tells her sister or another old woman that she has changed her skin; she tells a barber, butcher, or someone else to rip herself off, dies]: Megas 2012, No. 514A: 197.

Central Europe. For Poles and Belarusians, the Polish and East Slavic indexes refer to the same text from Gliński 1853, IV. Since, however, Polish contains variants ("crippled or old woman", and not just "hunchback" as in SUS), it can be assumed that Glinski noted some Polish parallels to the Belarusian text. In any case, the story most likely came to Belarusians through Polish means. Poles: Krzyżanowski 1962, No. 525 [the king fell in love with a girl, although he only saw her finger sticking through the keyhole (or heard her voice; smelled her); on his wedding night, seeing her in front of him an old woman or a cripple, he throws her out the window; three sorceresses give her beauty and she becomes queen]: 170; Dombrovsky 1992 [the widow's daughter is an ugly hunchback; three fairies promise that she will be queen; the widow cooks herbs, waters the ground in front of the house; the king passing by smells nice; the widow says she is watering the ground with water her daughter washes; that a daughter will die if someone will see her before marriage; the king marries; when he sees the freak, he throws her out the window; the fairies picked her up, made her beautiful; in the morning the king asks who she is; the beauty replies that the wife he threw away; feast]: 77-83 ; Belarusians [The Humpbacked Bride: A mother deceives her ugly daughter as a queen; he throws the hunchback out of the window in anger - she turns into a slender beauty]: Gliński 1853, IV, 8 in SUS 1979, № 877 = TO 525:221.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Turks [mother 90 years old, daughter 70; mother exclaims: "My daughter, whose hand even a violet petal hurts, do not walk in the sun, you will darken!" The padishah hears, tells the girl to be married, agrees to put a wedding ring on her finger stuck into the keyhole; the mother rubbed her daughter's finger with drugs to make it look tender; the bride is brought, the mother she put pieces of sugar on her cheeks to make her look plump, the sugar fell out, the padishah sees the bride's face, throws her out the window, she caught on the tree branches; at this time, three peri brought their son the padishah choking on the bone; when he saw the old woman in the tree, he burst out laughing, the bone jumped out; the padishah peri ordered the one who saved his son to fulfill the wish; first peri: let her face like mine; second: let your hands be like mine; third: let the camp be like mine; fourth: let the character be like mine; other peri gave the old woman hair, young age, etc.; the padishah saw a beautiful girl, a feast for 40 days]: Stebleva 1986, NO. 50:207-209.

Baltoscandia. Latvians [The bride is an old woman. An elegant white handle hands a mug of water to the royal servant. The servant thinks the hostess is beautiful. After the wedding, the king discovers that the bride is an old woman and pushes her out the window. Three sorceresses give her youth, beauty and a beautiful voice. The king is happy. The young wife gives her sister, also an old woman, money to go rejuvenate - to tear off her skin. After doing this, the sister dies]: Aris, Medne 1977, No. 877:329; Danes: Uther 2004 (1), No. 877:500.