The Love Potion

I know another little tale, not quite proper, but it is amusing. If you like, I’ll tell it to you.

Once upon a time there was a husband and wife, very poor folk. To make it worse, they had a great many children, all girls. And it happened that the wife, as was not unusual with her, was pregnant again. Her husband thought, “Who knows, perhaps God will send us a son this time, and I haven’t even got the wherewithal for a circumcision feast.” He concluded that, what with one thing and another, he would do better to go out into the wide world begging for alms so that he’d be able to pay for the circumcision feast. So that’s what he did, and it wasn’t long before his family lost all track of him.

Meanwhile his wife came to her time and was, with God’s help, delivered of a boy. But her house was very cold and she had nothing to heat it with. Lying in bed, she remembered that there were a few pieces of coal somewhere in an attic corner. She turned to her daughters and said, “Children, go to the attic, where you’ll find a few bits of coal. Bring them down so we can warm up the house a little. I’m very cold.” So her daughters went up to the attic and found the coal. But they noticed that there was something bright and gleaming among the coal scraps, and they ran down to their mother and told her so.

“Well,” she said, “bring me a couple of pieces of whatever it is that’s glittering there.” So they fetched down two pieces of the bright stone. When their mother saw what they had, she knew at once that it was something valuable. She said to her oldest daughter, “Carry one of these to the goldsmith and ask him what it’s worth.”

The goldsmith took one look and knew that it was no ordinary stone but a diamond. He bought it from the girl for a great deal of money, which she took home to her mother. Well, it wasn’t long before there were all sorts of good things in the house, and more than enough money to pay for a fine circumcision feast.

Now that she was prosperous, the woman felt that it wasn’t suitable to keep living in her village. She and her daughters moved to a large town where they bought a fine house, and soon she became well known for her charitable gifts to the poor.

All sorts of poor people from all corners of the world visited her, drawn by her reputation for generosity. Among those who came was her own husband, who was still trying to gather enough money to pay for a circumcision feast.

The woman knew him at once, but he didn’t recognize her because her appearance had changed with prosperity. Well, she handed him a substantial sum of money. When he saw it he stood amazed; no one had ever given him so much before. The woman said, “Don’t be so surprised, sir. Take this and buy yourself some fine clothes; then come back and help us celebrate the Sabbath.”

And that’s what he did. When he returned, she welcomed him, seated him at the head of her table, and asked him to bless the wine. Her children looked on, wondering, but they said nothing. When the stranger had finished blessing the wine, the woman served him two large pieces of fish, well peppered and salted, and then other fine dishes: soup, meat, stew. The poor man downed everything and relished every bite.

When the meal was over, she showed him to a room where he could spend the night. Then she made up her own bed and went to sleep. But in the middle of the night the poor man awakened with a powerful thirst, so he left his room and stumbled about in the dark, searching for water.

The woman called to him, “Sir, what are you looking for?”

“For something to drink,” he replied.

“Come here,” she said. “I’ll give you something to drink.”

So he went into her room, where she poured a glass of wine and handed it to him. He drank and smacked his lips. Then he said, “That’s a mighty tasty drink. What is it?”

She replied,

“The drink is wine

And you are mine,

And I am thine.”

And in the morning she told her children, “This is your father.”

* * *

* * *

And it happened that the wife, as was not unusual with her, was pregnant again.