This is the story of the blind tartalo. There once lived a Tartalo, a giant with a human face, of extraordinary strength, and with only one eye in the middle of his forehead. He loved nothing so much as Christian flesh; he smelled it from afar, and always chased away Christians who ventured into his neighborhood.
The blind tartalo
One night while he was away, a lost young man came to his door asking for food until morning. The Tartalo's wife allowed the stranger to enter, but told him that she could only have a barn where he would share, if it suited him, the sheep's litter.
“Yes, willingly,” said the young man, “because I am tired. »
Soon Tartarus arrives. He had barely closed the door behind him when he cried out:
“Assi que ey a car de Christia” (occitant?)
As he was not hungry at the moment, having made his supper from two sheep, he contented himself with saying to the Christian:
“Tomorrow I will eat you for dessert.” Then he lay down in front of the fire, soon fell asleep and snored loudly.
So what does the Christian do? Despite his fear, he understood that he had nothing to spare, and that the moment was right to render his enemy powerless. He grabs the spit from the hearth, burns it in the fire and pierces the Tartalo's eye with it. The giant rises, roaring:
"It's the Christian's trick," he said, "he'll pay me for it."
He groped after him, but the other hid among the sheep. The Tartalo, tired of a pursuit without result, imagines a ruse. He takes a sheep, puts it outside, occupies the door himself and passes the others one by one between his legs, feeling them all carefully. The young man, understanding the danger, covers himself with the skin of a sheep, gets on all fours and slips into the place of the flock.
But the Tartalo was on his guard and grabbed him. The young man, leaving the skin in his hands, escapes outside.
So the husband and wife go after him. No matter how much the poor Christian ran, he kept turning and turning and coming back to the same place. The Tartar woman then said:
“–Christian, put this ring on your finger, and you will find your way. »
He takes the ring and the ring begins to scream:
"I'm here, I'm here! ".
Guided by the voice, the Tartalo begins a more assured pursuit, and goes to seize the young man. He tries to remove the ring, but the ring held firm. He then cuts off his finger and throws it with the ring between two steep rocks. The ring shouted:
"I'm here, I'm here! »
The Tartar, following the voice, threw himself with a furious impulse to the bottom of the precipice and was broken there.
