El Pájaro Verde (English language: The Green Bird) is a Mexican folktale collected by Howard True Wheeler from Ayutla, Jalisco. It is related to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom and distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch.
Summary A king has an only daughter he loves very much. One day, a youth named "Pájaro Verde" goes to the palace to deliver coals to the king and falls in love with the princess. He goes back to his mother and sighs over this love. The youth's mother plucks some flowers and arranges them in a bouquet to be delivered to the princess. The princess gets the bouquet and is taken to the youth's house.
At the youth's house, his mother takes him by the hand to show him a surprise: the princess herself was brought to their house. The youth's mother then imposes tasks on her: first, she orders the princess to fetch bird feathers for zurrones (a type of leather bag) for Pájaro Verde's upcoming wedding. The princess cries a bit, but Pájaro Verde gives her a little flute and bids her summon all birds with it and ask them for their feathers. Next, Pájaro Verde's mother orders the princess to get tears from the birds. Again, Pájaro Verde advises her to summon the birds with the flute, so they will come and shed their tears for her.
Thirdly, Pájaro Verde's mother orders the princess to go to a "comadre" (a friend) and fetch from there a box of "danzantes y danzarines". The princess gets the box and brings it to the youth's house. However, she begins to hear a song coming from the box and opens it; little animals escape from it. The princess begins to cry, but Pájaro Verde comes and commands the little animals back into the box. Lastly, Pájaro Verde's mother betrothes her son to "an ugly lady", and forces the princess as the lady's bridesmaid. However, Pájaro Verde plans with the princess for the girls to trade places in church.
In church, Pájaro Verde's plan works, and the ugly lady becomes the princess's bridesmaid. During the ceremony, the ugly lady burns to death due to a spell Pájaro Verde's mother sent to whoever was in the bridesmaid's position. Later, Pájaro Verde shows a still alive princess to his mother, who dies of shock that her plans failed. The youth and the princess go to the castle and live happily.
Analysis Tale type The tale is related, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband" and its subtypes, more specifically, to subtype ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch". The tale type involves the heroine being forced to perform tasks for a witch or her mother-in-law, but she is secretly helped by her husband or love interest.
Motifs The heroine's tasks According to scholar , in his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, one of the impossible tasks the witch assigns the heroine is for her to fetch feathers from every bird in the world.Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. p. 29.
Another motif that appears in the tale type is that the heroine must travel to another witch's house and fetch from there a box or casket she must not open. German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther remarked that these motives ("the quest for the casket" and the visit to the second witch) are "the essential feature" of the subtype.
Variants Mexico The Green Bird (Tequila) In a tale collected by Howard Post Wheeler from Tequila with the title El Pájaro Verde ("The Green Bird"), a widower has an only daughter and remarries, but his new wife hates her stepdaughter. While the man is away on a journey, the stepmother banishes the girl from the house, and lies to her returning husband that she left on her own. The girl wanders around until she reaches a castle and finds work there. She is very beautiful, so a vassal of the king comes on to her, but she refuses her advances. For this, the vassal lies that the girl boasted she could separate a mixed heap of an hectolitre of corn ("maíz") and an hectolitre of bean seed ("frijol") in a single night. The king sends for the girl and orders her to fulfill the false boast. She is directed to a room filled with corn and bean seeds and starts to cry, when a green bird perches on her shoulder, asks her not to cry and for her to close her eyes. The following morning, the girl finds the heap of grains sorted out. The same vassel tries to come on to the girl and is again rejected, so he lies to the king the girl promised to disenchant the prince. The king sends for her and orders her to disenchant the prince in eight days, under penalty of death. The girl does to her room to cry, when the little green bird perches on her shoulders, says he is the prince and will help her disenchant him: he gives her a key to a "cueva" and a key for a box, she is to enter the cueva, mind the witch guardian and open the last box, which contains the prince. The girl follows the instructions to the letter and opens up the box containing the prince; the prince then releases other prisoners from other boxes and everyone returns safe and sound to the palace. To celebrate, the king organizes a party where the prince is to choose his bride by perching on the shoulder of his intended in order to be fully disenchant. He flies around the girls at the party, but flies off to the kitchen and perches on the girl that helped him. The king announces they shall be married, the girl kisses the little green bird, and restores him to human form. They marry.
Daria Scholar Stanley Lynn Robe collected a Mexican tale from informant Agustina Gomez, from Tepatitlán. In this tale, titled Daria, Daria has a widowed father who marries another woman, who has her own child. Her step-family mistreats her. One day, Daria's father goes to the market and his step-daughter asks for dresses and shoes, while Daria asks for three myrtle flowers, due to being threatened by her step-mother. Daria's father finds the myrtle flowers per the instructions of an old woman and gives them to Daria. Daria throws a myrtle flower in the fire and a bird appears to her. The bird says he is a prince that can be disenchanted if she speaks to him, but she does not. After exhausting the myrtle flowers, Daria's step-mother beats her and orders some servants to take her to the woods and kill her. Out of pity, the servants let her go and kill a dog in her place. The same bird returns and guides Daria to a hut that belongs to the king's milkman, warning her not to leave the house and enter the king's palace, since the servants may spread rumours about her and even his father, the king, may want to kill her. Daria disobeys the bird prince's warnings and goes to the palace. Once there, the servants take notice of her beauty and lie to the king that she promised to separate, in a single night, a bodega ('cellar, storeroom') of mixed heaps of rice and birdseed. The prince, in bird form, helps her fulfill the task. The next day, Daria goes again to the palace, and the maidservants spread another rumour about her: this time, that she promised to get the prince's childhood toys that are in a cage. The bird prince advises Daria: she is to take a path until she reaches a small town square, where a certain house is; she is to knock on the door, and an old lady will greet her; she is to ask for a drink of water and, while the old lady is away, Daria is to get the cage and flee. It happens thus. At the end of a year, the prince's curse is almost lifted, and the king summons all available girls to the palace, each carrying a large candle (círio), while Daria brings a little candle. The prince talks to Daria and she speaks to him, finally breaking his curse.Robe, Stanley L. Mexican tales and legends from Los Altos. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970. pp. 214-219 (tale nr. 63). Spanish scholars Julio Camarena and Maxime Chevalier, in their joint Spanish Folktale Index, classified the tale as subtype 425B, Las labores difíciles.CAMARENA, JULIO; Maxime CHEVALIER (1995). Catálogo tipográfico del cuento folklórico español. Vol. I: Cuentos maravillosos. Madrid, Castalia. p. 250 (entry "Robe, Los Altos, 63").
Marcia and Marimonia In a tale collected by Stanley Robe from a source in Mezcala, Los Altos, Jalisco, with the title Marcia y Marimonia ("Marcia and Marimonia"), a king and queen have a daughter named Marcia. One day, the queen falls ill and dies, and the king remarries. Marcia does not like her stepmother and cries over it. Some time later, the new queen tells Marcia that the king said the princess can cook food for the entire world. Marcia cries for the impossibility of the task, when a little bird appears to help her: it summons women to fulfill the task for her, and by nine o'clock the food is prepared. The next time, the stepmother says the girl can wash and iron clothes for the entire world. Again, the little bird appears to help her: he gives her three apples which the princess is to cast in the fire for an army of women to appear to help her. The third time, the new queen asks the princess to find the king's wedding ring he lost at sea, his childhood's toys and his cradle. The little bird appears again and fetches the ring from the sea, then advises Marcia where to find the remaining objects: she will walk until she reaches a house where an old woman lives; she is rocking the cradle with a box inside; Marcia is to trick the old woman to fetch a drink of water and, while she is distracted, she is to steal the cradle and the box and escape. Marcia walks towards the old woman's house, finds her rocking a cradle and asks for a drink of water. The old woman cannot leave the cradle unattended, but the princess says she can replace her. The old woman exits the room, then Marcia absconds with the cradle and the little box. After she flees, she meets the bird, which tells her to return home and not open the box. En route to the palace, Marcia's curiosity gets the better of her and she opens the box, releasing monkeys that leap all over the meadow. The little bird appears to her and locks the monkeys inside the box. Marcia returns home with her father's belongings. The king finds his daughter in tatters, then has her change clothes and introduces her to society.Robe, Stanley L. Mexican tales and legends from Los Altos. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970. pp. 221-223 (tale nr. 65), 223 (source). Spanish scholars Julio Camarena and Maxime Chevalier, in their joint Spanish Folktale Index, classified the tale as subtype 425B, Las labores difíciles.CAMARENA, JULIO; Maxime CHEVALIER (1995). Catálogo tipográfico del cuento folklórico español. Vol. I: Cuentos maravillosos. Madrid, Castalia. p. 250 (entry "Robe, Los Altos, 63 y 65").
The King's Great-grandmother's Puppets