THE SNUFF-BOX

Edition and rights: Original English text from Project Gutenberg ebook #7277, marked public domain in the USA. The literary text below is reproduced without AI rewriting.

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As often happens in this world, there was once a young man who spent all
his time in travelling. One day, as he was walking along, he picked up a
snuff-box. He opened it, and the snuff-box said to him in the Spanish
language, ‘What do you want?’ He was very much frightened, but, luckily,
instead of throwing the box away, he only shut it tight, and put it in his
pocket. Then he went on, away, away, away, and as he went he said to
himself, ‘If it says to me again “What do you want?” I shall know better
what to say this time.’ So he took out the snuff-box and opened it, and
again it asked ‘What do you want?’ ‘My hat full of gold,’ answered the
youth, and immediately it was full.

Our young man was enchanted. Henceforth he should never be in need of
anything. So on he travelled, away, away, away, through thick forests,
till at last he came to a beautiful castle. In the castle there lived a
King. The young man walked round and round the castle, not caring who saw
him, till the King noticed him, and asked what he was doing there. ‘I was
just looking at your castle.’ ‘You would like to have one like it,
wouldn’t you?’ The young man did not reply, but when it grew dark he took
his snuff-box and opened the lid. ‘What do you want?’ ‘Build me a castle
with laths of gold and tiles of diamond, and the furniture all of silver
and gold.’ He had scarcely finished speaking when there stood in front of
him, exactly opposite the King’s palace, a castle built precisely as he
had ordered. When the King awoke he was struck dumb at the sight of the
magnificent house shining in the rays of the sun. The servants could not
do their work for stopping to stare at it. Then the King dressed himself,
and went to see the young man. And he told him plainly that he was a very
powerful Prince; and that he hoped that they might all live together in
one house or the other, and that the King would give him his daughter to
wife. So it all turned out just as the King wished. The young man married
the Princess, and they lived happily in the palace of gold.

But the King’s wife was jealous both of the young man and of her own
daughter. The Princess had told her mother about the snuff-box, which gave
them everything they wanted, and the Queen bribed a servant to steal the
snuff-box. They noticed carefully where it was put away every night, and
one evening, when the whole world was asleep, the woman stole it and
brought it to her old mistress. Oh how happy the Queen was! She opened the
lid, and the snuff-box said to her ‘What do you want?’ And she answered at
once ‘I want you to take me and my husband and my servants and this
beautiful house and set us down on the other side of the Red Sea, but my
daughter and her husband are to stay behind.’

When the young couple woke up, they found themselves back in the old
castle, without their snuff-box. They hunted for it high and low, but
quite vainly. The young man felt that no time was to be lost, and he
mounted his horse and filled his pockets with as much gold as he could
carry. On he went, away, away, away, but he sought the snuff-box in vain
all up and down the neighbouring countries, and very soon he came to the
end of all his money. But still he went on, as fast as the strength of his
horse would let him, begging his way.

Someone told him that he ought to consult the moon, for the moon travelled
far, and might be able to tell him something. So he went away, away, away,
and ended, somehow or other, by reaching the land of the moon. There he
found a little old woman who said to him ‘What are you doing here? My son
eats all living things he sees, and if you are wise, you will go away
without coming any further.’ But the young man told her all his sad tale,
and how he possessed a wonderful snuff-box, and how it had been stolen
from him, and how he had nothing left, now that he was parted from his
wife and was in need of everything. And he said that perhaps her son, who
travelled so far, might have seen a palace with laths of gold and tiles of
diamond, and furnished all in silver and gold. As he spoke these last
words, the moon came in and said he smelt mortal flesh and blood. But his
mother told him that it was an unhappy man who had lost everything, and
had come all this way to consult him, and bade the young man not to be
afraid, but to come forward and show himself. So he went boldly up to the
moon, and asked if by any accident he had seen a palace with the laths of
gold and the tiles of diamond, and all the furniture of silver and gold.
Once this house belonged to him, but now it was stolen. And the moon said
no, but that the sun travelled farther than he did, and that the young man
had better go and ask him.

So the young man departed, and went away, away, away, as well as his horse
would take him, begging his living as he rode along, and, somehow or
other, at last he got to the land of the sun. There he found a little old
woman, who asked him, ‘What are you doing here? Go away. Have you not
heard that my son feeds upon Christians?’ But he said no, and that he
would not go, for he was so miserable that it was all one to him whether
he died or not; that he had lost everything, and especially a splendid
palace like none other in the whole world, for it had laths of gold and
tiles of diamond, and all the furniture was of silver and gold. And that
he had sought it far and long, and in all the earth there was no man more
unhappy. So the old woman’s heart melted, and she agreed to hide him.

When the Sun arrived, he declared that he smelt Christian flesh, and he
meant to have it for his dinner. But his mother told him such a pitiful
story of the miserable wretch who had lost everything, and had come from
far to ask his help, that at last he promised to see him.

So the young man came out from his hiding-place and begged the sun to tell
him if in the course of his travels he had not seen somewhere a palace
that had not its like in the whole world, for its laths were of gold and
its tiles of diamond, and all the furniture in silver and gold.

And the sun said no, but that perhaps the wind had seen it, for he entered
everywhere, and saw things that no one else ever saw, and if anyone knew
where it was, it was certainly the wind.

Then the poor young man again set forth as well as his horse could take
him, begging his living as he went, and, somehow or other, he ended by
reaching the home of the wind. He found there a little old woman busily
occupied in filling great barrels with water. She asked him what had put
it into his head to come there, for her son ate everything he saw, and
that he would shortly arrive quite mad, and that the young man had better
look out. But he answered that he was so unhappy that he had ceased to
mind anything, even being eaten, and then he told her that he had been
robbed of a palace that had not its equal in all the world, and of all
that was in it, and that he had even left his wife, and was wandering over
the world until he found it. And that it was the sun who had sent him to
consult the wind. So she hid him under the staircase, and soon they heard
the south wind arrive, shaking the house to its foundations. Thirsty as he
was, he did not wait to drink, but he told his mother that he smelt the
blood of a Christian man, and that she had better bring him out at once
and make him ready to be eaten. But she bade her son eat and drink what
was before him, and said that the poor young man was much to be pitied,
and that the sun had granted him his life in order that he might consult
the wind. Then she brought out the young man, who explained how he was
seeking for his palace, and that no man had been able to tell him where it
was, so he had come to the wind. And he added that he had been shamefully
robbed, and that the laths were of gold and the tiles of diamond, and all
the furniture in silver and gold, and he inquired if the wind had not seen
such a palace during his wanderings.

And the wind said yes, and that all that day he had been blowing backwards
and forwards over it without being able to move one single tile. ‘Oh, do
tell me where it is,’ cried the you man. ‘It is a long way off,’ replied
the wind, ‘on the other side of the Red Sea.’ But our traveller was not
discouraged, he had already journeyed too far.

So he set forth at once, and, somehow or other, he managed to reach that
distant land. And he enquired if anyone wanted a gardener. He was told
that the head gardener at the castle had just left, and perhaps he might
have a chance of getting the place. The young man lost no time, but walked
up to the castle and asked if they were in want of a gardener; and how
happy he was when they agreed to take him! Now he passed most of his day
in gossiping with the servants about the wealth of their masters and the
wonderful things in the house. He made friends with one of the maids, who
told him the history of the snuff-box, and he coaxed her to let him see
it. One evening she managed to get hold of it, and the young man watched
carefully where she hid it away, in a secret place in the bedchamber of
her mistress.

The following night, when everyone was fast asleep, he crept in and took
the snuff-box. Think of his joy as he opened the lid! When it asked him,
as of yore, ‘What do you want?’ he replied: ‘What do I want? What do I
want? Why, I want to go with my palace to the old place, and for the King
and the Queen and all their servants to be drowned in the Red Sea.’ He
hardly finished speaking when he found himself back again with his wife,
while all the other inhabitants of the palace were lying at the bottom of
the Red Sea.

Sebillot.