On the banks of Philippine rivers you can see alimango - brown river crabs. They are very tasty, but in former times they were not eaten - then many believed that alimango was not a real crab, but an evil girl turned into a crab. Here's what they say about it.
Once upon a time there lived a widower, and he had a daughter, Maria. After Maria's mother died, her father did not marry for a long time, and then took himself a new wife - a widow with a daughter. Soon after this marriage, Maria's father died, and the girl remained to live with her stepmother. Maria was kind and hardworking, not at all like her stepmother’s daughter, Josepa. With Maria, any business was a success, and Josepa ruined everything, no matter what she took on. Josepa's mother knew this, but she always protected and praised not her stepdaughter, but her own daughter. Because of this, Josepa became proud and arrogant.
The neighbors saw how difficult life was for Maria and felt sorry for the girl, although Maria herself never complained to anyone. No matter how hard the stepmother put on her, the girl did not refuse and obediently did everything.
And then one day Maria went to the river to wash clothes. The stepmother gave her a lot of linen, Maria washed for a long time, bent over, and she wanted to rest. She took out a piece of stale bread that her stepmother had given her with her, and then she saw that an old woman was standing next to her. The old lady’s face was very kind, and she asked Maria:
- Do you have anything to eat, daughter?
“Take this bread, grandmother,” said Maria, “I have nothing else.”
And she handed the piece to the old woman.
- What will you eat yourself? - she asked.
“I’m full, grandma,” Maria answered.
“I want to thank you, daughter, for your kindness,” the old woman said then. - Take this.
And she handed the bundle to the girl. Maria took it, untied it and saw a very beautiful dress in it. She raised her head to thank the old woman, but she was no longer there. Maria began to try on the dress, and it turned out to be just right for her. Maria had never seen such beautiful dresses, and she, overjoyed, decided to go home in a new thing. Then she remembered that she still needed to wash the linen, but what was Maria’s amazement when she saw that all the linen had been washed and put in the basket!
The stepmother noticed from afar that Maria was wearing a beautiful dress. Maria was naturally beautiful, but in this outfit she became absolutely beautiful. This was all the more offensive to the stepmother because her own daughter was very ugly. She attacked her stepdaughter with abuse:
- Why, you slacker, did you come back so early? After all, you had to wash a whole mountain of laundry!
“Don’t be angry, mother, the linen is all washed—there it is, in the basket,” Maria answered through tears.
The stepmother looked - and indeed, there was cleanly washed laundry in the basket. This annoyed her even more, and she, hitting her stepdaughter again, shouted:
-What kind of dress are you wearing? Where did you get it? Perhaps she stole it?
- What are you saying, mother! This dress was given to me by a kind old lady.
- So, good old lady? You met her and she immediately gave you a dress? Better tell the truth, scoundrel, or else!.. - And she again swung at Maria.
“I’m telling the honest truth, mother.” “I was washing clothes and suddenly I saw an old woman next to me,” Maria began to tell, sobbing. “She was very hungry, and I gave her the bread that I had brought for myself, and then she gave me a bundle, and this dress was in it.”
The stepmother stopped scolding Maria. She had heard before about the fairy that people meet by the river, and she realized that it was this fairy who gave Maria a beautiful dress. And the stepmother was up to something.
Now, instead of Maria, Josepa began to go to the river to do laundry. She went there every day with a soft rice cake, did the laundry somehow and waited for the old lady to appear and ask her for food.
And then one day Josepa, having somehow rinsed her clothes, sat down to rest. Suddenly she saw a young beauty coming towards her. When the woman was already very close, the comb fell out of her hair. The beauty began to look for him on the sand.
-Will you help me find my comb? - She asked Josepa, smiling welcomingly.
- What am I to you, servant? Do you think I'll crawl through the sand for you? Look for it yourself! - Josepa answered rudely.
“Yes, you don’t look like Maria in character,” said the beauty.
Josepa was dumbfounded - she realized, hearing Maria’s name, that the fairy had changed her appearance.
“You will be punished for your evil temper, and let what happens to you serve as a lesson to your mother as well.”
Having said this, she disappeared, and Josepa also disappeared. Where the arrogant girl had just been sitting, people passing by saw a small multi-legged brown creature. When they came closer, it quickly crawled towards the water and jumped into the river, which from then on became its home. This was the first alimango - river crab.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru