The Twelve One-eyed Men

Henry Pottinger, Claremont, St. Anne.

I’ll give you a plain story that you may be able to write it down and the words may not puzzle you to spell,—all plain words.

There was a lady and her maid lived in a palace upon a very high mountain. There was nobody allowed to go up the mountain except a fisherman alone. The maid had a baby who was her first son. A couple of days after, her mistress had a baby who was her first son. Next morning the fisherman came up and saw the two babies. The fisherman owned the two children as his sons. The fisherman broke a limb from a rose and stuck it in the ground as a plant. Immediately it grew a tree with a beautiful shade. Under the tree he placed a golden table, for his two sons to play their billiard under. Day by day they went under the tree and played their billiard there.

The first son’s name was Adam; the second son, his name was Bob. One morning early Adam said to Bob, “I am going to-day to see what the world is like.” He called for his mare and a cane-stick and a hound, and he mounted his mare and he started away. He rode that day long, till night came down. He saw beautiful light on the top of a hill. He went up to the house. A lady met him at the door. The lady asked him where he is going. “I am travelling to see what the world is like.” The lady said to him, “You best to remain here with me, for ten young men have passed this same way and never returned again.” The first one came, and she gave him one hundred keys to open ninety-nine doors, but never open the hundred. The first door that he opened he saw beautiful things, until he opened ninety-nine and every one he saw better things. He was forbid not to open the hundred, but he would like to see what (was) inside the hundred and he opened the hundred and he saw (a) beautiful green pasture with a coal-black horse standing there full-rigged with saddle and bridle, and there he mounted on. And the horse made one rear and he dropped into a palace and there he saw ten young men sitting upon ten chairs. There were two chairs left, nobody thereon. He sat upon one. The eleven men that were sitting on the eleven chairs now, all had one eye.

Bob, his brother, who (was left) at home, next morning broke a branch from the tree and threw it on the ground, and it withered at once. “Mischief befalls me brother!” He called for his mare, he took his cane-stick, he called for his hound, he mounted his mare. He said to his mother, “My brother is dead; wherever he is, I must find him to-day.”

He rode for that day till it was night. He saw the light on the hill. He went up the hill. The same lady met him at the door. She asked him where he was going. “I am going to look for my brother Adam.” The lady said to him, “Eleven came here before and have gone the same way and never returned again; there is one chair left and you will sit thereon!” She gave him one hundred keys to open ninety-nine doors, and forbid him not to open the hundred. The first door he opened he saw beautiful things, and he opened ninety-nine doors. The one key was left. “It is just as well for me to open the hundred!” And he saw the same black horse, the handsomest animal in the world, with saddle and bridle thereon. He mounted the horse, and he reared and dropped in the same palace where his brother was. There was a chair provided there for him, and (he) found that he had only one eye the same as the other eleven had. If he had heard what the lady had said, he wouldn’t have gone to look for his brother who was lost.

The lady and the maid lamented for their son, But not so bad as the poor fisherman.