A certain Fendin (dialect nickname for Defendente), who lived in the village, worked as cobbler and in the days of the market (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) as carrier too, freighting goods with his boat from Torno to Como and back.

When he went back from the market at nightfall, he was used to wharf his boat at the pier in Piazzola tying it up with a robust cable to the iron mooring rings bolted in the ground at the landing place. Then he struck the way home coming back to his wife Ghielma.

He did the same way also that Saturday evening of undefined month and year (probably about 1570). On Sunday morning, because of a strong wind had blown all night, he went down to Piazzola again to control if the boat was right.

Everything was still all right, but he discovered the rope was tied in a different way than he had been used to make for many years. He intended to control in the following days, do not thinking anything else about that discovering; but everything was always all right.

He was going to set his mind at rest, when on Monday of the next week, he noticed the knot was not the usual made by himself in the evening of Saturday before, and also the distinguished marks he had made at the berth were moved and broken.

So he repeated the controls and verifying all Sunday mornings, he convinced himself someone used his boat for something, always in the Saturday and Sunday nights.

When every witch was sit, the leader woke up and started to sing the following magic formula: “In the name of Beelzebub, boat, listen to me: go for me, go for two, go for three, go for four, go for five, go for six, go for seven straight to the Indies, an hour to go, an hour to stay there, another to come back!”.

But the boat didn’t move it. So the leader began to sniff the air telling:

“Sniff, sniff… maybe I can wrong but I feel smell of Christians”.

But the others told they couldn’t smell anything, therefore the witch leader closed saying: “Maybe there’s a rat” and finished “Boat, boat, for this time obey at the order to go for eight”.

Immediately the boat rose up and started quickly as the wind.

At the certain moment, the boat began to land and he heard the impact on the ground until it stopped.

There was a long chat for the noises that witches did jumping off, when the voice of the leader said: “Be careful, we have an hour only to stay here; take your broomstick and go where you already know!”.



So Fendin beard up and lifted up a board of the hold to breathe. Alone on the boat, he went out to peep and saw the witches flew far away by now as noctules.

He got down from the boat to discover the new country totally different from his usual. Actually the new country was the Lower Indies, that is America.

The beach was covered by a sand and a shingle extremely shiny. Like souvenir of that adventure, he decided to take away an evidence for the wife Ghielma, picked up a handful and put it in the pockets. Then, looking some high plants and trees in the sandy shore different from his usual trees, broke off some sprigs and thinking time was finishing he came back to the boat and hid in again bringing all with him.

Time was right because, he had just hidden beneath the boards, the first witch arrived and then all the other six.

At the start, the same problem of the outward journey repeated, but the witches concluded by saying there was still the rat on board and at the order to go for eight persons the boat left crossing lakes, mountains, seas again and after an hour it landed at Piazzola.

The witches landed and went back their home after many regards and best wishes.

Fendin, more dead than alive for the uncomfortable position, the fear and the tiredness, went out with care and back home with his crop.

At home, Ghielma was sleeping, so because he was very tired, he decided to go to bed emptying the pockets and putting the sprigs at the wife’s coat rack.

That morning Ghielma was the first to wake up, she saw the sprigs and realized, at the sunlight, they were beautiful corals. Therefore she noticed the light on the chest of drawers wasn’t some stones but the most beautiful gems and diamonds. She didn’t want to touch them for the big light, but she did a scream of surprise. That scream woke up Fendin who was also surprised himself for that wonderful light.

After having described the details of that unusual adventure, he run to the priest to bless his boat. From that moment the witches couldn’t take advantage of the boat no more. It is reported they tried several times but the boat never answered to the orders they gave up and looked for other boats.

Fendin and Ghielma promised each other not to tell anyone about the treasure.

But you know, it’s the same the whole world ever: Ghielma could scarcely believe her eyes and she confided the secret to her best friend: so secret by secret all the village knew the story down the smallest details.

So a lot of people left searching that foreign land where plants were corals and the seashore was precious gems, hoping to come back riches.

But nobody founded anything: only some people could return with a few of money gained from hard works in foreigner countries got during their travels.



Translator: Graziosi Giulio