Long ago, in Bohemia, there lived a poor widow named Bagolana Savonese. She had two daughters, Cassandra and Adamantina, and little else to leave them when her time came.
Her only possession of any value was a small chest filled with tow, a coarse fibre used for spinning. Knowing that she would soon die, she divided this modest inheritance between her daughters and begged them to remain at peace with one another.
After their mother’s death, the sisters struggled to survive. Cassandra, the elder, decided that they should make the best use of their inheritance. She took some of the tow, spun it into thread, and handed it to Adamantina.
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“Take this to the marketplace and sell it,” she instructed. “With the money, buy bread so that we may have something to eat.”
Adamantina obediently set out with the thread tucked beneath her arm. However, as she walked through the marketplace, she encountered an old woman carrying an extraordinarily beautiful doll.
The doll immediately captivated her. She examined its lovely appearance and became so enchanted that she could think of nothing else.
Although she had been sent to sell the thread and purchase food, Adamantina decided to take a chance. Approaching the old woman, she offered to exchange her thread for the doll.
The woman agreed, and the bargain was made.
Delighted with her new possession, Adamantina hurried home. But Cassandra, who had been waiting anxiously for the bread, was horrified when she discovered what her sister had done.
“Where is the bread?” she demanded.
Instead of answering, Adamantina opened her apron and revealed the doll.
Cassandra’s hunger and disappointment turned into fury. She seized her younger sister by the hair and beat her severely for wasting their only means of obtaining food.
Adamantina endured the punishment without fighting back. Taking her precious doll, she withdrew into another room.
The Doll That Produced Money
That evening, Adamantina sat beside the fire and carefully rubbed a little oil onto the doll’s stomach and lower body. She then wrapped it in scraps of old cloth and placed it in her bed, lying beside it as though it were a small child.
Before long, she fell asleep.
Sometime during the night, a strange voice awakened her.
“Mother, the stool! The stool!”
Adamantina opened her eyes and looked at the doll.
“What is wrong, my child?” she asked.
“The stool!” the doll repeated.
Treating it as though it were a real baby, Adamantina got out of bed and attended to it. What she discovered left her speechless: the doll had produced a remarkable quantity of coins.
She immediately woke Cassandra and showed her the treasure.
The elder sister could hardly believe her eyes. Their poverty had suddenly been relieved by the very object she had condemned.
Overcome with gratitude, Cassandra thanked God for their unexpected good fortune. She also begged Adamantina to forgive her for the cruel beating she had given her.
From that moment, the sisters cared for the doll together.
The following day, they used some of the money to purchase bread, wine, oil, firewood and everything else they needed to make their home comfortable. Each evening, Adamantina continued to rub oil onto the doll and wrap it carefully in fine linen.
Night after night, the mysterious doll supplied them with money whenever they needed it.
The Neighbour’s Envy
It was not long before their sudden prosperity attracted attention.
One day, a neighbour visited the sisters and was astonished by the comfortable condition of their home. She remembered how desperately poor they had been and wondered how they could have acquired so many necessities in such a short time.
Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked them to explain their good fortune.
Cassandra, who had learned to appreciate the doll, told her everything. She explained how Adamantina had exchanged a pound of thread for the doll and how it produced money whenever it was properly cared for.
The neighbour was amazed, but her amazement quickly turned into envy.
She returned home and told her husband about the extraordinary doll. She insisted that they must obtain it for themselves.
Her husband initially laughed at the story, but his wife persisted until he began to believe her. When he asked how she intended to steal it, she devised a dishonest plan.
That evening, he would pretend to be drunk and chase her through the streets with an old sword, threatening to kill her. She would scream and run towards the sisters’ house, knowing that their compassionate nature would make them take her in.
Once inside, she would remain overnight and steal the doll while they slept.
Her husband agreed.
A Carefully Planned Theft
When night came, the neighbour’s husband began carrying out their scheme. He staggered about with his rusty sword, striking the walls while pretending to pursue his wife.
The woman screamed loudly and fled into the street.
Hearing the commotion, Cassandra and Adamantina hurried to their window. Recognising their neighbour’s voice, they rushed downstairs and opened the door.
The frightened-looking woman explained that her husband had returned home drunk and become violent after she reproached him for his drinking.
The sisters immediately took pity on her.
“You must stay with us tonight,” they told her. “It would be dangerous to return home while your husband is in such a state.”
They welcomed her inside, gave her supper and allowed her to share their shelter.
Later, when Adamantina prepared for bed, she followed her usual routine. She anointed the doll with oil, wrapped it carefully and placed it beside her.
As before, the doll awakened during the night and called for its mother.
Adamantina attended to it, and once again, a quantity of money appeared.
The neighbour watched in astonishment. Her plan had worked perfectly, and she could hardly wait to possess the doll.
When morning arrived, she quietly got out of bed while the sisters were still sleeping. Without waking Adamantina, she took the doll and carried it away.
She then woke the sisters, thanked them for their kindness and announced that she was returning home because her husband would by now have recovered from his drunkenness.
The sisters, unaware of the theft, allowed her to leave.
A Disappointing Discovery
The neighbour hurried home, delighted with her success.
“At last, our fortune has changed!” she announced to her husband, displaying the stolen doll.
She could scarcely wait for nightfall.
When evening came, she lit a strong fire in her room, rubbed oil onto the doll’s stomach and lower body, and wrapped it in pieces of cloth, just as she had seen Adamantina do.
She then undressed and climbed into bed with it.
After she had fallen asleep, the doll suddenly cried out:
“The stool, madam! The stool!”
The woman eagerly got up to attend to it, expecting to find a heap of gold and silver.
Instead, the doll produced something so foul-smelling that the entire room became unbearable.
The woman recoiled in disgust, while her husband, who had witnessed the disaster, burst into angry laughter.
“Look at the foolish trick you have played upon yourself!” he exclaimed. “I was a fool to believe your ridiculous story.”
His wife, furious at his mockery, insisted that she had personally witnessed the doll producing money in the sisters’ home.
But her husband had lost his patience. He seized the doll, opened the window and threw it into the street, where it landed among a heap of rubbish.
Not long afterwards, some farmers came from the countryside to collect the refuse for use as manure. They loaded the rubbish onto their cart, unknowingly carrying the doll along with it.
They returned to their fields and scattered the contents of the cart over the soil.
The mysterious doll was thus carried far away from the house where it had first brought happiness.
The King and His Unfortunate Encounter
Some days later, King Drusiano of Bohemia went into the countryside to enjoy a hunting expedition.
During the outing, he was suddenly troubled by a severe intestinal complaint. Finding himself in need of relief, he attended to his natural necessities but discovered that he had nothing with which to clean himself afterwards.
He summoned one of his servants and ordered him to find something suitable.
The servant searched through the nearby rubbish heap, hoping to find a useful piece of material. Among the refuse, he discovered the doll.
Thinking it would serve the king’s purpose, he picked it up and presented it to him.
Unfortunately, the king had no idea what he was about to encounter.
The moment he attempted to use the doll, it clamped its teeth onto his backside and refused to release him.
Drusiano screamed in unbearable pain. His attendants rushed towards him, astonished to discover that a little doll was responsible for his suffering.
They tried desperately to pull it away, but every attempt only made the creature bite and claw more fiercely.
Eventually, the king was carried back to his palace with the doll still firmly attached to him.
Nothing seemed capable of freeing him from its terrible grip.
The King’s Proclamation
Unable to endure the suffering any longer, Drusiano issued a royal proclamation.
He promised that whoever could remove the doll would receive one-third of his kingdom. If the person capable of freeing him happened to be a maiden, he would marry her and make her his queen.
The king swore solemnly that he would honour his promise.
News of the proclamation spread throughout the kingdom, and people from far and wide hurried to the palace, hoping to claim the extraordinary reward.
Yet nobody succeeded.
Whenever anyone approached the king and tried to remove the doll, it tightened its grip and inflicted even greater pain upon him. Drusiano became increasingly desperate, having endured many sleepless nights and days without relief.
Meanwhile, Cassandra and Adamantina had been mourning the disappearance of their beloved doll. When they eventually heard about the king’s proclamation, they realised that the creature might be the same one they had lost.
They immediately went to the palace.
Cassandra, the elder sister, approached first. She tried to soothe the doll by stroking and caressing it, but instead of releasing the king, it became even more aggressive.
Adamantina, who had been standing a little distance away, stepped forward.
“Your Majesty, please allow me to try,” she said.
The king gave her permission.
Adamantina approached the doll gently and spoke to it as she always had.
“My dear child, leave the king in peace. You must not hurt him any longer.”
She took hold of its little clothes and began to stroke it affectionately.
The moment the doll recognised her, everything changed. It immediately released the king and leapt into Adamantina’s arms.
Drusiano could scarcely believe what he had witnessed. At last, he was free from the creature’s painful grip. Exhausted from his ordeal, he hurried to rest and recover the sleep he had been denied for so long.
Adamantina Becomes Queen
Once the king had recovered, he remembered the promise he had made before the entire kingdom.
He summoned Adamantina and looked upon her with admiration. She was a beautiful and graceful young woman, and he decided that she would become his wife.
In the presence of his people, King Drusiano married Adamantina, making the once-impoverished girl the Queen of Bohemia.
Nor did he forget Cassandra, whose fortunes had also changed through her sister’s remarkable adventure. Shortly afterwards, he arranged a splendid marriage for her, providing her with an honourable position and a comfortable life.
The two sisters, who had once struggled to find enough bread to eat, were now both happily and securely married.
As for the mysterious doll, it seemed to have completed its work. Having witnessed the splendid marriages and the happiness that had come to the sisters, it suddenly disappeared.
Nobody ever discovered where it went or what became of it.
The storyteller suggested that it had simply vanished in the mysterious manner of phantoms.
And so the extraordinary adventure of Adamantina came to an end.
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Moral
The story suggests that kindness, patience and genuine affection can bring unexpected rewards, while greed and envy can turn an opportunity into a misfortune.
It also reminds us that appearances can be misleading. What seems like a foolish choice may eventually prove valuable, while something acquired through dishonesty may bring disappointment rather than happiness.
Knowledge Check
1. Who were Adamantina and Cassandra?
They were two impoverished sisters and the daughters of Bagolana Savonese. Cassandra was the elder, while Adamantina was the younger.
2. How did Adamantina acquire the magical doll?
She exchanged a pound of spun thread for it in the marketplace instead of selling the thread to buy bread.
3. What extraordinary ability did the doll possess?
When Adamantina cared for it in a particular way, the doll produced coins, providing the sisters with money.
4. Why did the neighbour steal the doll?
She became envious of the sisters’ sudden prosperity and wanted to enjoy the same riches herself.
5. Why did the doll produce something unpleasant for the neighbour?
The doll did not recognise her as its mother. Unlike Adamantina, the neighbour had no genuine relationship with it and had obtained it through theft.
6. How was King Drusiano finally freed?
Adamantina approached the doll affectionately and spoke to it as its mother. Recognising her, it released the king and jumped into her arms.
7. What happened to the two sisters at the end?
Adamantina married King Drusiano, while Cassandra was also given an honourable marriage. Both sisters lived happily, and the doll mysteriously disappeared.
Source
Straparola, Giovanni Francesco. The Nights of Straparola. Translated by W. G. Waters, illustrated by E. R. Hughes, Vol. I. London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1894. Fifth Night, Second Fable, “Adamantina, the Daughter of Bagolana Savonese, by Working of a Certain Doll Becomes the Wife of Drusiano, King of Bohemia,” pp. 236–243.
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