The following text was not properly born in Brazil. Its narrative structure —the married woman, forbidden desire, deceit, physical punishment, and a moralizing conclusion— refers to ancient motifs of European folklore, widely adapted and transmitted through oral tradition.

As with The Crooked Moor ─which we saw in the previous article of this series─, this is a story that crossed borders, was reshaped in contact with local daily life, and ended up recorded as a folk tale. Here, the setting is Brazilian, the characters are recognizable, but the skeleton of the narrative belongs to a much older repertoire.

This is not a literary tale nor an exemplary text. The violence that structures the story is neither symbolic nor attenuated: it is direct, physical, and accepted as part of the plot. This is precisely its value as a document of a way of storytelling —raw, oral, and without concern for pleasing the modern reader.

The Wanton Woman — Sílvio Romero

^{The text below was revised and edited from the original taken from the eBook Sílvio Romero: Contos Populares do Brasil, an open-source project by Cadernos do Mundo Inteiro.}

There was a married woman who had no children. Opposite her lived a priest, with whom the woman fell in love.

She called him "Rooster's Tail" because he had very beautiful hair.

The priest did not reciprocate and did not even know of such a passion.

The woman no longer managed the house and only wanted to be at the window to see the priest. She was already so crazed that she would even say to her husband, “Isn’t that priest handsome?” The husband pretended not to understand and agreed with what she said.

Not satisfied with seeing the priest only from the window, the woman did not miss mass a single day, on the pretext of going to pray, while the husband endured everything in silence. Wanting to see how far that woman would go, he feigned a trip and hid near the house, instructing the black woman¹ to inform him of everything his wife did in his absence.

It wasn't long before the black woman delivered a note to him that the lady was going to send through her to the priest, in which she asked him for an interview at night, since the husband was not at home. The man took possession of the note, told the black woman to tell the lady that she had delivered it to the priest, and wrote, disguising his handwriting, another note saying it was from the priest, accepting the invitation and setting the time for said interview.

The black woman brought the note and gave it to the lady. She was beyond herself with joy, and at the appointed time, the husband entered, disguised as the priest in a cassock, with a large rawhide whip hidden away.

The woman invited him into the room to rest. There was no hesitation; the husband laid into her with the whip left and right, still pretending to be the priest and saying:

─ You shameless married woman, how is it that your husband is not at home, and you send me a note inviting me here! Have some sense! ─ said the "priest," as he drove the whip into the woman.

She, desperate from the blows, said:

─ Go away, you devilish priest, if I knew you were so evil, I wouldn't have fallen for this. Get out, you villain, do you want to kill me? Enough, do not strike me so much.

The husband, after giving her a great deal, left the woman nearly dead from the beating. He changed all his clothes and came home, feigning arrival from his trip. He asked for his wife and was told she was ill.

He, very pained, asked what ailment it was, for he had left her so well. She replied that she felt many pains throughout her body, but she also did not know what it was. She could hardly say these words to her husband before she began to scream, so strong was her suffering.

Then the husband said she was very ill, and that he would send for that priest who lived opposite to confess her. Hearing this, the woman cried out:

─ No, husband, by Our Lady do not send for that priest.

─ But wife, you found him so handsome, how can you not want him to come confess you? ─ the husband replied.

And to fully appreciate the effect of the thrashing, he sent for the "Rooster's Tail" priest, and he came to confess her, unaware of everything that had happened.

As soon as the woman saw the priest, she began saying:

─ Yes, you devil, you still thought the beating you gave me was too little, and you still dare to come here? Get out, devil, go away!

The priest was astonished and believed the woman was indeed very ill, perhaps possessed by the devil, so he blessed her and said:

─ Daughter, settle yourself, remember God, for you are about to die. I cast out this evil spirit, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

─ Yes ─ said the woman ─, I cast out the beating you gave me.

The priest, after much praying, withdrew, and the husband could hardly contain his laughter.

After many days in bed, the woman rose, cured from the great thrashing.

The first thing she did was nail shut the window that looked out on the priest's house with very strong nails, which, upon seeing, the husband told her not to do, that the window was for her to distract herself in her spare hours.

No matter how much the husband pleaded, the woman would not stop nailing the window shut and never looked at the priest again.