Ocelot, Jaguar and Lion

Two children, Pedro and Elena lived with their father who was a widower close to a mountain. Not far away lived a young woman who kindly gave the children honey wafers every time they passed by. The children begged their father to marry her, but he said, "No. First the honey, then the vinegar". Finally, they pleaded so much that he relented and married the woman. They were happy at first, but then the woman began to complain about the children. One night she told him she wanted him to abandon them someplace far away. Pedro overheard this, so he prepared himself. He gathered up in a sack ashes from the fireplace. The father told the children he would take them on a journey to gather firewood. He walked with them deep into the woods. Then he told them stay where they were and he would return. But he didn't. However, Pedro had dropped the ashes all along the way, do the two children followed the trail back to the house. The father was happy, but his wife was furious. She told him he must make sure to abandon them this time. The father tried the same thing as before, but this time Pedro had only taken corn with him and when he looked, he realized that birds had eaten all of the corn, so the children were lost.
Pedro and Elena finally stumbled upon a little house in the woods where a woman who was half blind lived. At first they were able to get food from her house without her noticing, but then she discovered them. When she did, she fed and fed them everyday and would ask Pedro to give her his finger. But each time Pedro presented a thin mouse's tail to the old woman who was really a witch. Then one day when she asked, Pedro had to hold out his finger because he had lost the mouse's tail. She exclaimed how plump they had gotten and sent them off into the woods for her huge oven. But while they were out, the met a woman in the woods who spoke to them and when she found out what they were doing, she told them they were going to be baked and eaten. To escape, she told them to trick witch. Pedro and Elena went back and when the witch asked them to dance in front of the oven, they said they didn't know how and asked if she could show them. So the old witch danced and the children pushed her in. As they had been instructed by the nice woman in the woods, they took the witches ashes and made three piles which turned into dogs, Ocelot, Jaguar and Lion who would be their protectors.
Now that they were free, they began a journey. As they could see a town they were approaching in the distance, they stumbled upon a sad princess sitting on the edge of a river. There was a seven headed serpent who had been devouring the young ladies from the town. Now it was the princess' turn. The sad King had made a declaration that whoever could save his daughter would win her hand in marriage. Pedro decided to try and save the princess. He waited for the creature to appear and when it did, he fought bravely, along his side Ocelot, Jaguar and Lion came to help. They defeated the creature. The king's daughter thanked Pedro for saving her life and she ran off to tell her father everything. After she left, Pedro cut the 7 tongues out of the creature's 7 mouths. Then he went to make himself suitable to present himself to the king. Not long after he left, a villager came upon the scene. He took the dead creature with him and walked all the way to the king's court and demanded to see the king. He told him he had killed the creature and now had come to marry the princess. The princess, seeing that this was not the man protested, but her father said he had to keep his promise. The man asked that the wedding arrangements get underway immediately so that they could get married that day. Just then, Pedro arrived in the court and saw all the commotion. He asked that the king be told that the man who saved his daughter had arrived. The king came out with his daughter and the impostor. The princess said that Pedro was the true hero, but the king asked Pedro to prove he had been the one to kill the creature. Pedro asked the impostor to open their mouths. Pedro brought out the tongues and everyone gasped and realized that he had been the one to slay them. Pedro and the princess got married and lived happily ever after.

Dearden, Carmen D, Susana Wald, Beatriz Zeller, and de C. P. Almoina. Little Book of Latin American Folktales. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2003.

Abeyà, Lafontana E, and Cristina Losantos. Hansel and Gretel =: Hansel Y Gretel. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005


This Latin American story shares some elements with Hansel and Gretel. It would be a good story for about third and fourth grades. Also, I could just tell part of the story. The story has about three distinct parts- first the children and the widower, then the children in the house of the witch, and finally the young man who rescues a princess.