Cuore-mio (Heart-mine) and the mother who defied God
According to a legend, in the Sulcis-Iglesiente, there was a woman named Aspra, who knew the art of black magic, but did not want to defy God with her abilities till when her son Cuore-mio (Heart-mine), felt seriously ill. The child invoked incessantly the presence of fawns, hares and other animals inspiring tenderness. After a couple of days, in order to make him happy, the mother read a magical formula and made beautiful forest's creatures come to their house . But the gloomy atmosphere of the child room got the animals down and these died few days later. Cuore-mio asked then to receive again the visit of other animals, and Aspra pleased him. However, fawns, turtledoves, robins and hares, died all after a couple of days. The story repeated several times, until Cuore-mio died.
The mother was a prey to despair: she spent all days crying and, she kneaded the bread to sell in the neighborhood with her tears. Those bitter tears, carried dead and desperation to all the families, who bought her bread. Nobody could understand why. Aspra worked day and night, uninterruptedly. One evening, a young guy with an angel's face appeared at the door of her house, and said to her: “I came on behalf of your son, who is upset: he cries because of your pain. And you, unsatisfied of the harm you already made to many creatures, you keep seeding the pain with your bitter tears”.
Only then, Aspra realized what she had done. She said to the guy with the angel face: “I would like to stop my tears, but I can't. If only I could become a stone, I would carry all the world's pain on my shoulders”. The guy headed towards the woman and told her: “if this is what you want, I will help you”. He gently brushed her forehead, and the woman felt her blood frost. Then she felt like being caught on a stone prison. But, before dying, in the sky, she managed to see Cuore-mio happily running and playing with other kids and the forest's animals. Then, she petrified and a mountain collapsed over her house, burying her forever.
