Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Momo, who dressed in silk and satin and lived high above the world on a snow-clad mountain-top, in a palace built of stained glass. She had everything her heart could desire. Nothing but the choicest food and wine ever passed her lips. She reclined on silken cushions and sat on ivory chairs. She had everything, as I say, but she was all alone.
All the people and things around her -- her footmen and ladies-in-waiting, her dogs and cats and birds, even her flowers -- were merely reflections.
The fact was, Princess Momo had a magic mirror, big and round and made of the finest silver.
Every day and every night she used to send it out into the world, and the big round mirror soared over land and sea, town and countryside. People who saw it weren't a bit surprised. All they ever said was,
'Ah, there's the moon.'
Well, every time the magic mirror came back to the princess it would empty out the reflections it had collected on its travels, beautiful and ugly, interesting and dull, as the case might be. The princess picked out the ones she liked best. The others she simply threw into a stream, and quicker than the speed of thought these discarded reflections sped back to their owners along the waterways of the earth. That's why you'll find your own reflection looking at you whenever you bend over a stream or a pool of water.
I forgot to mention that Princess Momo was immortal. Why? Because she'd never seen her own reflection in the magic mirror, and anyone who saw his own reflection in it became mortal at once. Being well aware of this, Princess Momo took care not to do so. She'd always been quite content to live and play with her many other reflections.
One day, however, the magic mirror brought her a reflection that appealed to her more than any other. It was the reflection of a young prince. As soon as she saw it, she longed to meet him face to face. How was she to set about it, though? She didn't know where he lived or who he was -- she didn't even know his name.
For want of a better idea, she decided to look into the magic mirror after all, thinking that it might carry her own reflection to the prince. There was a chance that he might be looking up at the sky when the mirror floated past and would see her in it. Perhaps he would follow the mirror back to the palace and find her there.
So she gazed into the mirror, long and hard, and sent it off around the world with her reflection. By so doing, of course, she lost her immortality.
Before saying what happened to her next, I must tell you something about the prince. His name was Girolamo, and he ruled a great kingdom of his own creation. This kingdom was situated neither in the present nor the past, but always one day ahead in the future, which was why it was called Futuria. Everyone who dwelt there loved and admired the prince.
'Your Royal Highness,' the prince's advisers told him one day, 'it's time you got married.'
The prince had no objection, so Futuria's loveliest young ladies were brought to the palace for him to choose from. They all made themselves look as beautiful as possible, because each of them naturally wanted his choice to fall on her.
Among them, however, was a wicked fairy who had managed to sneak into the palace. The blood that ran in her veins was green and cold, not red and warm, but nobody noticed this because she had painted her face so skilfully.
When the Prince of Futuria entered the great, golden throne room she quickly muttered such a potent spell that poor Girolamo had eyes for no one but her. He found her so incomparably beautiful that he asked her on the spot if she would be his wife.
'With pleasure,' hissed the wicked fairy, 'but only on one condition.'
'Name it,' the prince said promptly, without a second thought.
'Very well,' said the wicked fairy, and she smiled so sweetly that the poor prince's head swam.
'For one whole year, you must never look up at the moon in the sky. If you do, you will instantly lose all your royal possessions. You will forget who you really are and find yourself transported to the land of Presentia, where you will lead the life of a poor, unknown wretch. Do you accept my terms?'
'If that's all you ask,' cried Prince Girolamo, 'what could be easier!'
Meanwhile, Princess Momo had been waiting in vain for the prince to appear, so she resolved to venture out into the world and look for him. She let all her reflections go and, leaving her stained-glass palace behind, set off down the snow-clad mountainside in her dainty little slippers. She roamed the world until she came to Presentia, by which time her slippers were worn out and she had to go barefoot, but the magic mirror bearing her reflection continued to soar overhead.
One night, while Prince Girolamo was sitting on the roof of his golden palace, playing checkers with the fairy whose blood was cold and green, he felt a little drop of moisture on his hand.
'Ah,' said the green-blooded fairy, 'it's starting to rain.'
'It can't be,' said the prince. 'There isn't a cloud in the sky.'
And he looked up, straight into the big silver mirror soaring overhead, and saw from Princess Momo's reflection that she was weeping and that one of her tears had fallen on to his hand. And at that instant he realized that the fairy had tricked him -- that she wasn't beautiful at all and had cold, green blood in her veins. His true love, he realized, was Princess Momo.
'You've broken your promise,' snapped the green-blooded fairy, scowling so hideously that she looked like a snake, 'and now you must pay the price!'
And then, while Prince Girolamo sat there as though paralyzed, she reached inside him with her long, green fingers and tied a knot in his heart. Instantly forgetting that he was the Prince of Futuria, he slunk out of his palace like a thief in the night and wandered far and wide till he came to Presentia, where he took the name Guido and lived a life of poverty and obscurity. All he'd brought with him was Princess Momo's reflection from the magic mirror, which was blank from then on.
By now Princess Momo had abandoned the ragged remains of her silk and satin gown. She wore a patchwork dress and a man's cast-off jacket, far too big for her, and was living in an ancient ruin.
When the two of them met there one fine day, Princess Momo failed to recognize poor, good-for-nothing Guido as the Prince of Futuria. Guido didn't recognize her either, because she no longer looked like a princess, but they became companions in misfortune and a source of consolation to each other.
One evening when the magic mirror, now blank, was floating across the sky, Guido took out
Momo's reflection and showed it to her. Crumpled and faded though it was, the princess immediately recognized it as her own -- the one she'd sent soaring around the world. And then, as she peered more closely at the poor wretch beside her, she saw he was the long-sought prince for whose sake she had renounced her immortality.
She told him the whole story, but Guido sadly shook his head.
"Your words, mean nothing to me," he said. "There's a knot in my heart, and it stops me remembering."
So Princess Momo laid her hand on his breast and untied the knot in his heart with ease, and
Prince Girolamo suddenly remembered who he was and where he came from. And he took Princess
Momo by the hand and led her far, far away, to the distant land of Futuria."
They both sat silent for a while when Guido had finished.
Then Momo asked, "Did they ever get married?"
“I think so," said Guido, "-- later on."
"And are they dead now?"
"No," Guido said firmly, "I happen to know that for a fact. The magic mirror only made you mortal if you looked into it on your own. If two people looked into it together, it made them immortal again, and that's what those two did."
The big, silver moon floated high above the dark pine trees, bathing the ruin's ancient stonework in its mysterious light. Momo and Guido sat there side by side, gazing up at it for a long time and feeling quite certain that, if only for the space of that enchanted moment, the pair of them were immortal.
