The Legend of the Guitar

A long, long time ago there lived an old father and his daughter. They lived in south of Spain in a small wooden house. In his time, the father was well known as a great carpenter, some even said the greatest!
The name of his daughter was Citra, and she sang like no one had ever heard before... when she sung everyone stopped and listened, even the birds would stop chirping and listen. But that's not all - Citra's voice had some magical power of healing, and people from southern Spain used to ask her to play wherever there was sickness and disease.
One stormy night there were knocks on the door of the house of the old father and his young daughter house's! As they opened the door they sow a miserable old woman wearing torn clothing and all wet... the old woman was almost freezing and could hardly stand on her feet. The old father and his daughter lit a fire, gave the old woman some new warm clothing, fed her and gave her hot milk and honey.
In the morning, when the old woman recovered, she told Citra that she lives in a small village on the mountain in a province named Asturias, in the north.  There she has a very, very sick granddaughter who has she an unknown disease that even the doctors don't know how to treat, so they said the she may even die.

"So that is why I am an old woman who walked all this way - a month and a half - to see you, Citra, and to beg you to save my granddaughter".
Now the old women started to tell Citra all about her granddaughter for hours and hours, and Citra started to feel as close to the dying granddaughter as if she knew her.
The next day Citra told her father that she must try to save the old woman's granddaughter by her singing. The father arranged for two of his friends to go with Citra, and after few weeks they reached the village in Asturias. It was true, the granddaughter was very very sick. Citra started to sing... she never sung so beautifully in her life... she sung and sung... and on the third day of singing the granddaughter opened her eyes and was cured.
But, on the way back through the snowy mountains an avalanche buried Citra and her companion. Miraculously, a group of hunters passed by after the avalanche and found Citra buried and almost freezing to death. They rescued her and brought her back home to her father.
Citra recovered, but besides having a sore throat she was not able to sing any more.

As she went out her father gave her a unique instrument, and Citra started to play ...and play ...and play ...and people from all over Spain came to see that astonishing instrument. And when she played, she played like no one had ever heard before. When she played, every one would stop and listen... even the birds stop chirping and listen ...but that is not all, Citra's playing had some magical power of healing and people from all southern of Spain use to asked her to sing were there were sicknesses and diseases.

The name Citra wandered all over the world, and the instruments that were alike were named after her. So in India all of the Sitar (or Chitar) family, in Italy the guitar was named Chitarra, and in some places the letter "C" was written as "G" and became Gitara and then ...Guitar, the name of the instrument of today.

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