In spite of her words the Codorniz kept up its noise.
"My curse be upon you," said the Virgin. "You shall always walk humbly. You shall never fly high and smile at the sun."
To this very day the Codorniz bird walks humbly. It has many enemies who love to slay it to devour.
OUTSIDE THE DOOR LIKE THE MOTHER OF ST. PETER
A Story of Why She Stays Outside
If there is no response when you ring the bell or knock at a door in the Azores, you have to stay "outside the door like the mother of St. Peter," they say. This is the story which tells why the mother of St. Peter had to stay outside:
The very stingiest woman in the whole city was St. Peter's mother. She was so stingy that she never gave away a single thing to a beggar. No matter if the beggar were old or sick or blind or crippled or even a mother with a babe in her arms, she always made the same reply, "I have nothing to give away."
Not even when there was famine in the land, but plenty in her own home, would the mother of St. Peter share with the unfortunate.
When St. Peter was made the guardian of the keys of Heaven, of course he tried to bring his mother inside the celestial gate.