Бесплатный фрагмент - Gypsy folk-tales
CHAPTER I. TURKISH-GYPSY STORIES
NO. 1. — THE DEAD MAN’S GRATITUDE
A king had three sons. He gave the youngest a hundred thousand piastres; he gave the same to the eldest son and to the middle one. The youngest arose, he took the road; wherever he found poor folk he gave money; here, there, he gave it away; he spent the money. His eldest brother went, had ships built to make money. And the middle one went, had shops built. They came to their father.
«What have you done, my son?»
«I have built ships.»
To the youngest, «You, what have you done?»
«I? every poor man I found, I gave him money; and for poor girls I paid the cost of their marriage.»
The king said, «My youngest son will care well for the poor. Take another hundred thousand piastres.»
The lad departed. Here, there, he spent his money; twelve piastres remained to him. Some Jews dug up a corpse and beat it.
«What do you want of him, that you are beating him?»
«Twelve piastres we want of him.»
«I’ll give you them if you will let him be.»
He gave the money, they let the dead man be. He arose and departed. As the lad goes the dead man followed him.
«Where go you?» the dead man asked.
«I am going for a walk.»
«I’ll come too; we’ll go together; we will be partners.»
«So be it.»
«Come, I will bring you to a certain place.»
He took and brought him to a village. There was a girl, takes a husband, lies with him; by dawn next day the husbands are dead.
«I will hide you somewhere; I will get you a girl; but we shall always be partners.»
He found the girl (a dragon came out of her mouth).
«And this night when you go to bed, I too will lie there.»
He took his sword, he went near them.
The lad said, «That will never do. If you want her, do you take the girl.»
«Are we not partners? You, do you sleep with her; I also, I will sleep here.»
At midnight he sees the girl open her mouth; the dragon came forth; he drew his sword; he cut off its three heads; he put the heads in his bosom; he lay down; he fell asleep. Next morning the girl arose, and sees the man her husband living by her side. They told the girl’s father.
«To-day your daughter has seen dawn break with her husband.»
«That will be the son-in-law,» said the father.
The lad took the girl; he is going to his father.
«Come,» said the dead man, «let’s divide the money.»
They fell to dividing it.
«We have divided the money; let us also divide your wife.»
The lad said, «How divide her? If you want her, take her.»
«I won’t take her; we’ll divide.»
«How divide?» said the lad.
The dead man said, «I, I will divide.»
The dead man seized her; he bound her knees.
«Do you catch hold of one foot, I’ll take the other.»
He raised his sword to strike the girl. In her fright the girl opened her mouth, and cried, and out of her mouth fell a dragon. The dead man said to the lad, «I am not for a wife, I am not for any money. These dragon’s heads are what devoured the men. Take her; the girl shall be yours, the money shall be yours. You did me a kindness; I also have done you one.»
«What kindness did I do you?» asked the lad.
«You took me from the hands of the Jews.»
The dead man departed to his place, and the lad took his wife, went to his father.
NO. 2. — BALDPATE
In those days there was a man built a galleon; he manned her; he would go from the White Sea to the Black Sea. He landed at a village to take in water; there he saw four or five boys playing. One of them was bald. He called him. «Where’s the water?» he asked. Baldpate showed him; he took in water.
«Wilt come with me?»
«I will, but I’ve a mother.»
«Let’s go to your mother.» They went to her.
«Will you give me this boy?»
«I will.»
The captain paid a month’s wages; he took the lad. They weighed anchor; they came to a large village; they landed to take in water.
The king’s son went out for a walk, and he sees a dervish with a girl’s portrait for sale. The king’s son bought it; it was very lovely. The girl’s father had been working at it for seven years. The king’s son set it on the fountain, thinking, Some one of those who come to drink the water will say, «I’ve seen that girl.» The captain came ashore; he took in water; he lifted up his eyes, and saw the portrait.
«What a beauty!» He went aboard, and said to his crew, «There’s a beauty yonder, I’ve never seen her like.»
Baldpate said, «I’m going to see.»
Baldpate went. The moment he saw the portrait, he burst out laughing. «It’s the dervish’s daughter. How do they come by her?»
Hardly had he said it when they seized him and brought him to the palace. Baldpate lost his head the moment they seized him. But two days later they came to him: «This girl, do you know her?»
«Know her? why, we were brought up together. Her mother is dead; she suckled both her and me.»
«If they bring you before the king, fear not.»
He came before the king.
«This girl, do you know her, my lad?»
«I do, we grew up together.»
«Will you bring her here?»
«I will. Build me a gilded galleon; give me twenty musicians; let me take your son with me; and let no one gainsay whatever I do. Then I will go. I shall take seven years to go and come.»
They took their bread, their water for seven years; they set out. They went to the maiden’s country. At break of day Baldpate brought the galleon near the maiden’s house; the maiden’s house was close to the sea.
Baldpate said, «I’ll go upon deck for a turn; don’t any of you show yourselves.» He went up; he paced the deck.
The dervish’s daughter arose from her sleep. The sun struck on the galleon; it struck, too, on the house. The girl went out, rubs her eyes. A man pacing up and down. She bowed forward and saw our Baldpate. She knew him:
«What wants he here?»
«What seek you here?»
«I’ve come for you, come to see you; it is so many years since I’ve seen you. Come aboard. Your father, where’s he gone to?»
«Don’t you know that my father has been painting my portrait? He’s gone to sell it; I’m expecting him these last few days.»
«Come here, and let’s have a little talk.»
The girl went to dress. Baldpate went to his crew. «Hide yourselves; don’t let a soul be seen; but the moment I get her into the cabin, do you cut the ropes; I shall be talking with her.»
She came into the cabin; they seated themselves; they talk; the galleon gets under weigh. He privily brought in the king’s son.
«Who is this?» said the girl. «I am off.»
«Are you daft, my sister? Let’s have some sweetmeats.»
He gave her some; they intoxicated the girl.
«A little music to play to you,» said Baldpate.
He went, brought the musicians; they began to play.
The girl said, «I’m up, I’m off; my father’s coming.»
«Sit down a bit, and let them play to you.» They play their music; she hears not the departure of the galleon.
«I’m off,» said the girl to Baldpate.
She went on deck and saw where her home was. «Ah! my brother, what have you done to me?»
«Done to you! he who sits by you is the son of the king, and I’m come to fetch you for him.»
She wept and said, «What shall I do? shall I fling myself into the sea?» No, she went and sat down by the king’s son. Plenty of music and victuals and drink. Baldpate is sitting up aloft by himself; he is captain. They eat, they drink; he stirred not from his post.
Two or three days remained ere they landed. At break of dawn three birds perched on the galleon; no one was near him.
The birds began talking:
«O bird, O bird, what is it, O bird? The dervish’s daughter eats, drinks with the son of the king; she knows not what will befall them.»
«What will?» the other birds asked.
«As soon as he arrives, a little boat will come to take them off. The boat will upset, and the dervish’s daughter and the king’s son will be drowned; and whoever hears it and tells will be turned into stone to his knees.»
Baldpate listens; he is alone.
Early next morning the birds came back again. They began talking together:
«O bird, O bird, what is it, O bird? The dervish’s daughter and the king’s son eat, drink; they know not what will befall them. As soon as they land, as soon as they enter the gate, the gate will tumble down, it will crush them and kill them; and whoever hears it and tells will be turned into stone to the back.»
Day broke; the birds came back.
«O bird, O bird, what is it, O bird? The dervish’s daughter eats, drinks; she knows not what will befall her.»
«What will?» the other birds asked.
«The marriage night a seven-headed dragon will come forth, and he will devour the king’s son and the dervish’s daughter; and whoever hears it and tells them will be turned into stone to the head.»
Baldpate says, all to himself, «I shan’t let any boats come.» He arose; he came opposite the palace; some boats came to take off the maiden.
«I want no boats.» Instead he spread his sails. The galleon backed, the galleon went ahead. One and all looked:
«Why, he will strand the galleon!»
«Let him be,» said the king, «let him strand her.»
He stranded the galleon.
Baldpate said to the king, «When I started to fetch this girl, did I not tell you you must let me do as I would? No one must interfere.»
He took the girl and the prince; he came to the gate.
«Pull it down.»
«Pull it down, why?» they asked.
«Did I not tell you no one must interfere?»
They set to and pulled it down. They went up, sat down, ate, drank, laugh, and talk.
The worm gnaws Baldpate within.
Night fell; they will bed the pair. Baldpate said, «Where you sleep I also will sleep there.»
«The bridegroom and bride will sleep there; you can’t.»
«What’s our bargain?»
«Thou knowest.»
They went, they lay down; Baldpate took his sword, he lay down, he covered his head. At midnight he hears a dragon coming. He draws his sword; he cuts off its heads; he puts them beneath his pillow. The king’s son awoke, and sees his sword in his hands. He cried, «Baldpate will kill us.»
The father came and asked, «What made you call out, my son?»
«Baldpate will kill us,» he answered.
They took and bound Baldpate’s arms.
Day broke; the king summoned him.
«Why have you acted thus? Seven years you have gone, you have journeyed, and brought the maiden; and now you have risen to slay them.»
«What could I do?»
«You would kill my son, then will I kill you.»
«Thou knowest.»
They bind his arms, they lead him to cut off his head. As he went, Baldpate said to himself, «They will cut off my head. If I tell, I shall be turned into stone. Come, bring me to the king; I have a couple of words to say to him.»
They brought him to the king.
«Why have you brought him here?»
«He has a couple of words to say to you.»
«Say them, my lad.»
«I, when I went to fetch the dervish’s daughter, I was sitting alone on the galleon; your son was eating, drinking with the maiden. One morning three birds came; they began talking:
«O bird, O bird, what is it, O bird? The dervish’s daughter eats, drinks with the son of the king; she knows not what will befall her. And whoever hears it and tells will be turned into stone to his knees.» No one but I was there; I heard it.»
As soon as Baldpate had said it, he was turned into stone to his knees. The king, seeing he was turned into stone, said, «Prithee, my lad, say no more.»
«But I will,» Baldpate answered, and went on to tell of the gate; he was turned into stone to his back.
«The third time the birds came and talked together again, and I heard (that was why I wished to sleep with them): „A seven-headed dragon will come forth; he will devour them.“ And if you believe it not, look under the pillow.»
They went there; they saw the heads.
«It was I who killed him. Your son saw the sword in my hands, and he thought I would kill them. I could not tell him the truth.»
He was turned into stone to his head. They made a tomb for him.
The king’s son arose; he took the road; he departed.
«Seven years has he wandered for me, I am going to wander seven years for him.»
The king’s son went walking, walking. In a certain place there was water; he drank of it; he lay down.
Baldpate came to him in a dream: «Take a little earth from here, and go and sprinkle it on the tomb. He will rise from the stone.»
The king’s son slept and slept. He arose; he takes some of the earth; he went to the tomb; he sprinkled the earth on it. Baldpate arose. «How sound I’ve been sleeping!» he said.
«Seven years hast thou wandered for me, and seven years I have wandered for thee.»
He takes him, he brings him to the palace, he makes him a great one.
NO. 3. — THE RIDDLE
In those days there was a rich man. He had an only son, and the mother and the father loved him dearly. He went to school; all that there is in the world, he learned it. One day he arose; took four, five purses of money. Here, there he squandered it. Early next morning he arose again and went to his father.
«Give me more money.» He got more money, arose, went; by night he had spent it. Little by little he spent all the money. And early once more he arose, and says to his father and mother, «I want some money.»
«My child, there is no money left. Would you like the stew-pans? take them, go, sell them, and eat.»
He took and sold them: in a day or two he had spent it. «I want some money.»
«My son, we have no money. Take the clothes, go, sell them.»
In a day or two he had spent that money. He arose, and went to his father,
«I want some money.»
«My son, there is no money left us. If you like, sell the house.»
The lad took and sold the house. In a month he had spent the money; no money remained. «Father I want some money.»
«My son, no riches remain to us, no house remains to us. If you like, take us to the slave-market, sell us.»
The lad took and sold them. His mother and his father said, «Come this way, that we may see you.»
The king bought the mother and father. With the money for his mother the lad bought himself clothes, and with the money for his father got a horse. One day, two days the father, the mother looked for the son that comes not; they fell a-weeping. The king’s servants saw them weeping; they went, told it to the king.
«Those whom you bought weep loudly.»
«Call them to me.» The king called them. «Why are you weeping.»
«We had a son; for him it is we weep.»
«Who are you, then?» asked the king. «We were not thus, my king; we had a son. He sold us, and we were weeping at his not coming to see us.»
Just as they were talking with the king, the lad arrived. The king set-to, wrote a letter, gave it him into his hand.
«Carry this letter to such and such a place.» In it the king wrote, «The lad bearing this letter, cut his throat the minute you get it.»
The lad put on his new clothes, mounted his horse, put the letter in his bosom, took the road. He rode a long way; he was dying of thirst; and he sees a well.
«How am I to get water to drink? I will fasten this letter, and lower it into the well, and moisten my mouth a bit.»
He lowered it, drew it up, squeezed it into his mouth. «Let’s see what this letter contains.»
See what it contains — «The minute he delivers the letter, cut his throat.» The lad stood there fair mesmerised.
NO. 4. — STORY OF THE BRIDGE
In olden days there were twelve brothers. And the eldest brother, the carpenter Manoli, was making the long bridge. One side he makes; one side falls. The twelve brothers had one mistress, and they all had to do with her. They called her to them, «Dear bride.» On her head was the tray; in her hands was a child. Whoseso wife came first, she will come to the twelve brothers. Manoli’s wife, Lénga, will come to the twelve brothers. Said his wife, «Thou hast not eaten bread with me. What has befallen thee that thou eatest not bread with me? My ring has fallen into the water. Go and fetch my ring.» Her husband said, «I will fetch thy ring out of the water.» Up to his two breasts came the water in the depth of the bridge there. He came into the fountain, he was drowned. Beneath he became a talisman, the innermost foundation of the bridge. Manoli’s eyes became the great open arch of the bridge. «God send a wind to blow, that the tray may fall from the head of her who bears it in front of Lénga.» A snake crept out before Lénga, and she feared, and said, «Now have I fear at sight of the snake, and am sick. Now is it not bad for my children?» Another man seized her, and sought to drown her, Manoli’s wife. She said, «Drown me not in the water. I have little children.» She bowed herself over the sea, where the carpenter Manoli made the bridge. Another man called Manoli’s wife; with him she went on the road. There, when they went on the road, he went to the tavern, he was weary; the man went, drank the juice of the grape, got drunk. Before getting home, he killed Manoli’s wife, Lénga.
CHAPTER II. ROUMANIAN-GYPSY STORIES
NO. 5. — THE VAMPIRE
There was an old woman in a village. And grown-up maidens met and span, and made a «bee.»
And the young sparks came and laid hold of the girls, and pulled them about and kissed them. But one girl had no sweetheart to lay hold of her and kiss her. And she was a strapping lass, the daughter of wealthy peasants; but three whole days no one came near her. And she looked at the big girls, her comrades. And no one troubled himself with her. Yet she was a pretty girl, a prettier was not to be found. Then came a fine young spark, and took her in his arms and kissed her, and stayed with her until cock-crow. And when the cock crowed at dawn he departed. The old woman saw he had cock’s feet.2 And she kept looking at the lad’s feet, and she said, «Nita, my lass, did you see anything?»
«I didn’t notice.»
«Then didn’t I see he had cock’s feet?»
«Let be, mother, I didn’t see it.»
And the girl went home and slept; and she arose and went off to the spinning, where many more girls were holding a «bee.» And the young sparks came, and took each one his sweetheart. And they kissed them, and stayed a while, and went home. And the girl’s handsome young [15] spark came and took her in his arms and kissed her and pulled her about, and stayed with her till midnight. And the cock began to crow. The young spark heard the cock crowing, and departed. What said the old woman who was in the hut, «Nita, did you notice that he had horse’s hoofs?»
«And if he had, I didn’t see.»
Then the girl departed to her home. And she slept and arose in the morning, and did her work that she had to do. And night came, and she took her spindle and went to the old woman in the hut. And the other girls came, and the young sparks came, and each laid hold of his sweetheart. But the pretty girl looks at them. Then the young sparks gave over and departed home. And only the girl remained neither a long time nor a short time. Then came the girl’s young spark. Then what will the girl do? She took heed, and stuck a needle and thread in his back. And he departed when the cock crew, and she knew not where he had gone to. Then the girl arose in the morning and took the thread, and followed up the thread, and saw him in a grave where he was sitting. Then the girl trembled and went back home. At night the young spark that was in the grave came to the old woman’s house and saw that the girl was not there.
He asked the old woman, «Where’s Nita?»
«She has not come.»
Then he went to Nita’s house, where she lived, and called, «Nita, are you at home?»
Nita answered, «I am’].
«Tell me what you saw when you came to the church. For if you don’t tell me I will kill your father.»
«I didn’t see anything.»
Then he looked, and he killed her father, and departed to his grave.
Next night he came back. «Nita, tell me what you saw.»
«I didn’t see anything.»
«Tell me, or I will kill your mother, as I killed your father. Tell me what you saw.»
«I didn’t see anything.»
Then he killed her mother, and departed to his grave.
Then the girl arose in the morning. And she had twelve servants. And she said to them, «See, I have much money and many oxen and many sheep; and they shall come to the twelve of you as a gift, for I shall die to-night. And it will fare ill with you if you bury me not in the forest at the foot of an apple-tree.»
At night came the young spark from the grave and asked, «Nita, are you at home?»
«I am.»
«Tell me, Nita, what you saw three days ago, or I will kill you, as I killed your parents.»
«I have nothing to tell you.»
Then he took and killed her. Then, casting a look, he departed to his grave.
So the servants, when they arose in the morning, found Nita dead. The servants took her and laid her out decently. They sat and made a hole in the wall and passed her through the hole, and carried her, as she had bidden, and buried her in the forest by the apple-tree.
And half a year passed by, and a prince went to go and course hares with greyhounds and other dogs. And he went to hunt, and the hounds ranged the forest and came to the maiden’s grave. And a flower grew out of it, the like of which for beauty there was not in the whole kingdom. So the hounds came on her monument, where she was buried, and they began to bark and scratched at the maiden’s grave. Then the prince took and called the dogs with his horn, and the dogs came not. The prince said, «Go quickly thither.»
Four huntsmen arose and came and saw the flower burning like a candle. They returned to the prince, and he asked them, «What is it?»
«It is a flower, the like was never seen.»
Then the lad heard, and came to the maiden’s grave, and saw the flower and plucked it. And he came home and showed it to his father and mother. Then he took and put it in a vase at his bed-head where he slept. Then the flower arose from the vase and turned a somersault, and became a full-grown maiden. And she took the lad and kissed him, and bit him and pulled him about, and slept with him in her arms, and put her hand under his head. And he knew it not. When the dawn came she became a flower again.
In the morning the lad rose up sick, and complained to his father and mother, «Mammy, my shoulders hurt me, and my head hurts me.»
His mother went and brought a wise woman and tended him. He asked for something to eat and drink. And he waited a bit, and then went to his business that he had to do. And he went home again at night. And he ate and drank and lay down on his couch, and sleep seized him. Then the flower arose and again became a full-grown maiden. And she took him again in her arms, and slept with him, and sat with him in her arms. And he slept. And she went back to the vase. And he arose, and his bones hurt him, and he told his mother and his father. Then his father said to his wife, «It began with the coming of the flower. Something must be the matter, for the boy is quite ill. Let us watch to-night, and post ourselves on one side, and see who comes to our son.»
Night came, and the prince laid himself in his bed to sleep. Then the maiden arose from the vase, and became there was never anything more fair — as burns the flame of a candle. And his mother and his father, the king, saw the maiden, and laid hands on her. Then the prince arose out of his sleep, and saw the maiden that she was fair. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her, and lay down in his bed, slept till day.
And they made a marriage and ate and drank. The folk marvelled, for a being so fair as that maiden was not to be found in all the realm. And he dwelt with her half a year, and she bore a golden boy, two apples in his hand.6 And it pleased the prince well.
Then her old sweetheart heard it, the vampire who had made love to her, and had killed her. He arose and came to her and asked her, «Nita, tell me, what did you see me doing?»
«I didn’t see anything.»
«Tell me truly, or I will kill your child, your little boy, as I killed your father and mother. Tell me truly.»
«I have nothing to tell you.»
And he killed her boy. And she arose and carried him to the church and buried him.
At night the vampire came again and asked her, «Tell me, Nita, what you saw.»
«I didn’t see anything.»
«Tell me, or I will kill the lord whom you have wedded.»
Then Nita arose and said, «It shall not happen that you kill my lord. God send you burst.»7
The vampire heard what Nita said, and burst. Ay, he died, and burst for very rage. In the morning Nita arose and saw the floor swimming two hand’s-breadth deep in blood. Then Nita bade her father-in-law take out the vampire’s heart with all speed. Her father-in-law, the king, hearkened, and opened him and took out his heart, and gave it into Nita’s hand. And she went to the grave of her boy and dug the boy up, applied the heart, and the boy arose. And Nita went to her father and to her mother, and anointed them with the blood, and they arose. Then, looking on them, Nita told all the troubles she had borne, and what she had suffered at the hands of the vampire.
NO. 6. — GOD’S GODSON
There was a queen. From youth to old age that queen never bore but one son. That son was a hero. So soon as he was born, he said to his father, «Father, have you no sword or club?»
«No, my child, but I will order one to be made for you.»
The son said, «Don’t order one, father: I will go just as I am.»
So the son took and departed, and journeyed a long while, and took no heed, till he came into a great forest. So in that forest he stretched himself beneath a tree to rest a bit, for he was weary. And he sat there a while. Then the holy God and St. Peter came on the lad; and he was unbaptized.
So the holy God asked him, «Where are you going, my lad?»
«I am going in quest of heroic achievements, old fellow.»
Then the holy God thought and thought, and made a church. And he caused sleep to fall on that lad, and bade St. Peter lift him, and went with him to the church, and gave him the name Handak. And the holy God said to him, «Godson, a hero like you there shall never be any other; and do you take my god-daughter.»
For there was a maiden equally heroic, and equally baptized by God. And she was his god-daughter, and he told his godson to take her. And he gave him a wand of good fortune and a sword. And he endowed him with strength, and set him down. And his godfather departed to heaven, like the holy God that he was.
And Handak perceived that God had endowed him with strength, and he set out in quest of heroic achievements, and journeyed a long while, and took no heed. So he came into a great forest. And there was a dragon three hundred years old. And his eyelashes reached down to the ground, and likewise his hair. And the lad went to him and said, «All hail.»
«You are welcome.»
Soon as that hero [the dragon] heard his voice, he knew that it was God’s godson.
And the lad, Handak, asked him, «Does God’s god-daughter dwell far hence?»
«She dwells not far; it is but a three days’ journey.»
And the lad took and departed, and journeyed three days until he came to the maiden’s. Soon as the maiden saw him, she recognised him for her godfather’s godson. And she let him into her house, and served up food to him, and ate with him and asked him, «What seek you here, Handak?»
He said, «I have come on purpose to marry you.»
«With whom?»
«With myself an you will.»
She said, «I will not have it so without a fight.»
And the lad said, «Come let us fight.»
And they fell to fighting, and fought three days; and the lad vanquished her. And he took her, and went to their godfather. And he crowned them and made a marriage. And they became rulers over all lands. And I came away, and told the story.
NO. 7. — THE SNAKE WHO BECAME THE KING’S SON-IN-LAW
There were an old man and an old woman. From their youth up to their old age they had never had any children (lit. «made any children of their bones’). So the old woman was always scolding with the old man — what can they do, for there they are old, old people? The old woman said, «Who will look after us when we grow older still?»
«Well, what am I to do, old woman?»
«Go you, old man, and find a son for us.»
So the old man arose in the morning, and took his axe in his hand, and departed and journeyed till mid-day, and came into a forest, and sought three days and found nothing. Then the old man could do no more for hunger. He set out to return home. So as he was coming back, he found a little snake and put it in a handkerchief, and carried it home. And he brought up the snake on sweet milk. The snake grew a week and two days, and he put it in a jar. The time came when the snake grew as big as the jar. The snake talked with his father, «My time has come to marry me. Go, father, to the king, and ask his daughter for me.»
When the old man heard that the snake wants the king’s daughter, he smote himself with his hands.
«Woe is me, darling! How can I go to the king? For the king will kill me.»
What said he? «Go, father, and fear not. For what he wants of you, that will I give him.»
The old man went to the king. «All hail, O king!»
«Thank you, old man.»
«King, I am come to form an alliance by marriage.»
«An alliance by marriage!» said the king. «You are a peasant, and I am a king.»
«That matters not, O king. If you will give me your daughter, I will give you whatever you want.»
What said the king? «Old man, if that be so, see this great forest. Fell it all, and make it a level field; and plough it for me, and break up all the earth; and sow it with millet by to-morrow. And mark well what I tell you: you must bring me a cake made with sweet milk. Then will I give you the maiden.»
Said the old man, «All right, O king.»
The old man went weeping to the snake. When the snake saw his father weeping he said, «Why weepest thou, father?»
«How should I not weep, darling? For see what the king said, that I must fell this great forest, and sow millet; and it must grow up by to-morrow, and be ripe. And I must make a cake with sweet milk and give it him. Then he will give me his daughter.»
What said the snake? «Father, don’t fear for that, for I will do what you have told me.»
The old man: «All right, darling, if you can manage it.»
The old man went off to bed.
What did the snake? He arose and made the forest a level plain, and sowed millet, and thought and thought, and it was grown up by daybreak. When the old man got up, he finds a sack of millet, and he made a cake with sweet milk. The old man took the cake and went to the king.
«Here, O king, I have done your bidding.»
When the king saw that, he marvelled.
«My old fellow, hearken to me. I have one thing more for you to do. Make me a golden bridge from my palace to your house, and let golden apple-trees and pear-trees grow on the side of this bridge. Then will I give you my daughter.»
When the old man heard that, he began to weep, and went home.
What said the snake?
«Why weepest thou, father?»
The old man said, «I am weeping, darling, for the miseries which God sends me. The king wants a golden bridge from his palace to our house, and apple and pear-trees on the side of this bridge.»
The snake said, «Fear not, father, for I will do as the king said.» Then the snake thought and thought, and the golden bridge was made as the king had said. The snake did that in the night-time. The king arose at midnight; he thought the sun was at meat [i.e. it was noon]. He scolded the servants for not having called him in the morning.
The servants said, «King, it is night, not day’; and, seeing that, the king marvelled.
In the morning the old man came. «Good-day, father-in-law.»
«Thank you, father-in-law. Go, father-in-law, and bring your son, that we may hold the wedding.»
He, when he went, said, «Hearken, what says the king? You are to go there for the king to see you.»
What said the snake? «My father, if that be so, fetch the cart, and put in the horses, and I will get into it to go to the king.»
No sooner said, no sooner done. He got into the cart and drove to the king. When the king saw him, he trembled with all his lords. One lord older than the rest, said, «Fly not, O king, it were not well of you. For he did what you told him; and shall not you do what you promised? He will kill us all. Give him your daughter, and hold the marriage as you promised.»
What said the king? «My old man, here is the maiden whom you demand. Take her to you.»
And he gave him also a house by itself for her to live in with her husband. She, the bride, trembled at him.
The snake said, «Fear not, my wife, for I am no snake as you see me. Behold me as I am.»
He turned a somersault, and became a golden youth, in armour clad; he had but to wish to get anything. The maiden, when she saw that, took him in her arms and kissed him, and said, «Live, my king, many years. I thought you would eat me.»
The king sent a man to see how it fares with his daughter. When the king’s servant came, what does he see? The maiden fairer, lovelier than before. He went back to the king.
«O king, your daughter is safe and sound.»
«As God wills with her,» said the king. Then he called many people and held the marriage; and they kept it up three days and three nights, and the marriage was consummated. And I came away and told the story.
NO. 8. — THE BAD MOTHER
There was an emperor. He had been married ten years, but had no children. And God granted that his empress conceived and bore a son. Now that son was heroic; there was none other found like him. And the father lived half a year longer, and died. Then what is the lad to do? He took and departed in quest of heroic achievements. And he journeyed a long while, and took no heed, and came into a great forest. In that forest there was a certain house, and in that house were twelve dragons. Then the lad went straight thither, and saw that there was no one. He opened the door and went in, and he saw a sabre on a nail and took it, and posted himself behind the door, and waited for the coming of the dragons. They, when they came, did not go in all at once, but went in one by one. The lad waited, sabre in hand; and as each one went in, he cut off his head, flung it on the floor. So the lad killed eleven dragons, and the youngest dragon remained. And the lad went out to him, and took and fought with him, and fought half a day. And the lad vanquished the dragon, and took him and put him in a jar, and fastened it securely.
And the lad went to walk, and came on another house, where there was only a maiden. And when he saw the maiden, how did she please his heart. As for the maiden, the lad pleased her just as well. And the maiden was yet more heroic than the lad. And they formed a strong love. And the lad told the maiden how he had killed eleven dragons, and one he had left alive and put in a jar.
The maiden said, «You did ill not to kill it; but now let it be.»
And the lad said to the maiden, «I will go and fetch my mother, for she is alone at home.»
Then the maiden said, «Fetch her, but you will rue it. But go and fetch her, and dwell with her.»
So the lad departed to fetch his mother. He took his mother, and brought her into the house of the dragons whom he had slain. And he said to his mother, «Go into every room; only into this chamber do not go.»
His mother said, «I will not, darling.»
And the lad departed into the forest to hunt.
And his mother went into the room where he had told her not to go. And when she opened the door, the dragon saw her and said to her, «Empress, give me a little water, and I will do you much good.»
She went and gave him water and he said to her, «Dost love me, then will I take thee, and thou shalt be mine empress.»
«I love thee,» she said.
Then the dragon said to her, «What will you do, to get rid of your son, that we may be left to ourselves? Make yourself ill, and say you have seen a dream, that he must bring you a porker of the sow in the other world; that, if he does not bring it you, you will die; but that, if he brings it you, you will recover.»
Then she went into the house, and tied up her head, and made herself ill. And when the lad came home and saw her head tied up, he asked her, «What’s the matter, mother?»
She said, «I am ill, darling. I shall die. But I have seen a dream, to eat a porker of the sow in the other world.»
Then the lad began to weep, for his mother will die. And he took and departed. Then he went to his sweetheart, and told her.
«Maiden, my mother will die. And she has seen a dream, that I must bring her a porker from the other world.»
The maiden said, «Go, and be prudent; and come to me as you return. Take my horse with the twelve wings, and mind the sow does not seize you, else she’ll eat both you and the horse.»
So the lad took the horse and departed. He came there, and when the sun was midway in his course he went to the little pigs, and took one, and fled. Then the sow heard him, and hurried after him to devour him. And at the very brink (of the other world), just as he was leaping out, the sow bit off half of the horse’s tail. So the lad went to the maiden. And the maiden came out, and took the little pig, and hid it, and put another in its stead. Then he went home to his mother, and gave her that little pig, and she dressed it and ate, and said that she was well.
Three or four days later she made herself ill again, as the dragon had shown her.
When the lad came, he asked her, «What’s the matter now, mother?»
«I am ill again, darling, and I have seen a dream that you must bring me an apple from the golden apple-tree in the other world.»
So the lad took and departed to the maiden; and when the maiden saw him so troubled, she asked him, «What’s the matter, lad?»
«What’s the matter! my mother is ill again. And she has seen a dream that I am to bring her an apple from the apple-tree in the other world.»
Then the maiden knew that his mother was compassing his destruction (lit. «was walking to eat his head’), and she said to the lad, «Take my horse and go, but be careful the apple-tree does not seize you there. Come to me, as you return.»
And the lad took and departed, and came to the brink of the world. And he let himself in, and went to the apple-tree at mid-day when the apples were resting. And he took an apple and ran away. Then the leaves perceived it and began to scream; and the apple-tree took itself after him to lay its hand on him and kill him. And the lad came out from the brink, and arrived in our world, and went to the maiden. Then the maiden took the apple, stole it from him, and hid it, and put another in its stead. And the lad stayed a little longer with her, and departed to his mother. Then his mother, when she saw him, asked him, «Have you brought it, darling?»
«I’ve brought it, mother.»
So she took the apple and ate, and said there was nothing more the matter with her.
In a week’s time the dragon told her to make herself ill again, and to ask for water from the great mountains. So she made herself ill.
When the lad saw her ill, he began to weep and said, «My mother will die, God. She’s always ill.» Then he went to her and asked her, «What’s the matter, mother?»
«I am like to die, darling. But I shall recover if you will bring me water from the great mountains.»
Then the lad tarried no longer. He went to the maiden and said to her, «My mother is ill again; and she has seen a dream that I must fetch her water from the great mountains.»
The maiden said, «Go, lad; but I fear the clouds will catch you, and the mountains there, and will kill you. But do you take my horse with twenty-and-four wings; and when you get there, wait afar off till mid-day, for at mid-day the mountains and the clouds set themselves at table and eat. Then do you go with the pitcher, and draw water quickly, and fly.»
Then the lad took the pitcher, and departed thither to the mountains, and waited till the sun had reached the middle of his course. And he went and drew water and fled. And the clouds and the mountains perceived him, and took themselves after him, but they could not catch him. And the lad came to the maiden. Then the maiden went and took the pitcher with the water, and put another in its stead without his knowing it. And the lad arose and went home, and gave water to his mother, and she recovered.
Then the lad departed into the forest to hunt. His mother went to the dragon and told him, «He has brought me the water. What am I to do now with him?»
«What are you to do! why, take and play cards with him. You must say, „For a wager, as I used to play with your father.“»
So the lad came home and found his mother merry: it pleased him well. And she said to him at table, as they were eating, «Darling, when your father was alive, what did we do? When we had eaten and risen up, we took and played cards for a wager.»
Then the lad: «If you like, play with me, mother.»
So they took and played cards; and his mother beat him. And she took silken cords, and bound his two hands so tight that the cord cut into his hands.
And the lad began to weep, and said to his mother, «Mother, release me or I die.»
She said, «That is just what I was wanting to do to you.» And she called the dragon, «Come forth, dragon, come and kill him.»
Then the dragon came forth, and took him, and cut him in pieces, and put him in the saddle-bags, and placed him on his horse, and let him go, and said to the horse, «Carry him, horse, dead, whence thou didst carry him alive.»
Then the horse hurried to the lad’s sweetheart, and went straight to her there. Then, when the maiden saw him, she began to weep, and she took him and put piece to piece; where one was missing, she cut the porker, and supplied flesh from the porker. So she put all the pieces of him in their place. And she took the water and poured it on him, and he became whole. And she squeezed the apple in his mouth, and brought him to life.
So when the lad arose, he went home to his mother, and drove a stake into the earth, and placed both her and the dragon on one great pile of straw. And he set it alight, and they were consumed. And he departed thence, and took the maiden, and made a marriage, and kept up the marriage three months day and night. And I came away and told the story.
NO. 9. — THE MOTHER’S CHASTISEMENT
There was an emperor’s son, and he went to hunt. And he departed from the hunters by himself. And by a certain stack there was a maiden. He passed near the stack, and heard her lamenting. He took that maiden, and brought her home.
«See, mother, what I’ve found.»
His mother took her to the kitchen to the cook to bring her up. She brought her up twelve years. The empress dressed her nicely, and put her in the palace to lay the table. The prince loved her, for she was so fair that in all the world there was none so fair as she. The prince loved her three years, and the empress knew it not.
Once he said, «I will take a wife, mother.»
«From what imperial family?»
«I wish to marry her who lays the table.»
«Not her, mother’s darling!»
«If I don’t take her, I shall die.»
«Take her.»
And he took her; he married her. And an order came for him to go to battle. He left her big with child.
The empress called two servants. «Take her into the forest and kill her, and bring me her heart and little finger.»
They put her in the carriage, and drove her into the forest; after them ran a whelp. And they brought her into the forest, and were going to kill her, and she said, «Kill me not, for I have used you well.»
«How are we to take her the heart, then?»
«Kill the whelp, for its heart is just like a human one, and cut off my little finger.»
They killed the whelp, and cut off her little finger, and took out the whelp’s heart.
And she cried, «Gather wood for me, and make me a fire; and strip off bark for me, and build me a hut.»
They built her a hut, and made her a fire, and went away home, bringing the heart and the little finger.
She brought forth a son. God and St. Peter came and baptized him; and God gave him a gun that he should become a hunter. Whatever he saw he would kill with the gun. And God gave him the name Silvester. And God made a house of the hut, and the fire no longer died. And God gave them a certain loaf; they were always eating, and it was never finished.
The boy grew big, and he took his gun in his hand, and went into the forest. And what he saw he killed, carried to his mother, and they ate. Walking in the forest, he came upon the dragons’ palace, and sat before the door. At mid-day the dragons were coming home. He saw them from afar, eleven (sic) in number; and eleven he shot with his gun, and one he merely stunned. And he took them, and carried them into the palace, and shut them up in a room; and he went to his mother, and said, «Come with me, mother.»
«Where am I to go to, mother’s darling?»
«Come with me, where I take you to.»
He went with her to the palace. «Take to thee, mother, twelve keys. Go into any room you choose, but into this room do not go.»
He went into the forest to hunt.
She said, «Why did my son tell me not to go in here? But I will go to see what is there.»
She opened the door.
The dragon asked her, «If thou art a virgin, be my sister; but if thou art a wife, be my wife.»
«I am a wife.»
«Then be my wife.»
«I will; but will you do the right thing by me?»
«I will.»
«Swear, then.»
«I swear.»
The dragon swore. The dragon said to her, «Swear also thou.»
She also swore. They kissed one another on the mouth. She brought him to her into the house; they drank and ate, and loved one another.
Her son came from the forest. She saw him. She said, «My son is coming; go back into the room.»
He went back, and she shut him in.
In the morning her son went again into the forest to hunt. She admitted the dragon again to her. They drank and ate. He said to her, «How shall we kill your son? Then we’ll live finely. Make yourself ill, and say that you have seen a dream, that he must bring milk from the she-bear for you to drink. Then you’ll have nothing to trouble you, for the she-bear will devour him.»
He came home from the forest. «What’s the matter with you, mother?»
«I shall die, but I saw a dream. Bring me milk from the she-bear.»
«I’ll bring it you, mother.»
He went into the forest, and found the she-bear. He was going to shoot her.
She cried, «Stop, man. What do you want?»
«You to give me milk.»
She said, «I will give it you. Have you a pail?»
«I have.»
«Come and milk.»
He milked her, and brought it to his mother.
«Here, mother.»
She pretended to drink, but poured it forth.
In the morning he went again into the forest, and met the Moon. «Who art thou?»
«I am the Moon.»
«Be a sister to me.»
«But who art thou?»
«I am Silvester.»
«Then thou art God’s godson, for God takes care of thee. I also am God’s.»
«Be a sister to me.»
«I will be a sister to thee.»
He went further; he met Friday. «Who art thou?»
«I am Friday, but who art thou?»
«I am Silvester.»
«Thou art God’s godson; I also am God’s.»
«Be a sister to me.»
He went home. His mother saw him. «My son is coming.»
«Send him to the wild sow to bring thee milk, for she will devour him.»
«Always sick, mother?»
«I am. I have seen a dream. Bring me milk from the wild sow.»
«I know not whether or no I shall bring it, but I will try.»
He went; he found the sow; he was going to shoot her with his gun. She cried, «Don’t, don’t shoot me. What do you want?»
«Give me milk.»
«Have you a pail? come and milk.»
He brought it to his mother. She pretended to drink, but poured it forth. He went again into the forest.
She admitted the dragon to her. «In vain, for the sow has not devoured him.»
«Then send him to the Mountains of Blood, that butt at one another like rams, to bring thee water, the water of life and the water of healing. If he does not die there, he never will.»
«I have seen a dream, that you bring me water from the Mountains of Blood, which butt at one another like rams, for then there will be nothing the matter with me.»
He went to the Moon.
«Whither away, brother?»
«I am going to the mountains to fetch water for my mother.»
«Don’t go, brother; you will die there.»
«Bah! I will go there.»
«Take thee my horse when thou goest, for my horse will carry thee thither. And take thee a watch, for they butt at one another from morning till noon, and at noon they rest for two hours. So when you come there at the twelfth hour, draw water in two pails from the two wells.»
He came thither at mid-day, and dismounted, and drew water in two pails, the water of life and the water of healing. And he came back to the Moon; and the Moon said, «Lie down and sleep, and rest, for you are worn out.»
She hid that water, and poured in other.
He arose. «Come, sister, I will depart home.»
«Take my horse, and go riding. Take the saddle-bags.»
He went home to his mother. His mother saw him coming on horseback, and said to the dragon, «My son is coming on horseback.»
«Tell him that you have seen a dream, that you bind his fingers behind his back with a silken cord; and that if he can burst it he will become a hero, and you will grow strong.»
«Bind away, mother.»
She made a thick silken cord, and bound his fingers behind his back. He tugged, and grew red in the face; he tugged again, he grew blue; he tugged the third time, he grew black.
And she cried, «Come, dragon, and cut his throat.»
The dragon came to him. «Well, what shall I do to you now?»
«Cut me all in bits, and put me in the saddle-bags, and place me on my horse. Thither, whence he carried me living, let him carry me dead.»
He cut him in pieces, put him in the saddle-bags, and placed him on the horse. «Go, whence thou didst carry him living, carry him dead.»
The horse went straight to the Moon. The Moon came out, and saw him, and took him in, and called Wednesday, and called Friday; and they laid him in a big trough, and washed him brawly, and placed him on a table, and put him all together, bit by bit; and they took the water of healing, and sprinkled him, and he became whole; and they took the water of life, and sprinkled him, and he came to life.
«Ah! I was sleeping soundly.»
«You would have slept for ever if I had not come.»
«I will go, sister, to my mother.»
«Go not, brother.»
«Bah! I will.»
«Well, go, and God be with thee. Take thee my sword.»
He went to his mother. His mother was singing and dancing with the dragon. He went in to the dragon. «Good day to you both.»
«Thanks.»
«Come, what shall I do to you, dragon?»
«Cut me in little pieces, and put me in the saddle-bags, and place me on my horse. Whence he carried me living, let him carry me also dead.»
He cut him in little pieces, put him in the saddle-bags, placed him on his horse, and dug out the horse’s eyes. «Go whither thou wilt.»
Away went the horse, and kept knocking his head against the trees; and the pieces of flesh kept falling from the saddle-bags. The crows kept eating the flesh.
Silvester shot a hare, and skinned it, and spitted it, and roasted it at the fire. And he said to his mother, «Mother, look straight at me.»
His mother looked at him. He struck her in the eyes, and her eyes leapt out of her head. And he took her by the hand, led her to a jar, said to her, «Mother, when thou hast filled this jar with tears, then God pardon thee; and when thou hast eaten a bundle of hay, and filled the jar with tears, then God pardon thee, and restore thee thine eyes.»
And he bound her there, and departed, and left her three years. In three years she came back to his recollection. «I will go to my mother, and see what she is doing.»
Now she has filled the jar, and eaten the bundle of hay.
«Now may God pardon thee; now I also pardon thee. Depart, and God be with thee.»
NO. 10. — THE THREE PRINCESSES AND THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT
There was a king; and from youth to old age he had no son. In his old age three daughters were born to him. And the very morning of their birth the Unclean Spirit came and took them, the three maidens. And he fought to win a woman, the Serpent-Maiden; and half his moustache turned white, and half all the hair on his head, for the sake of the Serpent-Maiden. Time passed by, and he had no son; and his daughters the Unclean Spirit had carried away.
Then he took and thought. «What am I to do, wife? I will go for three years (sic); and, when I return, let me find a son born of you. If in a year’s time I find not one, I will kill you.»
He went and journeyed a year and a day. His wife took and thought. As she was a-thinking, a man went by with apples: whoso eats one of his apples shall conceive. Then she went, and took an apple, and ate the apple, and she conceived. The time came that she should bring forth. And she brought forth a son, and called his name Cosmas. So her king came that night, and sent a messenger to ask his wife.
She said, «Your bidding is fulfilled.»
Then he went in, and, when he saw the lad, his heart was full.
And the time came when the lad grew big, and he looked the very picture of his father. The time came that his father died. By that time he felt himself a man, and he put forth his little finger, and lifted the palace up. Then he came back from hunting, and he lifted the foundation of the palace, and told his mother to place her breast beneath it. Then his mother placed her breast beneath the foundation, and he left it pressing upon her. Then she cried aloud.
The lad said to her, «Mother, tell me, why was my father’s moustache half white?»
Then she said to him, «Why, darling, your father fought nine years to win the Serpent-Maiden, and never won her.»
Then he asked, «And have I no brother?»
«No,» she said; «but you have three sisters, and the Unclean Spirit carried them away.»
And he asked, «Whither did he carry them?»
Then she said he had carried them to the Land of the Setting Sun.
Then he took his father’s saddle and his bridle and likewise his father’s colt, and set out in quest of his sisters, and arrived at his sister’s house, and hurled his mace, and smashed the plum-trees.
Then his sister came out and said to him, «Why have you smashed the plum-trees? For the Unclean Spirit will come and kill you.»
Then he said, «I would not have you think ill of me; but kindly come and give me a draught of wine and a morsel of bread.»
Then she brought bread and wine. As she was handing him the bread and wine, she noticed her father’s colt, and recognised it. Then she said, «This must be my father’s horse.»
«Take notice then that I also am his.»
Then she fell on his neck, and he on hers.
Then she said to him, «My brother, the Unclean Spirit will come from the Twelfth Region. And he will come and destroy you.»
Then the Unclean Spirit came, and hurled his mace; and it opened twelve doors, and hung itself on its peg. Then Cosmas took it, and hurled it twelve regions away from him. Then the Unclean Spirit took it, and came home with it in his hand, and asked, «Wife, I smell mortal man?»
(Meanwhile she had turned her brother into an ear-ring, and put him in her ear.)
Then she said, «You’re for ever eating corpses, and are meaning to eat me, too, for I also am mortal.»
Then he said to her, «Don’t tell lies; my brother-in-law has come.»
«Well, then, and if your brother-in-law has come, will you eat him?»
Then he said, «I will not.»
«Swear it on your sword that you will not eat him.»
Then she took him out of her ear, and set him at table. He ate at table with the Unclean Spirit.
Then the lad went outside, and creeps into the fetlock of his colt, and hid himself there. Then the Unclean Spirit arose, and hunted everywhere, and failed to light on him. And he set his bugle to his mouth, and blew a blast, and summoned all the birds upon the horse, and they searched every hair of the horse. And just as he was coming to the fetlock, then the cocks crowed, and he fell.
Cosmas came forth, and went to him. «Good day, brother-in-law.»
Then he asked him, «Where were you?»
«Why, I was in the hay, before the horse.»
Then Cosmas took leave of them, and went to his other sisters, and did with them just as with this one.
Then his little sister asked him, «Where are you going, my brother?»
«I am going to tend the white mare, and get one of her colts, and I am going to win the Serpent-Maiden.»
Then she said to him, «Go, my brother, and if you get the colt, come to me.»
He went.
Now some peasants were hunting a wolf to slay it. The wolf said, «Cosmas, don’t abandon me. Send the peasants the wrong way, that they may not kill me; and take one of my hairs, and put it in your pocket. And whenever you think of me, there I am, wherever you may be.»
Going further, he came on a crow that had broken its wing, and it said, «Don’t pass me by, Cosmas; bind my wing up; and I will give you a feather to put in your pocket, and whenever you are in any difficulty, I’ll be with you.»
Going still further, he came on a fish, which said, «Cosmas, don’t pass me by. Tie me to your horse’s tail, and put me in the water, for I will do you much good.»
He did so, and put it in the water.
Then he came to the old woman who owned the white mare; and she sat before her door; and he said to her, «Will you give me a colt of the white mare, old one?»
The old wife said, «If you can find her three days running, one of her colts is yours. But if you can’t find her, I will cut off your head, and stick it on yonder stake.»
«I’ll find her,» he said.
And she gave him the white mare, and away he went with her to try and find her. So the mare ran in among the sheep, and took and hid herself in the earth. And the lad arose and searched for the mare, and failed to light on her. And the wolf came into his mind; and he thought of him.
And the wolf came and asked him, «What’s the matter, lad?»
He said, «I can’t find the white mare.»
The wolf said, «Do you see this one, the biggest of the sheep? that is she. Go, and give her a taste of the stick.»
So the lad took and called her, and she became a horse. And he went with her to the old woman.
And the old woman said, «You have two more days.»
«All right, old lady,» said the lad.
So next day also he took and went off with the mare, to try and find her. (The old woman had thrashed the mare for not hiding herself properly, so that he could not have found her. And the white mare had said, «Forgive me, old woman. This time I will hide in the clouds, and he never will find me.»)
So the lad went off with her, to try and find her; and she went into the clouds. So the lad set to work, and searched from morning till noon. And the crow came into his mind; and, as he thought of it, the crow came and asked him, «What’s the matter, lad?»
«Why, I have lost the white mare, and cannot light on her.»
So the crow summoned all the crows, and they searched upon every side, till they lighted on her. So they took her in their beaks, and brought her to the lad. So the lad took her, and led her to the old woman.
«You have one day more,» said the old woman.
So the day came when the lad had to find the mare once more. (That night the old woman had thrashed the white mare and pretty nigh killed it. And the mare had said to the old woman, «If he lights on me this time, old woman, you may know I have burst, for I will go right into the sea.»)
So when the lad departed with her, she went into the sea. And the lad searched for her, and it wanted but little of night. And the fish came into his mind. So the fish emerged before him and said, «What’s the matter, lad?»
«I don’t know where the white mare has gone to.»
And the fish went and summoned all the fishes; and they gave up the white mare with her colt behind her. And the lad took her. He went with her to the old wife, and she said to him, «Take, deary, whichever pleases you.»
The lad chose the youngest colt.
And the old wife said, «Don’t take that one, my lad; it isn’t a good one. Take a handsomer.»
And the lad said, «Let be.»
And the lad went further; and the colt turned a somersault,17 and became golden, with twenty-and-four wings. And the Serpent had none like his. And he went to his sisters, and took the three of them, and took too the Serpent-Maiden, and went with them home. Neither the Unclean Spirit nor the dragon could catch him. And he went home. So he made a marriage; and they ate and drank. And I left them there, and came and told my tale to your lordships.
NO. 11. — THE TWO THIEVES
There was a time when there was. There were two thieves. One was a country thief, and one a town thief. So the time came that the two met, and they asked one another whence they are and what they are.
Then the country thief said to the town one, «Well, if you’re such a clever thief as to be able to steal the eggs from under a crow, then I shall know that you are a thief.»
He said, «See me, how I’ll steal them.»
And he climbed lightly up the tree, and put his hand under the crow, and stole the eggs from her, and the crow never felt it. Whilst he is stealing the crow’s eggs, the country thief stole his breeches, and the town thief never felt him. And when he came down and saw that he was naked, he said, «Brother, I never felt you stealing my breeches; let’s become brothers.»
So they became brothers.
Then what are they to do? They went into the city, and took one wife between them. And the town thief said, «Brother, it is a sin for two brothers to have one wife. It were better for her to be yours.»
He said, «Mine be she.»
«But, come now, where I shall take you, that we may get money.»
«Come on, brother, since you know.»
So they took and departed. Then they came to the king’s, and considered how to get into his palace. And what did they devise?
Said the town thief, «Come, brother, and let us break into the palace, and let ourselves down one after the other.»
«Come on.»
So they got on the palace, and broke through the roof; and the country thief lowered himself, and took two hundred purses of money, and came out. And they went home.
Then the king arose in the morning, and looked at his money, and saw that two hundred purses of money were missing. Straightway he arose and went to the prison, where was an old thief. And when he came to him, he asked him, «Old thief, I know not who has come into my palace, and stolen from me two hundred purses of money. And I know not where they went out by, for there is no hole anywhere in the palace.»
The old thief said, «There must be one, O king, only you don’t see it. But go and make a fire in the palace, and come out and watch the palace; and where you see smoke issuing, that was where the thieves entered. And do you put a cask of molasses just there at that hole, for the thief will come again who stole the money.»
Then the king went and made a fire, and saw the hole where the smoke issues in the roof of the palace. And he went and got a cask of molasses, and put it there at the hole. Then the thieves came again there at night to that hole. And the thief from the country let himself down again; and as he did so he fell into the cask of molasses. And he said to his brother, «Brother, it is all over with me. But, not to do the king’s pleasure, come and cut off my head, for I am as good as dead.»
So his comrade lowered himself down, and cut off his head, and went and buried it in a wood.
So, when the king arose, he arose early, and went there, where the thief had fallen, and sees the thief there in the cask of molasses, and with no head. Then what is he to do? He took and went to the old thief, and told him, «Look you, old thief, I caught the thief, and he has no head.»
Then the old thief said, «There! O king, this is a cunning thief. But what are you to do? Why, take the corpse, and hang it up outside at the city gate. And he who stole his head will come to steal him too. And do you set soldiers to watch him.»
So the king went and took the corpse, and hung it up, and set soldiers to watch it.
Then the thief took and bought a white mare and a cart, and took a jar of twenty measures of wine. And he put it in the cart, and drove straight to the place where his comrade was hanging. He made himself very old, and pretended the cart had broken down, and the jar had fallen out. And he began to weep and tear his hair, and he made himself to cry aloud, that he was a poor man, and his master would kill him. The soldiers guarding the corpse said one to another, «Let’s help to put this old fellow’s jar in the cart, mates, for it’s a pity to hear him.»
So they went to help him, and said to him, «Hullo! old chap, we’ll put your jar in the cart; will you give us a drop to drink?»
«That I will, deary.»
So they went and put the jar in the cart. And the old fellow took and said to them, «Take a pull, deary, for I have nothing to give it you in.»
So the soldiers took and drank till they could drink no more. And the old fellow made himself to ask, «And who is this?»
The soldiers said, «That is a thief.»
Then the old man said, «Hullo! deary, I shan’t spend the night here, else that thief will steal my mare.»
Then the soldiers said, «What a silly you are, old fellow! How will he come and steal your mare?»
«He will, though, deary. Isn’t he a thief?»
«Shut up, old fellow. He won’t steal your mare; and if he does, we’ll pay you for her.»
«He will steal her, deary; he’s a thief.»
«Why, old boy, he’s dead. We’ll give you our written word that if he steals your mare we will pay you three hundred groats for her.»
Then the old man said, «All right, deary, if that’s the case.»
So he stayed there. He placed himself near the fire, and a drowsy fit took him, and he pretended to sleep. The soldiers kept going to the jar of wine, and drank every drop of the wine, and got drunk. And where they fell there they slept, and took no thought. The old chap, the thief, who pretended to sleep, arose and stole the corpse from the gallows, and put it on his mare, and carried it into the forest and buried it. And he left his mare there and went back to the fire, and pretended to sleep.
And when the soldiers arose, and saw that neither the corpse was there nor the old man’s mare, they marvelled, and said, «There! my comrades, the old man said rightly the thief would steal his mare. Let’s make it up to him.»
So by the time the old man arose they gave him four hundred groats, and begged him to say no more about it.
Then when the king arose, and saw there was no thief on the gallows, he went to the old thief in the prison, and said to him, «There! they have stolen the thief from the gallows, old thief. What am I to do?»
«Did not I tell you, O king, that this is a cunning thief? But do you go and buy up all the joints of meat in the city. And charge a ducat the two pounds, so that no one will care to buy any, unless he has come into a lot of money. But that thief won’t be able to hold out three days.»
Then the king went and bought up all the joints, and left one joint; and that one he priced at a ducat the pound. So nobody came to buy that day. Next day the thief would stay no longer. He took a cart and put a horse in it, and drove to the meat-market. And he pretended he had damaged his cart, and lamented he had not an axe to repair it with. Then a butcher said to him, «Here, take my axe, and mend your cart.» The axe was close to the meat. As he passed to take the axe, he picked up a big piece of meat, and stuck it under his coat. And he handed the axe back to the butcher, and departed home.
The same day comes the king, and asks the butchers, «Have you sold any meat to any one?» They said, «We have not sold to any one.»
So the king weighed the meat, and found it twenty pounds short. And he went to the old thief in prison, and said to him, «He has stolen twenty pounds of meat, and no one saw him.»
«Didn’t I tell you, O king, that this is a cunning thief?»
«Well, what am I to do, old thief?»
«What are you to do? Why, make a proclamation, and offer in it all the money you possess, and say he shall become king in your stead, merely to tell who he is.»
Then the king went and wrote the proclamation, just as the old thief had told him. And he posted it outside by the gate. And the thief comes and reads it, and thought how he should act. And he took his heart in his teeth and went to the king, and said, «O king, I am the thief.»
«You are?»
«I am.»
Then the king said, «If you it be, that I may believe you are really the man, do you see this peasant coming? Well, you must steal the ox from under the yoke without his seeing you.»
Then the thief said, «I’ll steal it, O king; watch me.» And he went before the peasant, and began to cry aloud, «Comedy of Comedies!»
Then the peasant said, «See there, God! Many a time have I been in the city, and have often heard „Comedy of Comedies,“ and have never gone to see what it is like.»
And he left his cart, and went off to the other end of the city; and the thief kept crying out till he had got the peasant some distance from the oxen. Then the thief returns, and takes the ox, and cuts off its tail, and sticks it in the mouth of the other ox, and came away with the first ox to the king. Then the king laughed fit to kill himself. The peasant, when he came back, began to weep; and the king called him and asked, «What are you weeping for, my man?»
«Why, O king, whilst I was away to see the play, one of the oxen has gone and eaten up the other.»
When the king heard that, he laughed fit to kill himself, and he told his servant to give him two good oxen. And he gave him also his own ox, and asked him, «Do you recognise your ox, my man?»
«I do, O king.»
«Well, away you go home.»
And he went to the thief. «Well, my fine fellow, I will give you my daughter, and you shall become king in my stead, if you will steal the priest for me out of the church.»
Then the thief went into the town, and got three hundred crabs and three hundred candles, and went to the church, and stood up on the pavement. And as the priest chanted, the thief let out the crabs one by one, each with a candle fastened to its claw; he let it out.
And the priest said, «So righteous am I in the sight of God that He sends His saints for me.»
The thief let out all the crabs, each with a candle fastened to its claw, and he said, «Come, O priest, for God calls thee by His messengers to Himself, for thou art righteous.»
The priest said, «And how am I to go?»
«Get into this sack.»
And he let down the sack; and the priest got in; and he lifted him up, and dragged him down the steps. And the priest’s head went tronk, tronk. And he took him on his back, and carried him to the king, and tumbled him down. And the king burst out laughing. And straightway he gave his daughter to the thief, and made him king in his stead.
NO. 12. — THE GYPSY AND THE PRIEST
There was a very poor Gypsy, and he had many little children. And his wife went to the town, begged herself a few potatoes and a little flour. And she had no fat.
«All right,» she thought; «wait a bit. The priest has killed a pig; I’ll go and beg myself a bit of fat.»
When she got there, the priest came out, took his whip, thrashed her soundly. She came home, said to her husband, «O my God, I did just get a thrashing!»
And the Gypsy is at work. Straightway the hammer fell from his hand. «Now, wait a bit till I show him a trick, and teach him a lesson.»
The Gypsy went to the church, and took a look at the door, how to make the key to the tower. He came home, sat down at his anvil, set to work at once on the key. When he had made it, he went back to try to open the door. It opened it as though it had been made for it.
«Wait a bit, now,» he thinks to himself; «what shall I need next?»
He went straight off to the shop, and bought himself some fine paper, just like the fine clothes the priests wear for high mass. When he had bought it, he went to the tailor, told him to make him clothes like an angel’s; he looked in them just like a priest. He came home, told his son (he was twenty years old), «Hark’ee, mate, come along with me, and bring the pot. Catch about a hundred crabs. Ha! they shall see what I’ll do this night; the priest won’t escape with his life.»
All right!
Midnight came. The Gypsy went to the church, lit all the lights that were in the church. The cook goes to look out. «My God! what’s the matter? the whole church is lighted up.»
She goes to the priest, wakes him up. «Get up! Let’s go and see what it is. The whole church is blazing inside. What ever is it?»
The priest was in a great fright. He pulled on his vestment, and went to the church to see. The Gypsy chants like a priest performing service in the great church where the greatest folks go to service. «Oh!» the Gypsy was chanting, «O God, he who is a sinful man, for him am I come; him who takes so much money with him will I fetch to Paradise, and there it shall be well with him.»
When the gentleman heard that, he went home, and got all the money he had in the house.
All right!
The priest came back to the church. The Gypsy chants to him to make haste, for sooner or later the end of all things approaches. Straightway the Gypsy opened the sack, and the priest got into it. The Gypsy took all the priest’s money, and hid it in his pocket.
«Good! now you are mine.»
When he closed the sack, the priest was in a great fright. «My God! what will become of me? I know not what sort of a being that is, whether God Himself or an angel.»
The Gypsy straightway drags the priest down the steps. The priest cries that it hurts him, that he should go gently with him, for he is all broken already; that half an hour of that will kill him, for his bones are all broken already.
Well, he dragged him along the nave of the church, and pitched him down before the door; and he put a lot of thorns there to run into the priest’s flesh. He dragged him backwards and forwards through the thorns, and the thorns stuck into him. When the Gypsy saw that the priest was more dead than alive, he opened the sack, and left him there.
The Gypsy went home, and threw off his disguise, and put it on the fire, that no one might say he had done the deed. The Gypsy had more than eight hundred silver pieces. So he and his wife and his children were glad that they had such a lot of money; and if the Gypsy has not died with his wife and his children, perhaps he is living still.
In the morning when the sexton comes to ring the bell, he sees a sack in front of the church. The priest was quite dead. When he opened it and saw the priest, he was in a great fright. «What on earth took our priest in there?» He runs into the town, made a great outcry, that so and so has happened. The poor folks came and the gentry to see what was up: all the candles in the church were burning. So they buried the parson decently. If he is not rotten he is whole. May the devils still be eating him. I was there, and heard everything that happened.
NO. 13. — THE WATCHMAKER
There was once a poor lad. He took the road, went to find himself a master. He met a priest on the road.
«Where are you going, my lad?»
«I am going to find myself a master.»
«Mine’s the very place for you, my lad, for I’ve another lad like you, and I have six oxen and a plough. Do you enter my service and plough all this field.»
The lad arose, and took the plough and the oxen, and went into the fields and ploughed two days. Luck and the Ogre came to him. And the Ogre said to Luck, «Go for him.» Luck didn’t want to go for him; only the Ogre went. When the Ogre went for him, he laid himself down on his back, and unlaced his boots, and took to flight across the plain.
The other lad shouted after him, «Don’t go, brother; don’t go, brother.»
«Bah! God blast your plough and you as well.»
Then he came to a city of the size of Bucharest. Presently he arrived at a watchmaker’s shop. And he leaned his elbows on the shop-board and watched the prentices at their work. Then one of them asked him, «Why do you sit there hungry?»
He said, «Because I like to watch you working.»
Then the master came out and said, «Here, my lad, I will hire you for three years, and will show you all that I am master of. For a year and a day,» he continued, «you will have nothing to do but chop wood, and feed the oven fire, and sit with your elbows on the table, and watch the prentices at their work.»
Now the watchmaker had had a clock of the emperor’s fifteen years, and no one could be found to repair it; he had fetched watchmakers from Paris and Vienna, and not one of them had managed it. The time came when the emperor offered the half of his kingdom to whoso should repair it; one and all they failed. The clock had twenty-four tunes in it. And as it played, the emperor grew young again. Easter Sunday came; and the watchmaker went to church with his prentices. Only the old wife and the lad stayed behind. The lad chopped the wood up quickly, and went back to the table that they did their work at. He never touched one of the little watches, but he took the big clock, and set it on the table. He took out two of its pipes, and cleaned them, and put them back in their place; then the four-and-twenty tunes began to play, and the clock to go. Then the lad hid himself for fear; and all the people came out of the church when they heard the tunes playing.
The watchmaker, too, came home, and said, «Mother, who did me this kindness, and repaired the clock?»
His mother said, «Only the lad, dear, went near the table.»
And he sought him and found him sitting in the stable. He took him in his arms: «My lad, you were my master, and I never knew it, but set you to chop wood on Easter Day.» Then he sent for three tailors, and they made him three fine suits of clothes. Next day he ordered a carriage with four fine horses; and he took the clock in his arms, and went off to the emperor. The emperor, when he heard it, came down from his throne, and took his clock in his arms and grew young. Then he said to the watchmaker, «Bring me him who mended the clock.»
He said, «I mended it.»
«Don’t tell me it was you. Go and bring me him who mended it.»
He went then and brought the lad.
The emperor said, «Go, give the watchmaker three purses of ducats; but the lad you shall have no more, for I mean to give him ten thousand ducats a year, just to stay here and mind the clock and repair it when it goes wrong.»
So the lad dwelt there thirteen years.
The emperor had a grown-up daughter, and he proposed to find a husband for her. She wrote a letter, and gave it to her father. And what did she put in the letter? She put this: «Father, I am minded to feign to be dumb; and whoso is able to make me speak, I will be his.»
Then the emperor made a proclamation throughout the world: «He who is able to make my daughter speak shall get her to wife; and whoso fails him will I kill.»
Then many suitors came, but not one of them made her speak. And the emperor killed them all, and by and by no one more came.
Now the lad, the watchmaker, went to the emperor, and said, «Emperor, let me also go to the maiden, to see if I cannot make her speak.»
«Well, this is how it stands, my lad. Haven’t you seen the proclamation on the table, how I have sworn to kill whoever fails to make her speak?»
«Well, kill me also, Emperor, if I too fail.»
«In that case, go to her.»
The lad dressed himself bravely, and went into her chamber. She was sewing at her frame. When the lad entered, he said, «Good-day, you rogue.»
«Thank you, watchmaker. Well, sit you down since you have come, and take a bite.»
«Well, all right, you rogue.»
He only was speaking. Then he tarried no longer, but came out and said, «Good-night, rogue.»
«Farewell, watchmaker.»
Next evening the emperor summoned him, to kill him. But the lad said, «Let me go one more night.» Then the lad went again, and said, «Good-evening, rogue.»
«Welcome, watchmaker. And since you have come, brother, pray sit down to table.»
Only he spoke, so at last he said, «Good-night, rogue.»
«Farewell, watchmaker.»
Next night the emperor summoned him. «I must kill you now, for you have reached your allotted term.»
Then said the lad, «Do you know, emperor, that there is thrice forgiveness for a man?»
«Then go to-night, too.»
Then the lad went that night, and said, «How do you do, rogue?»
«Thank you, watchmaker. Since you have come, sit at table.»
«So I will, rogue. And see you this knife in my hand? I mean to cut you in pieces if you will not answer my question.»
«And why should I not answer it, watchmaker?»
«Well, rogue, know you the princess?»
«And how should I not know her?»
«And the three princes, know you them?»
«I know them, watchmaker.»
«Well and good, if you know them. The three brothers had an intrigue with the princess. They knew not that the three had to do with her. But what did the maiden? She knew they were brothers. The eldest came at nightfall, and she set him down to table and he ate. Then she lay with him and shut him up in a chamber. The middle one came at midnight, and she lay with him also and shut him up in another chamber. And that same night came the youngest, and she lay with him too. Then at daybreak she let them all out, and they sprang to slay one another, the three brothers. The maiden said, «Hold, brothers, do not slay one another, but go home and take each of you to himself ten thousand ducats, and go into three cities; and his I will become who brings me the finest piece of workmanship.»
So the eldest journeyed to Bucharest, and there found a beautiful mirror. Now look you what kind of mirror it was. «Here, merchant, what is the price of your mirror?»
«Ten thousand ducats, my lad.» «Indeed, is that not very dear, brother?» «But mark you what kind of mirror it is. You look in it and you can see both the dead and the living therein.»
Now let’s have a look at the middle brother. He went to another city and found a robe. «You, merchant, what is the price of this robe?»
«Ten thousand ducats, my son.»»
NO. 14. — THE RED KING AND THE WITCH
It was the Red King, and he bought ten ducats’ worth of victuals. He cooked them, and he put them in a press. And he locked the press, and from night to night posted people to guard the victuals.
In the morning, when he looked, he found the platters bare; he did not find anything in them. Then the king said, «I will give the half of my kingdom to whoever shall be found to guard the press, that the victuals may not go amissing from it.»
The king had three sons. Then the eldest thought within himself, «God! What, give half the kingdom to a stranger! It were better for me to watch. Be it unto me according to God’s will.»
He went to his father.
«Father, all hail. What, give the kingdom to a stranger! It were better for me to watch.»
And his father said to him, «As God will, only don’t be frightened by what you may see.»
Then he said, «Be it unto me according to God’s will.»
And he went and lay down in the palace. And he put his head on the pillow, and remained with his head on the pillow till towards dawn. And a warm sleepy breeze came and lulled him to slumber. And his little sister arose. And she turned a somersault, and her nails became like an axe and her teeth like a shovel. And she opened the cupboard and ate up everything. Then she became a child again and returned to her place in the cradle, for she was a babe at the breast. The lad arose and told his father that he had seen nothing. His father looked in the press, found the platters bare — no victuals, no anything. His father said, «It would take a better man than you, and even he might do nothing.»
His middle son also said, «Father, all hail. I am going to watch to-night.»
«Go, dear, only play the man.»
«Be it unto me according to God’s will.»
And he went into the palace and put his head on a pillow. And at ten o’clock came a warm breeze and sleep seized him. Up rose his sister and unwound herself from her swaddling-bands and turned a somersault, and her teeth became like a shovel and her nails like an axe. And she went to the press and opened it, and ate off the platters what she found. She ate it all, and turned a somersault again and went back to her place in the cradle. Day broke and the lad arose, and his father asked him and said, «It would take a better man than you, and even he might do nought for me if he were as poor a creature as you.»
The youngest son arose. «Father, all hail. Give me also leave to watch the cupboard by night.»
«Go, dear, only don’t be frightened with what you see.»
«Be it unto me according to God’s will,» said the lad.
And he went and took four needles and lay down with his head on the pillow; and he stuck the four needles in four places. When sleep seized him he knocked his head against a needle, so he stayed awake until ten o’clock. And his sister arose from her cradle, and he saw. And she turned a somersault, and he was watching her. And her teeth became like a shovel and her nails like an axe. And she went to the press and ate up everything. She left the platters bare. And she turned a somersault, and became tiny again as she was; went to her cradle. The lad, when he saw that, trembled with fear; it seemed to him ten years till daybreak. And he arose and went to his father.
«Father, all hail.»
Then his father asked him, «Didst see anything, Peterkin?»
«What did I see? what did I not see? Give me money and a horse, a horse fit to carry the money, for I am away to marry me.»
His father gave him a couple of sacks of ducats, and he put them on his horse. The lad went and made a hole on the border of the city. He made a chest of stone, and put all the money there and buried it. He placed a stone cross above and departed. And he journeyed eight years and came to the queen of all the birds that fly.
And the queen of the birds asked him, «Whither away, Peterkin?»
«Thither, where there is neither death nor old age, to marry me.»
The queen said to him, «Here is neither death nor old age.»
Then Peterkin said to her, «How comes it that here is neither death nor old age?»
Then she said to him, «When I whittle away the wood of all this forest, then death will come and take me and old age.»
Then Peterkin said, «One day and one morning death will come and old age, and take me.»
And he departed further, and journeyed on eight years and arrived at a palace of copper. And a maiden came forth from that palace and took him and kissed him. She said, «I have waited long for thee.»
She took the horse and put him in the stable, and the lad spent the night there. He arose in the morning and placed his saddle on the horse.
Then the maiden began to weep, and asked him, «Whither away, Peterkin?»
«Thither, where there is neither death nor old age.»
Then the maiden said to him, «Here is neither death nor old age.»
Then he asked her, «How comes it that here is neither death nor old age?»
«Why, when these mountains are levelled, and these forests, then death will come.»
«This is no place for me,» said the lad to her. And he departed further.
Then what said his horse to him? «Master, whip me four times, and twice yourself, for you are come to the Plain of Regret. And Regret will seize you and cast you down, horse and all. So spur your horse, escape, and tarry not.»
He came to a hut. In that hut he beholds a lad, as it were ten years old, who asked him, «What seekest thou, Peterkin, here?»
«I seek the place where there is neither death nor old age.»
The lad said, «Here is neither death nor old age. I am the Wind.»
Then Peterkin said, «Never, never will I go from here.» And he dwelt there a hundred years and grew no older.
There the lad dwelt, and he went out to hunt in the Mountains of Gold and Silver, and he could scarce carry home the game.
Then what said the Wind to him? «Peterkin, go unto all the Mountains of Gold and unto the Mountains of Silver; but go not to the Mountain of Regret or to the Valley of Grief.»
He heeded not, but went to the Mountain of Regret and the Valley of Grief. And Grief cast him down; he wept till his eyes were full.
And he went to the Wind. «I am going home to my father, I will not stay longer.»
«Go not, for your father is dead, and brothers you have no more left at home. A million years have come and gone since then. The spot is not known where your father’s palace stood. They have planted melons on it; it is but an hour since I passed that way.»
But the lad departed thence, and arrived at the maiden’s whose was the palace of copper. Only one stick remained, and she cut it and grew old. As he knocked at the door, the stick fell and she died. He buried her, and departed thence. And he came to the queen of the birds in the great forest. Only one branch remained, and that was all but through.
When she saw him she said, «Peterkin, thou art quite young.»
Then he said to her, «Dost thou remember telling me to tarry here?»
As she pressed and broke through the branch, she, too, fell and died.
He came where his father’s palace stood and looked about him. There was no palace, no anything. And he fell to marvelling: «God, Thou art mighty!» He only recognised his father’s well, and went to it. His sister, the witch, when she saw him, said to him, «I have waited long for you, dog.» She rushed at him to devour him, but he made the sign of the cross and she perished.
And he departed thence, and came on an old man with his beard down to his belt. «Father, where is the palace of the Red King? I am his son.»
«What is this,» said the old man, «thou tellest me, that thou art his son? My father’s father has told me of the Red King. His very city is no more. Dost thou not see it is vanished? And dost thou tell me that thou art the Red King’s son?»
«It is not twenty years, old man, since I departed from my father, and dost thou tell me that thou knowest not my father?» (It was a million years since he had left his home.) «Follow me if thou dost not believe me.»
And he went to the cross of stone; only a palm’s breadth was out of the ground. And it took him two days to get at the chest of money. When he had lifted the chest out and opened it, Death sat in one corner groaning, and Old Age groaning in another corner.
Then what said Old Age? «Lay hold of him, Death.»
«Lay hold of him yourself.»
Old Age laid hold of him in front, and Death laid hold of him behind.
The old man took and buried him decently, and planted the cross near him. And the old man took the money and also the horse.
There was a king, and he had an only son. Now, that lad was heroic, nought-heeding. And he set out in quest of heroic achievements. And he went a long time nought-heeding. And he came to a forest, and lay down to sleep in the shadow of a tree, and slept. Then he saw a dream, that he arises and goes to the hill where the dragon’s horses are, and that if you keep straight on you will come to the man with no kidneys, screaming and roaring. So he arose and departed, and came to the man with no kidneys. And when he came there, he asked him, «Mercy! what are you screaming for?»
He said, «Why, a wizard has taken my kidneys, and has left me here in the road as you see me.»
Then the lad said to him, «Wait a bit longer till I return from somewhere.»
And he left him, and journeyed three more days and three nights. And he came to that hill, and sat down, and ate, and rested. And he arose and went to the hill. And the horses, when they saw him, ran to eat him. And the lad said, «Do not eat me, for I will give you pearly hay2 and fresh water.»
Then the horses said, «Be our master. But see you do as you’ve promised.»
The lad said, «Horses, if I don’t, why, eat me and slay me.»
So he took them and departed with them home. And he put them in the stable, and gave them fresh water and pearly hay. And he mounted the smallest horse, and set out for the man with no kidneys, and found him there. And he asked him what was the name of the wizard who had taken his kidneys.
«What his name is I know not, but I do know where he is gone to. He is gone to the other world.»
Then the lad took and went a long time nought-heeding, and came to the edge of the earth, and let himself down, and came to the other world. And he went to the wizard’s there, and said, «Come forth, O wizard, that I may see the sort of man you are.»
So when the wizard heard, he came forth to eat him and slay him. Then the lad took his heroic club and his sabre; and the instant he hurled his club, the wizard’s hands were bound behind his back. And the lad said to him, «Here, you wizard, tell quick, my brother’s kidneys, or I slay thee this very hour.»
And the wizard said, «They are there in a jar. Go and get them.»
And the lad said, «And when I’ve got them, what am I to do with them?»
The wizard said, «Why, when you’ve got them, put them in water and give him them to drink.»
Then the lad went and took them, and departed to him. And he put the kidneys in water, and gave him to drink, and he drank. And when he had drunk he was whole. And he took the lad, and kissed him, and said, «Be my brother till my death or thine, and so too in the world to come.»
So they became brothers. And having done so, they took and journeyed in quest of heroic achievements. So they set out and slew every man that they found in their road. Then the man who had had no kidneys said he was going after the wizard, and would pass to the other world. Then they took and went there to the edge of the earth, and let themselves in. And they came there, and went to the wizard. And when they got there, how they set themselves to fight, and fought with him two whole days. Then when the lad, his brother, took and hurled his club, the wizard’s hands were bound behind his back. And he cut his throat, and took his houses, made them two apples.
And they went further, and came on a certain house, and there were three maidens. And the lad hurled his club, and carried away half their house. And when the maidens saw that, they came out, and saw them coming. And they flung a comb on their path, and it became a forest — no needle could thread it. So when the lad saw that, he flung his club and his sabre. And the sabre cut and the club battered. And it cut all the forest till nothing was left.
And when the maidens saw that they had felled the forest, they flung a whetstone, and it became a fortress of stone, so that there was no getting further. And he flung the club, and demolished the stone, and made dust of it. And when the maidens saw that they had demolished the stone, they flung a mirror before them, and it became a lake, and there was no getting over. And the lad flung his sabre, and it cleft the water, and they passed through, and went there to the maidens. When they came there they said, «And what were you playing your cantrips on us for, maidens?»
Then the maidens said, «Why, lad, we thought that you were coming to kill us.»
Then the lad shook hands with them, the three sisters, and said to them, «There, maidens, and will you have us?»
And they took them to wife — one for himself, and one for him who had lost his kidneys, and one they gave to another lad. And he went with them home. And they made a marriage.
And I came away, and I have told the story.
NO. 16. — THE APPLES OF PREGNANCY
There were where there were a king and a queen. Now for sixteen years that king and that queen had had no sons or daughters. So he thought they would never have any. And he was always weeping and lamenting, for what would become of them without any children? Then the king said to the queen, «O queen, I will go away and leave you, and if I do not find a son born of you by my return, know that either I will kill you with my own hands, or I will send you away, and live no longer with you.»
Then another king sent a challenge to him to go and fight, for, if he goes not, he will come and slay him on his throne. Then the king said to his queen, «Here, O queen, is a challenge come for me to go and fight. If I had had a son, would he not have gone, and I have remained at home?»
She said, «How can I help it, O king, if God has not chosen to give us any sons? What can I do?»
He said, «Prate not to me of God. If I come and don’t find a son born of you, I shall kill you.»
And the king departed.
Then the holy God and St. Peter fell to discussing what they should do for the queen. So God said to Peter, «Here, you Peter, go down with this apple, and pass before her window, and cry, „I have an apple, and whoso eat of it will conceive.“ She will hear you. For it were a pity, Peter, for the king to come and kill her.»
So St. Peter took the apple, and came down, and did as God had told him. He cried in front of the queen’s window. She heard him, and came out, and called him to her, and asked, «How much do you want for that apple, my man?»
He said, «I want much; give me a purse of money.»
And the queen took the purse of money, and gave it him, and took the apple and ate it. And when she had eaten it, she conceived. And St. Peter left her the purse of money there. So the time drew near for her to bear a child. And the very day that she brought forth her son, his father came from the war, and he had won the fight. So when he came home and heard that the queen had borne him a son, he went to the wine-shop and drank till he was drunk. And as he was coming home from the wine-shop, he reached the door, and fell down, and died. Then the boy heard it, and rose up out of his mother’s arms, and went to the vintner, and killed him with a blow. And he came home. And the people, the nobles, beheld him, what a hero he was, and wondered at him. But an evil eye fell on him, and for three days he took to his bed. And he died of the evil eye.
CHAPTER III. BUKOWINA-GYPSY STORIES
NO. 17. — IT ALL COMES TO LIGHT
There was a man with as many children as ants in an anthill. And three of the girls went to reap corn, and the emperor’s son came by.
And the eldest girl said, «If the emperor’s son will marry me, I will clothe his whole army with one spindleful of thread.»
And the middle girl said, «I will feed his army with a single loaf.»
And the youngest girl said, «If he will marry me, I will bear him twins clever and good, with hair of gold and teeth like pearls.»
His servant heard them. «Emperor, the eldest girl said, if you will marry her, she will clothe your army with one spindleful of thread; the middle girl said, if you will marry her, she will feed your army with a single loaf; the youngest girl said, if you will marry her, she will bear you twins clever and good, with golden hair.»
«Turn back,» he cried, «take the youngest girl, put her in the carriage.»
He brought her home; he lived with her half a year; and they summoned him to the army to fight. He remained a year at the war. His empress brought forth two sons. The servant took them, and flung them into the pigstye; and she put two whelps by the mother.
At evening the pigs came home, and the eldest sow cried, «Hah! here are our master’s sons; quick, give them the teat to suck, and keep them warm.»
The pigs went forth to the field. The servant came, saw that the boys are well, not dead; she flung them into the stable. At evening the horses came home, and the eldest mare cried, «Hah! here are our master’s sons; quick, give them the teat to suck.»
In the morning the horses went forth to the field. The servant took them, and buried them in the dunghill. And two golden fir-trees grew.
The emperor came from the war. The servant went to meet him. «Emperor, the empress has borne you a couple of whelps.»
The emperor buried the empress behind the door up to the waist, and set the two whelps to suck her. He married the servant. This servant said to the emperor, «Fell these fir-trees, and make me a bed.»
«Fell them I will not; they are of exquisite beauty.»
«If you don’t, I shall die.»
The emperor set men to work, and felled the firs, and gathered all the chips, and burned them with fire. He made a bed of the two planks, and slept with his new empress in the bed.
And the elder boy said, «Brother, do you feel it heavy, brother?»
«No, I don’t feel it heavy, for my father is sleeping on me; but you, do you feel it heavy, brother?»
«I do, for my stepmother is sleeping on me.»
She heard, she arose in the morning. «Emperor, chop up this bed, and put it in the fire, that it be burnt.»
«Burn it I will not.»
«But you must put it in the fire, else I shall die.»
The emperor bade them put it in the fire. She bade them block up the chimney, that not a spark should escape. But two sparks escaped, and fell on a couple of lambs: the lambs became golden. She saw, and commanded the servants to kill the lambs. She gave the servants the chitterlings to wash them, and gave the chitterlings numbered. They were washing them in the stream; two of the chitterlings fell into the water. They cut two chitterlings in half, and added them to the number, and came home. From those two chitterlings which fell into the water came two doves; and they turned a somersault,1 and became boys. And they went to a certain lady. This lady was a widow, and she took the boys in, and brought them up seven years, and clothed them.
And the emperor made proclamation in the land that they should gather to him to a ball. All Bukowina assembled. They ate and drank. The emperor said, «Guess what I have suffered.» Nobody guessed. These two boys also went, and sat at the gate. The emperor saw them. «Call also these two boys.»
They called them to the emperor. «What are you come for, boys?»
«We came, emperor, to guess.»
«Well, guess away.»
«There was a man with children as many as ants in an anthill. And three of the girls went to reap corn, and the emperor’s son came by. And the eldest girl said, «If this lad will marry me, I will clothe his army with one spindleful of thread.»
The middle girl said, «If he will marry me, I will feed his army with a single loaf.»
The youngest girl said, «If this emperor’s son will marry me, I will bear him twins clever and good, with hair of gold and teeth like pearls.»
His servant said to the emperor, «Emperor, the eldest girl said that, if you will marry her, she will clothe your army with one spindleful of thread; and the middle girl said, if you will marry her, she will feed your army with a single loaf; and the youngest girl said, if you will marry her, she will bear you twins clever and good, with hair of gold and teeth like pearls.» Come forth, pearl. The emperor lived with her half a year, and departed to war, and remained a year. The empress brought forth two sons. The servant took them, flung them into the pigstye, and put two whelps by her.
At evening the pigs came home, and the eldest sow cried, «Hah! here are our master’s sons; you must give them the teat.» In the morning the pigs went forth to the field. The servant came, saw that they are well, flung them into the stable.
At evening the horses came; the eldest horse cried, «Hah! here are our master’s sons; you must give them the teat.»
In the morning the horses went forth to the field. She came and saw that they are well. She buried them in the horses’ dunghill, and two golden fir-trees grew. The emperor came from the army. The servant went to meet him. «Emperor, the empress has borne a couple of whelps.»
The emperor buried her behind the door, and set the two whelps to suck. The emperor married the servant. The new empress said, «Fell the fir-trees, and make a bed.»
«Fell them I will not, for they are beautiful.»
«If you don’t fell them, I shall die.»
The emperor commanded, and they felled them, and he gathered all the chips and flung them in the fire, and he made a bed. And the emperor was sleeping in the bed with the servant.
And the elder brother said, «Do you feel it heavy, brother?» «No, I don’t feel it heavy, for my true father is sleeping on me; but do you feel it heavy, brother?»
«I do, for my stepmother is sleeping on me.» She heard, she arose in the morning.
«Emperor, chop up this bed, and put it in the fire.» «Chop it up I will not, for it is fair.» «If you don’t, I shall die.»
The emperor commanded, and chopped up the bed, and they put it in the fire; and she told them to block up the chimney. But two sparks jumped out on two lambs, and the lambs became golden. She saw, and commanded the servants to kill them, and gave the chitterlings to two girls to wash. And two chitterlings escaped, and they cut two chitterlings, and made up the proper number. From those chitterlings came two doves; and they turned a somersault, and became two boys. And they went to a certain widow lady, and she took them in, and brought them up seven years. The emperor gathered Bukowina to a ball, and they ate and drank. The emperor told them to guess what he had suffered. Nobody guessed, but I have. And if you believe not, we are your sons, and our mother is buried behind the door.»
Then came his mother into the hall.
«Good-day to you, my sons.»
«Thank you, mother.»
And they took that servant, and bound her to a wild horse, and gave him his head, and he smashed her to pieces.
NO. 18. — THE GOLDEN CHILDREN
There were three princesses, and they vaunted themselves before the three princes. One vaunted that she will make him a golden boy and girl. And one vaunted that she will feed his army with one crust of bread. And one vaunted that she will clothe the whole army with a single spindleful of thread. The time came that the princes took the three maidens. So she who had vaunted that she will bear the golden boy and girl, the time came that she grew big with child, and she fell on the hearth in the birth-pangs. The midwife came and his mother, and she brought forth a golden boy and girl. And her man was not there. And the midwife and his mother took a dog and a bitch, and put them beneath her. And they took the boy and the girl, and the midwife threw them into the river. And they went floating on the river, and a monk found them.
So their father went a-hunting, and their father found the lad. «Let me kiss you.» For, he thought, My wife said she would bear a golden lad and girl like this. And he came home and fell sick; and the midwife noticed it and his mother.
The midwife asked him, «What ails you?»
He said, «I am sick, because I have seen a lad like my wife said she would bear me.»
Then she sent for the children, did his mother; and the monk brought them; and she asked him, «Where did you get those children?»
He said, «I found them both floating on the river.»
And the king saw it must be his children; his heart yearned towards them. So the king called the monk, and asked him, «Where did you get those children?»
He said, «I found them floating on the river.»
He brought the monk to his mother and the midwife, and said, «Behold, mother, my children.»
She repented and said, «So it is.» She said, «Yes, darling, the midwife put them in a box, and threw them into the water.»
Then he kindled the furnace, and cast both his mother and also the midwife into the furnace. And he burnt them; and so they made atonement. He gathered all the kings together, for joy that he had found his children. Away I came, the tale have told.
NO. 19. — THE TWO CHILDREN
Somewhere there was a hunter’s son, a soldier; and there was also a shoemaker’s daughter. She had a dream that if he took her to wife, and if she fell pregnant by him, she would bring forth twins — the boy with a golden star upon his breast, and the girl with a golden star upon the brow. And he presently took her to wife. And she was poor, that shoemaker’s daughter; and he was rich. So his parents did not like her for a daughter-in-law. She became with child to him; and he went off to serve as a soldier. Within a year she brought forth. When that befell, she had twins exactly as she had said. She bore a boy and a girl; the boy had a golden star upon his breast, and the girl had a golden star upon her brow. But his parents threw the twins into diamond chests, wrote a label for each of them, and put it in the chest. Then they let them swim away down the Vah river.
Then my God so ordered it, that there were two fishers, catching fish. They saw those chests come swimming down the river; they laid hold of both of them. When they had done so, they opened the chests, and there were the children alive, and on each was the label with writing. The fishers took them up, and went straight to the church to baptize them.
So those children lived to their eighth year, and went already to school. And the fishers had also children of their own, and used to beat them, those foundlings. He, the boy, was called Jankos; and she, Marishka.
And Marishka said to Jankos, «Let us go, Jankos mine, somewhere into the world.»
Then they went into a forest, there spent the night. There they made a fire, and Marishka fell into a slumber, whilst he, Jankos, kept up the fire. There came a very old stranger to him, and he says to him, says that stranger, «Come with me, Jankos, I will give you plenty of money.»
He brought him into a vault; there a stone door opened before him; the vault was full, brim full of money. Jankos took two armfuls of money. It was my God who was there with him, and showed him the money. He took as much as he could carry, then returned to Marishka. Marishka was up already and awake; she was weeping — «Where, then, is Jankos?»
Jankos calls to her, «Fear not, I am here; I am bringing you plenty of money.»
My God had told him to take as much money as he wants; the door will always be open to him. Then they, Jankos and Marishka, went to a city; he bought clothes for himself and for her, and bought himself a fine house. Then he bought also horses and a small carriage. Then he went to the vault for that money, and helped himself again. With the shovel he flung it on the carriage; then he returned home with so much money that he didn’t know what to do with it.
Then he ordered a band to play music, and arranged for a ball. Then he invited all the gentry in that country, invited all of them; and his parents too came. This he did that he might find out who were his parents. Right enough they came; and he, Jankos, at once knew his mother — my God had ordained it, that he at once should know her. Then he asks his mother, does Jankos, what a man deserved who ruins two souls, and is himself alive.
And she says, the old lady, «Such a one deserves nothing better than to have light set to the fagot-pile, and himself pitched into the fire.»
That was just what they did to them, pitched them into the fire; and he remained there with Marishka. And the gentleman cried then, «Hurrah! bravo! that’s capital
NO. 20. — MARE’S SON
A priest went riding on his mare to town. And… he led her into the forest, and left her there. The mare brought forth a son. And God came and baptized him, and gave him the name «Mare’s Son.» He sucked one year, and went to a tree, and tries to pluck it up, and could not.
«Ah! mother, I’ll suck one year more.»
He sucked one year more; he went to the tree; he plucked it up.
«Now, mother, I shall go away from you.»
And he went into the forests, and found a man. «Good day to you.»
«Thanks.»
«What’s your name?»
«Tree-splitter.»
«Hah! let’s become brothers. Come with me.»
They went further; they found another man. «Good day.»
«Thanks.»
«What’s your name?»
«Rock-splitter.»
«Hah! let’s become brothers.»
They became brothers.
«Come with me.»
They went further; they found yet another man. «Good day to you.»
«Thanks.»
«What’s your name?»
«Tree-bender.»
«Come with me.»
The four went further, and they found a robbers’ den. The robbers had killed a heifer. When the robbers saw them, they fled. They went away, and left the meat untouched. They cooked the meat and ate. They passed the night. In the morning Mare’s Son said, «Let three of us go to hunt, and one stay at home to cook.» They left Tree-splitter at home to cook, and he cooked the food nicely. And there came an old man to him, a hand’s-breadth tall, with a beard a cubit in length.
«Give me to eat.»
«Not I. For they’ll come from hunting, and there’ll be nothing to give them.»
The old man went into the wood, and cut four wedges, and threw him, Tree-splitter, on the ground, and fastened him to the earth by the hands and feet, and ate up all the food. Then he let him go, and departed. He put more meat in the pot to cook.
They came from hunting and asked, «Have you cooked the food?»
«Ever since you’ve been away I’ve had the meat at the fire, but it isn’t cooked properly.»
«Dish it up as it is, for we’re hungry.»
He dished it up as it was, and they ate it. They passed the night. The next day they left another cook, and the three of them went off to hunt. The old man came again.
«Give me something to eat.»
«Not I, for they’ll come from hunting, and there’ll be nothing to give them to eat.»
He went into the wood, and cut four wedges, and fastened him to the earth by the hands and feet, and ate up all the food, and let him go, and departed. He put more meat in the pot to cook. They came from hunting. «Have you cooked the food?»
«Ever since you’ve been away I’ve had it at the fire, but it isn’t cooked, for it’s old meat.»
They passed the night. The third day they left another cook. The three of them went to hunt; and those two never told what they had undergone. Again the old man came, demanded food.
«Not a morsel, for they’ll come from hunting, and I should have nothing to give them.»
He went into the wood, and cut four wedges, and fastened him to the earth by the hands and feet, and ate up all the food, and let him go. They came from hunting. «Have you cooked the food?»
«The minute you went away I put the meat in the pot; but it isn’t cooked, for it’s old.»
The fourth day Mare’s Son remained as cook, and he cooked the food nicely.
The old man came. «Give me something to eat, for I’m hungry.»
«Come here, and I’ll give you some.»
He called him into the house, and caught him by the beard, and led him to a beech-tree, and drove his axe into the beech, and cleft it, and put his beard in the cleft, and drew out the axe, and drove in wedges by the beard, and left him there. They came from hunting; he gave them to eat. «Why didn’t you cook as good food as I?»
They ate.
The old man pulled the tree out of the earth on to his shoulders, and dragged it after him, and departed into a cave in the other world.
Said Mare’s Son to them, «Come with me, and you shall see what I’ve caught.»
They went, and found only the place.
Said Mare’s Son, «Come with me, for I’ve got to find him.»
They went, following the track of the tree to his cave.
«This is where he went in. Who’ll go in to fetch him out?»
They said, «Not we, we’re afraid. Do you go in, for it was you who caught him.»
He said, «I’ll go in, and do you swear that you will act fairly by me.»
They swore that they will act fairly by him. They made a basket, and he lowered himself into the cave, and went to the other world. There was a palace under the earth, and he found the old man with his beard in the tree, put him in the basket, and they drew him up. He found a big stone, and put it in the basket. «If they pull up the stone, they will pull up me.» They pulled it up half-way, and cut the rope. He fell a-weeping. «Now I am undone.»
He journeyed under the earth, and came to a house. There was an old man and an old woman, both blind, for the fairies5 had put out their eyes. Mare’s Son went to them and said, «Good day.»
«Thanks. And who are you?»
«I am a man.»
«And old or young?»
«Young.»
«Be a son to us.»
«Good.»
The old man had ten sheep. «Here take the sheep, and graze them, daddy’s darling. And don’t go to the right hand, else the fairies will catch you and put out your eyes; that’s their field. But go to the left hand, for they’ve no business there; that’s our field.»
He went three days to the left hand, until he bethought himself, and made a flute, and went to the right hand with his sheep.
And there met him a fairy, and said to him, «Son of a roarer, what are you wanting here?»
He began to play on the flute. «Dance a bit for me.»
He began to play, and she danced. Just as she was dancing her very best, he broke the flute with his teeth.
The fairy said, «What are you doing, why did you break it, when I was dancing my very best?»
«Come with me to that tree, that maple, that I may take out its heart and make a flute. And I will play all day, and you shall dance. Come with me.»
He went to the maple, and drove his axe into the maple, and cleft it. «Put your hand in, and take out the heart.»
She put in her hand; he drew out the axe, and left her hand in the tree.
She cried, «Quick, release my hand; it will be crushed.»
And he said, «Where are the old man’s and the old woman’s eyes? For if you don’t tell me, I shall cut your throat.»
«Go to the third room. They’re in a glass. The larger are the old man’s, the smaller the old woman’s.»
«How shall I put them in again?»
«There is water in a glass there, and moisten them with the water, and put them in, and they will adhere. And smear with the water, and they will see.»
He cut her throat, and went and got the eyes of the old man and the old woman, and took the water, and moistened them with the water, and put them in, and they adhered. He smeared with the water, and they saw.
The old man and the old woman said, «Thank you, my son. Be my son for ever. I will give all things into your hand, and I will go to my kinsfolk, for it is ten years since I have seen them.»
And the old man mounted a goat, and the old woman mounted a sheep; and he said to his son, «Daddy’s darling, walk, eat, and drink.» Away went the old man and the old woman to their kinsfolk.
He too set out, and went walking in the forest. In a tree were young eagles, and a dragon was climbing up to devour them. And Mare’s Son saw him, and climbed up, and killed him.
And the young eagles said to him, «God will give you good luck for killing him. For my mother said every year she was hatching chicks, and this dragon was always devouring them. But where shall we hide you? for our mother will come and devour you. But put yourself under us, and we will cover you with our wings.»
Their mother came. «I smell fresh man.»
«No, mother, you just fancy it. You fly aloft, and the reek mounts up to you.»
«I’m certain there’s a man here. And who killed the dragon?»
«I don’t know, mother.»
«Show him, that I may see him.»
«He’s among us, mother.»
They produced him, and she saw him; and the minute she saw him, she swallowed him. The eaglets began to weep and to lament: «He saved us from death, and you have devoured him.»
«Wait a bit; I’ll bring him up again.»
She brought him up, and asked him, «What do you want for saving my young ones from death?»
«I only want you to carry me to the other world.»
«Had I known that, I’d have let him devour my young ones, for to carry you up is mighty difficult. Do you know how I shall manage it? Bake twelve ovenfuls of bread, and take twelve heifers and twelve jars of wine.»
In three days he had them ready.
She said, «Put them on me; and when I turn my head to the left, throw a heifer into my mouth and an ovenful of bread; and when I turn to the right, pour a jar of wine into my mouth.»
She brought him out; he went to his brothers. «Good day to you, brothers. You fancied I should perish. If you acted fairly by me, toss your arrows up in the air, and they will fall before you; but if unfairly, then they will fall on your heads.»
All four tossed up their arrows, and they stood in a row. His fell right before him, and theirs fell on their heads, and they died.
NO. 21. — THE DELUDED DRAGON
There was an old man with a multitude of children. He had an underground cave in the forest. He said, «Make me a honey-cake, for I will go and earn something.» He went into the forest, and found a well. By the well was a table. He laid the cake on the table. The crows came and ate it. He slept by the well. He arose and saw the flies eating the crumbs. He struck a blow and killed a hundred flies. He wrote that he had killed a hundred souls with one blow. And he lay down and slept.
A dragon came with a buffalo’s skin to draw water. He saw what was written on the table, that he had killed a hundred souls. When he saw the old man, he feared. The old man awoke, and he too feared.
The dragon said, «Let’s become brothers.»
And they swore that they would be Brothers of the Cross. The dragon drew water. «Come with me, brother, to my palace.»
They went along a footpath, the old man first. When the dragon panted, he drove the old man forward; when he drew in his breath, he pulled him back. The dragon said, «Brother, why do you sometimes run forward and sometimes come back?»
«I am thinking whether to kill you.»
«Stay, brother, I will go first and you behind; maybe you will change your mind.»
They came to a cherry-tree. «Here, brother, have some cherries.»
The dragon climbed up, and the old man was eating below. The dragon said, «Come up, they’re better here.»
The old man said, «No, they aren’t, for the birds have defiled them.»
«Catch hold of this bough.»
The old man did so. The dragon let go of it, and jerked the old man up, and he fell on a hare and caught it.
The dragon said, «What’s the matter, brother? Was the bough too strong for you?»
«I sprang of my own accord, and caught this hare. I hadn’t time to run round, so up I sprang.»
The dragon came down and went home. The old man said, «Would you like a present, sister-in-law?» [seemingly offering the hare to the dragon’s wife].
«Thanks, brother-in-law.»
The dragon said to her aside, «Don’t say a word to him, else he’ll kill us, for he has killed a hundred souls with one blow.» He sent him to fetch water: «Go for water, brother.»
He took the spade and the buffalo’s hide, dragged it after him, and went to the well, and was digging all round the well.
The dragon went to him. «What are you doing, brother?»
«I am digging the whole well to carry it home.»
«Don’t destroy the spring; I’ll draw the water myself.»
The dragon drew the water, and took the old man by the hand, and led him home. He sent him to the forest to fetch a tree. He stripped off bark, and made himself a rope, and bound the trees.
The dragon came. «What are you doing, brother?»
«I am going to take the whole forest and carry it home.»
«Don’t destroy my forest, brother. I’ll carry it myself.» The dragon took a tree on his shoulders, and went home.
He said to his wife, «What shall we do, wife, for he will kill us if we anger him?»
She said, «Take uncle’s big club, and hit him on the head.»
The old man heard. He slept of a night on a bench. And he took the beetle, put it on the bench, dressed it up in his coat, and put his cap on the top of it. And he lay down under the bench. The dragon took the club, and felt the cap, and struck with the club. The old man arose, removed the beetle, put it under the bench, and lay down on the bench. He scratched his head. «God will punish you, brother, and your household, for a flea has bitten me on the head.»
«There! do you hear, wife? I hit him on the head with the club, and he says a mere flea has bitten him. What shall we do with him, wife?»
«Give him a sackful of money to go away.»
«What will you take to go, brother? I’ll give you a sackful of money.»
«Give it me.»
He gave it. «Take it, brother, and be gone.»
«I brought my present myself; do you carry yours yourself.»
The dragon took it on his shoulders and carried it. They drew near to the underground cavern. The old man said, «Stay here, brother, whilst I go home and tie up the dogs, else they’ll wholly devour you.» The old man went home to his children, and made them wooden knives, and told them to say when they saw the dragon, «Mother, father’s bringing a dragon; we’ll eat his flesh.»
The dragon heard them, and flung down the sack, and fled. And he met a fox.
«Where are you flying to, dragon?»
«The old man will kill me.»
«Fear not; come along with me. I’ll kill him, he’s so weak.»
The children came outside and cried, «Mother, the fox is bringing us the dragon skin he owes us, to cover the cave with.»
The dragon took to flight, and caught the fox, and dashed him to the earth; and the fox died. The old man went to the town, and got a cart, and put the money in it. Then he went to the town, and built himself houses, and bought himself oxen and cows.
NO. 22. — THE GYPSY AND THE DRAGON
There were a Gypsy and a shepherd, who tended his sheep. Every night two of the shepherd’s sheep went a-missing, or even three. The peasant came to his gossip, the Gypsy, who asks him, «Hallo! gossip, what’s up with you, that you’re so sorrowful?»
The peasant says to the Gypsy, «Ah! how should I not be sorrowful, when some one — I know not who — does me grievous harm?»
«All right. I’ll help you there, for I know fine who it is. To-night let your wife make me two big cheeses, the size of that; and let her bake me some nice fine dough for supper. I’ll come and sup with you to-night. Then I’ll go and look after your sheep.»
All right! The Gypsy went and had a fine blow-out at the peasant’s. Night came, and the Gypsy went off to the sheep. And the cheese he put in his pocket, and in his hand he took an iron bar weighing three hundredweight, besides which he made himself quite a light wooden rod. And off he went to the sheepfold. There was nobody there but the shepherd’s man.
«Go you home, my lad,» says the Gypsy, «and I’ll stop here.»
Midnight came. The Gypsy made himself a big fire, and straightway the dragon comes to the Gypsy by the fire.
He said to him, «Wait a bit. I’ll give it your mother for this;8 what are you wanting here?»
«Just wanting to see if you are such a strong chap, though you do eat three sheep every night.»
He was terrified.
«Sit down beside me by the fire, and let’s just have a little trial of strength, to see which of us is the stronger. Do you throw this stick so high up in the air that it never falls down again, but stays there.» (It was the bar that weighed three hundredweight.)
The dragon throws, threw it so high, that then and there it remained somewhere or other up in the sky. «Now,» says the dragon to the Gypsy, «now do you throw, as I threw.»
The Gypsy threw — it was the little light wooden stick — threw it somewhere or other behind him, so that the dragon couldn’t see where he threw it, but he fancied he had thrown it where he had thrown his own.
«Well, all right! Let’s sit down, and see whether you really are a clever chap. Just take this stone and squeeze it so that the water runs out of it, and the blood, like this.» The Gypsy took the cheese; he squeezed it till the water ran out of it; then he said to the dragon, «Do you take it now and squeeze.»
He handed him a stone, and the dragon kept squeezing and squeezing till the blood streamed from his hand. «I see plainly,» he said to the Gypsy, «you’re a better man than I.»
«Well, take me now on your back, and carry me to your blind mother.»
They came to his blind mother. Fear seized her, for where did one ever hear the like of that — the dragon to carry the Gypsy on his back.
«Now, you’ll give me just whatever I want.»
«Fear not. I will give you as much money as you can carry, and as much food as you want, both to eat and to drink; only let me live and my mother. And I’ll never go after the sheep any more.»
«Well and good. I could kill you this moment, and your blind mother too. Then swear to me that you will go no more to that peasant’s to devour his sheep.»
Straightway he swore to him, that indeed he would go no more.
«Now you must give me money, both gold and silver, and then you must take me on your back and carry me home.»
Well and good. He gave him the money, and took him on his back, and carried home the Gypsy and the money. The Gypsy’s wife sees them.
«My God! What’s up?» And the children — he had plenty — came running out. The dragon was dreadfully frightened and ran off. But he flung down the Gypsy’s money and left it there. The Gypsy was so rich there was not his equal. He was just like a gentleman. And if he is not dead, he is still living, with his wife and children.
NO. 23. — THE SEER
They say that there was an emperor, and he had three sons. And he gave a ball; all Bukowina came to it. And a mist descended, and there came a dragon, and caught up the empress, and carried her into the forests to a mountain, and set her down on the earth. There in the earth was a palace. Now after the ball the men departed home.
And the youngest son was a seer; and his elder brothers said he was mad. Said the youngest, «Let us go after our mother, and seek for her in Bukowina.» The three set out, and they came to a place where three roads met. And the youngest said, «Brothers, which road will you go?»
And the eldest said, «I will keep straight on.»
And the middle one went to the right, and the youngest to the left. The eldest one went into the towns, and the middle one into the villages, and the youngest into the forests. They had gone a bit when the youngest turned back and cried, «Come here. How are we to know who has found our mother? Let us buy three trumpets, and whoever finds her must straightway blow a blast, and we shall hear him, and return home.»
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