W. Denton

“ All at once the fox stood before him, and asked, ‘What is the matter, half-brother?’ And he said, ‘The old woman’s mare has run away, and I do not know where she can be.’ Then the fox answered, ‘Here she is with us; she has turned into a fox, and the foal into a cub; but strike once with the bridle on the earth and cry out, “Heigh! you old woman’s mare!”’ So the king’s son struck with the bridle on the earth and cried, ‘Heigh! old woman’s mare!’ and the mare came and stood, with her foal, near him. He put on the bridle, and mounted and rode off home, and the foal followed the mare. ”

“ Again, as he crossed a mountain, he found a wolf fast in a trap; and when the wolf saw him, it spoke: ‘Be a brother to me; in God’s name, set me free, and one day I will help you. Only take a hair from me, and when you need me, rub it gently.’ So he took a hair, and let the wolf free. After that, the king’s son travelled about a very long time, till one day he met a man, to whom he said, ‘For God’s sake, brother, have you ever heard any one say where is the palace of the dragon king?’ The man gave him very particular directions which way to take, and in what length of time he could get there. ”

“ When did the crow outfly the falcon? Coming to the ditch, he touched the bridle a little, and, in an instant, his horse had leaped over the ditch, and they were safe on the other side. So, without any delay, he took away the maiden, together with all the gold, and went back to the city. Having collected his immense treasures, he now took with him the three princesses, and went straight home. As he travelled along with his company, every one who met him asked him, ‘Where are you going? are the girls for sale?’ For you see the princesses were exceedingly beautiful. ”

“ Accordingly the next morning the king ordered the prince to let out all the wild doves, and to bring them all safely to their different cages before night set in.
The instant the poor young man opened the cage-doors the wild doves rose like a cloud into the air, and vanished over the tops of the trees. So the prince went into the forest and sat down again on the fallen tree. ”

“ But all the king’s persuasions were useless. His son went into the world to search everywhere for his peahen, taking only one servant to serve him. After many travels he came one day to a lake. Now by the lake stood a large and beautiful palace. In the palace lived an old woman as queen, and with the queen lived a girl, her daughter. He said to the old woman, ‘For heaven’s sake, grandmother, do you know anything about nine golden peahens?’ and the old woman answered, ‘Oh, my son, I know all about them; they come every mid-day to bathe in the lake. ”

“ Every day and every fraction of life had its tutelary; every family its special lar; and every individual its genius, or guardian spirit. Omnipresence was subdivided into atoms, and an atom was everywhere present. Under such circumstances it would hardly have been possible to construct a tale or to rearrange the fragments of older tales without introducing these elements of the popular belief. Without doing so, indeed, a tale would not—could not have become a folk-tale. ”

“ The king was so pleased with the appearance of the horse and the greyhound, that he called instantly some of his servants, and, sending them after the strange rider, bade them invite him to come to the palace. The young man, however, hearing some people coming behind him calling and shouting, rode quickly behind a thick bush, and shook a little the halter and the iron chain. In a moment the horse, the greyhound, and the hare had vanished, and he found himself sitting on the ground under the trees dressed in his old shabby clothes. ”

“ Much astonished at his boldness, Yard-high-forehead-and-span-long-beard exclaimed, ‘Take care you don’t begin to quarrel with me. There is no one in all the world who can conquer me, except a fellow called Peppercorn!’
Peppercorn was very pleased to hear this, and, without more hesitation, sprang at once on Yard-high-forehead-and-span-long-beard, and, after some struggling, pulled him down to the earth and bound him. This done, he tied him fast to a tall pine-tree. Now the Pikeman and Mill-turner came up and were exceedingly glad to find their dinners safe. ”

“ The king was so glad to have his daughter given back to him, as he thought, from the grave, that he declared that she should marry no one but the young nobleman whose wonderful ointment had cured her. ”

“ Then the knight took the girl back to the palace of the king, her father, and the queen, who had been watching anxiously everything that passed, met him at the gate and delivered up to him the keys of the city.
The knight, who was no other than St. George, now walked through the streets of the Troyan city, and, having gathered the people around him, spoke to them thus, ‘Listen to me, my children! Pray no more to the idol of silver, pray only to the one true God! And you, young people, reverence your elders. All of you remember that near relatives cannot be permitted to intermarry. ”

“ Seeing she would not give up the key, the old man grew more and more alarmed, lest some ill should befall his son, so he took hold of the old woman by the neck and forced her to drop the key. She struggled very hard to get it back again, and, whilst the old man and she wrestled together, the key changed itself suddenly into a dove and flew away high in the air over the palace gardens. ”

“ Well, now I have really asked the king; but it is of no use, for the princess declares she will not marry you until you have learnt the trade that no one knows!’
‘Oh, that matters nothing!’ exclaimed the son. ‘Now I only know the condition, it’s all right!’ The next morning the young man set out on his travels through the world in search of a man who could teach him the trade that no one knows. ”

“ The prince, hearing of the king’s orders, and guessing the reason of them, went once again into the forest to ask help from his wild friend. The wild man, thereupon, brought out to him a still more beautiful racer, and a suit of splendid clothes; and, thus prepared, the prince took his place as before among the knights who were going to try for the prize. He won the golden apple this third time also; but, to the surprise of the king and the whole court, who hoped now to find out who he was, he made his horse spring lightly over the ditch, and the great wall, and vanished again in the forest. ”

“ Accordingly the poor young queen was thrown into a miserably dark dungeon under the palace, and kept on bread and water.
Now there was only a very small hole in this prison—hardly large enough to let in light and air—yet the old queen managed to cause a great many people to pass by this hole, and whoever passed was ordered to spit at and abuse the unhappy young queen, calling out to her, ‘Are you really the queen? Are you the girl who cheated the king in order to be a queen? Where are your golden-haired twins? ”

“ After having some time enjoyed to his heart’s content the hospitalities the king lavished upon him, the false servant began to be afraid that his master’s patience might be wearied out soon, under all the indignities to which he was exposed, and that one day he might be tempted to forget his oath and proclaim himself in his true character. Filled with these misgivings, the wicked man thought over all possible ways by which he could do away with his betrayed master without any danger to himself. ”

“ Next morning, by the help of the little stone and the wonderful hair, he was again dressed in the finest clothes, and mounted on his cream-coloured horse, and so took his place amongst the racers.
Every one wondered from what country this knight came, and were delighted at his rich dress; as for the horse, the people were never tired of admiring it. ”

“ The very evening the eldest brother arrived he heard the public bell-man proclaiming aloud through the streets, that every one who had a horse should come to-morrow to the royal field, and whoever should spring first over the ditch should be rewarded with the king’s daughter, and should receive, with her, ten loads of gold. ”

“ I should like to warm myself, but I am afraid of your beasts. I made that fire myself, but, seeing you coming with your animals, I was frightened, and got up here to save myself.’
‘Well, you can now come down again, and warm yourself as much as you please,’ said he. However, she protested, ‘I dare not—your beasts would bite me. But I will throw you a hair, and you shall bind them with it. Then I can come down.’ The eldest brother thought to himself: the hair must be a very singular hair indeed, if it could bind his bear, his wolf, his dog, and his cat. ”

“ The shepherd answered, ‘I desire nothing but the language of animals.’ The snake king, however, said, ‘That is not good for you, for if I give it you, and you tell any one about it, you will instantly die. ”

“ In popular literature—especially in such a literature as that of which I am speaking—the tone of the popular mind must needs be reflected; and if mythology had, at the date of the creation of the tale, or during its growth, any considerable hold over the popular mind, this fact would be indicated by the characters introduced, as well as by the general colouring given to the tale itself; just as a profoundly religious mind tinges the creations of the imagination or the productions of the intellect with the religious convictions which possess it. ”

“ When the king and his minister saw this wonder, the minister said to the king, ‘This man will know now more than ever he did, since he has been dead and is come back to life!’ Then the king began to wonder if it were true that a man who has been dead knows more when he returns to life, and, in order to satisfy his curiosity, he ordered the headsman to cut off his head, and directed that the girl with the water of life should bring him again to life. ”

“ ONCE upon a time, a long while ago, there lived in a very far-off country, a young nobleman who was so exceedingly poor that all his property was an old castle, a handsome horse, a trusty hound, and a good rifle.
This nobleman spent all his time in hunting and shooting, and lived entirely on the produce of the chase.
One day he mounted his well-kept horse and rode off to the neighbouring forest, accompanied, as usual, by his faithful hound. When he came to the forest he dismounted, fastened his horse securely to a young tree, and then went deep into the thicket in search of game. ”

“ When the second brother had tended the king’s goats a long time, he one day drove them up a high hill, and, finding there a very tall pine-tree, resolved at once to climb up to its top and look about to see what kind of a country lay on the other side of the hill. When he had looked round a while from the tree he noticed a great volume of smoke rising from a mountain afar off, and the thought came at once to his mind that his brothers might be there. ”

“ After travelling about a good while he came one day to a large city where he saw a great crowd gathered about a man who held an iron pike in his hand, and every now and then squeezed drops of water out of the iron. Whilst the people watched, wondering and [Pg 124] admiring his great strength, Peppercorn went up and asked him, ‘Do you think there is any man in the world stronger than yourself?’
‘There is only one man alive who is stronger than myself, and that one is a certain person called Peppercorn,’ answered he. ”

“ When they came into the kiosk, he asked her who her husband was, and she answered, ‘I am married to the King of Dragons, who is also a dragon. I must hide you well, my dear brother, for my husband has often said that he would kill his brothers-in-law if he could only meet them. I will try him first, and if he will promise not to injure you, I will tell him you are here.’ So she hid her brother and his horse as well as she could. At night, supper was prepared in readiness for her husband, and at last he came. When he came flying into the courtyard, the whole palace shone. ”

“ Next morning she told her father to take a plough and oxen, and go to plough in a wood near to which the king would pass. ‘When you see the king coming,’ said she, ‘take a handful of beans, and begin to sow, shouting, “Go on, my oxen, and God grant that the boiled beans may bear fruit!” When the king asks you, “How can you expect boiled beans to grow?” answer him, “Just as much as from boiled eggs to hatch chickens!”’
The poor man listened to his daughter, and went to plough. When the king came near, he began to shout, ‘Ho ho, my oxen! go on! ”

“ Then the three brothers consulted together, and decided to invest part of the money, which their father and mother had got from the robbers, in the purchase of four horses and one grass-field.
But their affairs did not go on very smoothly. One morning, instead of three horses in the stable they found only two; the third horse had been killed. Something had bitten it, sucked its blood, and devoured half of its body! And it was the finest of the three horses which had been killed. After this, the brothers resolved for the future to keep watch every night in the stable. ”

“ The next morning, when the young man had gone again with his dog into the forest, and the fox and the bear lay quietly near the horse, a hungry wolf, seeing the horse, sprang out of a thicket to kill it. The fox and the bear, however, jumped up quickly and begged him not to hurt the horse, telling him to what a good master it belonged, and that they were sure, if he would only wait, he also would be taken into the same service, and would be well cared for. ”

“ ONCE upon a time a bear married a woman, and they had one son. When the boy was yet a little fellow he begged very hard to be allowed to leave the bear’s cave, and to go out into the world to see what was in it. His father, however, the Bear, would not consent to this, saying, ‘You are too young yet, and not strong enough. In the world there are multitudes of wicked beasts, called men, who will kill you.’ So the boy was quieted for a while, and remained in the cave. ”