Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish 1

Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish 1

Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish

: Charles John Tibbits

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

 

IN this volume I present selections made from the Russian chap-book

literature, and from the works of various Russian and Polish collectors

of Folklore—Afanasief, Erben, Wojcicki, Glinski, etc. The chap-book

tales, and many of those of Glinski, are, there is little doubt, of

foreign origin, but since Russia and Poland are the countries in which

these tales have found their home, and since they have there been so

adapted by the people as to incorporate the national customs and lore,

they appear to me to belong properly to the present volume.

 

C. J. T.

 

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CONTENTS

 

 

PAGE

The Poor Man and the Judge, _Russian_, 1

The Wind Rider, _Polish_, 4

The Three Gifts, ” 9

Snyegurka, _Russian_, 22

Prince Peter and Princess Magilene, ” 28

The Old Man, his Wife, and the Fish, ” 35

The Golden Mountain, ” 42

The Duck that laid Golden Eggs, ” 53

Emelyan the Fool, ” 58

Ilija, the Muromer, ” 76

The Bad-Tempered Wife, ” 83

Ivashka with the Bear’s Ear, ” 88

The Plague, _Polish_, 96

The Peasant and the Wind, _Russian_, 99

The Wonderful Cloth, _Polish_, 107

The Evil Eye, ” 125

The Seven Brothers, _Russian_, 136

Sila Czarovitch and Ivaschka, ” 146

The Stolen Heart, _Polish_, 154

Prince Slugobyl, ” 159

Princess Marvel, ” 167

The Ghost, ” 177

 

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THE POOR MAN AND THE JUDGE.

 

 

ONCE upon a time there were two brothers who lived upon a piece of

ground. The one was rich and the other poor. One day the poor brother

went to the rich one to ask him to lend him a horse, so that he might

carry wood from the forest. The rich brother lent him the horse, and

then the poor one asked him to also let him have a collar for it. The

rich man, however, got angry, and would not let him have one, and then

it occurred to the poor man that he could fasten the sledge to the

horse’s tail. Away he went to the forest to get his wood, and he got

such a load that the horse could scarcely draw it. When he came home

with it he opened the gate, but he did not think of the board at the

foot of the gate, and the horse tumbling over it tore its tail out!

 

The poor fellow took the horse back to his rich brother, but he, when he

saw that the horse had no tail, would not receive it, and went off to

the judge Schemyaka to complain to him of the poor brother. The poor man

saw that things looked bad for him, and that he would be sent for by the

judge. He thought over the matter for a long time, and at last set off

after his brother on foot.

 

On their way the two brothers had to pass over a bridge, and the poor

man, thinking that he should never return from the judge alive, jumped

over it. It chanced that, just at that time, a man’s son was driving his

sick father to the baths, and was passing under the bridge. The poor man

fell upon the old man and killed him, and the son went off to the judge

to complain of his father’s having been killed.

 

The rich brother, when he came to the judge, laid his complaint before

him, telling him that his brother had pulled out his horse’s tail. Now

the poor man had taken a stone and wrapped it in a cloth, and he stood

with it in his hand, behind his brother, intending to kill the judge if

he did not decide in his favour. The judge thought the man had brought a

hundred roubles for him in the cloth, so he ordered the rich man to give

his horse to the poor man until the tail was grown again.

 

Then came the son to complain to the judge of the poor man having slain

his father. The poor man again took the stone wrapped in the cloth and

showed it to the judge, who thought the man must there have two hundred

roubles to give to him for deciding the case. So he ordered the son to

take his place upon the bridge and the poor man to stand below. Then the

son was to throw himself off the bridge on to the poor man and crush him

to death.

 

The poor brother went to the rich one to take the horse without a tail,

as the judge had ordered, so that he might keep it till the tail grew.

The rich man, however, was not willing to lose his horse, so he gave the

poor man five roubles, three bushels of corn, and a milch-goat, and so

they settled the matter.

 

Then the poor man went off to the son, and said—

 

“According to the judgment you must stand on the bridge while I must

stand underneath it, and then you must jump off and crush me to death.”

 

Then thought the son—

 

“Who knows whether if I jump off the bridge I may not, instead of

crushing him to death, kill myself?”

 

So he thought it would be best to come to an arrangement with the poor

man, and he gave him two hundred roubles, a horse, and five bushels of

corn.

 

After this the judge, Schemyaka, sent his servant to the poor man to ask

him for two hundred roubles. The poor man showed him the stone, and

said—

 

“If the judge had not decided for me I should have killed him with it.”

 

When the servant came back to the judge and told him that, he crossed

himself—

 

“Thank Heaven,” said he, “I decided as he wished!”

 

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THE WIND-RIDER.

 

 

A MAGICIAN was once upon a time much put out with a young countryman,

and being in a great rage he went to the man’s hut and stuck a new sharp

knife under the threshold. While he did so he cursed the man, saying—

 

“May this fellow ride for seven years on the fleet storm-wind, until he

has gone all round the world.”

 

Now when the peasant went into the meadows in order to carry the hay,

there came suddenly a gust of wind. It quickly scattered the hay, and

then seized the peasant. He endeavoured in vain to resist; in vain he

sought to cling to the hedges and trees with his hands. Do what he

would, the invisible power hurried him forwards.

 

He flew on the wings of the wind like a wild pigeon, and his feet no

more touched the ground. At length the sun set, and the poor fellow

looked with hungry eyes upon the smoke which curled up from the chimneys

in his village. He could almost touch them with his feet, but he called

and screamed in vain, and all his wailing and complaints were useless.

No one heard his lamentation, no one saw his tears.

 

So he went on for three months, and what with thirst and hunger he was

dried up and almost a skeleton. He had gone over a good deal of ground

by that time, but the wind most often carried him over his native

village.

 

He wept when he saw the hut in which dwelt his sweetheart. He could see

her busied about the house. Sometimes she would bring out some dinner in

a basket. Then he would stretch out his dried-up hands to her, and

vainly call her name. His voice would die away, and the girl not hearing

him would not look up.

 

He fled on. The magician came to the door of his hut, and seeing the

man, cried to him, mockingly—

 

“You have to ride for seven years yet, flying over this village. You

shall go on suffering, and shall not die.”

 

“O my father,” said the man, “if I ever offended you, forgive me! Look!

my lips are quite hard; my face, my hands, look at them! I am nothing

but bone. Have pity upon me.”

 

The magician muttered a few words, and the man stopped in his course. He

stayed in one place, but did not yet stand on the ground.

 

“Well, you ask me to pity you,” said the magician. “And what do you mean

to give me if I put a stop to your torment?”

 

“All you wish,” said the peasant, and he clasped his hands, and knelt

down in the air.

 

“Will you give me your sweetheart,” asked the magician, “so that I may

have her for my wife? If you will give her up, you shall come to earth

again.”

 

The man thought for a moment, and said to himself—

 

“If I once get on the earth again, I may see if I cannot do something.”

 

So he said to the magician—

 

“Indeed, you ask me to make a great sacrifice, but if it must be so it must.”