Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish 13

Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish 13

On the third day Usunia stayed at home, and Baba Yaja made her

appearance again, and treated him as she had his companions.

 

At length it was Ivashka’s turn to keep house. His comrades went out to

hunt in the wood, and Ivashka got the dinner ready. Looking about the

hut he found in it a jar of honey. Then Ivashka took an axe and split

open one of the posts of the hut, and putting a piece of wood in at the

top he kept the crack open. Then he took the honey and poured it all

over the post and in the chink. After that he got three iron rods, and

then he sat down to await Baba Yaja’s coming. He did not wait long, for

she came riding to the hut in her mortar.

 

“Ho, ho!” cried she, as she entered, “I smell Russian flesh. What do you

here?” said she, turning to Ivashka.

 

Just then, however, she smelt the honey, and, going to the post, she

commenced to lick it with her long tongue. She licked all the honey off

the outside, and then put her tongue in the crack, to get the honey out

that was there. Then Ivashka suddenly pulled out the piece of wood that

held the post asunder, and Baba Yaja’s tongue being held fast, she could

not get away. She screamed and struggled, but could not free herself,

and Ivashka, taking his three iron rods, commenced to beat her with all

his strength. He beat her till he was tired; and then, as she begged him

to have mercy on her, and promised that if he would let her go she would

never trouble him more, he set her free.

 

“Stop there,” said he, putting her in a corner of the cabin. So he sat

down and waited for his companions to come home. Towards evening they

came, and how much were they surprised to find that Ivashka had the food

cooked and ready for them! When they had eaten he told them how he had

served Baba Yaja, and how he had beaten her and put her in the corner of

the hut. When they went to look for her, however, she was nowhere to be

seen. While they examined the place to find how she could have escaped,

they discovered a large stone in the ground. Lifting it up they found

there was a deep pit below. They wished very much to know what was in

this place, but none durst go down, till Ivashka said he would go. So

they made a rope and let him down.

 

“Wait for me,” said Ivashka; “but if I do not come back at the end of a

week, know then that you will see me no more. When I want to come up I

will pull the rope.” So he took leave of his companions, and they let

him down. When he arrived at the bottom of the pit he found himself in a

strange country. He went on for some time until he came to a hut, and,

going in, he found three girls who sat sewing with gold thread.

 

“What do you want?” said they, when they saw Ivashka with the Bear’s

Ear. “What has brought you here? Baba Yaja, our mother, lives here, and

if she sees you she will certainly kill you. We will, however, tell you

how you may save your life if you will take us to the upper world.”

 

Ivashka promised to do what they asked.

 

“When our mother comes in,” said they, “she will run at you and attack

you. When you have fought for a time she will leave you and go to the

cellar. There are two jars full of water: the one is white and the other

is blue. The white jar contains the water of weakness, and the blue jar

the water of strength. If you drink the water in the blue jar you are

saved.”

 

The girls had scarcely finished speaking when Baba Yaja was heard coming

to the hut. She came riding in the iron mortar, which she drove along

with the pestle, while, with her tongue, she swept out the mark made by

the mortar as it passed over the ground.

 

“Ho, ho!” said she, “I smell Russian flesh. Why do you come here?” she

went on, turning to Ivashka with the Bear’s Ear. “What do you want?”

 

With that she rushed upon him, and they fought together until they were

so tired that they fell to the ground. Then Baba Yaja, getting up, ran

to the cellar for the water, and Ivashka went after her. Baba Yaja, in

her hurry, took up the white jar and drank the water, and Ivashka drank

that in the blue jar. Then they began to fight again. At length Ivashka

got the better of her, and taking her pestle he beat her with it till

she begged him to have mercy on her. Still Ivashka would not stop till

she promised him she would never do him any injury, and would leave that

place as soon as he released her. So he let her go.

 

Ivashka went to the three daughters and told them to get ready and go

with him to the world above. Then he went to the rope, and, calling to

his companions, got them to let down a large basket. He told the eldest

daughter to get into it, and then, on Ivashka’s pulling the rope, his

companions drew the basket up. They were very much astonished when they

found a beautiful girl in the basket instead of Ivashka, but she told

them all that had occurred, and they let the basket down again. So the

second and the third daughters were drawn up. Then they let down the

basket again, and Ivashka filled it with gold and silver and fine

clothes, which he had found in Baba Yaja’s hut. When the men commenced

to draw the basket up they wondered why it was so heavy, and they

thought that Baba Yaja herself must be in it. So they cut the rope and

let the basket and all the things fall down to the bottom, and left

Ivashka down below.

 

For a long time he wandered about seeking his way to the upper world. At

length he found an iron door in the rock, and on opening it and looking

in he saw a long passage. So he went on and on till at last he came out

in the upper world. Then he went to seek his friends. When he came to

them he found that they had given him up as dead, and had married the

three daughters of Baba Yaja.

 

“Why did you leave me at the bottom of the pit?” asked Ivashka; “and who

was it that cut the rope?”

 

They told him that Usunia had done it, and Ivashka was so angry that he

killed him on the spot. So Ivashka married Usunia’s wife, and he and his

companions lived together for many years in great happiness.

 

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THE PLAGUE.

 

 

A RUSSIAN peasant sat out in the field. The sun was shining fiercely. In

the distance the man saw something coming to him. It came nearer, and

then he saw it was a woman. She was clad in a large cloak, and strode

along with great strides. The man felt much afraid, and would have run

away, but the phantom held him with its bare arms.

 

“Do you know the Plague?” said she. “I am it. Take me on your shoulders

and carry me through all Russia. Miss no village or town, for I must go

everywhere. For yourself fear nothing. You shall live in the midst of

death.”

 

She wrapt her long arms round the neck of the fearful peasant. The man

went on, and was astonished to find that he felt no weight. He turned

his head, and saw that the Plague was on his back.

 

He first took her to a town, and when they came there, there was joy in

all the streets, dancing, music, and jollity. The peasant went on and

stood in the market-place, and the woman shook her cloak. Soon the

dance, joy, and merriment ceased. Wherever the man looked he saw terror.

People carried coffins, the bells tolled, the burial-ground was full;

there was at length no room for more to be buried in it.

 

Then the people brought the dead to the market-place and left them

there, having no place in which to bury them.

 

The wretched man went on. Whenever he came to a village the houses were

left deserted, and the peasants fled with white faces, and trembling

with fear. On the roads, in the woods, and out in the fields, could be

heard the groans of the dying.

 

Upon a high hill stood the man’s own village, the place in which he was

born, and to this place the Plague began to direct his steps. There were

the man’s wife, his children, and his old parents.

 

The man’s heart was bleeding! When he came near his own village, he laid

hold of the Plague so that she should not escape him, and held her with

all his might.

 

He looked before him and saw the blue Pruth flowing past, and beyond it

were the green hills, and afar off the dark mountains with snow-capped

tops.

 

He ran quickly to the stream and leaped under its waters, wishing to

destroy himself and his burden together, and so free his land from

sorrow and the Plague.

 

He himself was drowned, but the Plague, being as light as a feather,

slipped off his shoulders, and so escaped. She was, however, so alarmed

by this brave deed that she fled away and hid herself in the mountain

forests.

 

So the man saved his village, his parents, his wife, and his little

children, and all that part of fair Russia through which the Plague had

not passed.

 

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THE PEASANT AND THE WIND.

 

 

ONCE upon a time there was a peasant who lived in great poverty with his

wife. He was as dull as a sheep, but she was as wily as a serpent, and

she was so bad tempered that she used to beat him for any little thing

that put her out.

 

One day the woman begged some corn of a neighbour so that she might make

some bread, and she sent her husband off to the mill with it to get it

ground. The miller knew they were very poor, so he ground the corn for

nothing, and the man set off to go home with the flour. As he was on his

way there came all of a sudden such a fierce blast of wind that all the

flour was, in a moment, blown away out of the pan which he carried on

his head. So the man went home and told his wife what had happened. When

she heard his story she set upon him and gave him a hearty beating, and

then, having scolded and thrashed till she could do no more, she told

him to be off to the wind and ask it either to give him the flour back

again or to pay him for it.

 

The man went off out of the house, weeping; and, not knowing in what

direction to go, he went to a great dark forest. There he wandered about, here and there. At last an old woman met him.