Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish 3

Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish 3

A story is soon told, but events move slowly.

 

After many adventures of little importance he came to the capital of a

kingdom situated on the sea-shore. There he sought to obtain a living,

and he was not unsuccessful, for he was engaged to look after the king’s

garden, and was both well fed and well paid. This good fortune did not,

however, make him forget his poor sister, about whom he was much

troubled. When he had a moment to himself, he would sit down in some

quiet spot and look at his picture, sometimes melting into tears, for he

looked upon the portrait of his sister as a precious legacy given to him

by his parents at their grave.

 

One day while the lad sat thus by a brook, the king saw him, and

creeping up to him from behind very softly, he looked over his shoulder

at the likeness that the young man was regarding so attentively.

 

“Give me the portrait,” said the king.

 

The lad gave it to him.

 

The king looked at it and was delighted.

 

“Never,” said he, “in all my life did I see such a beautiful girl, never

have I heard of such a one, never did I dream there was such. Tell me,

does she live?”

 

The lad burst into tears, and told the king that the picture was the

portrait of his sister, who some time ago had been so favoured by Heaven

that when she cried her tears became pearls, when she laughed roses

sprang from her lips, and when she touched water it was filled with

golden fish.

 

The king ordered him to write at once to his step-mother, to tell her to

send her lovely step-daughter to his palace, where the king waited to

make her his wife. On the occasion of his marriage he declared he would

heap rewards on the step-mother and on the brother of his bride. The lad

wrote the letter, and the king sent a servant with it.

 

A story is quickly told, but events move slowly.

 

After she had read the letter, the step-mother did not show it to the

orphan, but to her own daughter.

 

So they plotted together, and the step-mother went to an old sorceress

to consult her, and to be instructed in magic. She then set out with her

two daughters. As they came near to the capital of the king’s dominions,

in a place near to the sea, the step-mother suddenly threw the

step-daughter out of the carriage, muttered some magic words, and spat

three times behind her. All at once the poor girl became very little,

covered with feathers, and changed into a wild duck. She commenced to

cackle, threw herself into the sea, just as ducks do, and began to swim

about there. The step-mother dismissed her with these words: “By the

force of my hate, I have done what I wished! Swim away upon the shore

like a duck, happy in liberty, and in the meantime my daughter, clothed

in your beauty, shall marry the king, and enjoy all that was meant for

you.”

 

Hardly had she finished these words when her daughter found herself

clothed in all the charms of the unfortunate girl. So they went on their

way, came to the palace, which they reached at the time named in the

letter, and there the king received the daughter from the hands of the

treacherous step-mother, in place of the orphan. After the marriage, the

step-mother, loaded with presents, returned to her home. The king,

looking upon his wife, could not imagine how it was that he did not feel

that love and tenderness that had been aroused in him at the sight of

the portrait. However, there was no remedy, what was done was done.

Heaven sees one, and knows of what malady one shall die, and what woman

one shall marry! The king admired his wife’s beauty, and thought of the

pleasure he would have when he saw the pearls drop from her eyes, the

roses from her lips, and the golden fish spring up in the water she

touched. During the feast, however, the queen chanced to laugh at her

husband, and a mass of hideous toads sprang forth! The king ran off

quickly. Then the queen commenced to cry, and instead of pearls, lizards

dropped from her eyes. An attendant presented a basin of water to her,

but she had no sooner dipped the tip of her finger in the water than it

became a mass of serpents, which began to hiss and dart into the middle

of the wedding party. Every one was afraid, and all was in confusion.

The guards were at last called in, and by their aid the hall was cleared

of the horrible reptiles.

 

The king had gone into the garden, where he met with the orphan lad; and

so enraged was the king at the trick that he thought had been played

him, that he gave the lad a blow on the head with his stick. The poor

lad, falling down upon the ground, died at once.

 

The queen came running to the king, sobbing, and, taking him by the

hand, said—

 

“What have you done? You have killed my brother, who was altogether

guiltless. Is it his fault or mine that, since I have been married to

you, I have lost the wonderful powers I once had? They will come back

again in time, but time will not bring my brother to me more.”

 

“Pardon me, my dear wife,” said the king. “In a moment of rage I thought

he had betrayed me, and I wished to punish him. I am sorry for what I

have done; now, however, it is beyond recall. Forgive me, and I forgive

you with all my heart.”

 

“I pardon you,” said the queen, “but I beg you to order that my brother

shall be honourably buried.”

 

The queen’s wish was carried out. The poor lad, who was thought to be

the queen’s brother, was put in a fine coffin, and laid on a magnificent

catafalque in the church. When night came on a guard of honour was

placed around the coffin and at the gates to watch till morning. Towards

midnight the doors of the church opened of their own accord and without

any noise, and, at the same moment, an irresistible drowsiness came over

the soldiers, who all went to sleep. A pretty little wild duck entered,

stopped in the middle of the church, shook its feathers, of which it

freed itself one by one, and there stood the orphan girl in her former

shape. She approached the coffin of her brother, and shed very many

tears over him, which all changed to pearls. After she had wept for some

time, she reassumed the feathers once more, and went out. When the

guards awoke, great was their surprise to find a number of beautiful

pearls on the coffin. The next day they told the king how the gates of

the church had opened of themselves at midnight, how an irresistible

desire to sleep had overtaken them, and how the pearls had been

discovered upon the coffin. The king was surprised at their story, and

more so when he saw the pearls. He doubled the guard, and told them to

watch more carefully the second night.

 

At the same time the doors opened again of themselves, and the soldiers

again fell asleep. The wild duck entered, shook off its feathers, and

became the lovely girl. At the sight of the double guard, all of them

fast asleep, she could not help laughing, and beautiful roses fell from

her lips. As she approached her brother her tears broke forth and fell

in a shower of pearls to the ground. At length she took her feathers

again and flew away. When the guards awoke they collected the roses and

pearls and took them to the king, who was now more surprised than

before, seeing not only the pearls but the roses also. He again doubled

the guards, and he threatened them with the most severe punishment if

they did not keep awake. They did their best, but all was of no use. At

the end of their nap on the third night they found not only pearls and

roses, but also golden fish swimming in the church font. The king was

now very much astonished, and began to think that there must be some

magic in the matter. When night came on he again doubled the number of

the guards, and hid himself in the chapel, after having put up a mirror

in which he could see everything reflected without being himself seen.

 

At midnight the doors opened of themselves, the soldiers dropt their

arms, lay down on the ground, and fell fast asleep. The king did not

take his eyes off the mirror, and he saw a little wild duck enter, and

look timidly around it. When it saw the guards all asleep it seemed to

take courage, and came into the middle of the church. Then it cast off

its feathers and became a girl of extraordinary loveliness. The king was

transported with joy and wonder, and felt that this must be his true

bride. When she had come to the coffin the king rushed forward with a

wax taper in his hand and set fire to the feathers, the flame leaping up

and waking the guards. When the girl saw what was done she ran to the

king wringing her hands, while pearls dropped from her eyes.

 

“What have you done?” she cried. “How shall I now escape the fury of my

step-mother, by whose magic arts I was turned into a wild duck?”

 

Then she told the king all, and he at once ordered some of his guards to

seize the woman who had so treacherously married him, and to conduct her

out of the kingdom. He also sent some soldiers to take the step-mother

and burn her as a sorceress. While the king gave these orders the girl

took from her bosom three little vessels, which she had brought with her

from the sea, full of different liquids. She sprinkled the liquid in one

of them over her brother, and he became supple and warm; his cheeks took

their colour again, and the warm red blood began to run from his wound.

His sister sprinkled him again with the second liquid, which had the

property of healing, and his wound at once closed. She sprinkled him the

third time with the water which had the property of calling back to

life. The young man opened his eyes, looked on his sister with

astonishment, and threw himself, full of happiness, into her arms.

 

At the sight of this the king was overjoyed. He took the young man by

the hand, and, leading his sister, the three went to the palace.

 

In a short time he married his true bride, and he lived happily with her

and her brother for many years.

 

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SNYEGURKA.

 

 

THERE was once upon a time a peasant named Ivan, who had a wife named

Mary. They had been married many years, and loved one another, but they

had no children, and this caused them so much sorrow that they could

find no pleasure but in watching the children of their neighbours. What

could they do? Heaven had willed it so. Things in this world do not go

as we wish, but as Heaven ordains.

 

One day, in the winter, the children played about in the road and the

two old folk looked on, sitting in the window seat. At last the children

began to make a beautiful snow figure. Ivan and Mary looked on enjoying it