There was a king who had a daughter who never could be induced to
laugh; she was always sad. So the king proclaimed that she should be
given to anyone who could cause her to laugh. There was also a
shepherd who had a son named George. He said: 'Daddy! I, too, will
go to see whether I can make her laugh. I want nothing from you but
the goat.' His father said, 'Well, go.' The goat was of such a
nature that, when her master wished, she detained everybody, and
that person was obliged to stay by her.
So he took the goat and went, and met a man who had a foot on his
shoulder. George said: 'Why have you a foot on your shoulder?' He
replied: 'If I take it off, I leap a hundred miles.' 'Whither are
you going?' 'I am going in search of service, to see if anyone will
take me.' 'Well, come with us.'
They went on, and again met a man who had a bandage on his eyes.
'Why have you a bandage on your eyes?' He answered, 'If I remove the
bandage, I see a hundred miles.' 'Whither are you going?' 'I am
going in search of service, if you will take me?' 'Yes, I'll take
you. Come also with me.'
They went on a bit further, and met another fellow, who had a
bottle under his arm, and, instead of a stopper, held his thumb in
it. 'Why do you hold your thumb there?' 'If I pull it out, I squirt
a hundred miles, and besprinkle everything that I choose. If you
like, take me also into your service; it may be to your advantage
and ours too.' George replied: 'Well, come too!'
Afterwards they came to the town where the king lived, and bought a
silken riband for the goat. They came to an inn, and orders had
already been given there beforehand, that when such people came,
they were to give them what they liked to eat and drink--the king
would pay for all. So they tied the goat with that very riband and
placed it in the innkeeper's room to be taken care of, and he put it
in the side room where his daughters slept. The innkeeper had three
maiden daughters, who were not yet asleep. So Manka said: 'Oh! if I,
too, could have such a riband! I will go and unfasten it from that
goat.' The second, Dodla, said: 'Don't; he'll find it out in the
morning.' But she went notwithstanding. And when Manka did not
return for a long time, the third, Kate, said: 'Go, fetch her.' So
Dodla went, and gave Manka a pat on the back. 'Come, leave it
alone!' And now she too was unable to withdraw herself from her. So
Kate said: 'Come, don't unfasten it!' Kate went and gave Dodla a pat
on the petticoat; and now she, too, couldn't get away, but was
obliged to stay by her.
In the morning George made haste and went for the goat, and led the
whole set away--Kate, Dodla, and Manka. The innkeeper was still
asleep. They went through the village, and the judge looked out of a
window and said, 'Fie, Kate! what's this? what's this?' He went and
took her by the hand, wishing to pull her away, but remained also by
her. After this, a cowherd drove some cows through a narrow street,
and the bull came rushing round; he stuck fast, and George led him,
too, in the procession.
Thus they afterwards came in front of the castle, and the servants
came out of doors; and when they saw such things, they went and told
the king. 'O sire, we have such a spectacle here; we have already
had all manner of masquerades, but this has never been here yet.' So
they immediately led the king's daughter to the square in front of
the castle, and she looked and laughed till the castle shook.
Now they asked him what sort of person he was. He said that he was a
shepherd's son, and was named George. They said that it could not be
done; for he was of mean lineage, and they could not give him the
damsel; but he must accomplish something more for them. He said,
'What?' They replied that there was a spring yonder, a hundred miles
off; if he brought a goblet of water from it in a minute, then he
should obtain the damsel. So George said to the man who had the foot
on his shoulder: 'You said that if you took the foot down, you could
jump a hundred miles.' He replied: 'I'll easily do that.' He took
the foot down, jumped, and was there. But after this there was only
a very little time to spare, and by then he ought to have been back.
So George said to the second: 'You said that if you removed the
bandage from your eyes, you could see a hundred miles. Peep and see
what is going on.' 'Ah, sir! Goodness gracious! he's fallen asleep!'
'That will be a bad job,' said George; 'the time will be up. You,
third man, you said if you pulled your thumb out, you could squirt a
hundred miles; be quick and squirt thither, that he may get up. And
you, look whether he is moving, or what.' 'Oh, sir! he's getting up
now; he's knocking the dust off; he's drawing the water.' He then
gave a jump, and was there exactly in time.
After this they said that he must perform one task more; that
yonder, in a rock, was a wild beast, a unicorn, of such a nature
that he destroyed a great many of their people; if he cleared him
out of the world he should obtain the damsel. So he took his people
and went into the forest. They came to a firwood. There were three
wild beasts, and three lairs had been formed by wallowing as they
lay. Two did nothing; but the third destroyed people. So they took
some stones and some pine-cones in their pockets, and climbed up
into a tree; and when the beasts lay down, they dropped a stone down
upon that one which was the unicorn. He said to the next: 'Be quiet;
don't butt me.' It said: 'I'm not doing anything to you.' Again they
let a stone fall from above upon the unicorn. 'Be quiet! you've
already done it to me twice.' 'Indeed, I'm doing nothing to you.' So
they attacked each other and fought together. The unicorn wanted to
pierce the second beast through; but it jumped out of the way, and
he rushed so violently after it, that he struck his horn into a
tree, and couldn't pull it out quickly. So they sprang speedily down
from the fir, and the other two beasts ran away and escaped, but
they cut off the head of the third, the unicorn, took it up, and
carried it to the castle.
Now those in the castle saw that George had again accomplished that
task. 'What, prithee, shall we do? Perhaps we must after all give
him the damsel!' 'No, sire,' said one of the attendants, 'that
cannot be; he is too lowborn to obtain a king's daughter! On the
contrary, we must clear him out of the world.' So the king ordered
them to note his words, what he should say. There was a hired female
servant there, and she said to him: 'George, it will be evil for you
to-day; they're going to clear you out of the world.' He answered:
'Oh, I'm not afraid. When I was only just twelve years old, I killed
twelve of them at one blow!' But this was the fact: when his mother
was baking a flat-cake, a dozen flies settled upon her, and he
killed them all at a single blow.
When they heard this, they said: 'Nothing else will do but we must
shoot him.' So they drew up the soldiers, and said they would hold a
review in his honour, for they would celebrate the wedding in the
square before the castle. Then they conducted him thither, and the
soldiers were already going to let fly at him. But George said to
the man who held his thumb in the bottle in place of a stopper: 'You
said, if you pulled your thumb out, you could besprinkle everything.
Pull it out--quick!' 'Oh, sir, I'll easily perform that.' So he
pulled out his thumb and gave them all such a sprinkling, that they
were all blind, and not one could see.
So, when they perceived that nothing else was to be done, they told
him to go, for they would give him the damsel. Then they gave him a
handsome royal robe, and the wedding took place. I, too, was at the
wedding; they had music there, sang, ate, and drank; there was meat,
there were cheesecakes, and baskets full of everything, and buckets
full of strong waters. To-day I went, yesterday I came; I found an
egg among the tree-stumps; I knocked it against somebody's head, and
gave him a bald place, and he's got it still.
* * * * *
This story is related to Grimm's tale of the 'Golden Goose,' but it
is much more rationally constructed, and much more interesting. The
man who jumps one hundred miles appears to be the rainbow, the man
with bandaged eyes the lightning, and the man with the bottle the
cloud. The interpretation will be very similar to that of No. 1, but
the allegory is by no means so clear or so well constructed. As to
the nonsense at the end, it is a specimen of the manner in which the
narrators of stories frequently finish them in all Slavonic
languages.
_MORAVIAN STORIES._
Moravia is so named from the river Morava (in German the river
March), of which, and its affluents, it is the basin. It falls into
the Danube a little above Presburg. In very early times Moravia
appears to have been more civilized and powerful than Bohemia; but
later, Bohemia became a considerable kingdom, and Moravia a
dependency of, and eventually a margravate under the Bohemian crown.
The Moravian stories differ but little in character from those of
Bohemia. The country, unlike Bohemia, abounds in dialects, although
the literary language is the Bohemian. On the east the Moravian
melts into the Silesian, or 'Water-Polish.'
No. 8, 'Godmother Death,' is an interesting variant of the Teutonic
'Godfather Death,' which is given by Grimm. The reason why Death is
represented as a Godmother, rather than a Godfather, in the Moravian
story, is, that Death (_Smrt_) is feminine in all Slavonic dialects.
The story constructed on this basis is more graceful and fuller of
incident than the Teutonic tale, in which Death is masculine.
No. 9 is another story falling under the head of 'Natural Science in
Allegory,' which is clearer and simpler in construction and
interpretation than any variant of it that I am acquainted with.