There was, once upon a time, a huntsman who had four sons, and these
sons wanted to go to gain experience in the world. When they were
all over sixteen years old, they said to their father: 'We are going
into the world, father; we pray you give us money for our journey.'
The father gave them 100 florins and a horse apiece. They mounted
their horses and rode to the mountains. On a mountain were four
roads, and between them stood a beech-tree. At this beech-tree they
halted, and the eldest said to the rest, 'Brothers, let us separate
here, and go each by a different road to seek his fortune in the
world. Let us each stick his knife into this beech-tree, and in a
year and a day let us all meet together here. These knives will be
tokens for us; if any one of the knives is rusty, the one of us to
whom it belongs will be dead; and he whose knife is free from rust
will be alive and well.' They separated, and went each his way, and
when they came to suitable places they each learned a handicraft.
The eldest learned to be a cobbler, the second to be a thief, the
third to be an astrologer, and the fourth to be a huntsman. When the
year and day arrived, they started on their return. The eldest came
first to the beech-tree, pulled out his own knife and looked at the
other knives. Seeing that they were all free from rust, he rejoiced,
and said, 'Praise be to God! we are all alive and well.' He went
home. When he came to his father, his father asked him, 'What manner
of handicraft have you learnt?' The son replied, 'Daddy, it's no use
telling you stories; I'm a cobbler.' The father said, 'Well, you've
learned a nice gainful handicraft.' The son answered, 'But, daddy,
I'm not a cobbler like other cobblers, but I'm this kind of cobbler:
if anything is worn out, I only say, "Let it be mended up," and it
is so at once.' The father had a coat worn out at the elbows, and
told him to cobble it up. The son gave the command, 'Let it be
mended up,' and in a moment the coat was mended up as if it were
brand new, nor was it possible to know that it had been mended at
all. Upon this the father said nothing more. The next day the second
son came to the beech. He pulled out his own knife, and looked at
the remaining two; the third was already gone. Seeing that they
were both free from rust, he rejoiced, and said, 'Praise be to God!
we are all alive and well; our eldest brother is at home already.'
He also went home. When he came to his father, his father asked him,
'What manner of handicraft have you learned?' The son replied, 'Dear
daddy, it's no use telling stories to you; I'm a thief.' The father
said, 'Oh, you've learned a nice gainful trade! Shame on you!' The
son said to him, 'But, daddy, I'm not a thief like a thief, but I'm
such a thief that, if I think of anything, be it where it may, I
have it with me at once.' Just then a hare came running on the
hillside; it could be seen through the window; the father told him
to fetch the hare. The son immediately said, 'Let yon hare be here,'
and it was with them at once. After this the father said no more.
The third day the third son came to the beech, pulled out his own
knife and looked at the other knife, two not being there. Seeing
that it was clear of rust, he said, 'Praise be to God! we are all
alive and well; my two elder brothers are at home already.' He also
went home. When he came to his father, his father asked him what
manner of handicraft he had learned. The son replied, 'Dear daddy,
it's no use to tell you stories; I'm an astrologer.' His father said
to him that it was a nice pretty handicraft. The son answered, 'But,
daddy, I am this kind of astrologer: if I look at the sky, I see at
once where anything is in the whole earth.' On the fourth day the
youngest son came to the beech and pulled out his knife, the other
three being there no longer. He was glad, and said, 'My brothers are
already all at home.' He also went home. When he came to his father,
the father asked him what manner of handicraft he had learned. The
son answered that he was a huntsman. The father said, 'Anyhow, you
have not despised my craft; for that you're a good lad.' The son
said, 'But, dear daddy, I'm not such a huntsman as you are, but one
of this kind; if there is an unusually fine head of game, I say,
"Let it be shot," and immediately shot it is.' There was a hare
darting along the hillside; it was visible through the window. The
father said, 'Shoot it!' The youngest son spoke the word, and the
hare lay dead. The father said, 'I don't see whether it is lying
dead.' The astrologer looked at the sky, and said, 'Yes, daddy, it's
lying there behind the bushes.' The father said, 'Yes, it's lying
there, but how are we to get it?' The brother who was a thief said,
'Let it be here,' and immediately there it was. But it had come
through thorny bushes, and was all torn. The father said, 'The whole
skin is torn; who'll buy it of us?' The brother who was a cobbler
said, 'Let it be mended up,' and immediately mended up it was. The
father said, 'Well, you'll all four maintain yourselves by your
handicrafts.'
They lived for some time at home with their father, and maintained
themselves well. Then a king lost the princess, his daughter, and
made proclamation that whoever should find her, to that person he
would give his daughter and the kingdom as well. The brothers said
to one another, 'Let us go thither.' The father didn't give them
leave to go, but go they did, and gave out that they were the people
who would find the lost princess. The king immediately sent a
carriage for them. When they came to the king, they said that they
understood he had made proclamation that his daughter was lost, and
that he would give her and the kingdom as well to whoever should
find her. The king said that this was very truth, and immediately
asked them to tell him where his daughter was. The astrologer
replied that he could not tell him just then, but when evening came
he would perceive in the sky where she was. About eight or nine
o'clock they went out and gazed at the sky. The astrologer said that
she had been taken captive by a dragon; that the dragon had seized
her as she was out walking, and was keeping her on an island beyond
the Red Sea; that she was obliged to fondle him for two hours every
day, and that the dragon then had his head placed on her lap. When
day came, they assembled and drove in the carriage to the Red Sea.
Then they got into a boat and rowed to the island where the princess
was. When they arrived at the island, the princess was out walking,
and the dragon wasn't at home; but the princess made signs to them
that they were in evil case, for the dragon was just flying home.
The thief-brother called out with speed, 'Let the princess be here!'
She was with them in the boat at once, but cried out that they were
in evil case, and would all perish. They rowed speedily away in the
boat, but the dragon, full of wrath, roared and growled and rose in
the air above them. The astrologer said to the huntsman, 'Brother,
shoot him.' The huntsman-brother said, 'Let him be shot.' The dragon
was shot, but fell on the boat and broke a hole in it, so that the
water came in. They threw the dragon into the sea, and the
huntsman-brother gave the word to the cobbler-brother, 'Mend the
leak.' The cobbler-brother mended the leak, so that not a drop of
water came into the boat to them. Thus they arrived safely with the
princess at the sea-shore, landed on the beach, took their seats in
the carriage with the princess, and drove off. But as they drove
along in the carriage, they disputed to which of them the princess
and the kingdom belonged. The astrologer said, 'The princess is
mine. If it hadn't been for me, we shouldn't have known where the
princess was.' The thief said, 'The princess is mine. If it hadn't
been for me, we shouldn't have got the princess into the boat.' The
huntsman said that the princess was his; if it hadn't been for him,
they wouldn't have shot the dragon. The cobbler shouted that the
princess was his; if it hadn't been for him, they would all have
been drowned and have perished. When they came to the palace to the
king, they asked him to decide to whom the princess belonged. The
king said, 'Dear brothers, I will judge you righteously. It is true
that you have all deserved her, but you cannot all obtain her.
According to my promise, the astrologer-brother must obtain her, for
I made proclamation that whoever should _find_ the lost princess
should obtain her and the kingdom with her; the astrologer found
her, and told us where she was. But, that none of you may be
unfairly dealt with, each shall receive a district of his own, and
ye shall each be kings in your own districts.' They were all
content. The astrologer, as soon as the wedding was over, sent home
for his father. The father came, and was delighted that his sons had
become monarchs each in his district. In the spring he lived with
the cobbler, in the summer with the thief, in the autumn with the
huntsman, and in winter with the astrologer, and enjoyed himself
everywhere till death.
* * * * *
I think that this story is connected with the Ceres and Proserpine
cycle, only the daughter is lost by a father instead of a mother. It
will be seen, also, that at the conclusion of the story the order of
the brothers is not the same as in the story itself. And I think the
error is in the story, and that the astrologer ought to have been
the youngest brother instead of the huntsman. The brothers are the
four seasons of the year, which in ancient times began with spring,
the cobbler, who mends up all things, and makes them new again; next
comes summer, the thief, who gathers the products of the earth;
third comes autumn, the huntsman, when the wild animals that have
increased and multiplied during the year are destroyed and reduced
within limits; last comes winter, the astrologer, when ploughing,
sowing, and other agricultural operations that govern the whole year
go on by calculation. Thus the princess herself, the earth or its
fertility, is assigned to the representative of winter, while the
other seasons are lords each in his own district.
This Moravian tale will bear an advantageous comparison with Grimm's
tale of the 'Four Accomplished Brothers,' in which neither of the
brothers is allowed to obtain the princess.
_HUNGARIAN-SLOVENISH STORIES._
The Slovenes or Slovaks of North Hungary speak a great number of
dialects, their literary language being, however, the Bohemian. They
seem to be the _débris_ of a much larger nation or assemblage of
nations, which was forced out of the plains of Pannonia into the
mountains by the invasion of the Magyar or Hungarian horsemen, who,
according to the Russian chronicler Nestor, marched past Kief in
A.D. 898, on their way to establish themselves in their present
abode.
Their stories are not very dissimilar to the Bohemian tales,
although they do not resemble them so closely as the Moravian
stories do. No. 10 is one of the tales that especially attracted my
attention, and caused me to entertain the idea of translating a
considerable selection out of the hundred given by Erben. No. 11
contains incidents which occur again in the White Russian story (No.
22), and in the great Russian tale of 'Ivan Popyalof,' given by
Ralston, though in other respects the stories are very different.
No. 12 is a superior variant of the German 'Rumpelstilskin' given by
Grimm, and No. 13 is a specimen of an entirely different kind of
story, illustrating 'The biter bitten.'