Where it was, there it was, a certain village there was, in which
lived a father with three sons. One of them was silly, and always
sat in the chimney corner,[4] but the other two were considered
clever. One of these went out to service in a village not far off.
His mother put on his back a wallet full of cakes baked under the
ashes. He went into a house and made an engagement with the master
upon the terms that whichever got angry first was to have his nose
cut off. The servant went to thresh. He was not called by his master
either to breakfast or to dinner. His master asked him: 'Well,
Mishek, are you angry?' 'What have I to be angry for?' Evening came,
and supper was cooked; again they did not ask Mishek. His master
asked him: 'Well, Mishek, are you angry?' 'What have I to be angry
for?' He wasn't angry, for the cakes from home still held out. But
during the second and third day the wallet was emptied, and again he
wasn't summoned to dinner. His master asked him: 'Mishek, are you
not angry?' 'Wouldn't even the devil be angry, when you are thus
killing me with hunger?' Then his master pulled out a knife and cut
off Mishek's nose. He hastened home noseless, and complained to his
father and brothers of his wicked master. 'You simpleton!' said the
next brother, Pavko. 'Stay, I'll go! Hey, mother, bake some cakes
under the ashes!' Pavko started off and went straight to the same
village and to the same house, and made an engagement with the same
master, on the terms that whichever was the first to become angry
was to have his nose cut off. They set him, too, to thresh for three
days, but neither on the first, nor on the second, nor on the third
day, did they call him to take a meal. 'Pavko, are you not angry?'
'Wouldn't even devils be angry with you? My belly has already grown
to my backbone.' Thereupon his master pulled out a knife and cut off
Pavko's nose. Pavko went home noseless, and said to his elder
brother: 'That's a cruel house of entertainment; the devil's got my
nose.' Then Adam, the youngest, shouted from the chimney-corner:
'You are idiots! I'll go, and you'll see that I shall make a good
job of it.' He went with cakes baked under the ashes in his wallet,
and hit right upon the same village in which his brothers had been,
and engaged himself with the same master upon the terms that
whichever got angry first should have his nose cut off. But Adam
knew how to proceed intelligently. When his master didn't call him
to dinner, he went to the public-house with what he had threshed and
pawned it all. His master came and didn't see a grain of corn. Adam
then asked him: 'Master, are you angry?' 'Why should I be angry?'
This occurred several times, and his master always said that he
wasn't angry, for fear of losing his nose. Once there came a day on
which the master and mistress were obliged to be from home, and they
ordered Adam by their return to kill the first sheep that looked at
him when he entered the stable, to dress it and boil it in a
caldron, putting parsley with it. Adam went into the stable with
great banging and noise, so that all the sheep looked at him at
once, whereupon he slaughtered them all. One he dressed and put in
the caldron, but instead of parsley he threw in a dog called by that
name. His master and mistress came and asked Adam whether he had
done everything properly? He said: 'I've slaughtered the sheep and
thrown Parsley into the caldron till I saw his feet. Now, master,
are you angry?' 'What have I to be angry about?' he replied, for he
preferred keeping his nose. On Christmas Eve, when they had to go to
church, it was very dark. Adam's master said to him: 'It would be a
good thing if somebody would light us as far as the church.' 'Go!
go! I'll light you.' He took fire and set the roof on fire, till the
whole house was in flames. The master hurried up, and Adam said to
him: 'Master, are you angry?' 'Why should I be angry?' said he; for
his nose was dearer to him than his house. But what was he to do
without a house, without everything? They went into the world,
master, mistress, and servant. They wanted to put him to death; and
planned together, that when he was asleep his master should throw
him into the water. But Adam was up to this; he didn't lie down on
the side nearest the water, but got up in the night and threw his
mistress, who was on that side, into the water. His master woke, and
saw that his wife was gone; and began to cry out. But Adam asked
him: 'Well, master, are you angry?' 'Wouldn't even the devil be
angry, now that you've done me out of everything?' Adam took a knife
and cut off his master's nose. He then took to his heels, went home,
and said to his brothers: 'Now you see, you wiseacres, that I've
earned the nose.'
[4] Literally, 'Behind the stove.'
_UPPER AND LOWER LUSATIAN STORIES._
The Upper Lusatian language is spoken in a district which may be
marked by the towns of Löbau, Bautzen, and Muskau, while the Lower
Lusatians dwell round the towns of Spremberg and Kottbus. Of the
Upper Lusatians the larger portion live in Saxony and the smaller in
Prussian territory; the Lower Lusatians are all Prussian subjects.
The Upper Lusatian story illustrates, in folklore style, a moral
principle of great value. The Lower Lusatian tale is a variant of
our own 'Little Red Ridinghood.' But it completes the story in such
a manner as to explain the allegorical meaning of the narrative in
the sense in which I am inclined to interpret it, as will be shown
at the conclusion of the story.
But the Slavonic remnant in Lusatia is so surrounded by German
territory, that most of its folklore has already been pressed into
the service of the Germans.
A remarkable point in the Lusatian language is the completeness of
the dual number in both nouns, adjectives, and verbs.