One warm summer day a tall and handsome young man of Veprim was
going over the hill Uczka, and found by the path on the grass a
beautiful maiden, dressed in white, with a sun-kerchief, and was
astounded on beholding the beauty of her countenance. Not wishing to
awaken her, he tore off a large branch, and fixed it quietly in the
ground, to form a shade for her. Erelong she woke up, saw the branch
which had been planted, herself in the shade, and the young man
standing by her. She asked him: 'Are you, young man, the person who
set up this shade for me?' He replied: 'I am; for your appearance
pleased me, and I was afraid that the sun would scorch you.' She
said to him further: 'What do you want for this kindness?' The young
man replied merrily: 'Allow me to behold your most beautiful
countenance, and to take you to wife.' 'Good! I am content to take
you for my husband,' said she; 'but you must know that I am a Vila.
But you must never utter my name; if you speak my name Vila, I must
quit you at once.' He promised that he would not, conducted her
home, told his parents all that had happened, and how it had
happened, only did not tell them that his bride was a Vila. She
pleased them, and they willingly consented to the match. Erelong
they were wedded. The two lived for some years in cheerful
happiness; domestic prosperity continued in every shape and form,
and she bore him a little daughter, beautiful as an angel.
Some years afterwards the young man one summer morning heard it
thundering quite early. He got up, went to the window, saw that a
terrible storm was brewing, and said to his wife: 'Wife, it is a
pity and a great misfortune that we haven't cut our wheat; the hail
will beat it all down.' She said to him: 'Never fear; it won't beat
ours down.' After saying this she rose and went in front of the
door. When she came back a terrible hailstorm began to fall. Her
husband said reproachfully: 'I told you we should lose all our
wheat.' She laughed at him, and said in reply: 'Go to the
threshing-floor; you'll see that it hasn't beaten it down for _us_.'
When the hail ceased, the husband did go to the threshing-floor, and
there saw all the wheat nicely put together in sheaves, and, on
returning, called out in utter astonishment: 'Ah, she is a Vila! she
is a Vila!' But that moment she vanished. Her husband remained sad
and sorrowful with his little daughter without his Vila wife.
The Vila mother still came back from time to time, visible only to
her little daughter, helping her in all needs, as the most careful
mother, until she grew up to a marriageable age. When the Vila's
daughter came to the proper time of life, she married and was the
ancestress of the present family of Polharski.--So the story.
_Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London._
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Archaic and variant spelling is preserved as printed.
Hyphenation has been made consistent.
Minor punctuation errors have been corrected.
On page vii, the omitted page number in the Table of Contents, for
Bohemian Stories, has been added.
On page ix, the Table of Contents entry for _The Wizard_ appears to
be missing a page number following 'ii.' As there is no way to
establish what this might be, it is preserved as printed.
On the assumption of printer errors, the following changes have
been made:
Page xi--first instance of Kraljevich changed to Kraljevitch, to
match main body of text--LII. Kraljevitch Marko (_Kraljevich
Marko_).
Page 62--22 changed to 12--No. 12 is a superior variant of the
German 'Rumpelstilskin' ...
Page 140--become changed to became--... the queen became the
mother of two sons; ...
Page 207--be changed to he--... and went forward till he began
to feel hungry.
Page 297--57 changed to 59--In No. 59 we have a singular legend
of a white snake, ...