Three daughters of an old woman disobey the order of the King, not to
use a light at night because of the scarcity of oil, and work on as
usual. The King in going round the town to see if his order is obeyed
comes to their house, and overhears the eldest girl express a wish that
she were married to the royal baker, so that she should have plenty of
bread. The second wishes the King’s cook for her husband, to have royal
meals galore. The youngest wishes to have the king himself, saying she
would bear him, as children, “Sun,” “Moon,” and “Star.” Next day the
King sends for them and marries each as she had wished. When the
youngest brings forth the three children, in successive years, her
mother-in-law, on the advice of a “wise woman,” (? the midwife)
substitutes a dog, a cat, and a serpent, and causes the infants to be
put in a box and sent down the river, and the queen is disgraced.
An old monk, in the habit of going down to the river and taking one fish
daily, one day gets two fishes, and asks God the reason. In reply he is
told that he will henceforth have two mouths to feed. Presently, he
finds the box with the infant “Sun” in it and takes him home. Next year
he gets one day three fishes, and finds the infant “Moon”; and the third
year he has four fishes one day and finds the baby girl, “Star.” When
the children have grown up the monk sends them to town in order that
they should learn the ways of the world. The eldest hearing a Jew
offering a box for sale, saying, “Whoever buys this box will be sorry
for it, and he who does not buy it will be equally sorry,” purchases it
and on taking it home finds his sister weeping for the golden apple
which the “wise woman” (who had found them out) told her she must get.
He opens the Jew’s box and finds a green and winged horse in it. The
horse tells him how to get the golden apple from the forty guardian
dragons. They go and get it. After this the old woman comes again and
tells the sister that she must get the golden bough, on which all the
birds in the world sing, and this also is procured by the help of the
green and winged horse. A third time the old trot comes and says to the
girl, “You must get Tzitzinæna to explain the language of birds.” The
eldest brother starts off on the horse, and arriving at the dwelling of
Tzitzinæna he calls her name, whereupon he, with the horse, is turned to
stone up to the knees; and calling again on her they become marble to
the waist. Then the youth burns a hair he had got from the monk, who
instantly appears, calls out “Tzitzinæna,” and she comes forth, and with
the water of immortality the youth and horse are disenchanted. After the
youth has returned home with Tzitzinæna, the King sees the three
children and thinks them like those his wife had promised to bear him.
He invites them to dinner, at which Tzitzinæna warns them of poisoned
meats, some of which they give to a dog they had brought with them, and
the animal dies on the spot. They ask the King to dine at their house
and he goes. Tzitzinæna by clapping her hands thrice procures a royal
feast for him; then, having induced the King to send for his wife, she
tells the whole story of the mother-in-law’s evil doings, and shows the
King that “Sun,” “Moon” and “Star” are his own children. The King’s
mother and the old woman are torn to pieces.
In Albania, as might be expected, our story is orally current in a form
which resembles both the Greek version, as above, and the tale of Arab
Zandyk, more especially the latter; and it may have been derived from
the Turks, though I am not aware that the story has been found in
Turkish. This is an abstract of the second of M. Dozon’s “Contes
Albanais” (Paris, 1881), a most entertaining collection: