and as he approached her she turned her face away, and would not even
speak to him; but Prince Mirkó explained to her that he could not do
otherwise, for if he had spared Doghead's life he would have destroyed
his; and that he was willing to redeem his promise, and keep his faith
to the princess and take her for his wife. Whereupon the royal princess
became reconciled, and they decided to get ready to go to Prince Mirkó's
realm. They ordered the horses--Doghead's charger was got ready for the
beautiful princess--and, mounting them, were about to start, when all at
once deep sorrow seized Prince Mirkó, and the beautiful royal princess
thus questioned him: "Why are you so downcast, Mirkó?" "Well, because,"
said Mirkó, "I'm anxious to go back to my country, but I am also
extremely sorry to leave behind this sumptuous diamond castle, six
stories high, which belonged to your father, for there is nothing like
it in my country." "Well, my love," said the princess, "don't trouble
about that. I will transform the castle into a golden apple at once, and
sit in the middle of it, and all you will have to do is to put the apple
into your pocket, and then you can take me with you and the castle too,
and when you arrive at home you can re-transform me wherever you like."
Thereupon the pretty princess jumped down from her horse, handed the
reins to Mirkó, took out a diamond rod, and commenced to walk round the
diamond castle, gently beating the sides of it with the diamond rod, and
the castle began to shrink and shrunk as small as a sentry box, and then
the princess jumped inside of it, and the whole shrivelled up into a
golden apple, the diamond rod lying by the side of it. Prince Mirkó
picked up the golden apple and the diamond rod, and put them into his
pocket, and then got on horseback, and, taking Doghead's horse by the
bridle, he rode quietly home. Having arrived at home, Mirkó had the
horses put in the stables, and then walked into the royal palace, where
he found the old king and Knight Mezey quite content and enjoying
themselves. He reported to them that he had conquered even Doghead, and
that he had killed him; but the old king and Knight Mezey doubted his
words. Therefore Prince Mirkó took them both by their arms, and said to
them, "Come along with me, and you can satisfy yourselves, with your own
eyes, that I have conquered Doghead, because I have brought away with
me, not only his diamond castle, six stories high, but also his
beautiful daughter, inside it, as a trophy of my victory." The old king
and Knight Mezey were astonished at his words, and, still doubting,
followed Mirkó, who took them into the flower garden of the king, in the
middle of which Prince Mirkó selected a nice roomy place for the diamond
castle, and placed the golden apple there, and commenced walking round,
and, patting its sides with the diamond rod, the golden apple began to
swell. It took a quadrangular shape, growing and growing, higher and
higher, till it became a magnificent six-storied diamond castle; and
then he took the old king and Knight Mezey by their arms, and led them
up the diamond staircase into the rooms of the castle, where the
princess, who was world-wide known for her beauty, met them, and
received them most cordially. She bade them sit down, and sent lackeys
to call the other sons of the old king and also the higher dignitaries
of the court. In the dining-hall there was a big table, which could be
opened out. She gave orders, and the table was laid of itself, and on it
appeared all sorts of costly dishes and drinks, and the assembled guests
feasted in joy. The old king was highly satisfied with his son's doings,
and handed over to Mirkó the royal power and the whole realm: he himself
and Knight Mezey retired into quiet secluded life, and lived long in
great happiness. The young royal couple who got married had beautiful
children, and they are alive still, to this very day, if they have not
died since. May they be your guests to-morrow!
THE STUDENT WHO WAS FORCIBLY MADE KING.
A student started on a journey, and as he went over a field he found
some peas which were cracked. He thought that they might be of use to
him as he was a poor lad, and his father had advised him to pick up
anything he saw, if it was worth no more than a flea; so he gathered up
the peas and put them in his pocket. As he travelled he was overtaken by
night just when he arrived at the royal borough; so he reported himself
to the king, and asked for some money for travelling expenses, and a
night's lodging. Now the student was a comely lad, spoke grammatically,
and had good manners. The queen noticed this, and as she had a daughter
ready for marriage, she came to the conclusion that he was a prince in
disguise, who had come in search of a wife. She told this to the king,
and he thought it very probable. Both agreed that they would try to find
out whether he really was a prince, and asked him to stay with them for
two days. The first night they did not give him a very splendid bed,
because they thought that if he were satisfied, he was but a student, if
not, then he must be a prince. They made his bed in the adjoining house,
and the king placed one of his confidential servants outside of the
window, that he might spy out all that the student did. They showed the
bed to the student, and he began to undress when they left. As he
undressed all the peas dropped out of his pocket, and rolled under the
bed; he at once began to look for them and pick them up, one by one, and
did not finish till dawn. The spy outside could not make out what he was
doing, but he saw that he did not go to sleep till dawn, and then only
for a short time, having spent the night arranging his bed; so he
reported to the king that his guest had not slept, but had fidgeted
about, appearing not to be used to such a bed. The student got up, and
during breakfast the king asked him how he had slept, to which he
replied, "A little restlessly, but it was through my own fault." From
this they concluded that he already repented of not having shown them
his true position, and thus having not got a proper bed. They believed,
therefore, that he was a prince, and treated him accordingly. Next night
they made his bed in the same place, but in right royal style. As the
student had not slept the night before, the moment he put his head down
he began to sleep like a pumpkin, and never even moved till dawn. He had
no trouble with his peas this time, for he had tied them up in the
corner of his handkerchief as he picked them up from under the bed. The
spy reported to the king next morning that the traveller slept soundly
all night. They now firmly believed that the student simply dressed up
as such, but in reality was a prince. They tried to persuade him that
he was a prince, and addressed him as such. The king's daughter ran
after the student to get into his favour, and it didn't take much to
make him fall in love with her, and so the two got married. They had
lived a whole year together, when they were sent off to travel in order
that the student-king might show his wife his realm. The student was
very frightened that he might not get out of his trouble so well, and
grew more and more alarmed, till at last he accepted his fate. "Let come
whatever is to come," thought he, "I will go with them, and then, if
nothing else can be done, I can escape, and go back to college," for he
had carried his student's gown with him everywhere. They started off and
travelled till they came to a large forest. The student slipped aside
into a deep ditch, where he undressed, in order to put on his student's
clothes and to escape. Now there was a dragon with seven heads lazily
lying there, who accosted him thus: "Who are you? What are you looking
for here? What do you want?" The student told him his whole history, and
also that he was just going to run away. "There is no need to run away,"
said the dragon, "that would be a pity, continue your journey; when you
get out of this wood you will see a copper fortress, which swivels on a
goose's leg. Go into it, and live there in peace with your wife, with
your dog and cat, till the fortress begins to move and turn round. When
this happens, be off, because if I come home and catch you there, there
will be an end of you." The student went back to his travelling
companions and continued his way until, emerging from the wood, he saw
the fortress. They all went in and settled down as in their own, and all
went on very well for two years, and he already began to believe that he
really was a king, when suddenly the fortress began to move, and swivel
round very quickly. The student was downcast, and went up on the
battlement of the fortress, wandering about in great sorrow; he there
found an old woman, who asked him, "What's the matter with your
Majesty?" "H'm! the matter is, old woman," replied the student, "that I
am not a king, and still I am compelled to be one," and then he told her
his whole history up to that time. "There's nothing in that, my son,"
said the old woman, "be thankful that you have not tried to keep your
secret from me. I am the queen of magic, and the most formidable enemy
of the dragon with seven heads; therefore this is my advice: get a loaf
made at once, and let this loaf be placed in the oven seven times with
other loaves, this particular loaf each time to be put in the oven the
first and to be taken out last. Have this loaf placed outside the
fortress gate to-morrow, without fail. When the dragon with the seven
heads is coming, it will be such a charm against him that he will never
trouble you again, and the fortress will be left to you with all that
belongs to it." The student had the loaf prepared as he was told, and
when the clock struck one after midnight the bread was already placed
outside the fortress gate. As the sun rose, the dragon with seven heads
went straight towards the fortress gate, where the loaf addressed him
thus, "Stop, I'm guard here, and without my permission you may not
enter; if you wish to come in, you must first suffer what I have
suffered."
"Well," said the dragon, "I've made up my mind to enter, so let me know
what ordeals you have gone through."
The loaf told him, that when it was a seed it was buried in a field that
had previously been dug up: then rotted, sprouted, and grew; it had
suffered from cold, heat, rain, and snow, until it ripened; it was then
cut down, tied into sheaves, threshed out, ground, kneaded into dough,
and then seven times running they put it in a fiery oven, each time
before its mates: "If you can stand all this," concluded the loaf,
"then I'll let you in, but on no other condition." The dragon, knowing
that he could not stand all this, got so angry that he burst in his rage
and perished. The student from that day became lord of the fortress, and
after the death of his wife's parents became king of two lands; and if
he has not died yet, he reigns still.
If I knew that I should fare as well as that student I would become a
student this very blessed day!
THE CHILDREN OF TWO RICH MEN.
There lived, at the two corners of a country, far away from each other,
two rich men; one of them had a son, the other a daughter; these two men
asked each other to be godfather to their children, and, during the
christening they agreed that the babes should wed. The children grew up,
but did no work, and so were spoilt. As soon as they were old enough
their parents compelled them to marry. Shortly afterwards their parents
died and they were left alone; they knew nothing of the world and did
not understand farming, so the serfs and farm-labourers had it all their
own way. Soon their fields were all overgrown with weeds and their
corn-bins empty; in a word they became poor. One day the master
bethought himself that he ought to go to market, as he had seen his
father do; so he set off, and drove with him a pair of beautiful young
oxen that were still left. On his way he met a wedding-party, and
greeted them thus, "May the Lord preserve you from such a sorrowful
change, and may He give consolation to those who are in trouble," Words
he had once heard his father use upon the occasion of a funeral. The
wedding-party got very vexed, and, as they were rather flushed with
wine, gave him a good drubbing, and told him that the next time he saw
such a ceremony he was to put his hat on the end of his stick, lift it
high in the air, and shout for joy. He went on further till he came to
the outskirts of a forest, where he met some butcher-like looking people
who were driving fat pigs, whereupon he seized his hat, put it on the
end of his stick, and began to shout: which so frightened the pigs that
they rushed off on all sides into the wood; the butchers got hold of him
and gave him a sound beating, and told him that the next time he saw
such a party he was to say, "May the Lord bless you with _two_ for every
_one_ you have." He went on again and saw a man clearing out the weeds
from his field, and greeted him, "My brother, may the Lord bless you
with _two_ for every _one_ you have." The man, who was very angry about
the weeds, caught him and gave him a sound beating, and told him that
the next time he saw such things he had better help to pull out one or
two. In another place he met two men fighting, so he went up and began
to pull first at one and then at the other, whereupon they left off
fighting with each other and pitched into him. Somehow or other he at
last arrived at the market, and, looking round, he saw an unpainted cart
for sale, whereupon he remembered that his father used to go into the
wood in a cart, and so he asked the man who had it for sale whether he
would change it for his two oxen--not knowing that having once parted
with the oxen he would not get them back again. The man was at first
angry, because he thought he was making fun of the cart, but he soon saw
that the man with the oxen was not quite right in his head, and so he
struck the bargain with the young farmer, who, when he got the cart,
went dragging it to and fro in the market. He met a blacksmith and
changed the cart for a hatchet; soon the hatchet was changed for a
whetstone; then he started off home as if he had settled matters in the
most satisfactory manner. Near his village he saw a lake, and on it a
flock of wild ducks. He immediately threw his whetstone at them, which
sank to the bottom, whilst every one of the ducks flew away.
He undressed and got into the lake, in order to recover his whetstone,
but in the meantime his clothes were stolen from the bank, and, having
no clothes, he had to walk home as naked as when he was born. His wife
was not at home when he arrived. He took a slice of bread from the
drawer, and went into the cellar to draw himself some wine; having put
the bread on the door-sill of the cellar, he went back to get his wine,
as he did so he saw a dog come up and run away with his bread; he at
once threw the spigot after the thief, so the spigot was lost, the bread
was lost, and every drop of wine was lost, for it all ran out. Now there
was a sack of flour in the cellar, and in order that his wife might not
notice the wine he spread the flour over it. A goose was sitting on eggs
in the cellar, and as he worked she hissed at him. Thinking that the
bird was saying, that it was going to betray him to his wife, he asked
it two or three times, "Will you split?" Going up to the goose, it
hissed still more, so he caught hold of it by the neck, and dashed it
upon the ground with such force that it died on the spot. He was now
more frightened than ever, and in order to amend his error he plucked
off the feathers, rolled himself about in the floury mess, then amongst
the feathers, and then sat on the nest as if he were sitting. His wife
came home, and, as she found the cellar door wide open, she went down
stairs, and found her husband sitting in the nest and hissing like a
goose; but his wife soon recognised him, and, picking up a log of wood,
she attacked him, saying, "Good Heavens, what an animal, let me kill it
at once!" Up he jumped from the nest, and cried out in a horrible
fright, "Don't touch me, my dear wife, it's I!" His wife then questioned
him about his transactions, and he gave a full account of all that had
happened; so his wife drove him away and said, "Don't come before my
eyes again till you have made good your faults." She then gave him a
slice of bread and a small flask of spirit, which he put in his pocket
and went on his way, his wife wishing him "a happy journey, if the road
is not muddy." On his way he met Our Lord Christ and said to him, "I'm
not going to divide my bread with you, because you have not made a rich
man of me." Then he met Death, with him he divided his bread and his
spirits, therefore Death did not carry him off, and he asked Death to be
his child's godfather.
Then said Death, "Now you will see a wonder"; with this he slipped into
the spirit flask, and was immediately corked up by the young man. Death
implored to be set free, but the young farmer said, "Promise me then
that you will make me a rich man, and then I will let you out." Death
promised him this, and they agreed that the man was to be a doctor, and
whenever Death stood at the patient's feet, he or she was not to die,
and could be cured by any sort of medicine whatever: but if Death stood
at the patient's head he was to die: with this they parted.
Our man reached a town where the king's daughter was very ill. The
doctors had tried all they could, but were not able to cure her, so he
said that he was going to cure her, if she could be cured, if not, he
would tell them; so thereupon he went into the patient and saw Death
standing at her feet. He burnt a stack of hay, and made a bath for her
of the ashes, and she recovered so soon as she had bathed in it. The
king made him so many presents that he became a very rich man: he
removed to the town, brought his wife there, and lived in great style as
a doctor. Once however he fell sick, and his koma [his child's
godfather] came and stood at his head, and the patient begged hard for
him to go and stand at his feet, but his koma replied, "Not if I know
it," and then the doctor also departed to the other world.
THE HUSSAR AND THE SERVANT GIRL.[1]
The wife of a priest in olden times, it may have been in the
antediluvian world, put all the plates, dishes, and milk-jugs into a
basket and sent the servant to wash them in the brook. While the girl
was washing she saw a cray-fish crawl out of the water, and, as she had
never seen one in her life before, she stood staring at it, and was a
little frightened. It so happened that a hussar rode past on horseback,
and the girl asked him, "Would you mind telling me, my gallant horseman,
what sort of a God's wonder that yonder is?" "Well, my sister," said the
soldier, "that is a cray-fish." The servant then took courage, and went
near the cray-fish to look at it, and said, "But it crawls!" "But it's a
cray-fish," said the soldier again. "But it crawls," said the servant
abruptly. "But it's a cray-fish," said the soldier a third time. "Well,
my gallant horseman, how can you stand there and tell me that, when I
can see that it crawls?" said the servant. "But, my sister, how can you
stand there and tell me, when I can see that it's a cray-fish?" said the
soldier. "Well, I'm neither blind nor a fool, and I can see quite well
that it's a-crawling," said the servant. "But neither am I blind nor a
fool, and I can see that it is a cray-fish," said the soldier.
The servant got so angry that she dashed her crockery to the ground and
broke it into fragments, crying, in a great rage, "May I perish here if
it is not a-crawling!" The hussar jumped off his saddle, drew his sword,
and cut off his horse's head, saying, "May the executioner cut off my
neck like this if it isn't a cray-fish!" The soldier went his way on
foot, and the servant went home without her ware, and the priest's wife
asked, "Well, where are all the pots?" The servant told her what had
happened between the soldier and her about a cray-fish and a-crawling.
"Is that the reason why you have done all the damage?" said the priest's
wife. "Oh, mistress, how could I give in when I saw quite well that it
was a-crawling; and still that nasty soldier kept on saying it was a
cray-fish?" The wife of the priest was heating the oven, as she was
going to bake, and she got into such a rage that she seized her new fur
jacket, for which she had given a hundred florins, and pitched it into
the oven, saying, "May the flames of the fire burn me like this if you
were not both great fools!" "What is all this smell of burning?" asked
the priest, coming in. Learning what had happened about a cray-fish and
a-crawling, he took his gown and cut it up on the threshold with a
hatchet, saying, "May the executioner cut me into bits like this if the
three of you are not fools!" Then came the schoolmaster (his calf had
got loose and run into the clergyman's yard, and he had come after it to
drive it home): and, hearing what had happened, and why, he caught hold
of a stick, and struck his calf such a blow on the head that it fell
down dead on the spot, exclaiming, "If God will, may the fiery
thunderbolt thus strike me dead if you all four are not fools!"
Then came the churchwarden, and asked what had happened there, and when
he was told he got into such a rage that he picked up the church-box and
dashed it on the ground in the middle of the yard, so that the box was
broken to pieces, and the precious altar-covers and linen were rolling
about on the dirty ground, saying, "May I perish like this, at this very
hour, if the whole five of you are not fools!"
In the meantime the sacristan came in, and, seeing the linen on the
floor, he threw up his hands and said, "Well, I never! whatever's the
matter?" Then they told him what had happened, and why, whereupon he
picked up all the covers and linen and tore them into shreds, saying,
"May the devil tear me to atoms like this if you six are not a parcel of
raving lunatics!"
News of the event soon got abroad, and the whole congregation gathered
together and set the priest's house on fire, crying, "May the flames of
the fire burn us all like this, every one of us, if all the seven were
not fools!"
[1] The zest of this tale turns upon a similarity in the sound of the
words in Magyar for "cray-fish," and "crawling."
MY FATHER'S WEDDING.
Once I discovered all of a sudden, it was before I was born, that my
father was going to get married, and take my mother unto him. My father
said to me, "Go to the mill and have some corn ground for bread for the
wedding!" Whereupon I betook myself hurriedly like a smart fellow, I
looked for a cloth, and took up into the loft three bags, and filled
nine sacks with the best wheat of Dálnok, the best to be found; I put
all nine sacks at once over my shoulder, and took them to the cart. I
led out oxen and tried to yoke them, but neither of them could find it's
old place; I put the off-side one on the near side, and the near-side
one on the off side, and they were all right. I tried the yoke-pins, but
they would not fit, I therefore put in lieu of one the handle of a
shovel, and in place of the other a pole, and then all was right. I went
to the mill with the team, and when I arrived there I stopped the oxen
and stuck the whip into the ground in front of them to prevent them
running away; I myself went into the mill to call the miller to assist
me in carrying in the wheat. I couldn't find a soul in the mill. I
looked around, under the bed, behind the oven, and saw that the green
jug was not on it's peg; from this I knew that the mill was away
gathering strawberries, so I thought, if this were so, I should have to
wait patiently till it returned, but then I remembered that it was not
its custom to hurry back, and by the time it got back my hair might be
grey, and then it would be difficult for oxen to wait from year to year
as I had not brought aught for them to feed on. So I rushed after it at
a dog's trot, out on to the mount, and found it sniffing about the
shrubs, so I cut a jolly good stick and began to bang it on both sides
as hard as my strength allowed me, till I happened to hit it rather hard
with the stick, and, having struck it, I could hear it far away as it
began to move down in the valley, and it ground away and made such a
clatter; it was just grinding my wheat! In order to get down from the
mount into the valley more quickly, I lay down on the ground and rolled
down the slope, and after me all the stumps, who envied my pastime.
Nothing happened to them, and the only accident I had was that I knocked
my nose a little into some soft cow-dung, but I didn't carry it away
altogether, and a good deal of it is left there still. The poor white
horse fared much worse than that, as it was grazing at the foot of the
mount, it got so frightened by us that it ran out of this world with a
fetter fastened to it's feet, and has not returned to this very day. I
rubbed my nose on the sward as a hen does, and went to see what had
become of the oxen in the meantime: lo! the stock of my whip had taken
root and become such a tall tree that it was as high as the big tower at
Brassó[1] and the starlings had built their nests in it, and had so many
young ones that you couldn't hear the clattering of the mill for their
chirping.