of young starlings; I knew how to climb well. I climbed the tree, and
tried to put my hand into a hole but couldn't, so I tried my head, and
that went in comfortably. I stuffed my breast full of starlings. When I
tried to get out of the hole I could not; so I rushed home and fetched
an adze, and cut myself out. I couldn't get down, as the tree was so
thick and my head so giddy, so I called the miller to help me, but he,
thinking that my complaint was hunger, sent me some miller-cake by his
son, but I told him in a great rage that that was not what I wanted: so
off he ran at once, and brought me a bushel of bran, handing it up on
the end of a pale. I twisted the bran into a rope, so strong that it
would bear a millstone, and I tried whether it would reach the ground,
but it did not reach, so I doubled it up, then it not only reached, but
trailed on the ground. I began to glide down it, but a beetle aloft
sawed it in two where it was tied to the bough, and down I dropped rope
and all; but while I was falling to the ground, in the meantime, the
young starlings in my breast got their feathers, took to their wings,
and flew away with me. When we were flying over the river Olt, some
women who were washing rags on the bank began to shout, "What the fiery
thunderbolt is the boy doing that he flies so well? If he drops he will
drop straight in the river and drown." I saw they were all staring at
me, but from the chirping of the young starlings I couldn't clearly hear
what they shouted: so I thought they were shouting that I should untie
the waist-band of my shirt. I untied the waist-band of my shirt below
the garter that tied my socks: with this the young starlings got out of
my bosom all at once and all the wings I had flew away. Down I dropped
into the middle of the river: with my splash the waters overflowed the
banks and washed as far as the foot of the mountain: but when the waters
flowed back into the bed of the river, (with the exception of a few
drops that were lapped up by a thirsty shepherd-dog of Gidófalú) so many
fish were left on the bank that they covered the whole place, from
Málnás to Doboly and from Árkos to Angyalos and even the whole plain of
Szépmezö. Well, there was a lot of fish! Twelve buffalo-carts were
carting them away without interruption for a whole week, and the
quantity didn't get less, you couldn't see that any had been taken away:
but a stark naked gipsy brat came that way from Köröspatak, and he
picked them up, put them into his shirt lap, and carried them all away.
I then remembered that they had not sent me here to play but to grind
corn, so I started in the direction of where I had left the oxen to see
what they were doing, and whether they were there still. I travelled for
a long time till I got quite tired. I saw in a meadow a horse, and I
thought I could easily get on it, and go where I wished to go, but it
would not wait for me. I caught hold of its tail, turned it round, and
so we stood face to face, and I said to it quite bumptiously: "Ho! stop,
old nag. Don't be so frisky." It understood the kind words and stopped
dead, like a peg. I put the saddle on the grey and sat on the bay and
started off on the chestnut; over a ditch and over a stile, so that the
horse's feet did not touch the ground. In one place I passed a vineyard,
and inside the hedge there was a lot of pretty ripe fruit. I stopped the
grey, got down from the bay, and tied the chestnut to the paling. I
tried to climb over the hedge, but couldn't, so I caught hold of my
hair, and swung myself over. I began to shake the plum-tree, and walnuts
dropped. I picked up the filberts and put them in my bosom. It was very
hot, I was very thirsty, so that I nearly died of thirst. I saw that not
very far away there were some reapers, and I asked, "Where can I get
water here?" They shewed me a spring not far off. I went there, and
found that it was frozen over. I tried in vain to break the ice with my
heel, and then with a stone, but did not succeed, as the ice was a span
thick; so I took the skull from my head and broke the ice with it
easily. I scooped up water with it, and had a hearty drink. I went to
the hedge and swung myself over by the hair into the road; then I untied
the grey, got on the bay, and galloped off on the chestnut, over stile
and ditch, so that my hair flew on the wind. In one place I passed two
men. As I overtook them, they called out after me: "Where's your head,
my boy?" I immediately felt my back, and lo! my head was not there; so I
galloped back at a quick dog-trot to the spring. What did I see? My
skull felt lonely without me, and had so much sense that as I forgot it
there, it had made a neck, hands, waist, and feet, for itself out of
the mud, and I caught it sliding on the ice. Well! I wasn't a bad hand
at sliding myself, so I slid after it as fast as I could. But it knew
better than I did, and so I couldn't possibly catch it. My good God!
What could I do? I was very much frightened that I was really going to
be left without a head but I remembered something, and thought to
myself: "Never mind, skull, don't strain yourself, you can't outdo me."
So I hurriedly made a greyhound out of mud, and set it after my skull.
He caught it in a jiffy, and brought it to me. I took it and put it on:
I went to the hedge, and seizing myself by the hair, swung myself over
the hedge: untied the grey, got on the bay, and galloped away on the
chestnut, over a stile, and over a ditch, like a bird, till I came to
the mill, where I found that my father had not had patience to wait for
me, and so had set off in search of me; and, as he couldn't find me,
began to bewail me, vociferating: "Oh! my soul! Oh! my son! Where have
you gone? Oh! Oh! Why did I send you without anybody to take care of
you? Oh! my soul! Oh! my son! Now all is over with you. You must have
perished somewhere." As my father was always scolding me, and calling me
bad names in my lifetime, I could never have believed that he were able
to pity me so much. When I saw what was the matter with him, I called
from a distance: "Console yourself, father, I am here, 'a bad hatchet
never gets lost.'" It brought my poor old father's spirits back. We put
the sacks full of flour on the cart and went home, and celebrated my
father's wedding sumptuously. The bride was my mother, and I was the
first who danced the bride's dance with her, and then the others had a
turn, and when the wedding was over, all the guests went away and we
were left at home by ourselves, and are alive at this date, if we are
not dead. I was born one year after this, and I am the legitimate son of
my father, and have grown up nicely, and have become a very clever lad.
[1] Cronstadt in Transylvania.
THE BAA-LAMBS.
There was once, somewhere or in some other place, I don't know where,
over seven times seven countries, or even beyond them, a poor widow, and
she had three unmarried sons who were so poor that one had always to go
out to service. First the eldest went, and, as he was going and going
over seven times seven countries, and even beyond them, he met an old
man, who accosted him, saying, "My younger brother, where are you
going?" The lad answered, "My father, I am going to look for work." "And
I am in need of a servant," the old man replied; so he engaged the lad
on the spot to tend his baa-lambs. In the morning, as the lad went out
with them, the old man told him not to drive them and not to guide them,
but simply to go after them, as they would graze quietly if left to
themselves. The lad started with the baa-lambs; first they came to a
splendid meadow, he went in and trotted after them as his master had
told him; then they came to a swift stream and the baa-lambs went over
it, but the lad had not the courage to go into the water, but walked up
and down the bank till evening, when the baa-lambs returned of their own
accord, recrossed the water, and, as night had set in, he drove them
home. "Well, my dear son," said his master, "tell me where you have been
with the baa-lambs." "My dear father, I only followed after them. First
of all they went into a large plain; after that we came to a great,
swift stream; they got over the large sheet of water, but I remained on
this side, as I did not dare to go into the deep water." As the poor lad
finished his tale the master said, "Well, my dear son, I shall send you
away, as I can see very well that you are not fit for service," and he
sent him off without any pay. The lad went home, very much cast down.
When he got home his two brothers asked him, "Well, dear brother, how
did you get on in service?" "Hum, how did I get on, and what did I do?
You'd better go yourselves and you will soon know." "Very well," they
replied, and the second son went to look for service, met the same old
man, and fared the same as his brother, and was sent home without
anything. As he arrived home his younger brother met him and asked,
"Well, dear brother, what sort of service did you get?" "Hum," replied
he, "What sort of a place did I get? You had better go and then you also
will know." "Very well," replied the youngest, and he too went to try
his luck. As he went along he met the same old man, and was engaged by
him to tend his baa-lambs for a year; the old man told him, too, to walk
after them, and not to leave them under any circumstances. Next morning
the old man prepared the lad's bag, and let the baa-lambs out of the
fold; they started off, and the lad followed them, step by step, till
they came to a pretty, green plain: they walked over it, quietly grazing
along as they went, till they came to the swift stream; the baa-lambs
crossed it, and the lad followed them; but the moment he entered the
water the swift current swept off his clothes and shrivelled his flesh,
so that, when he got to the other side, he was only skin and bones; so
soon as he reached the other bank the baa-lambs turned back and began to
blow on him, and his body was at once fairer than it ever was before.
The baa-lambs started off again till they came to a large meadow where
the grass was so high that it was ready for the scythe, and still the
cattle grazing on it were so ill-fed that a breath of wind would have
blown them away; the baa-lambs went on to another meadow which was quite
barren, and the cattle there had nothing to eat, yet they were as fat as
butter; thence the baa-lambs went into a huge forest, and there, on
every tree, was such a lamentation and crying and weeping as one could
not conceive of; the lad looked to see what the meaning of the loud
crying could be, and lo, on every bough there was a young sparrow, quite
naked! and all were weeping and crying. From here the baa-lambs went
sauntering on till they came to a vast garden; in this garden there
were two dogs fighting, so that the foam ran from their mouths; still
they could not harm each other. The baa-lambs went on further till they
came to a great lake, and there the lad saw a woman in the lake,
scooping with a spoon something from the water incessantly, and still
she was not able to scoop the thing up. From there the baa-lambs went
further, and, as they went, he saw a brook of beautiful, running water,
clear like crystal, and, as he was very thirsty, he had half a mind to
drink of it, but, thinking that the spring-head was very much better, he
went there, and saw that the water was bubbling out of the mouth of a
rotting dead dog, which so frightened him that he did not taste a drop.
From there the baa-lambs went into another garden, which was so
wonderfully pretty that human eye had never seen the like before.
Flowers of every kind were blooming, but the baa-lambs left them
untouched, only eating the green grass, and, as they ate, he sat down
under the shade of a beautiful flowering tree in order to partake of
some food, when suddenly he saw that a beautiful white pigeon was
fluttering about in front of him; he took his small blunderbuss, which
he had with him, and shot at the pigeon, knocking off a feather, but the
pigeon flew away; he picked up the feather and put it in his bag. From
thence the baa-lambs started off home, the lad following them. When they
arrived, the old man asked: "Well, my son, and how did the baa-lambs
go?" "They went very well," answered the lad, "I had no trouble with
them. I had merely to walk after them." As he said this, the old man
asked him: "Well, my son, tell me where you have been with the
baa-lambs." Then he told him that the baa-lambs first went into a pretty
green plain, then they went through a swift stream; and he told him
all--where he had been with them and so on. When he had finished his
tale, the old man said: "My dear son, you see that wonderful pretty
green plain where you went first with the baa-lambs represents your
youth up to this day. The water through which you went is the water of
life which washes away sin: that it washed away all your clothes and
dried up your flesh means that it washes away all your previous sins:
that on the other shore, upon the baa-lambs breathing on you, your body
became purer, means that the holy faith, by the water of life, has
penetrated all over your soul, and you have become purified from your
sins, regenerate in all; the baa-lambs who breathed upon you are angels,
and your good and pious teachers. The ill-fed cattle amidst the
luxuriant grass means that the avaricious, whilst surrounded by plenty,
even begrudge themselves food; they will be misers even in the other
world: they will have plenty to eat and drink, they will partake of
both, and still will be eternally hungry and thirsty. Those beasts who
fed in the barren field, and were so fat, means that those who have
given from their little to the poor in this world, and have not
chastised their bodies with hunger and thirst, will feed heartily in the
other world out of little food, and will never know hunger or thirst.
That the young birds cried so mournfully in the woods, my son, means
that those mothers in this world who do not have their children
baptised, but have them buried without, will, in the other world,
eternally weep and cry. The two dogs who fought so in the garden means
that those relatives who in this world fight and squabble over property
will eternally fight in the other world, and never come to terms. That
woman who was fishing in a lake so busily for something with a spoon,
and could not catch it, is he who in this world adulterates milk with
water and sells it in this state to others; he will in the other world
continually be in a lake, and will eternally fish about with a spoon, in
order to fish the milk out of the water, and will never succeed. That
you saw a pretty clear brook and did not drink of it, but went to the
spring where the water flowed out of the mouth of a dead dog, that
means, my dear son, the beautiful sermons of the clergy and their holy
prayers. The dead dog from whose mouth the clear water flowed represents
the priests who preach pious and wise lessons, but never keep them
themselves. The garden into which you went is Heaven. Those who live
without sin in this world will come into such a beautiful garden in the
other world. But now, my dear son, can you show me some proof that you
have really been in that garden?"
The lad quickly took from his bag the white pigeon's feather, and handed
it to him, saying, "Look here, my old father, I shot this from a white
pigeon there." The old man took the pigeon's feather, and said to him,
"You see, my son, I was that white pigeon, and I have been following you
all the journey through, and always kept watch over you, to see what you
did. So God also follows man unknown to him, to see what he does. The
feather you shot away was one of my fingers; look here, I have not got
it!" and as he looked he saw that the little finger was missing from the
old man's hand; with this, the old man placed the feather there, blew
upon it, and the finger was once more all right. In the meantime the
year came to an end--for if I may mention it here the year consisted of
but three days then--so the old man said to the lad: "Well, my son, the
year is now ended; hand me over the bag, and then you can go. But first
let me ask you would you rather have heaven, or so much gold as you can
carry home?" To this the lad replied that he did not wish for gold, but
only desired to be able to go to heaven. Thereupon the old man at once
filled a sack with gold for him, lifted it upon the lad's back, and sent
him home. The lad thanked the old man for his present, betook himself
home with his sack of gold, and became such a rich farmer with six oxen
that not in the whole village, nay, not even in the whole neighbourhood,
was there such a one who came near him. He also took to himself a
suitable girl as his wife, who was as pretty as a flower; he is alive to
this very day, if he has not died since. May he be your guest to-morrow!
FAIRY ELIZABETH.
There was once somewhere, I don't know where, beyond seven times seven
countries, and even beyond them, a poor man who had a wife and three
children. They were awfully poor. One day the eldest son said: "Dear
mother, bake me some ash-cake and let me go into service." His mother at
once baked the cake, and the lad started, and went on and on till he
came to a high snow-clad mountain, where he met a grey-haired man and
greeted him: "May the Lord bless you, my good old father." "The Lord
bless you, my son. What are you after?" asked the old man. "I am going
out to service, if the Lord will help me to some place." "Well, then,
come to me," said the old man, "I will engage you." So they went to the
house of the grey-haired old man, and the very next day they went out
ploughing but they only ploughed up some grass-land, and sowed it with
seed. Now let me tell you, that the old man promised him a bushel of
seed for sowing. Two days passed, and at dawn of the third day the old
man said: "Well, my son, to-day you can go out ploughing for yourself;
get the plough ready, yoke the oxen in, and in the meantime I will get
the bushel of wheat I promised." So the lad put the oxen to the plough
and the old man got the bushel of wheat and placed it on the plough.
They started, the old man accompanying him. Just at the end of the
village he said to the lad: "Well, my son, can you see that place yonder
covered with shrubs? Go there, and plough up as much of it for yourself
as you think will be enough for the bushel of wheat." The lad went, but
was quite alarmed at the sight of the shrubs, and at once lost heart.
"How could he plough there? Why, by the time he had grubbed up the
shrubs alone it would be night." So he ran off home, and left the plough
there, and the oxen then returned of their own accord to the old man's
place--if I may interrupt myself, they were the oxen of a fairy. When
the lad arrived at his father's house, his other brothers asked him:
"What sort of a place have you found?" "What sort of a place!" replied
he, "go yourself, and you will soon find out." The middle son set out,
and just as he was going over the snow-clad mountain he met the old man,
who engaged him on the spot as his servant, and promised him a bushel of
wheat, as he had done before. They went to the old man's home, and he
fared just as his elder brother had done. At dawn on the third day, when
he had to plough for himself, he got frightened at the sight of the vast
number of shrubs, which no human being could have ploughed up in the
stated time. So he went home too, and on his way he met his younger
brother, who asked him: "What sort of a place have you found, my dear
elder brother?" "What sort of a place had I? Get up out of the ashes,
and go yourself, and you will soon find out." Now let me tell you that
this boy was continually sitting among the ashes. He was a lazy,
ne'er-do-weel fellow; but now he got up, and shook the ashes from him
and said: "Well, my mother, bake me a cake also: as my brothers have
tried their fortune let me try mine." But his brothers said: "Oh! you
ash-pan! Supposing you were required to do nothing else but eat, you
would not be good enough even for that." But still he insisted, that his
mother should bake something for him. So his mother set to work and
baked him a cake of some inferior bran, and with this he set out. As he
went over the boundless snow-clad mountain, in the midst of it he met
the old man and greeted him: "The Lord bless you, my old father!" "The
Lord bless you, my son! Where are you going?" "I am going out to
service, if I can find an employer." "Well, you are the very man I want;
I am in search of a servant." And he engaged him on the spot, promising
to make him a present of a bushel of wheat for sowing. They went home
together, and after they had ploughed together for two days, the lad set
out on the third day to plough up the land allotted to him for his own
use: while the youngster was putting the oxen to the plough the old man
got the wheat and placed it on the plough. On the dyke there was a big
dog, who always lay there quietly; but this time he got up, and started
off in front of him. The old man also accompanied him as far as the end
of the village, from whence he showed him where to go ploughing. The
youngster went on with the plough, and soon saw that he was not able to
plough a single furrow, on account of the thick bushes. After
considering what to do, he bethought himself, and took his sharp hatchet
and began to cut down a vast quantity of shrubs and thorns, the dog
carrying them all into a heap. Seeing that he had cut enough, he began
to plough. The two oxen commenced to drag the plough and cut up the
roots in a manner never seen before. After he had turned three times, he
looked round and said: "Well, I'm not going to plough any more, but will
begin to sow, so that I may see how much seed I've got." He sowed the
seed, and noticed that it was just sufficient, and therefore he had to
plough no more. In great joy he set the plough straight and went home.
The old man met him and said: "Well, my son, thanks to the Lord, you
have now finished your year, and in God's name I will let you go. I do
not intend to engage any more servants." Before I forget to tell you, I
may mention it here, that the year had three days then. So the lad went
home, and his brothers asked him: "Well, then, what sort of a place have
you found?" "Well, I believe I've served my master as well as you did."
One day, a year after, he went into the field to look at his wheat crop.
There he saw an old woman reaping some young wheat, so he went home and
said to his father: "Well, my father, do you know what we have to do?
let's go reaping." "Where, my son?" "Well, father, for my last year's
service I had a bushel of wheat given to me for sowing, it has got ripe
by this time, so let us go and reap it." So all four (his father, his
two brothers, and himself) went; when they came to the spot they saw
that it was a magnificent crop, a mass of golden ears from root to top,
ready and ripe; so they all started to work and cut down every head.