fond of their brother. They watched him every night through the keyhole,
but could see nothing. They heard, however, their brother's sobbing and
were very much grieved by it. The Persian king had war declared against
him by the king of the neighbouring country. The king, being very
advanced in age, asked his son to go in his place to fight the enemy.
The good son promised this willingly, although he was tortured by the
thought of being obliged to leave his beautiful dead girl behind. As,
however, he was aware that he would again be able to see and weep over
his dear one when once the war was over, he locked himself in his room
for two hours, weeping all the time, and kissing his sweetheart. Having
finished, he locked his room and put the key in his sabretache. The
good-hearted princesses impatiently waited till their brother crossed
the border with his army, and so soon as they knew that he had left the
country they went to the locksmith of the castle and took away every key
he had, and with these tried to unlock their brother's room, till at
last one of the keys did fit. They ordered every servant away from the
floor on which the room was situated and all three entered. They looked
all round, and in all the cupboards, and even took the bed to pieces,
and as they were taking out the planks of the bed they suddenly
discovered the glittering gold coffin, and in all haste placed it on the
table, and having opened it found the sleeping angel. All three kissed
her; but when they saw that they were unable to restore life, they wept
most bitterly. They rubbed her and held balsam under her nose, but
without avail. Then they examined her dress, which was very far superior
to their own. They moved her rings and breast-pins, and dressed her up
like a pretty doll. The youngest princess brought combs and perfumed
hair-oils in order to do the hair of the dear dead. They pulled out the
hair-pins and arranged them in nice order, so as to be able to replace
them as before. They parted her golden hair, and began to comb it,
adorning each lock with a hair-pin. As they were combing the hair at the
nape of the neck the comb stuck fast, so they looked at once for the
cause of it, when they saw that a golden hair-pin was entangled in the
hair, which the eldest princess moved with the greatest care. Whereupon
the beautiful girl opened her eyes and her lips formed themselves into a
smile; and, as if awakening from a long, long dream, she slightly
stretched herself, and stepped from the coffin. The girls were not
afraid at all, as she, who was so beautiful in her death, was still more
beautiful in life. The youngest girl ran to the old king and told him
what they had done, and that they had found out the cause of their
brother's grief, and how happy they were now. The old king wept for joy
and hastened after his daughter, and on seeing the beautiful child
exclaimed: "You shall be my son's wife, the mother of my grandchildren!"
And thereupon he embraced and kissed her, and took her into his room
with his daughters. He sent for singing birds so that they might amuse
his dear little new daughter. The old king inquired how she made his
son's acquaintance and where she first met him. But the pretty princess
knew nothing about it, but simply told him what she knew, namely, that
she had two enemies who sooner or later would kill and destroy her; and
she also told him that she had been living among robbers, to whom she
had been handed over by an old witch who would always persecute her till
the last moment of her life. The old king encouraged her, and bade her
not to fear anyone, but to rest in peace, as neither her mother nor the
old witch could get at her, the Persian wise men being quite able to
distinguish evil souls from good ones. The girl settled down and partook
of meat and drink with the king's daughters, and also inquired after the
young prince, asking whether he was handsome or ugly; although, she
said, it did not matter to her whether he was handsome or ugly; if he
was willing to have her, she would marry him. The princesses brought
down the painted portrait of the prince and the young girl fell so
deeply in love with it that she continually carried it with her kissing
it. One morning the news spread over all the country that the young king
had conquered his enemy and was hurrying home to his residential city.
The news turned out to be true, and clouds of dust could be seen in the
distance as the horsemen approached. The princesses requested their
pretty new sister to go with them into the room which adjoined their
brother's, where her coffin was kept under the bed.
The moment the prince arrived, he jumped off his horse, and, not even
taking time to greet his father, he unlocked his room and began to sob
most violently, dragging out the coffin gently from under the bed,
placing it on the bed with great care, and then opening the lid with
tears; but he could only find a hair-pin. He rushed out of the room like
a madman, leaving the coffin and the door open, crying aloud, and
demanding what sacrilegious hand had robbed his angel from him. But his
angel, over whom he had shed so many tears, stood smiling before him.
The youth seized her and covered her with as many kisses as there was
room for. He took his betrothed, whom Providence had given to him, to
his father and told him how he had found the pretty corpse on the back
of an elk; and the girl also told the whole story of her life; and the
princesses confessed how they had broken into their brother's room, and
how they restored his sweetheart to life again. The old king was
intoxicated with joy, and the same day sent for a priest, and a great
wedding feast was celebrated. The young folks whom Providence had
brought together lived very happily, when one day the young queen, who
was as beautiful as a fairy, informed her husband that she was being
persecuted, and that while her mother lived she could never have any
peace. "Don't fear, angel of my heart," said the young king, "as no
human or diabolic power can harm you while you are here. Providence is
very kind to us. You seem to be a favourite and will be protected from
all evil." The young queen was of a pious turn of mind and believed the
true words of her husband, as he had only spoken out her own thoughts.
About half a year had passed by and the beautiful woman of the world was
still happy. Her mirror was covered with dust, as she never dreamt for a
moment that her daughter was yet alive; but being one day desirous to
repeat her former amusement she dusted her mirror, and, pressing it to
her bosom, said: "Is there a prettier living creature in the world than
myself?" The mirror replied: "You are very pretty, but your daughter is
seventy-seven thousand times more beautiful than you." The beautiful
woman, on hearing the mirror's reply, fainted away, and they had to
sprinkle cold water over her for two hours before she came round. Off
she set, very ill, to the old witch and begged her, by everything that
was holy, to save her from that hateful girl, else she would have to go
and commit suicide. The old witch cheered her, and promised that she
would do all that lay in her power.
After eight months had elapsed the young prince had to go to war again;
and, with a heavy heart, took leave of his dear pretty wife, as--if one
is obliged to tell it--she was _enceinte_. But the prince had to go, and
he went, consoling his wife, who wept bitterly, that he would return
soon. The young king left orders that as soon as his wife was confined a
confidential messenger was to be sent without delay to inform him of the
event. Soon after his departure two beautiful boys with golden hair were
born and there was great joy in the royal household. The old king danced
about, like a young child, with delight. The princesses wrapped the
babies in purple and silk, and showed them to everybody as miracles of
beauty.
The old king wrote down the joyful news and sent the letter by a
faithful soldier, instructing him that he was not to put up anywhere
under any pretence whatever. The old soldier staked his moustache not to
call anywhere till he reached the young king.
While angels were rejoicing, devils were racking their brains and
planning mischief!
The old witch hid a flask full of spirits under her apron and hurried
off on the same road as the soldier, in order to meet him with his
letter. She pitched a small tent on the road-side using some dirty
sheets she had brought with her, and, placing her flask of spirits in
front of her, waited for the passers-by. She waited long, but no one
came; when all of a sudden a huge cloud gathered in the sky, and the old
witch was delighted. A fearful storm set in. As the rain poured down,
the old witch saw the soldier running to escape the rain. As he ran past
her tent, the wicked old soul shouted to him to come in and sit down in
her tent till the rain was over. The soldier, being afraid of the
thunder, accepted her invitation, and sat musingly in the tent, when the
old woman placed a good dose of spirits in front of him, which the
soldier drank; she gave him another drop, and he drank that too. Now
there was a sleeping-draft in it, and so the soldier fell fast asleep,
_and slept like a fur cloak_. The old woman then looked in his bag for
the letter, and, imitating _the old king's_ hand-writing to great
perfection, informed the young prince that a great sorrow had fallen
upon his house, inasmuch as his wife had been delivered of two puppies.
She sealed the letter and woke the soldier, who began to run again and
did not stop until he reached the camp. The young prince was very much
upset by his father's letter, but wrote in reply that no matter what
sort of children his wife had borne they were not to touch but to treat
them as his own children until he returned. He ordered the messenger to
hurry back with his reply, and not to stop anywhere; but the old soldier
could not forget the good glass of spirits he had, and so went into the
tent again and had some more. The witch again mixed it with a
sleeping-draught and searched the bag while the soldier slept. She stole
the letter, and, imitating the young prince's hand-writing, wrote back
to the old king that he was to have his wife and the young babes killed,
because he held a woman who had puppies must be a bad person. The old
king was very much surprised at his son's reply but said nothing to
anyone. At night he secretly called the old soldier to him and had his
daughter-in-law placed in a black carriage. The old soldier sat on the
box and had orders to take the woman and her two children into the
middle of the forest and brain them there. The carriage stopped in the
middle of the forest, the old soldier got down and opened the door,
weeping bitterly. He pulled out a big stick from under his seat and
requested the young queen to alight. She obeyed his orders and descended
holding her babes in her arms.
The old soldier tried three times to raise the stick, but could not do
so; he was too much overcome by grief. The young queen implored him not
to kill her, and told him she was willing to go away and never see
anyone again. The old soldier let her go, and she took her two babes and
sheltered in a hollow tree in the forest: there she passed her time
living on roots and wild fruit.
The soldier returned home, and was questioned by the old king as to
whether he had killed the young queen, as he didn't like to disappoint
his son, who was to return from the camp next day. The old soldier
declared on his oath that he had killed her and her babes too, and that
he had thrown their bodies into the water. The young king arrived at
home in great sorrow, and was afraid to catch sight of his unfortunate
wife and her ugly babes.
The old king had left his son's letter upon his desk by mistake; the
prince picked it up, and was enraged at its contents: "This looks very
like my writing," he said, "but I did not write it; it must be the work
of some devil." He then produced his father's letter from his pocket,
and handed it to him. The old king was horrified at the awful lie which
some devil had written in his hand. "No, my dear son," said the old
father, weeping, "this is not what I wrote to you; what I really did
write was, that two sons with golden hair had been born to you." "And
I," replied the young king, "said that whatsoever my wife's offspring
was, no harm was to happen to them till I returned. Where is my wife?
where are my golden-haired children?" "My son," said the old king, "I
have carried out your orders; I sent them to the wood and had them
killed, and the corporal belonging to the royal household had their
bodies cast into the water." The old soldier listened, through a crack
in the door, to the conversation of the two kings, who both wept
bitterly. He entered the room without being summoned, and said: "I could
not carry out your orders, my lord and king; I had not the heart to
destroy the most beautiful creature in the world; so I let her go free
in the forest, and she left, weeping. If they have not been devoured by
wild beasts, they are alive still." The young king never touched a bit
of supper, but had his horse saddled at once, and ordered his whole
body-guard out. For three days and three nights they searched the wood
in every direction, without intermission: on the fourth night, at
midnight, the young king thought he heard, issuing from a hollow tree, a
baby's cry, which seemed as harmonious to him as the song of a
nightingale. He sprang off his horse, and found his beautiful wife, who
was more beautiful than ever, and his children, who were joyfully
prattling in their mother's arms. He took his recovered family home,
amidst the joyous strains of the band, and, indeed, a high festival was
celebrated throughout the whole realm.
The young woman again expressed her fears with trembling, that, while
her mother and that she-devil were alive, she could not live in peace.
The young king issued a warrant for the capture of the old witch; and
the old soldier came, leading behind him, tied to a long rope, an awful
creature, whose body was covered all over with frightful prickles, and
who had an immense horn in the middle of her forehead. The young queen
at once recognised her as the old witch, who had been captured in the
act of searching the wood in order to find her, and slay her and her two
babes. The young queen had the old witch led into a secret room, where
she questioned her as to why she had persecuted her all her life.
"Because," said the old witch, "I am the daughter of your grandfather,
and the sister of your mother! When I was yet but a suckling babe, your
grandmother gave orders that I was to be thrown into the water; a devil
coming along the road took me and educated me. I humoured your mother's
folly because I thought she would go mad in her sorrow that a prettier
creature than herself existed; but the Lord has preserved you, and your
mother did not go mad till I covered her with small-pox, and her face
became all pitted and scarred. Her mirror was always mocking her, and
she became a wandering lunatic, roaming about over the face of the land,
and the children pelting her with stones. She continually bewails you."
The young queen informed her husband of all this, and he had the old
witch strangled, strung up in a tree, and a fire made of brimstone
lighted under her. When her soul (pára-animal soul) left her wicked
body, a horse was tied to each of her hands and feet, and her body torn
into four, one quarter of her body being sent to each of the points of
the compass, so that the other witches might receive a warning as to
their fate.
The "most beautiful woman in the world" was now very ugly, and happened
by chance to reach the palace where the pretty queen lived. Her daughter
wept over her, and had her kept in a beautiful room, every day showing
her through a glass door her beautiful children. The poor lunatic wept
and tortured herself till one day she jumped out of the window and broke
her neck. The young king loved his beautiful wife as a dove does its
mate; he obeyed her slightest wish, and guarded her from every danger.
The two little sons with the golden hair became powerful and valiant
heroes, and when the old king died he was carried to his vault by his
two golden-haired grandchildren.
The young couple, who had gone through so many sad trials, are alive
still, if they have not died since.
[1] The great pride of the Hungarian youth is to have a slender waist.
THE GIRL WITHOUT HANDS.
There was once, I don't know where, a king whose only son was an
exceedingly handsome and brave fellow, who went far into the
neighbouring country to fight. The old king used to send letters to his
son into the camp, through an old faithful servant. Once it happened
that the letter-carrying old servant took a night's lodging in a lonely
house, which was inhabited by a middle-aged woman and her daughter, who
was very pretty. The people of the house had supper prepared for the
messenger, and during the meal the woman questioned him whether he
thought her or her daughter to be the prettier, but the messenger did
not like to state the exact truth, as he did not wish to appear
ungrateful for their hospitality, and only said, "Well, we can't deny
but must confess it that we old people cannot be so handsome as the
young ones." The woman made no reply; but as soon as the messenger had
left she gave her servant orders to take her daughter into the wood and
kill her, and to bring her liver, lungs, and two hands back with him.
The manservant took the pretty girl with him, and, having gone a good
distance, he stopped, and told the girl of her mother's commands.
"But," continued he, "I haven't got the heart to kill you, as you have
always been very kind to me; there is a small dog which has followed us,
and I will take his liver and lungs back to your mother, but I shall be
compelled to cut off your hands, as I can't go back without them." The
servant did as he proposed; he took out the small dog's lungs and liver,
and cut off the girl's hands, much as it was against his wish. He
carefully covered the stumps of her arms with a cloth, and sent the girl
away and went back to his mistress. The woman took the lungs and liver,
put them into her mouth, and said, "You have come out of me, you must
return into me," and swallowed them. The two hands she threw up into the
loft. The servant left the woman's house in a great hurry at the
earliest opportunity, and never returned again. In the meantime the girl
without hands wandered about in unknown places. Fearing that she would
be discovered in the daytime, she hid herself in the wood, and only left
her hiding place at night to find food, and if she chanced to get into
an orchard she ate the fruit she could reach with her mouth.
At last she came to the town where the king lived: the prince had by
this time returned from the war. One morning, the king was looking out
of his window, and to his great annoyance discovered that, again, there
were less pears on a favourite tree in the orchard than he had counted
the previous day. In a great rage he sent for the gardener, whose
special business it was to take care of the orchard; but he excused
himself on the ground that while he was watching the orchard at night an
irresistible desire to sleep came over him, the like of which he had
never experienced before, and which he was quite unable to shake off.
The king, therefore, ordered another man to keep watch under the tree
the next night, but he fared in the same way as the first; the king was
still more angry. On the third night, the prince himself volunteered to
keep watch, and promised to guard the fruit of the favourite tree; he
laid down on the lawn under the tree, and did not shut his eyes. About
midnight, the girl without hands came forth from a thicket in the
garden, and, seeing the prince, said to him, "One of your eyes is
asleep, the other one must go to sleep too, at once." No sooner had she
uttered these words than the prince fell fast asleep, and the girl
without hands walked under the tree, and picked the fruit with her
mouth. But as there were only a few more pears left on the boughs which
she could get at, she was obliged, in order to satisfy her hunger, to
step on a little mound, and stand on tiptoe that she might reach the
fruit; whilst standing in this position she slipped, and, having no
hands to hold on with, she fell on the sleeping prince.
The shock awoke the prince at once, and, grasping the girl firmly with
his arms, he kept her fast. Next morning the king looking out of his
window discovered to his astonishment that no pears were missing, and
therefore sent a messenger into the garden to his son to inquire what
had happened? As soon as dawn began to break, the prince saw the girl's
beautiful face; the king's messenger had by this time reached the
prince, who in reply to his query, said: "Tell my father that I have
caught the thief, and I will take care not to let her escape. If my
father, the king, will not give me permission to marry her, I will never
enter his house again; tell him also, that the girl has no hands." The
king did not oppose his son's desire, and the girl without hands became
the prince's wife, and they lived happily together for a time. It
happened, however, that war broke out again with the sovereign of the
neighbouring country, and the prince was once more obliged to go with
his army. While he was away the princess was confined, and bore two
children with golden hair. The old king was highly delighted, and at
once wrote to his son informing him of the happy event. The letter was
again entrusted to the same man, who took the messages during the first
war: he on his way remembered the house where he was so well received on
a previous occasion, and arranged that he should spend the night there.
This time he found the old woman only. He got into conversation with
her, and she asked him where he was going, and what news he had from the
royal town: the messenger told her how the prince had found a beautiful
girl without hands, whom he had married, and who had had two beautiful
children. The woman at once guessed that it was her own daughter, and
that she had been deceived by her servant; she gave her guest plenty to
eat and drink, till he was quite drunk and went to sleep. Whereupon the
woman searched the messenger's bag, found the king's letter, opened it
and read it. The gist of the letter was this, "My dear son, you have
brought to my house a dear and beautiful wife, who has borne you a
beautiful golden-haired child."
The woman instantly wrote another letter, which ran thus: "You have
brought to my house a prostitute, who has brought shame upon you, for
she has been confined of two puppies." She folded the letter, sealed it
as the first had been, and put it into the messenger's bag. Next morning
the messenger left, having first been invited to spend the night at her
house on his return, as the wicked mother was anxious to know what the
prince's answer would be to the forged letter. The messenger reached the
prince, handed him the letter, which gave him inexpressible grief; but
as he was very fond of his wife he only replied, that, whatever the
state of affairs might be, no harm was to happen to his wife until his
return. The messenger took the letter back and again called upon the old
woman, who was not chary to make him drunk again and to read the reply
_clandestinely_. She was angry at the prince's answer, and wrote another
letter in his name, in which she said, that if matters were as they had
been represented to him in the letter, his wife must get out of the
house without delay, so that he might not see her upon his return.
The messenger, not suspecting anything, handed the letter to the king,
who was very much upset, and read it to his daughter-in-law. The old
king pitied his pretty and good natured daughter deeply, but what could
he do? They saddled a quiet horse, put the two golden-haired princes in
a basket and tied it in front of the princess; and thus the poor woman
was sent away amidst great lamentations.