prey known in Rumania, and lives on young animals, lambs, goats,
and so on. The story runs as follows.
Once upon a time there was such a famine in the land that the people
lived on grass and even on sawdust, and were dying of hunger in untold
numbers. At that time there lived a widow who had managed to husband
a little flour. When she found that nothing else was left to her she
took that flour and mixing it with water kneaded it into dough. Then
she lit the furnace, and got a shovel to put the dough on it and thence
into the furnace to bake. This woman had two sons and one daughter. The
two boys came in just at the moment when the loaves of dough were on
the shovel. They were so hungry that they did not wait for the dough
to be baked, and before their mother had time to put the shovel into
the oven they got hold of the dough, raw and uncooked as it was,
and ate it up to the smallest bit. They did not leave even a little
piece for their mother and sister. When the mother saw the terrible
greediness of her children, and that they ate the raw stuff and did
not leave even a small piece for her or their sister, she cursed them
and said, "May you be cursed by God and be changed into two birds;
may you haunt the highest peaks of the mountains; may you never be
able to eat bread even when you see it, because you did not leave any
for me this day." No sooner had the boys gone out of the house than
they were changed into two huge eagles, who, spreading their wings,
flew away to the ends of the earth, no one knowing whither they had
gone. A short time afterwards their sister, who had not been at home
when all this had happened, came in, and she asked the mother where
her brothers were. Her mother did not tell her what had happened,
and said that the brothers, finding it was impossible for them to live
any longer here, had gone out into the wide world to live by their own
earnings. When the girl heard this she wept, and said, "If that be so,
then I will also go out into the wide world, and will seek my brothers
until I find them," and would not listen to the words of her mother,
who wanted to keep her back. She said good-bye and departed, and
travelled on and on for a long time, until she came to the ends of the
earth, where the sun and moon no longer shone and the days were dark.
So she fell a-praying, and said, "I have gone in search of my brothers;
O God, help me," and as she turned round she saw a forest full of
high trees which she had not noticed before, and she said to herself,
"I will go into that forest; I am sure nothing will happen to me,"
and so she did. She went into the forest not knowing where she was
going. In the midst of it she saw a beautiful meadow full of singing
birds, and there was a huge castle surrounded by thick walls and
closed by a gate with six locks. At the entrance of the gate there
were two huge monsters. She was very frightened. Still she watched
until these monsters had fallen asleep, and then slipping past them
she entered the gates. There she was met by a fox, who said to her,
"What has brought thee hither into this the other world from the world
outside? I fear our master will eat you up. As soon as he comes home
he will swallow you." Still she went on, and on entering the house
she met the mistress of the house, who asked her the same question,
and she told her what had happened to her from the beginning to the
end, and that she had gone out into the wide world to seek for her
lost brothers. When the mistress heard her tale she took pity on
her, and taking her into the innermost chamber she hid her there,
and then went to await the home-coming of the master. About midday,
when the sun stands on the cross-ways of heaven, there was a great
noise in the house; the place shook, for the master had come, and he
was none other than a huge lion.
At table, the mistress said to him, "O my master, thou hast always
been so good to me; I ask you to be once more good and kind; promise
me." And he promised, and asked her her request. She told him what
had happened to that girl, and said that she had come there from
the other world in search of her brothers. The lion called the young
girl, who was greatly frightened, and she told him again all that had
happened to her. He then said, "I will call together all my subjects
and ask them whether they have seen your brothers passing by this way,
or whether meeting them they have eaten them."
So he called from far and near all the animals who were in his
dominion, and he asked them about the brothers. But they all said
that these had never passed through the land, and they had neither
seen them nor eaten them. So the lion told her to go on. She went on
and came to another forest, very big and dark, and walking for a time
in it she came to another meadow full of birds singing so beautifully
that you could not hear enough of them, and there in the midst was
a house deep down in the ground with a thatched roof. The girl went
in the house, and there was an old woman sitting on the oven. [2]
"May God help you," said the young girl, and the old woman replied,
"Welcome, my daughter, what has brought you here into this part of the
world never yet trodden by human foot?" And the girl told her that she
had left her mother's house and gone in search of her brothers. The
woman said, "Your brothers are alive, but they are under a spell,
for they have been charmed into huge birds, and they live yonder in
the castle on that steep mountain. If you can reach that place you
will be able to see your brothers."
Full of joy at these tidings, the girl went to the mountain and
found that it was a bare, steep, high cliff with little patches
of grass here and there, just the place for eagles' nests. Taking
courage, she started climbing up, and after endless toil reached
the top. There she saw a huge palace surrounded by iron walls, and
going inside she saw a room; the table was set and food was on the
table. As she was very hungry, she went round the table and took a
bit from every dish. Then she hid herself, watching to see what would
happen. She had not to wait very long, for soon two huge eagles came
from the depths of heaven. They entered and sat down at the table
and began to eat their meal. Suddenly one of them said to the other,
"Halloo, some one must have been here, for I see that my food has been
nibbled." The other said, "It is impossible for any one to come here,"
and took no further notice of it.
On the second day they noticed that once again some of their food had
been eaten again, and so on the third day, when more of it had been
eaten. So they started hunting through the house to find out who was
hidden there, for surely some one must have come to eat the food. After
a long search they found the girl huddled up in a small room. As soon
as they saw her they recognised her as their sister, and taking her
into the large hall they asked her what had happened and what had
brought her to them. She told them all that had happened to her,
and how she had been through the forest and climbed up the mountain,
and that she was now there with them. The brothers then said to her,
"We are under a spell; mother has cursed us. We have now been changed
into birds of prey; but if you will stay here for six years and not
speak a single word, that will save us; the spell will be broken,
and we shall again be human beings." The girl promised to do all they
wished, as the old woman whom she had met before had told her that
she was to do whatever her brothers would wish her to do. And there
she remained. Her brothers spread their wings and flew away. Five
years had past, the girl not seeing anything of them, and not speaking
all the time. After that time she said to herself, "What is the good
of my sitting here and keeping silent when none of them have come;
perchance they are dead, or who knows what has happened?" No sooner
had she opened her mouth and spoken a word when in came her two
brothers, and said to her mournfully, "Thou hast not kept thy vow,
thou hast broken thy promise, thou hast spoken! If thou wouldst have
waited one more year we would have become human beings, and the spell
would have been broken. Now we are cursed forever. We must remain
eagles and birds of prey." And so they have remained to this day,
preying on birds and beasts, living on raw meat, never being able
to touch bread, and even picking up children under six years of age,
the years which their sister had to wait in order to break the spell.
In this story we find again well-known motives from fairy tales,
especially that of "Snow White and the Dwarfs," in which Snow White
comes into the house and nibbles at the food which is on the table, so
that her presence is thereby disclosed. But here the tale has been used
for the purpose of explaining the origin of the eagle. Other details
there are in that tale which are not clearly brought out in this,
for at the bottom of it lies the tale of the grateful animals. That
is the reason why the lion spares the girl and also the good fairy,
whom she serves faithfully, here represented by the old woman in the
house with the thatched roof, by whom she is rewarded by being shown
the way to her lost brothers.
All these elements have here been combined in the bird tale. A close
parallel to this tale is to be found in Grimm, No. 25.
LXXVIII.
WHY HAS THE LARK A TUFT?
The Story of the Glass Mountain.
Once upon a time there was a man who was under a spell. He got married
to a woman, and after a time he suddenly disappeared. He was carried
away by the spell, no one knew whither. The poor woman waited for him
one day and another day and a third day, and seeing that he did not
return she went out into the world to search after him. And so, passing
through many a country, she came at last to the house where Holy
Thursday lived, a good old woman, who was the mistress of a third of
all the birds in the world. When she saw the traveller, she asked her
what had brought her there, and the poor woman, weeping, told her how
she had gone in search of her husband, who had suddenly disappeared,
and whom she had not been able to find anywhere in the world.
Holy Mother Thursday said to her, "Wait, I will call all my birds
together, and I shall hear from them whether they know where your
husband is." In the evening she called all the birds who were under
her rule, and asked them whether they knew what had happened to the
man. They all replied that they had not seen him, and they did not
know whither he had gone. Sad at heart, the poor woman went away,
and came to Holy Mother Saturday, who ruled over half the birds in
the world. She asked the young woman how she had come to that part
of the world, and what had brought her thither.
The poor woman told her tale, and also that Holy Mother Thursday could
not find where her husband was. So Mother Saturday called her birds,
and asked them whether they had seen anything of the poor woman's
husband. They all replied that they had not seen anything of him,
and did not know what had become of him. Greatly disappointed, the
poor woman went on her way, until she came to the house of the Holy
Mother Sunday, who ruled over all the birds. After hearing from the
woman what had brought her to her house, she called all the birds
together, and put the same question to them. None of the birds knew
where the husband was except the cock lark. He said he knew where
the husband was, a very long way off. Then Mother Sunday asked the
bird whether he could carry the woman to that place.
"Willingly will I abide by your command, O mistress," said the bird;
and taking the woman on his back, he rose up high in the air, and
started flying to the place whither the husband had been carried. And
so flying, they came at last to a high mountain made all of glass. The
bird could not go up that mountain, so they shod his little feet
with iron, and slowly, slowly, they climbed up that mountain until
they came to the top. The woman, however, was so much frightened by
the flight that she clutched at the feathers on the top of the lark,
and held tightly to them, fearing to lose her hold. Since that time
the ruffled feathers have remained upstanding, and hence the tuft on
the head of the male lark.
It is peculiar that the tale here ends abruptly without telling us
whether the woman met her husband, or whether she was able to break
the spell. It is probably tacitly assumed.
LXXIX.
WHY IS THE TUFT OF THE LARK DISHEVELLED?
The Story of the Helpful Lark.
Another story of the lark tells of one who went in search of his
sister, who had been stolen away from her home by Sila Samodiva. [3]
He was directed by a curious dream, in which he saw an old man with
a long white beard, who told him to go in search of her, for he was
sure to find her. On his way he came to a very old man, who turned
out to be the king of all the birds. In the evening all the birds
came to him to be fed, but one bird was missing. It came in rather
late, limping and tired, and when the king saw it he recognised it
to be the lark. And he asked the bird why it was so tired and what
had befallen it. The bird said, "Thou hast ordered me to live so far
away that it takes me a very long time to come to the court, and it
is with great difficulty that I have been able to come here to this
place in obedience to thy command." Then the king asked the lark where
he had his nest, and when he replied in the gardens of Sila Samodiva,
the brother was full of joy, for that was the place where his sister
had been taken. Then the king asked the bird whether he could lead
the man to that place. "Willingly will I do so," replied the lark. "I
will jump from tree to tree and from bush to bush, and flutter about
gently, and if he follows me I am sure to lead him to the place of his
desire." And so following the bird, he reached a golden palace in which
the fairy Sila Samodiva was living. He entered the palace by holding
on to the tuft of the lark, which has since remained dishevelled. A
fairy put him to various trials, which he successfully accomplished,
and thus was able to rescue his sister and to return home in safety.
Needless to point out, that in these two tales we have parallels to
the famous legend of the hoopoe in the Solomonic cycle. In it Solomon
orders all the birds to come and render homage; only one bird does
not appear at the proper time. It comes in very late, limp, tired
and exhausted, and excuses itself by telling Solomon of its long
flight from the court of the Queen of Sheba, to whom King Solomon
then sends a message by means of the same bird. But we are not told
in this story anything of the origin of the bird, except that it is
described as one leading the travellers to the places in the other
world which they wish to reach. Another very elaborate fairy tale
gives us the origin of the lark.
LXXX.
WHY DO LARKS FLY TOWARDS THE SUN?
The Story of the Princess and her Love for the Sun.
A very long time ago, so long indeed that no one can remember when
it happened, there lived a king and queen. They had everything which
their heart desired, except that they had no children. They were good
and charitable people, and distributed alms and prayed, but all in
vain. At last, when they had given up every hope, they were suddenly
blessed with a child. It was a little girl, and she was so sweet and
so beautiful that they called her Little Light. The parents could not
see enough of her, and so they kept her in their palace all the time,
until one day her mother allowed her to go out into the garden.
In the wall of the garden there was a small gate leading into a
beautiful meadow. The young princess opened the gate and went into
the meadow and looked around her, for she had never before been out
of her rooms. She rejoiced at the flowers and birds and animals, but
more than anything was she pleased with the sight of the sinking sun,
and with the golden rays which he sent through the heavens. She was so
pleased with that sight that she went every day in the afternoon to
watch for the glorious sun and his golden rays. Thus one day passed,
and again another day, and she fell deeply in love with the sun, and
being in love, she decided that she must go and find him. So great
was her love that she did not look at any young man, and grew thinner,
weaker and sadder every day, until she could not bear it any longer;
and going to her parents, she said that she could not stay any longer
at home, and that she must go out into the world. The parents tried
in vain to keep her at home, but, seeing that all their efforts were
of no avail, they let her go, and she went. She took money and food
with her, and went along not knowing the right way.
So long as the money and the food lasted she felt quite happy, but a
time came when both had come to an end, and she was in a very sore
plight, not knowing what to do. Moreover, she was frightened to go
alone, for she was in woman's clothes. Suddenly she found herself
in the midst of a wide field full of dead bodies. A battle had been
fought there, and the field was strewn with the dead. So she took
one of the uniforms of the soldiers, dressed herself up in a man's
garb, and, finding a horse, mounted on it and rode along with her face
turned towards the sinking sun. On the way she found then an old woman
dressed all in black, sitting close to a well, and weaving gossamer
and cobweb. She addressed her as the Black One, which seemed to please
the old woman, who told her to turn towards the rising sun until she
would come to a glass mountain; she would have to reach the top of
the mountain, and then she was sure to find her way to the palace
of the sun. She rode on and came to the glass mountain. When she had
reached the top, after having had the horse shod again at the bottom
of the hill, she found a palace, but it was not that of the sun. It was
inhabited by three sisters, who received her in very friendly fashion,
and treated her with great hospitality. Thinking that she was a man,
they all fell in love with her; but she told them she was a woman,
and they left her to continue her quest. Before leaving they gave her
a magic sword, which, if drawn half out of its sheath, killed half
the number of an army, and if drawn entirely, killed the entire army
of the enemy. By this means she was able to vanquish the enemies of
a great king, who, discovering her to be a girl, wanted to marry her;
but she escaped and continued her journey towards the rising sun.
On the way she met with a very old man, whose white hair had grown
down to his ankles, and who was so weak that he could scarcely open
his mouth. Little Light washed him and fed him and cut his hair. When
he had eaten and felt himself refreshed, he told her which way to go;
then he gave her a piece of bread, and told her that on her way to the
palace a wild dog would come out against her; she must give him that
bread and none other, and before entering the palace she must drink
of the water of the fountain at the gate of the palace. A three-headed
dog met her, she gave him the bread, and he suddenly disappeared after
having eaten it. Then she went and drank of the water in the well,
and was able to look at the golden palace in front of her, which
was so radiant and so luminous that no human eye could look at it
without being blinded. Then she went into the palace, and there, in
the middle of the hall, who should be sitting at the table and eating
but the glorious sun, beautiful and luminous as only the sun can be?
When Little Light saw him, she almost fainted with joy, but he also,
turning to her and seeing her beautiful face, felt himself drawn to
her, for he had never yet seen such a wonderful human being. There in
the hall was also the mother of the sun. When she saw Little Light,
she turned fiercely on her, and cursing her said, "O thou wicked child
of man, born of sin, thou hast come here to defile the immaculate
purity of my son and to lead him on to sin and wickedness. Thou shalt
no longer remain a human being, thou shalt become a bird flying as
high as to get near the sun, and there, seeing the beloved who cannot
be thine, thou shalt cry plaintively for him whom thou hast won and
yet lost." At that moment Little Light was changed into the lark,
which at the break of dawn, before the sun rises, flies up into the
sky trying to get as near as possible to the sun, and there cries
plaintively at the loss of her beloved.
LXXX. A.
THE STORY OF THE LARK.
Another Version.
A variant of this story tells us that after the girl had left the
king's palace and had gone on seeking for the sun, she came to a
river, and did not know how to cross it. Whilst she was sitting there
at the bank of the river, not knowing what to do, there came out of
the river a girl dressed in white, who told her that she would reach
the palace and yet not reach it; and as she spoke these words, there
came a bridge and spanned the river. The girl went across the bridge,
and going on in her journey, she came to a field where an old woman
was watching a flock of geese. Curious as old women are, this one
asked the girl what had brought her hither, and whither she was going,
and who she was. The girl answered politely, and the old woman, being
touched by her beauty, gave her a twig in her right hand and placed
a ring on her left hand, and told her to cross herself with the twig,
and then she would see what would happen. She did so, and she suddenly
felt herself lifted up high in the air and carried as fast as a thought
to some distant land. When she found herself again on the ground, she
saw the palace of the sun facing her, but the palace was surrounded by
a river, over whose waters, clear as tears, there was no bridge. An
old man carried the passengers across, but he had to be paid with
a silver coin. Those who did not pay had to wander round that river
for a year. Remembering the ring which the old woman had given her,
she offered it to the old man instead of a coin; he accepted it and
carried her across. On the other side a two-headed dog came out and
barked at her furiously. At his barking an old woman came out, who was
none other than the mother of the sun. The poor girl did not know who
it was; she might have been careful with her answer if she had. The
woman asked her who she was and what she had come for. The girl, who
was truthfulness itself, said in her simplicity that she had come to
see the sun whom she loved so much. When the old woman heard this,
she cursed her, and thus she became the lark flying about high in
the air, and trying in vain to reach her beloved.
It is evident that we have here reminiscences of ancient myths,
which have assumed a very peculiar shape in the mind of the people. It
would be difficult to say whether these are survivals of Greek myths,
of Charon, who ferries the dead across the river, and other legends
connected with Apollo, or whether we have here later stories which
have lingered on in the Balkans and have then been carried across the
Danube. Whatever the connection, one cannot deny that we are dealing
here with materials closely akin to those which form the substance of
some parts of ancient Greek mythology, but in a modified form. Charon
has survived to this very day in the legends and in the folk-lore
of modern Greece, no less than in that of Macedonia and the other
peoples of the Balkans. It is curious, however, that in this tale no
blending with Christianity has taken place. We find various layers of
religious belief which seem to have been superimposed upon one another,
each one as it were leading an independent life of its own, seldom
mixing to such an extent that the line of demarcation between what,
in the absence of another term, one might call heathen mythology and
Christian mythology or legendary lore.
LXXXI.
THE WOOING OF THE SISTER OF THE SUN.
A Christmas Carol.