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