"Oh, thou dunce, how could it be?"
Meanwhile the Tsarevna was thinking who her bridegroom could be. She
went to the Tsar and said: "Father, let me bring together all the
Tsars' sons, kings' sons, nobles, merchants, and peasants to a feast,
to a talk, and find out who kissed me." The Tsar permitted her.
Well, the whole Christian world met. The Tsarevna herself went among
them all, entertained all with wine, examined to see if she could find
the mark on any man's forehead. She went to each; at last she brought
wine to the simpleton.
"What hast thou bound up there?" asked the Tsarevna.
"So, nothing; my head aches," said the simpleton.
"Well, then, untie it." The Tsarevna unbound his head, recognized the
mark, and grew faint.
The Tsar said to her, "It is impossible to change the word now; it has
to be so,--be his wife."
They married the simpleton and the Tsarevna. She was weeping bitterly;
her two sisters, who had married Tsars' sons, were laughing at her,
and said: "There it is; she has married a fool!"
Once the Tsar called all his sons-in-law and said: "I have heard that
in such a state, in such a kingdom, there is a wonder,--a pig with
gold bristles. Is it not possible in some way to get this pig? Try."
Well, the two crafty sons-in-law saddled the very best horses, sat on
them, and rode away.
The fool took from the stable the very last miserable horse, and
followed his brothers. He came out into an open field, and cried with
a shrill voice: "Come, blue-brown, cunning bay, stand before me as
leaf before stem!" Wherever he came from, the wondrous horse was
snorting and tearing the ground with his hoof. The simpleton crawled
into one ear and out of the other.
Wherever they came from, there stood before him two youths, and they
asked, "What dost thou wish, what is thy pleasure?"
"To have a tent here, and in the tent a bed; beside the tent to have
the pig with gold bristles walking."
All was done in a moment. The tent was there, in the tent a bed; on
the bed lay the simpleton, but such a hero that no one could know him.
The pig with gold bristles was walking by the side of the tent in the
meadow.
The other brothers-in-law travelled and travelled; nowhere could they
see a pig with gold bristles. On their way home they approached the
tent and saw the wonder. "Oh! here is where the pig with gold bristles
is walking; let us go," said they, "and whatever must be given we will
give, we will buy the pig and please our father-in-law."
They went to the tent and saluted the owner. The simpleton asked:
"Where are ye travelling? what are ye looking for?"
"Wilt thou sell us the pig with gold bristles? we are looking for this
pig a long time."
"No, I want it myself."
"Ask what will please thee, but sell."
They offered him a thousand for the pig, and two and three and more;
but the simpleton would not consent. "I will not take a hundred
thousand," said he.
"Oh, let us have him, please; take what seems good to thee!"
"Well, ye need him so greatly, I will give him, and will not take
much,--the middle toe of each man's foot."
They thought and thought, took off their boots, and each man cut off
the middle toe of his foot. The simpleton took the toes, hid them, and
gave the pig with gold bristles. The brothers-in-law went home, taking
the pig with them.
The Tsar was so glad that he knew not what to call them, where to seat
them, or what to give them to eat.
"Have ye seen the fool?" asked the Tsar.
"With seeing we have not seen him, with hearing we have not heard."
The simpleton crept into one ear of his horse, out of the other, and
became just such a fool as before. He killed his horse, took off his
skin, and put it on; then he caught magpies, crows, jackdaws, and
sparrows, tied them around himself, and went home. He came into the
palace and let all his birds loose; they flew around on every side,
and broke nearly all the windows of the palace.
The Tsarevna, Priceless Beauty, covered herself with tears, and her
sisters were screaming with laughter. "Our husbands," said they,
"brought home the pig with gold bristles, and thy fool--look, if it
please thee, how he has dressed himself as a monster!"