'My dear child,' answered her mother, 'it is fifteen years since they
left, and no man has seen them. How will you know which way to go?'
'Oh, I will follow them, north and south, east and west, and though I
may travel far, yet some day I will find them.'
Then her mother said no more, but gave her a camel and some food, and a
negro and his wife to take care of her, and she fastened a cowrie shell
round the camel's neck for a charm, and bade her daughter go in peace.
During the first day the party journeyed on without any adventures, but
the second morning the negro said to the girl, 'Get down, and let the
negress ride instead of you.'
'Mother,' cried Udea.
'What is it?' asked her mother.
'Barka wants me to dismount from my camel.'
'Leave her alone, Barka,' commanded the mother, and Barka did not dare
to persist.
But on the following day he said again to Udea, 'Get down, and let the
negress ride instead of you,' and though Udea called to her mother she
was too far away, and the mother never heard her. Then the negro seized
her roughly and threw her on the ground, and said to his wife, 'Climb
up,' and the negress climbed up, while the girl walked by the side. She
had meant to ride all the way on her camel as her feet were bare and the
stones cut them till the blood came. But she had to walk on till night,
when they halted, and the next morning it was the same thing again.
Weary and bleeding the poor girl began to cry, and implored the negro to
let her ride, if only for a little. But he took no notice, except to bid
her walk a little faster.
[Illustration: THE NEGRO COMPELS UDEA TO WALK]
By-and-by they passed a caravan, and the negro stopped and asked the
leader if they had come across seven young men, who were thought to be
hunting somewhere about. And the man answered, 'Go straight on, and by
mid-day you will reach the castle where they live.'
When he heard this, the black melted some pitch in the sun, and smeared
the girl with it, till she looked as much a negro as he did. Next he
bade his wife get down from the camel, and told Udea to mount, which she
was thankful to do. So they arrived at her brothers' castle.
Leaving the camel kneeling at the entrance for Udea to dismount, the
negro knocked loudly at the door, which was opened by the youngest
brother, all the others being away hunting. He did not of course
recognise Udea, but he knew the negro and his wife, and welcomed them
gladly, adding, 'But who does the other negress belong to?'
'Oh, that is your sister!' said they.
'My sister! but she is coal black!'
'That may be, but she is your sister for all that.'
The young man asked no more questions, but took them into the castle,
and he himself waited outside till his brothers came home.
As soon as they were alone, the negro whispered to Udea, 'If you dare to
tell your brothers that I made you walk, or that I smeared you with
pitch, I will kill you.'
'Oh, I will be sure to say nothing,' replied the girl, trembling, and at
that moment the six elder brothers appeared in sight.
'I have some good news for you,' said the youngest, hastening to meet
them; 'our sister is here!'
'Nonsense,' they answered. 'We have no sister; you know the child that
was born was a boy.'
'But that was not true,' replied he, 'and here she is with the negro and
his wife. Only--she too is black,' he added softly, but his brothers did
not hear him, and pushed past joyfully.
'How are you, good old Barka?' they said to the negro; 'and how comes it
that we never knew that we had a sister till now?' and they greeted Udea
warmly, while she shed tears of relief and gladness.
The next morning they all agreed that they would not go out hunting. And
the eldest brother took Udea on his knee, and she combed his hair and
talked to him of their home till the tears ran down his cheeks and
dropped on her bare arm. And where the tears fell a white mark was made.
Then the brother took a cloth and rubbed the place, and he saw that she
was not black at all.
'Tell me, who painted you over like this?' cried he.
'I am afraid to tell you,' sobbed the girl, 'the negro will kill me.'
'Afraid! and with seven brothers!'
'Well, I will tell you then,' she answered. 'The negro forced me to
dismount from the camel and let his wife ride instead. And the stones
cut my feet till they bled and I had to bind them. And after that, when
we heard your castle was near by, he took pitch and smeared my body with
it.'
Then the brother rushed in wrath from the room, and seizing his sword,
cut off first the negro's head and then his wife's. He next brought in
some warm water, and washed his sister all over, till her skin was white
and shining again.
'Ah, now we see that you are our sister!' they all said. 'What fools the
negro must have thought us, to believe for an instant that we could have
a sister who was black!' And all that day and the next they remained in
the castle.
But on the third morning they said to their sister: 'Dear sister, you
must lock yourself into this castle, with only the cat for company. And
be very careful never to eat anything which she does not eat too. You
must be sure to give her a bit of everything. In seven days we shall be
back again.'
'All right,' she answered, and locked herself into the castle with the
cat.
On the eighth day the brothers came home. 'How are you?' they asked.
'You have not been anxious?'
'No, why should I be anxious? The gates were fast locked, and in the
castle are seven doors, and the seventh is of iron. What is there to
frighten me?'
'No one will try to hurt _us_,' said the brothers, 'for they fear us
greatly. But for yourself, we implore you to do nothing without
consulting the cat, who has grown up in the house, and take care never
to neglect her advice.'
'All right,' replied Udea, 'and whatever I eat she shall have half.'
'Capital! and if ever you are in danger the cat will come and tell
us--only elves and pigeons, which fly round your window, know where to
find us.'
'This is the first I have heard of the pigeons,' said Udea. 'Why did you
not speak of them before?'
'We always leave them food and water for seven days,' replied the
brothers.
'Ah,' sighed the girl, 'if I had only known, I would have given them
fresh food and fresh water; for after seven days anything becomes bad.
Would it not be better if I fed them every day?'
'Much better,' said they, 'and we shall feel any kindnesses you do
towards the cat or the pigeons exactly as if they were shown to
ourselves.'
'Set your minds at ease,' answered the girl, 'I will treat them as if
they were my brothers.'
That night the brothers slept in the castle, but after breakfast next
morning they buckled on their weapons and mounted their horses, and rode
off to their hunting grounds, calling out to their sister, 'Mind you let
nobody in till we come back.'
'Very well,' cried she, and kept the doors carefully locked for seven
days and on the eighth the brothers returned as before. Then, after
spending one evening with her, they departed as soon as they had done
breakfast.
Directly they were out of sight Udea began to clean the house, and among
the dust she found a bean which she ate.
'What are you eating?' asked the cat.
'Nothing,' said she.
'Open your mouth, and let me see,' The girl did as she was told, and
then the cat said 'Why did you not give me half?'
'I forgot,' answered she, 'but there are plenty of beans about, you can
have as many as you like.'
'No, that won't do. I want half of that particular bean.'
'But how can I give it you? I tell you I have eaten it. I can roast you
a hundred others.'
'No, I want half of that one.'
'Oh! do as you like, only go away!' cried she.
So the cat ran straight to the kitchen fire, and spit on it and put it
out, and when Udea came to cook the supper she had nothing to light it
with. 'Why did you put the fire out?' asked she.
'Just to show you how nicely you would be able to cook the supper.
Didn't you tell me to do what I liked?'
The girl left the kitchen and climbed up on the roof of the castle and
looked out. Far, far away, so far that she could hardly see it, was the
glow of a fire. 'I will go and fetch a burning coal from there and light
my fire,' thought she, and opened the door of the castle. When she
reached the place where the fire was kindled, a hideous man-eater was
crouching over it.
'Peace be with you, grandfather,' said she.
'The same to you,' replied the man-eater. 'What brings you here, Udea?'
'I came to ask for a lump of burning coal, to light my fire with.'
[Illustration: THE MANEATER]
'Do you want a big lump or a little lump?'
'Why, what difference does it make?' said she.
'If you have a big lump you must give me a strip of your skin from your
ear to your thumb, and if you have a little lump, you must give me a
strip from your ear to your little finger.'
Udea, who thought that one sounded as bad as the other, said she would
take the big lump, and when the man-eater had cut the skin, she went
home again. And as she hastened on a raven beheld the blood on the
ground, and plastered it with earth, and stayed by her till she reached
the castle. And as she entered the door he flew past, and she shrieked
from fright, for up to that moment she had not seen him. In her terror
she called after him, 'May you get the same start as you have given me!'
'Why should you wish me harm,' asked the raven, pausing in his flight,
'when I have done you a service?'
'What service have you done me?' said she.
'Oh, you shall soon see,' replied the raven, and with his bill he
scraped away all the earth he had smeared over the blood and then flew
away.
In the night the man-eater got up, and followed the blood till he came
to Udea's castle. He entered through the gate which she had left open,
and went on till he reached the inside of the house. But here he was
stopped by the seven doors, six of wood and one of iron, and all fast
locked. And he called through them 'Oh Udea, what did you see your
grandfather doing?'
'I saw him spread silk under him, and silk over him, and lay himself
down in a four-post bed.'
When he heard that, the man-eater broke in one door, and laughed and
went away.
And the second night he came back, and asked her again what she had seen
her grandfather doing, and she answered him as before, and he broke in
another door, and laughed and went away, and so each night till he
reached the seventh door. Then the maiden wrote a letter to her
brothers, and bound it round the neck of a pigeon, and said to it, 'Oh,
thou pigeon that servedst my father and my grandfather, carry this
letter to my brothers, and come back at once.' And the pigeon flew away.
It flew and it flew and it flew till it found the brothers. The eldest
unfastened the letter from the pigeon's neck, and read what his sister
had written: 'I am in a great strait, my brothers. If you do not rescue
me to-night, to-morrow I shall be no longer living, for the man-eater
has broken open six doors, and only the iron door is left. So haste,
haste, post haste.'
'Quick, quick! my brothers,' cried he.
'What is the matter?' asked they.
'If we cannot reach our sister to-night, to-morrow she will be the prey
of the man-eater.'
And without more words they sprang on their horses, and rode like the
wind.
The gate of the castle was thrown down, and they entered the court and
called loudly to their sister. But the poor girl was so ill with fear
and anxiety that she could not even speak. Then the brothers dismounted
and passed through the six open doors, till they stood before the iron
one, which was still shut. 'Udea, open!' they cried, 'it is only your
brothers!' And she arose and unlocked the door, and throwing herself on
the neck of the eldest burst into tears.
'Tell us what has happened,' he said, 'and how the man-eater traced you
here.'
'It is all the cat's fault,' replied Udea. 'She put out my fire so that
I could not cook. All about a bean! I ate one and forgot to give her any
of it.'
'But we told you so particularly,' said the eldest brother, 'never to
eat anything without sharing it with the cat.'
'Yes, but I tell you I forgot,' answered Udea.
'Does the man-eater come here every night?' asked the brothers.
'Every night,' said Udea, 'and he breaks one door in and then goes
away.'
Then all the brothers cried together, 'We will dig a great hole, and
fill it with burning wood, and spread a covering over the top; and when
the man-eater arrives we will push him into it.' So they all set to
work, and prepared the great hole, and set fire to the wood, till it
was reduced to a mass of glowing charcoal. And when the man-eater came,
and called as usual, 'Udea, what did you see your grandfather doing?'
she answered, 'I saw him pull off the ass's skin and devour the ass, and
he fell in the fire, and the fire burned him up.'
Then the man-eater was filled with rage, and he flung himself upon the
iron door and burst it in. On the other side stood Udea's seven
brothers, who said, 'Come, rest yourself a little on this mat.' And the
man-eater sat down, and he fell right into the burning pit which was
under the mat, and they heaped on more wood, till nothing was left of
him, not even a bone. Only one of his finger-nails was blown away, and
fell into an upper chamber where Udea was standing, and stuck under one
of the nails of her own fingers. And she sank lifeless to the earth.
[Illustration: UDEA FOUND LIFELESS BY HER SEVEN BROTHERS]
Meanwhile her brothers sat below waiting for her and wondering why she
did not come. 'What can have happened to her!' exclaimed the eldest
brother. 'Perhaps she has fallen into the fire, too.' So one of the
others ran upstairs and found his sister stretched on the floor. 'Udea!
Udea!' he cried, but she did not move or reply. Then he saw that she was
dead, and rushed down to his brothers in the courtyard and called out,
'Come quickly, our sister is dead!' In a moment they were all beside her
and knew that it was true, and they made a bier and laid her on it, and
placed her across a camel, and said to the camel, 'Take her to her
mother, but be careful not to halt by the way, and let no man capture
you, and see you kneel down before no man, save him who shall say
"string"[1] to you. But to him who says "string," then kneel.'
[Footnote 1: 'Riemen.']
So the camel started, and when it had accomplished half its journey it
met three men, who ran after it in order to catch it; but they could
not. Then they cried 'Stop!' but the camel only went the faster. The
three men panted behind till one said to the others, 'Wait a minute! The
string of my sandal is broken!' The camel caught the word 'string' and
knelt down at once, and the men came up and found a dead girl lying on a
bier, with a ring on her finger. And as one of the young men took hold
of her hand to pull off the ring, he knocked out the man-eater's
finger-nail, which had stuck there, and the maiden sat up and said, 'Let
him live who gave me life, and slay him who slew me!' And when the camel
heard the maiden speak, it turned and carried her back to her brothers.
Now the brothers were still seated in the court bewailing their sister,
and their eyes were dim with weeping so that they could hardly see. And
when the camel stood before them they said, 'Perhaps it has brought back
our sister!' and rose to give it a beating. But the camel knelt down and
the girl dismounted, and they flung themselves on her neck and wept more
than ever for gladness.
'Tell me,' said the eldest, as soon as he could speak, 'how it all came
about, and what killed you.'
'I was waiting in the upper chamber,' said she, 'and a nail of the
man-eater's stuck under my nail, and I fell dead upon the ground. That
is all I know.'
'But who pulled out the nail?' asked he.
'A man took hold of my hand and tried to pull off my ring, and the nail
jumped out and I was alive again. And when the camel heard me say "Let
him live who gave me life, slay him who slew me!" it turned and brought
me back to the castle. That is my story.'
She was silent and the eldest brother spoke. 'Will you listen to what I
have to say, my brothers?'
And they replied, 'How should we not hear you? Are you not our father as
well as our brother?'
'Then this is my advice. Let us take our sister back to our father and
mother, that we may see them once more before they die.'
And the young men agreed, and they mounted their horses and placed
their sister in a litter on the camel. So they set out.
At the end of five days' journey they reached the old home where their
father and mother dwelt alone. And the heart of their father rejoiced,
and he said to them, 'Dear sons, why did you go away and leave your
mother and me to weep for you night and day?'
'Dear father,' answered the son, 'let us rest a little now, and then I
will tell you everything from the beginning.'
'All right,' replied the father, and waited patiently for three days.
And on the morning of the fourth day the eldest brother said, 'Dear
father, would you like to hear our adventures?'
'Certainly I should!'
'Well, it was our aunt who was the cause of our leaving home, for we
agreed that if the baby was a sister she should wave a white
handkerchief, and if it was a brother, she should brandish a sickle, for
then there would be nothing to come back for, and we might wander far
away. Now our aunt could not bear us, and hated us to live in the same
house with her, so she brandished the sickle, and we went away. That is
all our story.'
And that is all this story.
[_Märchen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolis_. Von Hans Stumme.]
_THE WHITE WOLF_
Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters; they were all
beautiful, but the youngest was the fairest of the three. Now it
happened that one day their father had to set out for a tour in a
distant part of his kingdom. Before he left, his youngest daughter made
him promise to bring her back a wreath of wild flowers. When the king
was ready to return to his palace, he bethought himself that he would
like to take home presents to each of his three daughters; so he went
into a jeweller's shop, and bought a beautiful necklace for the eldest
princess; then he went to a rich merchant's and bought a dress
embroidered in gold and silver thread for the second princess, but in
none of the flower shops nor in the market could he find the wreath of
wild flowers that his youngest daughter had set her heart on. So he had
to set out on his homeward way without it. Now his journey led him
through a thick forest. While he was still about four miles distant from
his palace, he noticed a white wolf squatting on the roadside, and,
behold! on the head of the wolf, there was a wreath of wild flowers.
Then the king called to the coachman, and ordered him to get down from
his seat and fetch him the wreath from the wolf's head. But the wolf
heard the order and said: 'My lord and king, I will let you have the
wreath, but I must have something in return.'
'What do you want?' answered the king. 'I will gladly give you rich
treasure in exchange for it.'
'I do not want rich treasure,' replied the wolf. 'Only promise to give
me the first thing that meets you on your way to your castle. In three
days I shall come and fetch it.'
And the king thought to himself: 'I am still a good long way from home,
I am sure to meet a wild animal or a bird on the road, it will be quite
safe to promise.' So he consented, and carried the wreath away with him.
But all along the road he met no living creature till he turned into the
palace gates, where his youngest daughter was waiting to welcome him
home.
That evening the king was very sad, remembering his promise; and when he
told the queen what had happened, she too shed bitter tears. And the
youngest princess asked them why they both looked so sad, and why they
wept. Then her father told her what a price he would have to pay for the
wreath of wild flowers he had brought home to her, for in three days a
white wolf would come and claim her and carry her away, and they would
never see her again. But the queen thought and thought, and at last she
hit upon a plan.
There was in the palace a servant maid the same age and the same height
as the princess, and the queen dressed her up in a beautiful dress
belonging to her daughter, and determined to give her to the white wolf,
who would never know the difference.
On the third day the wolf strode into the palace yard and up the great
stairs, to the room where the king and queen were seated.
'I have come to claim your promise,' he said. 'Give me your youngest
daughter.'
Then they led the servant maid up to him, and he said to her: 'You must
mount on my back, and I will take you to my castle.' And with these
words he swung her on to his back and left the palace.
When they reached the place where he had met the king and given him the
wreath of wild flowers, he stopped, and told her to dismount that they
might rest a little.
So they sat down by the roadside.
'I wonder,' said the wolf, 'what your father would do if this forest
belonged to him?'
And the girl answered: 'My father is a poor man, so he would cut down
the trees, and saw them into planks, and he would sell the planks, and
we should never be poor again; but would always have enough to eat.'
Then the wolf knew that he had not got the real princess, and he swung
the servant-maid on to his back and carried her to the castle. And he
strode angrily into the king's chamber, and spoke.
'Give me the real princess at once. If you deceive me again I will cause
such a storm to burst over your palace that the walls will fall in, and
you will all be buried in the ruins.'
Then the king and the queen wept, but they saw there was no escape. So
they sent for their youngest daughter, and the king said to her:
'Dearest child, you must go with the white wolf, for I promised you to
him, and I must keep my word.'
So the princess got ready to leave her home; but first she went to her
room to fetch her wreath of wild flowers, which she took with her. Then
the white wolf swung her on his back and bore her away. But when they
came to the place where he had rested with the servant-maid, he told
her to dismount that they might rest for a little at the roadside. Then
he turned to her and said: 'I wonder what your father would do if this
forest belonged to him?'
[Illustration: THE·WHITE·WOLF·ASKS·THE·PRINCESS·A·QUESTION·IN·THE·WOOD]
And the princess answered: 'My father would cut down the trees and turn
it into a beautiful park and gardens, and he and his courtiers would
come and wander among the glades in the summer time.'
'This is the real princess,' said the wolf to himself. But aloud he
said: 'Mount once more on my back, and I will bear you to my castle.'
And when she was seated on his back he set out through the woods, and he
ran, and ran, and ran, till at last he stopped in front of a stately
courtyard, with massive gates.
'This is a beautiful castle,' said the princess, as the gates swung back
and she stepped inside. 'If only I were not so far away from my father
and my mother!'
But the wolf answered: 'At the end of a year we will pay a visit to your
father and mother.'
And at these words the white furry skin slipped from his back, and the
princess saw that he was not a wolf at all, but a beautiful youth, tall
and stately; and he gave her his hand, and led her up the castle stairs.
One day, at the end of half a year, he came into her room and said: 'My
dear one, you must get ready for a wedding. Your eldest sister is going
to be married, and I will take you to your father's palace. When the
wedding is over, I shall come and fetch you home. I will whistle outside
the gate, and when you hear me, pay no heed to what your father or
mother say, leave your dancing and feasting, and come to me at once; for
if I have to leave without you, you will never find your way back alone
through the forests.'
When the princess was ready to start, she found that he had put on his
white fur skin, and was changed back into the wolf; and he swung her on
to his back, and set out with her to her father's palace, where he left
her, while he himself returned home alone. But, in the evening, he went
back to fetch her, and, standing outside the palace gate, he gave a
long, loud whistle. In the midst of her dancing the princess heard the
sound, and at once she went to him, and he swung her on his back and
bore her away to his castle.
Again, at the end of half a year, the prince came into her room, as the
white wolf, and said: 'Dear heart, you must prepare for the wedding of
your second sister. I will take you to your father's palace to-day, and
we will remain there together till to-morrow morning.'
So they went together to the wedding. In the evening, when the two were
alone together, he dropped his fur skin, and, ceasing to be a wolf,
became a prince again. Now they did not know that the princess's mother
was hidden in the room. When she saw the white skin lying on the floor,
she crept out of the room, and sent a servant to fetch the skin and to
burn it in the kitchen fire. The moment the flames touched the skin
there was a fearful clap of thunder heard, and the prince disappeared
out of the palace gate in a whirlwind, and returned to his palace alone.
But the princess was heart-broken, and spent the night weeping bitterly.
Next morning she set out to find her way back to the castle, but she
wandered through the woods and forests, and she could find no path or
track to guide her. For fourteen days she roamed in the forest, sleeping
under the trees, and living upon wild berries and roots, and at last she
reached a little house. She opened the door and went in, and found the
wind seated in the room all by himself, and she spoke to the wind and
said: 'Wind, have you seen the white wolf?'
And the wind answered: 'All day and all night I have been blowing round
the world, and I have only just come home; but I have not seen him.'
But he gave her a pair of shoes, in which, he told her, she would be
able to walk a hundred miles with every step. Then she walked through
the air till she reached a star, and she said: 'Tell me, star, have you
seen the white wolf?'
And the star answered: 'I have been shining all night, and I have not
seen him.'
But the star gave her a pair of shoes, and told her that if she put them
on she would be able to walk two hundred miles at a stride. So she drew
them on, and she walked to the moon, and she said: 'Dear moon, have you
not seen the white wolf?'
But the moon answered, 'All night long I have been sailing through the
heavens, and I have only just come home; but I did not see him.'
But he gave her a pair of shoes, in which she would be able to cover
four hundred miles with every stride. So she went to the sun, and said:
'Dear sun, have you seen the white wolf?'
And the sun answered, 'Yes, I have seen him, and he has chosen another
bride, for he thought you had left him, and would never return, and he
is preparing for the wedding. But I will help you. Here are a pair of
shoes. If you put these on you will be able to walk on glass or ice, and
to climb the steepest places. And here is a spinning-wheel, with which
you will be able to spin moss into silk. When you leave me you will
reach a glass mountain. Put on the shoes that I have given you and with
them you will be able to climb it quite easily. At the summit you will
find the palace of the white wolf.'
Then the princess set out, and before long she reached the glass
mountain, and at the summit she found the white wolf's palace, as the
sun had said.
But no one recognised her, as she had disguised herself as an old woman,
and had wound a shawl round her head. Great preparations were going on
in the palace for the wedding, which was to take place next day. Then
the princess, still disguised as an old woman, took out her
spinning-wheel, and began to spin moss into silk. And as she spun the
new bride passed by, and seeing the moss turn into silk, she said to the
old woman: 'Little mother, I wish you would give me that
spinning-wheel.'
[Illustration: The Bride wishes to buy the Spinning-Wheel]
And the princess answered, 'I will give it to you if you will allow me
to sleep to-night on the mat outside the prince's door.'