As some village girls were spinning whilst they tended the cattle
grazing in the neighbourhood of a ravine, an old man with a long white
beard—so long a beard that it reached to his girdle—approached them,
and said, “Girls, girls, take care of that ravine. If one of you should
drop her spindle down the cliff, her mother will be turned into a cow
that very moment.”
Having warned them thus, the old man went away again. The girls,
wondering very much at what he had told them, came nearer and nearer to
the ravine, and leant over to look in; whilst doing so one of the
girls—and she the most beautiful of them all—let her spindle fall from
her hand, and it fell to the bottom of the ravine.
When she went home in the evening she found her mother, changed into a
cow, standing before the house; and from that time forth she had to
drive this cow to the pasture with the other cattle.
In a little time the father of the girl married a widow, who brought
with her into the house her own daughter. The stepmother immediately
began to hate the stepdaughter, because the girl was incomparably more
beautiful than her own daughter. She forbade her to wash herself, to
comb her hair, or to change her clothes, and sought by every possible
way to torment and scold her. One day she gave her a bag full of hemp,
and said, “If you do not spin all this well and wind it, you need not
return home, for if you do I shall kill you.”
The poor girl walked behind the cattle and spun as fast as possible;
but at mid-day, seeing how very little she had been able to spin, she
began to weep. When the cow, her mother, saw her weeping she asked her
what was the matter, and the girl told her all about it. Then the cow
consoled her, and told her not to be anxious. “I will take the hemp in
my mouth and chew it,” she said, “and it will come out of my ear as
thread, so that you can draw it out and wind it at once upon the
stick”; and so it happened. The cow began to chew the hemp and the girl
drew the thread from her ear and wound it, so that very soon they had
quite finished the task.
When the girl went home in the evening, and took all the hemp, worked
up, to her stepmother, she was greatly astonished, and next morning
gave her yet more hemp to spin and wind. When at night she brought that
home ready the stepmother thought she must be helped by some other
girls, her friends; therefore the third day she gave her much more hemp
than before. But when the girl had gone with the cow to the pasture,
the woman sent her own daughter after her to find out who was helping
her. This girl went quietly towards her stepsister so as not to be
heard, and saw the cow chewing the hemp and the girl drawing the thread
from her ear and winding it, so she hastened home and told all to her
mother. Then the stepmother urged the husband to kill the cow. At first
he resisted; but, seeing his wife would give him no peace, he at last
consented to do as she wished, and fixed the day on which he would kill
it. As soon as the stepdaughter heard this she began to weep, and when
the cow asked her why she wept she told her all about it. But the cow
said, “Be quiet; do not cry. Only when they kill me take care not to
eat any of the meat, and be sure to gather all my bones and bury them
behind the house, and whenever you need anything come to my grave and
you will find help.” So when they killed the cow the girl refused to
eat any of the flesh, saying she was not hungry, and afterwards
carefully gathered all the bones and buried them behind the house, on
the spot the cow had told her.
The real name of this girl was Mary, but as she had worked so much in
the house, carrying water, cooking, washing dishes, sweeping the house,
and doing all sorts of housework, and had very much to do about the
fire and cinders, her stepmother and half-sister called her “Papalluga”
(Cinderella).
One day the stepmother got ready to go with her own daughter to church,
but before she went she spread over the house a basketful of millet,
and said to her stepdaughter, “You Papalluga! If you do not gather up
all this millet and get the dinner ready before we come back from
church, I will kill you.”
When they had gone to church the poor girl began to weep, saying to
herself: “It is easy to see after the dinner; I shall soon have that
ready; but who can gather up all this quantity of millet!” At that
moment she remembered what the cow had told her, that in case of need
she should go to her grave and would there find help, so she ran
quickly to the spot, and what do you think she saw there? On the grave
stood a large box full of valuable clothes of different kinds, and on
the top of the box sat two white doves, who said, “Mary, take out of
this box the clothes which you like best and put them on, and then go
to church; meanwhile we will pick up the millet seeds and put
everything in order.” The girl was greatly pleased, and took the first
clothes which came to hand. These were all of silk, and, having put
them on, she went away to church. In the church everyone, men and
women, wondered much at her beauty and her splendid clothes, but no one
knew who she was or whence she came. The king’s son, who happened to be
there, looked at her all the time and admired her greatly. Before the
service was ended she stood up and quietly left the church. She then
ran away home, and as soon as she got there took off her fine clothes
and again laid them in the box, which instantly shut itself and
disappeared.
Then she hurried to the hearth and found the dinner quite ready, all
the millet gathered up, and everything in very good order. Soon after
the stepmother came back with her daughter from the church, and was
extremely surprised to find all the millet picked up and everything so
well arranged.
Next Sunday the stepmother and her daughter again dressed themselves to
go to church, and, before she went away, the stepmother threw much more
millet about the floor, and said to her stepdaughter, “If you do not
gather up all this millet, prepare the dinner, and get everything into
the best order, I shall kill you.” When they were gone the girl
instantly ran to her mother’s grave, and there found the box open as
before, with the two doves sitting on its lid. The doves said to her,
“Dress yourself, Mary, and go to church; we will pick up all the millet
and arrange everything.” Then she took from the box silver clothes,
and, having dressed herself, went to church. In the church everyone, as
before, admired her very much, and the king’s son never moved his eyes
from her. Just before the end of the service the girl again got up very
quietly and stole through the crowd. When she got out of church she ran
away very quickly, took off the clothes, laid them in the box, and went
into the kitchen. When the stepmother and her daughter came home they
were more surprised than before; the millet was gathered up, dinner was
ready, and everything in the very best order. They wondered very much
how it was all done.
On the third Sunday the stepmother dressed herself to go with her
daughter to church, and again scattered millet about on the ground, but
this time far more than on the other Sundays. Before she went out she
said to her stepdaughter, “If you do not gather up all this millet,
prepare the dinner, and have everything in order when I come from
church, I will kill you.” The instant they were gone the girl ran to
her mother’s grave and found the box open with the two white doves
sitting on the lid. The doves told her to dress herself and go to
church and to have no care about the millet or dinner.
This time she took clothes all of real gold out of the box, and, having
put them on, went away to the church. In the church all the people
looked at her and admired her exceedingly. Now the king’s son had
resolved not to let her slip away as before, but to watch where she
went. So, when the service was nearly ended, and she stood up to leave
the church, the king’s son followed her, but was not able to reach her.
In pushing through the crowd, however, Mary somehow in her hurry lost
the slipper from her right foot and had no time to look for it. This
slipper the king’s son found, and took care of it. When the girl got
home she took off the golden clothes and laid them in the box, and went
immediately to the fire in the kitchen.
The king’s son, having determined to find the maiden, went all over the
kingdom, and tried the slipper on every girl, but in some cases it was
too long, in others too short, and, in fact, it did not fit any of
them. As he was thus going about from one house to the other, the
king’s son came at last to the house of the girl’s father, and the
stepmother, seeing the king’s son coming, hid her stepdaughter in a
wash-trough before the house. When the king’s son came in with the
slipper and asked if there were any girl in the house, the woman
answered, “Yes,” and brought out her own daughter. But when the slipper
was tried it was found it would not go even over the girl’s toes. Then
the king’s son asked if no other girl was there, and the stepmother
said, “No, there is no other in the house.” At that moment the cock
sprung upon the wash-trough and crowed out “Cock-a-doodle-do!—here she
is under the wash-trough!”
The stepmother shouted “Go away! may the eagle fly away with you!” But
the king’s son, hearing that, hurried to the wash-trough, and lifted it
up, and what did he see there! The same girl who had been in the
church, in the same golden clothes in which she had appeared the third
time there, but lying under the trough, and with only one slipper on.
When the king’s son saw her he nearly lost his senses for the moment,
he was so very glad. Then he quickly tried to place the slipper he
carried on her right foot, and it fitted her exactly, besides perfectly
matching with the other slipper on her left foot. Then he took her away
with him to his palace and married her.