Polish Fairy Tales Part 13

"That's not what I came here for," said the girl, so soon as his back was turned, "to do your spinning, weaving, and sewing! You may do without a shirt for me!"

So saying, she made herself comfortable on one of the benches, and went to sleep.

Next day, at evening twilight, the bear came back, and asked:

"Is the shirt ready?"

She made no answer.

"What's this? the distaff has not been touched."

Silence as before.

"Get me ready my supper at once. You will find water in that pail, and the groats in that cupboard. I must go and fetch my bedding, for to-night I will sleep at home."

The bear went out, and the old woman's daughter lit the fire in the stove, and began to prepare the porridge. Then the little mouse came out, stood on its hind-legs, and said:

"Mistress! help me, or I die!

A poor, weak little mouse am I!

I am hungry, give me food; And to you will I be good."

But the unkind girl only caught up the spoon with which she was stirring the porridge, and flung it at the poor mouse, which ran away in a fright.

The bear soon came back with a huge load of stones and wood; instead of a mattress he arranged a layer of stones on the top of the stove, and covered this with the wood, in place of a sheet. He ate up the porridge, and said:

"Here! take these keys; walk all night about the hut, and keep on jingling them. And if, when I get up to-morrow, I find you still alive, you shall be happy."

The bear was snoring at once, and the old woman's daughter walked up and down drowsily, jingling the keys.

But about midnight the bear woke up, and flung a stone towards the quarter whence he heard the jingling. It hit the old woman's daughter.

She gave one shriek, fell, and expired instantly.

Next morning the bear descended from the top of the oven, looked once at the dead girl, opened the cottage door, stood upon the threshold, and stamped upon it three times with all his force. It thundered and lightened; and in one moment the bear became a handsome young king, with a golden sceptre in his hand, and a diamond crown on his head.

And now there drew up before the cottage a carriage, bright as sunshine, with six horses. The coachman cracked his whip, till the leaves fell from the trees, and the king got into the carriage, and drove away from the forest to his own capital city.

The old man having left his stepdaughter in the forest came home rejoicing in his daughter's joy. She was expecting the king every day.

In the meantime he busied himself with looking after the four splendid horses, cleaning the golden carriage, and airing the costly horse-clothes.

On the third day after his return the old woman came down upon him and said:

"Go and fetch my darling; she is no doubt all dressed in gold by this time, or married to a king; so I shall be a queen's mother."

The old man, obedient as ever, harnessed the waggon, and drove off.

When evening came the old woman gazed from the window; when the dog began to bark:

"Bow! wow! wow! the old man's come!

Your daughter's bones he's bringing home!"

"You lie!" exclaimed the old woman; "bark like this:

'Bow! wow! wow! the old man's here!

Driving home your daughter dear, Decked in gold and diamonds' sheen, Gifts to please a royal queen.'"

So saying she ran out of the house to meet the old man, coming back in the waggon; but she stood as if thunderstruck, sobbed, and wept, and was hardly able to articulate:

"Where is my sweetest daughter?"

The old man scratched his head, and replied:

"She has met with a great misfortune; this is all I have found of her--a few bare bones, and blood-stained garments; in the wood, in the old hut ... she has been devoured by wolves."

The old woman, wild with grief and despair, gathered up her daughter's bones, went to some neighbouring cross-ways, and when a number of people had gathered together, she buried them there with weeping and lamentation; then she fell face downward on the grave--and was turned to stone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE REWARD OF THE GOOD LITTLE GIRL]

Meanwhile a royal carriage drew up in the courtyard of the old man's cottage, bright as the sun, with four splendid horses, and the coachman cracked his whip--till the cottage fell to pieces with the sound.

The king took both the old man and his daughter into the carriage, and they drove away to his capital, where the marriage soon took place.

The old man lived happily in his declining years, as the father-in-law of a king, and with his sweet daughter, who had once been so miserable, a queen.

APPENDIX

NOTE I

THE FROG PRINCESS

This is certainly a "Nature story." The princess and her attendants are clearly personification of the elemental forces. The cla.s.sical scholar cannot fail to be struck by the likeness of her metamorphoses to the story of Peleus and Thetis. Indeed the "Protean myth" so repeatedly occurs in these primitive Slavonic stories that it is impossible not to suspect a common origin.

NOTE II

PRINCESS MIRANDA AND PRINCE HERO

The old woman "Jandza"--which word Polish dictionary-makers translate by "fury"--appears very often both in Polish and Russian fairy tales, as a witch of witches. She is sometimes "Jaga"; and seems pretty malevolent, though capable of serving those who know how to manage her.

This story--probably a symbolic one--of the Spring and Winter, or the triumph of Light over Darkness, might be read at the present moment into an allegory of Poland, overrun, her people oppressed, starved, and all but extirpated by the malignant spirit of German militarism. Princess Miranda, herself unsleeping, awake, and watching, while all is desolation and despair around her, might be taken for the Spirit of Poland herself, undying, but waiting for deliverance. But where is the Prince Hero, who shall deliver her?

_Princess Miranda_--her name is _cud-dziewica_, i.e. "Wonder Maiden"--but is not "admired Miranda" the most obvious rendering?