Part 12

As the eldest brother, however, thought that she was trying to cheat him, he would not comply with her request.

Finding that she could not otherwise help herself, she at length said to him, “Take some ashes from that heap under the tree, and throw them over yourself and your company, and whilst you do so say, ‘Arise up, dust and ashes—what I am now may you also be!’”

Wonder of wonders! The moment he did as she told him, there arose up crowds of men—more than ten thousand of them. On seeing such a multitude of people coming from under the tree, he was almost struck senseless with astonishment. But he explained to them briefly what had happened. Most of them thanked him heartily; some, however, of them would not believe him, and said with anger, “We would rather you had not awakened us.” Then they went away in crowds; some took one way, some another, until they were all dispersed. Only his two brothers remained behind; though they, too, for some time could not believe that he was their brother. However, when they saw that their animals recognised his, they remembered that no one but themselves had had such a strange company of beasts. Having recognised each other, the brothers fell into each other’s arms, and embraced affectionately. Then they divided the ducats which the old woman had given to the eldest, loaded their animals with their treasures, and went straight away towards the place where they were born, and where their parents had died.

As for the old woman, when the last man arose from the ashes under the oak-tree, she herself crumbled into ashes under it.

IV.

The three brothers built three fine palaces for themselves, and lived therein some time unmarried. At length, however, they began to think what would become of all their property after their deaths, and said to each other that it would be a pity for them to die without heirs. So they resolved to marry, that their wealth might be left to their sons and daughters.

The eldest brother said, “Let me go and find the best wives I can for all three of us; meantime you two will remain here, and take care of our property.” The others gladly agreed to this, as the eldest brother had given proofs enough that he was by far the wisest of the three, and they felt sure that he would be able also to bring this important business to a successful issue. So he made the needful preparations, and started on his journey to look out for three wives for himself and the two younger brothers who remained at home.

After long travelling he arrived at a large city, and resolved to remain there all night, and to continue his journey in the morning.

It happened that the king of that place had just arranged a horse-race, and promised his only daughter as the prize, and, with her, ten loads of treasure to the winner.

The very evening the eldest brother arrived he heard the public bell-man proclaiming aloud through the streets, that everyone who had a horse should come to-morrow to the royal field, and whoever should spring first over the ditch should be rewarded with the king’s daughter, and should receive, with her, ten loads of gold.

He listened to the proclamation without saying anything. Next morning he went out into the king’s field in order to see the racing, and found there already innumerable horses of all kinds.

A little later came also the princess, the king’s daughter, and behind her were brought ten loads of treasures.

When he saw the king’s daughter he thought her so exceedingly beautiful that he went instantly a little aside from the crowd to get a better sight of her. He then remembered his wonderful stone. Taking it out he now lifted it to his lips, and immediately the two negroes appeared, and said, “Master, what do you command?” He replied, “Bring me clothes of silk and velvet, together with precious stones, and ten good horses! and bring them as soon as possible!” He had not winked twice before the negroes had placed before him everything which he had demanded. Then he took out the hair, and, striking fire with a flint, held the hair near it. The moment he did this, the same cream-coloured horse that had given him the hair stood beside him, and asked, “Master, what do you command?” He answered, “I wish that to-day we leave all the other horses behind us in the race, so that I may gain the king’s daughter. Therefore prepare yourself, and let us go at once, as the other horses are now ready for starting.”

The instant he had spoken these words, the cream-coloured horse stood, pawing the earth, ready and eager to begin the race. The man then mounted it, and off they went. The other racers, having started a few moments before, were already pretty far from the starting-point; in an instant, however, he had reached them, and in another had passed and left them far behind. When he reached the ditch—which was a hundred and five yards deep, and a hundred yards wide—the horse made so great a spring that it touched ground some fifty yards beyond the ditch, broad as it was.

Then he rode back and took the maiden, the king’s daughter, and, placing her behind him on his horse, carried her off, together with the loads of gold. All the people, seeing this, wondered greatly who the strange knight could be who had left all the best horses so far behind in the race, and had won the beautiful princess, with all her rich treasures.

He rode along until he came to a wood pretty far from the city, and there he let his wonderful horse go until he should want him again. He then took off all his beautiful clothes, and put on his old dress, and in this manner went on with the maiden and the loads of gold.

About evening he arrived at a strange city, and decided to remain there. After he had rested a little while, the people in the inn told him that all day long the city bell-man had proclaimed that whoever had a good horse should go to-morrow to the horse-race, for the king of the palace had offered his only daughter as a prize, together with a hundredweight of gold and jewels; but that there was a ditch to be sprung over which was three hundred and fifty yards deep and a hundred and fifty yards wide. When he heard this he was greatly pleased, for he was quite sure that he should win this race also.

Next morning, by the help of the little stone and the wonderful hair, he was again dressed in the finest clothes, and mounted on his cream-coloured horse, and so took his place amongst the racers.

Everyone wondered from what country this knight came, and were delighted at his rich dress; as for the horse, the people were never tired of admiring it. When the race-horses were arranged for the start he remained purposely behind. He knew well enough that this was of no consequence to him, as in one moment he could reach and pass them all. At length he started, and in a moment distanced the fleetest horse, arriving at the ditch, and leaping over it as if it were nothing. Then, without waiting a minute, he took possession of the king’s daughter and her treasures, and went straight to the city where he had left the first king’s daughter and her loads of gold.

Taking the two princesses and all the wealth with him, he now thought that it was time for him to go back home. On his way, however, he had the great good luck to come again to a large city, where he resolved to remain during the night. There, also, the public crier had been proclaiming all day long that the king had determined to give his only daughter and fifteen hundredweight of gold to whoever should win the race which was to be run on the morrow. In this instance, however, the horses would have to leap over a ditch one thousand yards deep and four hundred and fifty yards wide. On hearing this proclamation, the eldest brother became very joyful, for he knew that no racer had any chance of beating his wonderful horse.

On the morrow, therefore, by means of his little stone and the hair, he ordered fifteen horses to be ready, to carry away the treasures he felt sure of winning, and, at the same time, directed the negroes to bring him his fairy courser and dresses so splendid that not even a king could buy them.

Richly dressed in this way, and mounted, as he was, on his marvellous horse, all the world, who had gathered to see the great race, could look at nothing except at him.

When all the racers were arranged for the start, he lingered behind and let them all speed off like falcons. He wished everyone to see that he was the last to start, that they might not charge him afterwards with having in any way cheated. When they had already gone pretty far, he started himself, and in a moment he had reached them, passed them, and left them all a long, long distance behind. How could it be otherwise? When did the crow outfly the falcon? Coming to the ditch, he touched the bridle a little, and, in an instant, his horse had leaped over the ditch, and they were safe on the other side. So, without any delay, he took away the maiden, together with all the gold, and went back to the city. Having collected his immense treasures, he now took with him the three princesses and went straight home. As he travelled along with his company, everyone who met him asked him, “Where are you going?” For you see the princesses were exceedingly beautiful. But beyond all others his two brothers, when he reached home, wondered and were delighted at the sight of the three beautiful princesses. They did not rejoice half so much over the great riches he had gained for them as over the marvellous fairness of the king’s daughters whom he had brought to be their wives.

Thus each of the three brothers married a beautiful princess; the eldest brother, however, who had shown himself so much the bravest and wisest of them, married the youngest and most beautiful of the three.

THE SHEPHERD AND THE KING’S DAUGHTER

A long time ago there lived a poor woman who possessed nothing in the world except one son and four lambs. The boy took the lambs out to graze every morning, and brought them home every night. One day it happened that the lambs were grazing in a field not far from the summer palace of the king, and the king’s daughter came out to the young shepherd and asked him to give her one of them. The boy refused, saying, “I cannot give you one, for my mother will scold me if I do, as we have nothing in the world except these four lambs.” The princess, however, had taken so great a fancy for a lamb that she would not be refused, and at last said, “Only let me have this one and I will give you any price you like to ask.”

The boy, seeing that the princess would not go away without a lamb, considered a little how he could get rid of her, and then he told her that he would give her one if she would show him one of her shoulders. To his great surprise the princess, without any hesitation, pushed her mantle aside and showed him her bare white arm, and he noticed that on the shoulder there was a mark like a star. He was obliged now to give her one of his lambs, and when he went home in the evening he told his mother that he had fallen asleep at noon, and that when he awoke, one of the lambs had vanished, and he could not find it anywhere.

Then his mother scolded him very much, saying, “I see you will bring me to the beggar’s staff with your carelessness! To-morrow you must take these three lambs out to graze very early, and look well about for the lost one. And if you don’t find it you had better never let me set eyes on you again.”

At dawn the next day the boy took the three lambs to graze in the same field, and sat down to consider how he could get back the lamb he had lost. At noon, when no one was about, the king’s daughter came out of the palace and said to him, “Young shepherd, give me another lamb, and ask what you please in return.” But the boy answered, “No! I dare not give you another; I have suffered enough for the one I gave you yesterday! So please go and bring me my lamb back.”

This the princess refused to do, and said, “It is quite useless to speak of such a thing. But tell me, did you notice anything particular on my shoulder?”

The youth answered, “Yes, I saw a star!”

“Ah!” exclaimed the princess; “for that you can never pay me enough, and yet you want your lamb back!” So they almost quarrelled, for the king’s daughter persisted in begging him to give her another lamb, and the young shepherd insisted that she should bring him the first one back again.

At last, seeing there was no end to her begging, the boy said, “Well! I will give you one if you uncover before me your other shoulder.” This the princess did instantly, and he remarked that she had the mark of a star on that arm also. In this way he lost a second lamb; and when the evening came he went home very sadly, feeling sure his mother would scold him. And so she did, far more than at the first time, calling him ill names and threatening to beat him. The boy was really sorry that he had given way to the princess’s prayers, but he could not help it now. Next day, again, the princess came to him and begged so hard and so long for a third lamb that he became impatient, and, thinking to shame her, said he would give her one if she showed him her neck. To his great surprise, however, the king’s daughter at once let her mantle fall, and he saw that she had the mark of a crescent on her throat. So the poor boy lost a third lamb, and hardly dared go home to his mother at night with the one lamb left them. Indeed the poor old woman was so angry at her son’s carelessness in losing one lamb after another whilst he slept—for he did not dare to tell her the truth about the princess—that she cursed him as “a good-for-nothing who would bring her to beggary.”

Notwithstanding all his mother’s reproaches and threats the boy could not refuse the princess the next day when she came out to ask for the fourth lamb. However, he tried to get her to go away a long time, and not until quite tired out with her begging, did he exclaim, “Well, I will give you the lamb if you will show me your breast!” Then the princess pushed her robe aside, and the boy noticed that she had the mark of a sun on her bosom.

In this way the young shepherd lost all the four lambs, and he lived a long time with his mother in great poverty.

A long, long time afterwards the king sent out a proclamation that he intended to let his daughter marry, and would give her to that man who could tell him what particular birth-marks she had about her. The young shepherd heard this proclamation, and when he went home in the evening he said to his mother, “Mother, I intend to go to the king’s palace to-morrow, so get me my best linen ready.”

“And what do you want in the king’s palace?” asked the poor old woman wondering.

“I intend, God helping me, to marry the king’s daughter,” replied the young man boldly.

“Oh! you had better give up that fancy,” cried the mother. “It will be better for you to go and work and gain a piaster than to go, like a fly without a head, dreaming about things that are as high as the sky above you.”

But the young man would not be persuaded, and went the next day to the king’s palace. Before going out of the hut, however, he said to his anxious old mother, “Good-bye, mother.”

He had not waited very far before a gipsy met him, and asked, “Where are you going, my young man?”

“I am going to the king’s palace,” answered the youth, “and I mean, God helping me, to marry the king’s daughter.”

“But, my dear comrade,” said the gipsy, keeping near him, “how can you really expect that she will marry you, when you are so poor? Only a shepherd!”

“Eh!” returned the young man; “but I know what birth-marks she has, and the king has sent out a proclamation that whoever guesses these shall have her for his wife.”

“If it is so,” rejoined the cunning gipsy, “I myself will also go to the palace with you.”

The young man was glad to have company on the road, and so he and the gipsy travelled on together until they came to the residence of the king.

When they came to the palace they found a large number of people who had come to “try their luck,” and guess what birth-marks the princess had. But it was lost time, for every one of them, after going past the king and guessing “by good luck” at the marks of the princess, was obliged to go away, having lost his time and gained nothing. At length the turn came for the young shepherd to pass before the king, and the gipsy kept close to him to hear what he would say.

So the youth stepped before the king and said, “The princess has a star on each shoulder, and a crescent on the throat——”

At this moment the gipsy shouted loudly, “Look there! that is just what I was going to say!”

“Be quiet!” said the young shepherd; “or, if you really know what other marks she has, speak out.”

“No, no!” cried the gipsy, “go on, go on! When you have done, I will speak what I know!”

Then the youth turned again to the king and continued, “The princess has the mark of a sun on her bosom——”

“That is exactly what I was going to say!” cried the gipsy, coming up quickly; “she has the mark of a sun on her breast.”

Now the king was exceeding surprised, and confessed to his counsellors that the young shepherd had really guessed the truth. But as neither the king nor the counsellors at all liked the idea of the princess marrying a poor shepherd, they consulted how they could get rid of him without giving the lie to the king’s proclamation. At length it was decided that his Majesty should say, “As both the shepherd and the gipsy have guessed the princess’s birth-marks, I cannot justly decide which of them should marry her. But I will give to each of them seventy piasters, and they must both go and trade with this money for a year. At the end of the year, that one which brings back the most money shall have the princess for his wife.”

The young shepherd and the gipsy, having received the money, went off in opposite directions to seek their fortunes.

After having travelled about some time, like a fly without a head, not knowing where—the shepherd stopped one night to rest in the hut of an old woman, who was even poorer than his own mother.

As he sat with the old woman in the hut that evening, the lad thought he might just as well ask her advice as to the best way to invest his capital of seventy piasters, so he said: “I have seventy piasters to trade with, can you tell me some good way in which I may employ them profitably?”

The old woman considered the matter for some time before she answered, and then said, “To-morrow is market-day in the next city; go there yourself, and when a man brings a very poor cow for sale, go up and try to buy it. The cow will be of many different colours, but very thin and ill fed, but you must buy her at whatever price the man asks for her. When you have bought her, bring her here at once.”

The young man agreed to follow the old woman’s counsel, and so next day he went to the city and really found there a man who had brought a poor, but variously coloured, cow to sell. Many people wished to buy the cow, but the young man outbid them all, and at length offered all his seventy piasters for her. So he got the cow, and drove it to the hut where he had passed the night. When the old woman came out to see who was coming, he called out to her, “Now, my old mother, I have bought the cow, and what shall we do with her? She has cost me all my capital!”

The old woman answered at once, “Kill the cow, my son, and cut it in pieces.”

“But how will that bring me back my money with profit?” asked the young shepherd, hesitating whether he should follow her advice or no.

“Don’t be afraid, my son, but do as I say,” returned the old woman. Accordingly he did as she advised him, killed the cow and cut her into pieces. This done, he asked again, “And now, what shall I do?” The old woman said quietly, “Well, now we will eat the meat, and the suet we will melt down and put into a pot to keep for some other occasion.”

The shepherd did not at all like this proposal, for he could not see what return he could hope to get for such an investment of his capital. However, he thought within himself, “Well, since I have been foolish enough to follow her counsel on the two former occasions, I may as well follow it also this third time.” So he remained with the old woman many days, until the last piece of meat had been eaten up. When, however, he thought over all that had happened, he grew very sad, and, seeing no sign of anything better, said one morning to the old woman reproachfully, “Now you see by following your counsel I have spent all the king’s money, and am now a ruined man!”

“Don’t be afraid, my son,” said the old woman; “you can now take that pot of suet with you and go to the black world, where all the people are black as chimney-pots, and there you can sell for a good deal of money your suet, for it has the power to make the black skin white.”

The poor shepherd was very glad at hearing this, and next morning took the pot of suet on his shoulder and started on his journey. After he had travelled many, many days, he came to a strange-looking country, and, going a little farther, he saw a man who was quite black, just as the old woman had said—as black as a chimney-pot. He was immediately going to offer to sell some of his fat to the black man, when the latter, frightened at the sight of a white man, ran away. Many other black men who saw him did the same, but after a while, when they saw that he went on quietly carrying his pot on his shoulder, they took courage, and came to him one by one, until at last quite a large crowd had gathered about him. At length, one of them ventured to say to him, “You strange-looking man, tell us who you are, and where you come from, and why did you come here?” The shepherd answered, “I am a white man from a white world, and I come to bring you some fat which will make you also white—that is, of course, if you choose to buy it from me and pay me for it well.”

Now the black men, though they had been quite shocked at first to see the white man, began to think they also would like to be white; so they said they were willing to pay him as much as he liked to ask for his wonderful fat, because they were very rich.

However, they doubted a little if the fat would really make them white as he said, and wished to see it tried before they bought it. Thereupon he set the pot on the ground, and walked round and round it, saying some queer words as if he were charming it. Then he took out of the pot a little of the fat, and with it smeared one of the black men. In a moment the black skin became quite white, and the other blacks, seeing that he had told them the truth, crowded eagerly round him, begging that he would make them white also, and out-bidding each other in offers of money, provided only that he made them white in a short time. The young shepherd worked hard, smearing one black skin after the other, until he got quite weary and had become very rich, for they gave him a good deal of money, and there were a great many of them who wished to be made white.

Just as he had thus whitened the last of the black men about him, one of them said to him, “Wonder-working man! We have a king who, being our chief, is the blackest of us all; therefore, if you think you can make him white also, we are sure he will be very glad to get rid of his blackness, and will pay you more money than you ever dreamt of.”

“I will do it very gladly,” answered the shepherd; “for you must know I am doing this not so much for the sake of money as for charity; only, show me at once the way to your king.”

So they all ran off before him to show him the way, and he followed them carrying his pot on his shoulder.