Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen
walls trembled. Yet his love for her was so great that he did his best
not to show his anger, and turned away as if to leave her. But his
feet became entangled in his long beard, and he fell down, dropping a
cap he was carrying in his hand. Now this cap had the power of making
its wearer invisible. The negroes hastened up to their master, and
placing him on his throne bore him out.
Directly the princess found herself alone she jumped off the sofa,
locked the door, and picking up the cap ran to a mirror to try it on
and see how it suited her. Imagine her amazement when looking in the
glass she saw--nothing at all! She took off the cap, and behold, she
was there again as large as life. She soon found out what sort of cap
it was, and rejoicing in the possession of such a marvel, put it on
her head again and began to walk about the room. Soon the door was
burst violently open, and the dwarf entered with his beard tied up.
But he found neither the princess nor the cap, and so came to the
conclusion that she had taken it. In a great rage he began to search
high and low; he looked under all the furniture, behind the curtains,
and even beneath the carpets, but it was all in vain. Meanwhile the
princess, still invisible, had left the palace and run into the
garden, which was very large and beautiful. There she lived at her
ease, eating the delicious fruit, drinking water from the fountain,
and enjoying the helpless fury of the dwarf, who sought her
untiringly. Sometimes she would throw the fruit-stones in his face, or
take off the cap and show herself for an instant: then she would put
it on again, and laugh merrily at his rage.
One day, while playing this game, the cap caught in the branches of a
gooseberry bush. The dwarf seeing this at once ran up, seized the
princess in one hand and the cap in the other, and was about to carry
both off when the sound of a war-trumpet was heard.
The dwarf trembled with rage and muttered a thousand curses. He
breathed on the princess to send her to sleep, covered her with the
invisible cap, and seizing a double-bladed sword, rose up in the air
as high as the clouds, so that he might fall upon his assailant and
kill him at one stroke. We shall now see with whom he had to deal.
After the hurricane had upset the wedding procession and carried off
the princess, there arose a great tumult among those at court. The
king, the princess's attendants, and Prince Dobrotek sought her in
every direction, calling her by name, and making inquiries of every
one they met. At last, the king in despair declared that if Prince
Dobrotek did not bring back his daughter, he would destroy his kingdom
and have him killed. And to the other princes present he promised that
whosoever among them should bring Pietnotka back to him should have
her for his wife and receive half of the kingdom. Whereupon they all
mounted their horses without loss of time and dispersed in every
direction.
Prince Dobrotek, overpowered with grief and dismay, travelled three
days without eating, drinking, or sleeping. On the evening of the
third day he was quite worn-out with fatigue, and stopping his horse
in a field, got down to rest for a short time. Suddenly he heard
cries, as of something in pain, and looking round saw an enormous owl
tearing a hare with its claws. The prince laid hold of the first hard
thing that came to his hand; he imagined it to be a stone, but it was
really a skull, and aiming it at the owl, killed the bird with the
first blow. The rescued hare ran up to him and gratefully licked his
hands, after which it ran away: but the human skull spoke to him and
said, "Prince Dobrotek, accept my grateful thanks for the good turn
you have done me. I belonged to an unhappy man who took his own life,
and for this crime of suicide I have been condemned to roll in the mud
until I was the means of saving the life of one of God's creatures. I
have been kicked about for seven hundred and seventy years, crumbling
miserably on the earth, and without exciting the compassion of a
single individual. You have been the means of setting me free by
making use of me to save the life of that poor hare. In return for
this kindness I will teach you how to call to your aid a most
marvellous horse, who during my life belonged to me. He will be able
to help you in a thousand ways, and when in need of him you have only
to walk out on the moorland without once looking behind you, and to
say:
'Dappled Horse with Mane of Gold,
Horse of Wonder! Come to me.
Walk not the earth, for I am told
You fly like birds o'er land and sea.'
Finish your work of mercy by burying me here, so that I may be at rest
until the day of judgment. Then depart in peace and be of good cheer."
The prince dug a hole at the foot of a tree, and reverently buried the
skull, repeating over it the prayers for the dead. Just as he finished
he saw a small blue flame come out of the skull and fly towards
heaven: it was the soul of the dead man on its way to the angels.
The prince made the sign of the cross and resumed his journey. When he
had gone some way along the moorland he stopped, and without looking
back tried the effect of the magic words, saying:
"Dappled Horse with Mane of Gold,
Horse of Wonder! Come to me.
Walk not the earth, for I am told
You fly like birds o'er land and sea."
Then amid flash of lightning and roll of thunder appeared the horse. A
horse, do I say? Why, he was a miracle of wonder. He was light as air,
with dappled coat and golden mane. Flames came from his nostrils and
sparks from his eyes. Volumes of steam rolled from his mouth and
clouds of smoke issued from his ears. He stopped before the prince,
and said in a human voice, "What are your orders, Prince Dobrotek?"
"I am in great trouble," answered the prince, "and shall be glad if
you can help me." Then he told all that had happened.
And the horse said, "Enter in at my left ear, and come out at my
right."
The prince obeyed, and came out at the right ear clad in a suit of
splendid armour. His gilded cuirass, his steel helmet inlaid with
gold, and his sword and club made of him a complete warrior. Still
more, he felt himself endowed with superhuman strength and bravery.
When he stamped his foot and shouted the earth trembled and gave forth
a sound like thunder, the very leaves fell from the trees.
"What must we do? Where are we to go?" he asked.
The horse replied, "Your bride, Princess Pietnotka, has been carried
off by the Dwarf with the Long Beard, whose hump weighs two hundred
and eighty pounds. This powerful magician must be defeated, but he
lives a long way from here, and nothing can touch or wound him except
the sharp smiting sword that belongs to his own brother, a monster
with the head and eyes of a basilisk. We must first attack the
brother."
Prince Dobrotek leaped on to the dappled horse, which was covered with
golden trappings, and they set off immediately, clearing mountains,
penetrating forests, crossing rivers; and so light was the steed's
step that he galloped over the grass without bending a single blade,
and along sandy roads without raising a grain of dust. At last they
reached a vast plain, strewn with human bones. They stopped in front
of a huge moving mountain, and the horse said:
"Prince, this moving mountain that you see before you is the head of
the Monster with Basilisk Eyes, and the bones that whiten the ground
are the skeletons of his victims, so beware of the eyes that deal
death. The heat of the midday sun has made the giant sleep, and the
sword with the never-failing blade lies there before him. Bend down
and lie along my neck until we are near enough, then seize the sword
and you have nothing more to fear. For, without the sword, not only
will the monster be unable to harm you, but he himself will be
completely at your mercy."
The horse then noiselessly approached the huge creature, upon which
the prince bent down, and quickly picked up the sword. Then, raising
himself on his steed's back, he gave a "Hurrah!" loud enough to wake
the dead. The giant lifted his head, yawned, and turned his
bloodthirsty eyes upon the prince; but seeing the sword in his hand he
became quiet, and said, "Knight, is it weariness of life that brings
you here?"
"Boast not," replied the prince, "you are in my power. Your glance has
already lost its magic charm, and you will soon have to die by this
sword. But first tell me who you are."
"It is true, prince, I am in your hands, but be generous, I deserve
your pity. I am a knight of the race of giants, and if it were not for
the wickedness of my brother I should have lived in peace. He is the
horrible dwarf with the great hump and the beard seven feet long. He
was jealous of my fine figure, and tried to do me an injury. You must
know that all his strength, which is extraordinary, lies in his beard,
and it can only be cut off by the sword you hold in your hand. One day
he came to me and said, 'Dear brother, I pray you help me to discover
the sharp smiting sword that has been hidden in the earth by a
magician. He is our enemy, and he alone can destroy us both.' Fool
that I was, I believed him, and by means of a large oak tree, raked up
the mountain and found the sword. Then we disputed as to which of us
should have it, and at last my brother suggested that we should cease
quarrelling and decide by lot. 'Let us each put an ear to the ground,
and the sword shall belong to him who first hears the bells of yonder
church,' said he. I placed my ear to the ground at once, and my
brother treacherously cut off my head with the sword. My body, left
unburied, became a great mountain, which is now overgrown with
forests. As for my head, it is full of a life and strength proof
against all dangers, and has remained here ever since to frighten all
who attempt to take away the sword. Now, prince, I beg of you, use the
sword to cut off the beard of my wicked brother; kill him, and return
here to put an end to me: I shall die happy if I die avenged."
"That you shall be, and very soon, I promise you," replied his
listener.
The prince bade the Dappled Horse with Golden Mane carry him to the
kingdom of the Dwarf with the Long Beard. They reached the garden gate
at the very moment when the dwarf had caught sight of Princess
Pietnotka and was running after her. The war-trumpet, challenging him
to fight, had obliged him to leave her, which he did, having first put
on her head the invisible cap.
While the prince was awaiting the answer to his challenge he heard a
great noise in the clouds, and looking up saw the dwarf preparing to
aim at him from a great height. But he missed his aim and fell to the
ground so heavily that his body was half buried in the earth. The
prince seized him by the beard, which he at once cut off with the
sharp smiting sword.
Then he fastened the dwarf to the saddle, put the beard in his helmet,
and entered the palace. When the servants saw that he had really got
possession of the terrible beard, they opened all the doors to give
him entrance. Without losing a moment he began his search for Princess
Pietnotka. For a long time he was unsuccessful, and was almost in
despair when he came across her accidentally, and, without knowing it,
knocked off the invisible cap. He saw his lovely bride sound asleep,
and being unable to wake her he put the cap in his pocket, took her in
his arms, and, mounting his steed, set off to return to the Monster
with the Basilisk Eyes. The giant swallowed the dwarf at one mouthful,
and the prince cut the monster's head up into a thousand pieces, which
he scattered all over the plain.
He then resumed his journey, and on coming to the moorland the dappled
horse stopped short and said, "Prince, here for the present we must