Well, they eat, they drink, and at length towards night the young Jew sent some one to fetch the nobleman’s son. When he arrived, all three went out to walk in the garden. Then the young Jew said to the princess, ‘Will you go away from here with us?’
‘Yes, I will go away,’ she replied.
They set out with her and hurried away, with the help of the good God. The father of the princess knew not where she had gone to; neither did he know whence the young Jew and the nobleman’s son had come. The nobleman’s son arrived at his father’s house. The father and mother are well satisfied that he has been so successful in bringing home the princess. [[181]]
‘And now, my son,’ said his father to him, ‘you must marry her.’
So he married her, and they live together with the help of God. The young Jew has also married a wife, and they live together with the help of God.
Obviously an incomplete story; for of the beautiful wand the young Jew makes no use at all, of the key very little. It offers analogies to ‘Baldpate’ (No. 2), to ‘The Dead Man’s Gratitude’ (No. 1), and to Miklosich’s Bukowina-Gypsy story of ‘The Rivals.’ The last may be summarised thus:—
An emperor’s daughter on her brow had the sun, on her breast the moon, on her back the stars. An old lady had a sow with twelve little golden pigs; and her servant tended them. He goes into the forest and grazes them along the road, and on three successive days the princess gets a little pig by revealing to him her birth-marks. The emperor makes proclamation for them to come and guess her birth-marks. A prince, who is in love with her and knows her marks, guesses them; so too does the swineherd. So the emperor shuts up the three of them in a room. ‘And the boy bought himself bread and sweet apples and sweet cakes, and put them in his bosom. And the prince lay with the girl in his arms, and the boy at her back. The princess was hungry. The boy was eating cakes. She asked him, “What are you eating, boy?” “I am eating my lips.” “Give me some.” And he gave to her. “God! how sweet.” And the prince said, “Mine are sweeter.” And he took his knife, and cut off his lips, and gave them to her. She flung them on the ground. Again the boy was eating apples. “What are you eating now, boy?” “I am eating my nose.” “Give me some.” He gave her. “God! how delicious.” And the prince, “Mine is sweeter.” He took his knife and cut off his nose, and gave it to her. She flung it on the ground. The boy eats bread. “What are you eating now, boy?” “I am eating my ears.” “Give me some.” He gave to her. “God! how delicious.” And the prince, “Mine are sweeter.” He took his knife, cut off his ears, and gave them to her. She flung them on the ground. By daybreak the prince was dead; the girl was all over blood from him, and she shoved his corpse on the ground, and took the boy in her arms. And the emperor came and found the two locked in an embrace. Straightway the emperor clad him, and joined them in marriage.’
Denton’s ‘The Shepherd and the King’s Daughter,’ in Serbian Folklore, p. 172, is closely akin to Miklosich’s story over the first six pages, but is probably Bowdlerised. Cf. too, ‘The Emperor’s Daughter and the Swineherd,’ in Krauss’s Sagen und Märchen der Südslaven, ii. 302; and [[182]]Hahn, ii. 180. Mr. David MacRitchie suggested in the Gypsy Lore Journal (ii. 381) that by the golden hen and her chickens in the Polish-Gypsy story is to be understood a planetarium of the Pleiades, the popular Roumanian name for the Pleiades being ‘the golden hen with her golden chickens.’ The suggestion is most ingenious; but in Laura Gonzenbach’s Sicilian story, ‘Vom Re Porco’ (No. 42, i. 291–293) the true bride purchases permission from the false bride to pass three nights with the bridegroom with the contents of three nuts—(1) a golden hen with many golden chickens; (2) a little golden schoolmistress, with little golden pupils, who sew and embroider; and (3) a lovely golden eagle. Cf. also Hahn, i. 188.
An emperor’s daughter on her brow had the sun, on her breast the moon, on her back the stars. An old lady had a sow with twelve little golden pigs; and her servant tended them. He goes into the forest and grazes them along the road, and on three successive days the princess gets a little pig by revealing to him her birth-marks. The emperor makes proclamation for them to come and guess her birth-marks. A prince, who is in love with her and knows her marks, guesses them; so too does the swineherd. So the emperor shuts up the three of them in a room. ‘And the boy bought himself bread and sweet apples and sweet cakes, and put them in his bosom. And the prince lay with the girl in his arms, and the boy at her back. The princess was hungry. The boy was eating cakes. She asked him, “What are you eating, boy?” “I am eating my lips.” “Give me some.” And he gave to her. “God! how sweet.” And the prince said, “Mine are sweeter.” And he took his knife, and cut off his lips, and gave them to her. She flung them on the ground. Again the boy was eating apples. “What are you eating now, boy?” “I am eating my nose.” “Give me some.” He gave her. “God! how delicious.” And the prince, “Mine is sweeter.” He took his knife and cut off his nose, and gave it to her. She flung it on the ground. The boy eats bread. “What are you eating now, boy?” “I am eating my ears.” “Give me some.” He gave to her. “God! how delicious.” And the prince, “Mine are sweeter.” He took his knife, cut off his ears, and gave them to her. She flung them on the ground. By daybreak the prince was dead; the girl was all over blood from him, and she shoved his corpse on the ground, and took the boy in her arms. And the emperor came and found the two locked in an embrace. Straightway the emperor clad him, and joined them in marriage.’
No. 49.—The Golden Bird and the Good Hare
Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons, two wise and one foolish. This king had an apple-tree which bore golden apples; but every night some one robbed him of these apples. The king inflicted severe punishment on his servants.