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 [[31]]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. [[32]]
[1] Serbian name for “Cinderella.” [↑]
SATAN’S JUGGLINGS AND GOD’S MIGHT
One morning the son of the king went out to hunt. Whilst walking through the snow he cut himself a little, and the drops of blood fell on the snow. When he saw how pretty the red blood looked on the white snow he thought, “Oh, if I could only marry a girl as white as snow and as rosy red as this blood!” Whilst he was thus thinking he met an old woman, and asked her if there were such maidens anywhere to be found. The old woman told him that on the mountain he saw before him he would find a house without doors, and the only entrance and outlet of this house was a single window. And, she added, “In that house, my son, there is living a girl such as you desire; but of the young men who have gone to ask her to be their wife none have returned.”
“That may all be as you say,” answered the prince, “I will go, nevertheless! Only tell me the way that I must take to get to the house.” When the old woman heard this resolve she was sorry for the young man, and, taking a piece of bread from her pouch, she gave it to him, saying, “Take this bread and keep it safe as the apple of your eye.” The prince took the bread, [[33]]and continued his journey. Very soon afterwards he met another old woman, and she asked him where he was going. He told her he was going to demand the girl who lived in the doorless house on the mountain. Then the old woman tried to dissuade him, telling him just the same things as the former one had done. He said, however, “That may be quite true, nevertheless I will go, even if I never return.” Then the old woman gave to the prince a little nut, saying, “Keep this nut always by you; it may help you some time or other.”
The prince took the nut and went on his way till he came to where an old woman was sitting by the roadside. She asked him, “Where are you going?” Then he told her he was going to demand the girl who lived in the house on the mountain before him. Upon this the old woman wept, and prayed him to give up all thoughts of the girl, and she gave him the very same warnings as the other old women had done. All this, however, was of no use, the prince was resolved to go on, so the old woman gave him a walnut, saying, “Take this walnut, and keep it carefully until you want it.”