The Wonderful Birch

THE WONDERFUL BIRCH

Once upon a time there were a man and a woman, who had an only

daughter. Now it happened that one of their sheep went astray, and they

set out to look for it, and searched and searched, each in a different

part of the wood. Then the good wife met a witch, who said to her:

‘If you spit, you miserable creature, if you spit into the sheath of my

knife, or if you run between my legs, I shall change you into a black

sheep.’

The woman neither spat, nor did she run between her legs, but yet the

witch changed her into a sheep. Then she made herself look exactly like

the woman, and called out to the good man:

‘Ho, old man, halloa! I have found the sheep already!’

The man thought the witch was really his wife, and he did not know that

his wife was the sheep; so he went home with her, glad at heart because

his sheep was found. When they were safe at home the witch said to the

man:

‘Look here, old man, we must really kill that sheep lest it run away to

the wood again.’

The man, who was a peaceable quiet sort of fellow, made no objections,

but simply said:

‘Good, let us do so.’

The daughter, however, had overheard their talk, and she ran to the

flock and lamented aloud:

‘Oh, dear little mother, they are going to slaughter you!’

‘Well, then, if they do slaughter me,’ was the black sheep’s answer,

‘eat you neither the meat nor the broth that is made of me, but gather

all my bones, and bury them by the edge of the field.’

Shortly after this they took the black sheep from the flock and

slaughtered it. The witch made pease-soup of it, and set it before the

daughter. But the girl remembered her mother’s warning. She did not

touch the soup, but she carried the bones to the edge of the field and

buried them there; and there sprang up on the spot a birch tree—a very

lovely birch tree.

Some time had passed away—who can tell how long they might have been

living there?—when the witch, to whom a child had been born in the

meantime, began to take an ill-will to the man’s daughter, and to

torment her in all sorts of ways.

Now it happened that a great festival was to be held at the palace, and

the King had commanded that all the people should be invited, and that

this proclamation should be made:

    ‘Come, people all!

Poor and wretched, one and all!

Blind and crippled though ye be,

Mount your steeds or come by sea.’

And so they drove into the King’s feast all the outcasts, and the

maimed, and the halt, and the blind. In the good man’s house, too,

preparations were made to go to the palace. The witch said to the man:

‘Go you on in front, old man, with our youngest; I will give the elder

girl work to keep her from being dull in our absence.’

So the man took the child and set out. But the witch kindled a fire on

the hearth, threw a potful of barleycorns among the cinders, and said

to the girl:

‘If you have not picked the barley out of the ashes, and put it all

back in the pot before nightfall, I shall eat you up!’

Then she hastened after the others, and the poor girl stayed at home

and wept. She tried to be sure to pick up the grains of barley, but she

soon saw how useless her labour was; and so she went in her sore

trouble to the birch tree on her mother’s grave, and cried and cried,

because her mother lay dead beneath the sod and could help her no

longer. In the midst of her grief she suddenly heard her mother’s voice

speak from the grave, and say to her:

‘Why do you weep, little daughter?’

‘The witch has scattered barleycorns on the hearth, and bid me pick

them out of the ashes,’ said the girl; ‘that is why I weep, dear little

mother.’

‘Do not weep,’ said her mother consolingly. ‘Break off one of my

branches, and strike the hearth with it crosswise, and all will be put

right.’ The girl did so. She struck the hearth with the birchen branch,

and lo! the barleycorns flew into the pot, and the hearth was clean.

Then she went back to the birch tree and laid the branch upon the

grave. Then her mother bade her bathe on one side of the stem, dry

herself on another, and dress on the third. When the girl had done all

that, she had grown so lovely that no one on earth could rival her.

Splendid clothing was given to her, and a horse, with hair partly of

gold, partly of silver, and partly of something more precious still.

The girl sprang into the saddle, and rode as swift as an arrow to the

palace. As she turned into the courtyard of the castle the King’s son

came out to meet her, tied her steed to a pillar, and led her in. He

never left her side as they passed through the castle rooms; and all

the people gazed at her, and wondered who the lovely maiden was, and

from what castle she came; but no one knew her—no one knew anything

about her. At the banquet the Prince invited her to sit next him in the

place of honour; but the witch’s daughter gnawed the bones under the

table. The Prince did not see her, and thinking it was a dog, he gave

her such a push with his foot that her arm was broken. Are you not

sorry for the witch’s daughter? It was not her fault that her mother

was a witch.

Towards evening the good man’s daughter thought it was time to go home;

but as she went, her ring caught on the latch of the door, for the

King’s son had had it smeared with tar. She did not take time to pull

it off, but, hastily unfastening her horse from the pillar, she rode

away beyond the castle walls as swift as an arrow. Arrived at home, she

took off her clothes by the birch tree, left her horse standing there,

and hastened to her place behind the stove. In a short time the man and

the woman came home again too, and the witch said to the girl:

‘Ah! you poor thing, there you are to be sure! You don’t know what fine

times we have had at the palace! The King’s son carried my daughter

about, but the poor thing fell and broke her arm.’

The girl knew well how matters really stood, but she pretended to know

nothing about it, and sat dumb behind the stove.

The next day they were invited again to the King’s banquet.

‘Hey! old man,’ said the witch, ‘get on your clothes as quick as you

can; we are bidden to the feast. Take you the child; I will give the

other one work, lest she weary.’

She kindled the fire, threw a potful of hemp seed among the ashes, and

said to the girl:

‘If you do not get this sorted, and all the seed back into the pot, I

shall kill you!’

The girl wept bitterly; then she went to the birch tree, washed herself

on one side of it and dried herself on the other; and this time still

finer clothes were given to her, and a very beautiful steed. She broke

off a branch of the birch tree, struck the hearth with it, so that the

seeds flew into the pot, and then hastened to the castle.

Again the King’s son came out to meet her, tied her horse to a pillar,

and led her into the banqueting hall. At the feast the girl sat next

him in the place of honour, as she had done the day before. But the

witch’s daughter gnawed bones under the table, and the Prince gave her

a push by mistake, which broke her leg—he had never noticed her

crawling about among the people’s feet. She was very unlucky!

The good man’s daughter hastened home again betimes, but the King’s son

had smeared the door-posts with tar, and the girl’s golden circlet

stuck to it. She had not time to look for it, but sprang to the saddle

and rode like an arrow to the birch tree. There she left her horse and

her fine clothes, and said to her mother:

‘I have lost my circlet at the castle; the door-post was tarred, and it

stuck fast.’

‘And even had you lost two of them,’ answered her mother, ‘I would give

you finer ones.’

Then the girl hastened home, and when her father came home from the

feast with the witch, she was in her usual place behind the stove. Then

the witch said to her:

‘You poor thing! what is there to see here compared with what we have

seen at the palace? The King’s son carried my daughter from one room to

another; he let her fall, ‘tis true, and my child’s foot was broken.’

The man’s daughter held her peace all the time, and busied herself

about the hearth.

The night passed, and when the day began to dawn, the witch awakened

her husband, crying:

‘Hi! get up, old man! We are bidden to the royal banquet.’

So the old man got up. Then the witch gave him the child, saying:

‘Take you the little one; I will give the other girl work to do, else

she will weary at home alone.’

She did as usual. This time it was a dish of milk she poured upon the

ashes, saying:

‘If you do not get all the milk into the dish again before I come home,

you will suffer for it.’

How frightened the girl was this time! She ran to the birch tree, and

by its magic power her task was accomplished; and then she rode away to

the palace as before. When she got to the courtyard she found the

Prince waiting for her. He led her into the hall, where she was highly

honoured; but the witch’s daughter sucked the bones under the table,

and crouching at the people’s feet she got an eye knocked out, poor

thing! Now no one knew any more than before about the good man’s

daughter, no one knew whence she came; but the Prince had had the

threshold smeared with tar, and as she fled her gold slippers stuck to

it. She reached the birch tree, and laying aside her finery, she said:

‘Alas I dear little mother, I have lost my gold slippers!’

‘Let them be,’ was her mother’s reply; ‘if you need them I shall give

you finer ones.’

Scarcely was she in her usual place behind the stove when her father

came home with the witch. Immediately the witch began to mock her,

saying:

‘Ah! you poor thing, there is nothing for you to see here, and we—ah:

what great things we have seen at the palace! My little girl was

carried about again, but had the ill-luck to fall and get her eye

knocked out. You stupid thing, you, what do you know about anything?’

‘Yes, indeed, what can I know?’ replied the girl; ‘I had enough to do

to get the hearth clean.’

Now the Prince had kept all the things the girl had lost, and he soon

set about finding the owner of them. For this purpose a great banquet

was given on the fourth day, and all the people were invited to the

palace. The witch got ready to go too. She tied a wooden beetle on

where her child’s foot should have been, a log of wood instead of an

arm, and stuck a bit of dirt in the empty socket for an eye, and took

the child with her to the castle. When all the people were gathered

together, the King’s son stepped in among the crowd and cried:

‘The maiden whose finger this ring slips over, whose head this golden

hoop encircles, and whose foot this shoe fits, shall be my bride.’

What a great trying on there was now among them all! The things would

fit no one, however.

‘The cinder wench is not here,’ said the Prince at last; ‘go and fetch

her, and let her try on the things.’

So the girl was fetched, and the Prince was just going to hand the

ornaments to her, when the witch held him back, saying:

‘Don’t give them to her; she soils everything with cinders; give them

to my daughter rather.’

Well, then the Prince gave the witch’s daughter the ring, and the woman

filed and pared away at her daughter’s finger till the ring fitted. It

was the same with the circlet and the shoes of gold. The witch would

not allow them to be handed to the cinder wench; she worked at her own

daughter’s head and feet till she got the things forced on. What was to

be done now? The Prince had to take the witch’s daughter for his bride

whether he would or no; he sneaked away to her father’s house with her,

however, for he was ashamed to hold the wedding festivities at the

palace with so strange a bride. Some days passed, and at last he had to

take his bride home to the palace, and he got ready to do so. Just as

they were taking leave, the kitchen wench sprang down from her place by

the stove, on the pretext of fetching something from the cowhouse, and

in going by she whispered in the Prince’s ear as he stood in the yard:

‘Alas! dear Prince, do not rob me of my silver and my gold.’

Thereupon the King’s son recognised the cinder wench; so he took both

the girls with him, and set out. After they had gone some little way

they came to the bank of a river, and the Prince threw the witch’s

daughter across to serve as a bridge, and so got over with the cinder

wench. There lay the witch’s daughter then, like a bridge over the

river, and could not stir, though her heart was consumed with grief. No

help was near, so she cried at last in her anguish:

‘May there grow a golden hemlock out of my body! perhaps my mother will

know me by that token.’

Scarcely had she spoken when a golden hemlock sprang up from her, and

stood upon the bridge.

Now, as soon as the Prince had got rid of the witch’s daughter he

greeted the cinder wench as his bride, and they wandered together to

the birch tree which grew upon the mother’s grave. There they received

all sorts of treasures and riches, three sacks full of gold, and as

much silver, and a splendid steed, which bore them home to the palace.

There they lived a long time together, and the young wife bore a son to

the Prince. Immediately word was brought to the witch that her daughter

had borne a son—for they all believed the young King’s wife to be the

witch’s daughter.

‘So, so,’ said the witch to herself; ‘I had better away with my gift

for the infant, then.’

And so saying she set out. Thus it happened that she came to the bank

of the river, and there she saw the beautiful golden hemlock growing in

the middle of the bridge, and when she began to cut it down to take to

her grandchild, she heard a voice moaning:

‘Alas! dear mother, do not cut me so!’

‘Are you here?’ demanded the witch.

‘Indeed I am, dear little mother,’ answered the daughter. ‘They threw

me across the river to make a bridge of me.’

In a moment the witch had the bridge shivered to atoms, and then she

hastened away to the palace. Stepping up to the young Queen’s bed, she

began to try her magic arts upon her, saying:

‘Spit, you wretch, on the blade of my knife; bewitch my knife’s blade

for me, and I shall change you into a reindeer of the forest.’

‘Are you there again to bring trouble upon me?’ said the young woman.

She neither spat nor did anything else, but still the witch changed her

into a reindeer, and smuggled her own daughter into her place as the

Prince’s wife. But now the child grew restless and cried, because it

missed its mother’s care. They took it to the court, and tried to

pacify it in every conceivable way, but its crying never ceased.

‘What makes the child so restless?’ asked the Prince, and he went to a

wise widow woman to ask her advice.

‘Ay, ay, your own wife is not at home,’ said the widow woman; ‘she is

living like a reindeer in the wood; you have the witch’s daughter for a

wife now, and the witch herself for a mother-in-law.’

‘Is there any way of getting my own wife back from the wood again?’

asked the Prince.

‘Give me the child,’ answered the widow woman. ‘I’ll take it with me

to-morrow when I go to drive the cows to the wood. I’ll make a rustling

among the birch leaves and a trembling among the aspens—perhaps the boy

will grow quiet when he hears it.’

‘Yes, take the child away, take it to the wood with you to quiet it,’

said the Prince, and led the widow woman into the castle.

‘How now? you are going to send the child away to the wood?’ said the

witch in a suspicious tone, and tried to interfere.

But the King’s son stood firm by what he had commanded, and said:

‘Carry the child about the wood; perhaps that will pacify it.’

So the widow woman took the child to the wood. She came to the edge of

a marsh, and seeing a herd of reindeer there, she began all at once to

sing—

‘Little Bright-eyes, little Redskin,

Come nurse the child you bore!

That bloodthirsty monster,

That man-eater grim,

Shall nurse him, shall tend him no more.

They may threaten and force as they will,

He turns from her, shrinks from her still,’

and immediately the reindeer drew near, and nursed and tended the child

the whole day long; but at nightfall it had to follow the herd, and

said to the widow woman:

‘Bring me the child to-morrow, and again the following day; after that

I must wander with the herd far away to other lands.’

The following morning the widow woman went back to the castle to fetch

the child. The witch interfered, of course, but the Prince said:

‘Take it, and carry it about in the open air; the boy is quieter at

night, to be sure, when he has been in the wood all day.’

So the widow took the child in her arms, and carried it to the marsh in

the forest. There she sang as on the preceding day—

‘Little Bright-eyes, little Redskin,

Come nurse the child you bore!

That bloodthirsty monster,

That man-eater grim,

Shall nurse him, shall tend him no more.

They may threaten and force as they will,

He turns from her, shrinks from her still,’

and immediately the reindeer left the herd and came to the child, and

tended it as on the day before. And so it was that the child throve,

till not a finer boy was to be seen anywhere. But the King’s son had

been pondering over all these things, and he said to the widow woman:

‘Is there no way of changing the reindeer into a human being again?’

‘I don’t rightly know,’ was her answer. ‘Come to the wood with me,

however; when the woman puts off her reindeer skin I shall comb her

head for her; whilst I am doing so you must burn the skin.’

Thereupon they both went to the wood with the child; scarcely were they

there when the reindeer appeared and nursed the child as before. Then

the widow woman said to the reindeer:

‘Since you are going far away to-morrow, and I shall not see you again,

let me comb your head for the last time, as a remembrance of you.’

Good; the young woman stript off the reindeer skin, and let the widow

woman do as she wished. In the meantime the King’s son threw the

reindeer skin into the fire unobserved.

‘What smells of singeing here?’ asked the young woman, and looking

round she saw her own husband. ‘Woe is me! you have burnt my skin. Why

did you do that?’

‘To give you back your human form again.’

‘Alack-a-day! I have nothing to cover me now, poor creature that I am!’

cried the young woman, and transformed herself first into a distaff,

then into a wooden beetle, then into a spindle, and into all imaginable

shapes. But all these shapes the King’s son went on destroying till she

stood before him in human form again.

Alas! wherefore take me home with you again,’ cried the young woman,

‘since the witch is sure to eat me up?’

‘She will not eat you up,’ answered her husband; and they started for

home with the child.

But when the witch wife saw them she ran away with her daughter, and if

she has not stopped she is running still, though at a great age. And

the Prince, and his wife, and the baby lived happy ever afterwards.[9]

[9] From the Russo-Karelian.