The Dun Cow

The Dun Cow

You know that there are all sorts in this world, good and bad, people

who do not fear God, and feel no shame before their own brother.

In a certain kingdom, in a certain land, there once lived a Tsar and

Tsarítsa, who had one only daughter, Márya Tsarévna. But the old

Tsarítsa died and the Tsar took to him a second wife, who was a witch.

And the witch had three daughters, one of whom had one eye, the next two

eyes, and the third had three. The stepmother could not abide Márya

Tsarévna, and sent the girl with a dun cow on to the heath, and gave her

a dry crust as her only food.

Márya Tsarévna went on to the heath, bowed down to the right foot of the

cow, and all at once was splendidly dressed, and had as much to eat and

drink as she liked. So she guarded the dun cow the whole day, and looked

as gay as any lady in the land. And at night she bowed down again in

front of the right foot, and again became shabby and went home. And the

bit of bread she took with her and offered it to her stepmother.

“Whatever is she living on?” the witch thought, and she gave her the

same piece of bread next day, and told her eldest daughter to watch what

Márya Tsarévna did.

When they reached the heath Márya Tsarévna said: “Come, little sister, I

will find a cushion for your head.” So she went to look, but whispered

to herself:

                  “Sleep, my sister, sleep,

                    Sleep, O sister mine;

                  One eye go to sleep,

                    Close that eye of thine.”

The sister went to sleep, and Márya Tsarévna stood up, went to her dear

dun cow, bowed down to the right foot, and ate, and drank, and went

about all day long like a princess.

In the evening she woke up her sister and said: “Get up, sister; get up,

dearest; and we will go home.”

“Oh! oh! oh!” her sister whimpered, “I have been asleep all day long and

have not seen anything, and mother will be so angry!”

When they got home, the stepmother asked: “What was it Márya Tsarévna

ate and drank?”

“I did not see anything.”

So the witch scolded her, and next day sent the two-eyed sister with

Márya. “Go,” she said, “and see what she eats and drinks.”

And the girls came to the heath, and Márya Tsarévna said, “Come, little

sister, I will find a cushion for your head.” So she went to search, and

whispered to herself:

                  “Sleep, my sister, sleep,

                    Sleep, O sister mine;

                  Two-eyes go to sleep,

                    Close both eyes of thine.”

Two-eyes went to sleep, and Márya Tsarévna bowed down as before, to the

right foot of the cow, and looked like a princess all day long. In the

evening she roused Two-eyes; and if the stepmother was angry before, she

was much angrier this time.

So next day she sent Three-eyes, and Márya Tsarévna sent her to sleep in

the same way; only she forgot the third eye, and that went on looking

and looking at what Márya Tsarévna did. For she ran to her dun cow’s

right foot, bowed down, and ate, and drank, and went about all day long

splendidly attired.

And when she got home she laid the dry crust on the table. And the

mother asked the daughter what Márya Tsarévna had eaten and drunk.

Three-eyes told her everything; and the witch ordered the dun cow to be

slain.

“You must be mad, woman,” said the Tsar, “it’s quite a young heifer and

so beautiful!”

“I tell you,” said the stepmother, “it must be done”; and the old Tsar

consented.

But Márya Tsarévna asked him: “Father, do at least give me a little tiny

bit out of the cow!”

The old man gave her the piece, and she planted it; and a bush with

sweet berries grew up, with little birds singing on it, singing songs

fit for kings and peasants.

Now Iván Tsarévich had heard of Márya Tsarévna, went to her stepmother,

laid a bowl on the table, and said: “Whichever of the maidens brings me

the bowl full of berries, I will marry.”

So the mother sent One-eye to get the berries. But the birds drove her

away from the bush and almost pecked out her one eye; and so with

Two-eyes and Three-eyes. At last Márya Tsarévna had to go. Márya

Tsarévna took the bowl and gathered the berries, and the little birds

helped her in the task. When she got home she put the bowl on the table

and bowed down to Iván Tsarévich. So Iván Tsarévich took Márya Tsarévna

to be his wife, and they celebrated a merry wedding and lived a happy

life.

But, after a while, Márya Tsarévna bore a son. She wanted to show him to

her father, and, together with her husband, went to visit him. Then the

stepmother turned her into a goose, and decked her eldest daughter as

though she were the wife of Iván Tsarévich. And Iván Tsarévich returned

home.

The old man, who tended the children, got up early in the morning,

washed himself clean, took the child on his arm and went out to the

field, to the bush in the field. Grey geese were flying over it.

“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”

“In the next flock!”

Then the next flock came by.

“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”

Then the baby’s mother came to them, threw off her feathers, and gave

her little child the breast, and began weeping:

“For this one day I may come, and to-morrow, but the next day I must fly

away over the woods and over the hills.”

The old man went back home, and the boy slept all day long, until next

morning, and did not wake up. The false wife was angry with him for

taking the child into the fields where it must be much too cold.

But next morning the old man again got up very early, washed himself

clean, and took the child into the field. Iván Tsarévich followed him

secretly and hid in the bush. Then the grey geese began soaring by.

“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”

“In the next flock!”

Then the next flock came by.

“Geese, ye grey ones, where is the baby’s mother?”

Then the baby’s mother came to them, threw off her feathers, and gave

her little child the breast, and began weeping: “For this one day I may

come, but to-morrow I must fly away over the woods and over the hills.”

Then she asked: “What do I smell there?” and wanted to put on her

feathers again, but could not find them anywhere.

Iván Tsarévich had burnt them. He seized hold of Márya Tsarévna, but she

turned first into a frog, then into a lizard, and into all sorts of

insects, and last of all into a spindle. Iván Tsarévich took the spindle

and broke it in halves, threw the dull end behind him and the sharp one

in front; and his beautiful young wife stood in front of him, and they

went home.

Then the daughter of the witch cried out: “The destroyer and the wicked

woman have come.”

But Iván Tsarévich assembled all the Princes and the boyárs, and he

asked them: “With which wife shall I live?”

They said: “With the first.”

But he answered, “My lords, whichever wife leaps quickest to the door

shall remain with me.”

So the witch’s daughter climbed up at once, but Márya Tsarévna clung on.

Then Iván Tsarévich took his gun and shot the substitute wife, and lived

happy ever after with Márya Tsarévna.