Magic and Witchcraft., part 3 · page 21 2101If Katoma had been alive, I should not have been feeding these cows afield!"102Then Katoma disclosed to him who he was.103Prince Ivan warmly embraced him and burst into tears.104"I never hoped even to see you again," said he.105So they exchanged clothes.106The tutor drove the cows to the Princess's courtyard.107Anna the Fair went into the balcony, looked to see if all the cows were there, and ordered them to be driven into the sheds.108All the cows went into the sheds except the last one, which remained at the gate.109Katoma sprang at it, exclaiming--110"What are you waiting for, dog's-meat?"111Then he seized it by the tail, and pulled it so hard that he pulled the cow's hide right off!112The Princess saw this, and cried with a loud voice:113"What is that brute of a cowherd doing?114Seize him and bring him to me!"115Then the servants seized Katoma and dragged him to the palace.116He went with them, making no excuses, relying on himself.117They brought him to the Princess.118She looked at him and asked--119"Who are you?120Where do you come from?"121"I am he whose feet you cut off and whom you set on a stump.122My name is Katoma _dyadka_, oaken _shapka_."123"Well," thinks the Princess, "now that he's got his feet back again, I must act straight-forwardly with him for the future."124And she began to beseech him and the Prince to pardon her.125She confessed all her sins, and swore an oath always to love Prince Ivan, and to obey him in all things.126Prince Ivan forgave her, and began to live with her in peace and concord.127The hero who had been blind remained with them, but Katoma and his wife went to the house of [her father] the rich merchant, and took up their abode under his roof.128[There is a story in the "Panchatantra" (v. 12) which, in default of other parallels, may be worth comparing with that part of this Skazka which refers to the blind man and the cripple in the forest.129Here is an outline of it:--130To a certain king a daughter is born who has three breasts.131Deeming her presence unfortunate, he offers a hundred thousand purses of gold to anyone who will marry her and take her away.132For a long time no man takes advantage of the offer, but at last a blind man, who goes about led by a hunchback named Mantharaka or Cripple, marries her, receives the gold, and is sent far away with his wife and his friend.133All three live together in the same house.134After a time the wife falls in love with the hunchback and conspires with him to kill her husband.135For this purpose she boils a snake, intending to poison her husband with it.136But he stirs the snake-broth as it is cooking, and the steam which rises from it cures his blindness.137Seeing the snake in the pot, he guesses what has occurred, so he pretends to be still blind, and watches his wife and his friend.138They, not knowing he can see, embrace in his presence, whereupon he catches up the "cripple" by the legs, and dashes him against his wife.139So violent is the blow that her third breast is driven out of sight and the hunchback is beaten straight.140Benfey (whose version of the story differs at the end from that given by Wilson, "Essays," ii.141 in his remarks on this story (i. p. 510-15), which he connects with Buddhist legends, observes that it occurs also in the "Tuti-Nameh" (Rosen, ii. 142228), but there the hunchback is replaced by a comely youth, and the similarity with the Russian story disappears.143For a solar explanation of the Indian story see A. de Gubernatis, "Zool.144Mythology," i. 85.]145Of this story there are many variants.146In one of them[325] a king promises to reward with vast wealth anyone who will find him "a bride fairer than the sun, brighter than the moon, and whiter than snow."147A certain moujik, named Nikita Koltoma, offers to show him where a princess lives who answers to this description, and goes forth with him in search of her.148On the way, Nikita enters several forges, desiring to have a war mace cast for him, and in one of them he finds fifty smiths tormenting an old man.149Ten of them are holding him by the beard with pincers, the others are thundering away at his ribs with their hammers.150Finding that the cause of this punishment is an unpaid debt of fifty roubles, Nikita ransoms the greybeard, who straightway disappears.151Nikita obtains the mace he wants, which weighs fifty poods, or nearly a ton, and leaves the forge.152Presently the old man whom he has ransomed comes running up to him, thanks him for having rescued him from a punishment which had already lasted thirty years, and bestows on him, as a token of gratitude, a Cap of Invisibility.153Soon after this Nikita, attended by the king and his followers, reaches the palace of the royal heroine, Helena the Fair.154She at first sends her warriors to capture or slay the unwelcome visitors, but Nikita attacks them with his mace, and leaves scarce one alive.155Then she invites the king and his suite to the palace, having prepared in the mean time a gigantic bow fitted with a fiery arrow, wherewith to annihilate her guests.156Guessing this, Nikita puts on his Cap of Invisibility, bends the bow, and shoots the arrow into the queen's _terema_ [the women's chambers], and in a moment the whole upper story is in a blaze.157After that the queen submits, and is married to the king.158But Nikita warns him that for three nights running his bride will make trial of his strength by laying her hand on his breast and pressing it hard--so hard that he will not be able to bear the pressure.159When that happens, he must slip out of the room, and let Nikita take his place.160All this comes to pass; the bride lays her hand on the bridegroom's breast, and says--161"Is my hand heavy?"162"As a feather on water!" replies the king, who can scarcely draw his breath beneath the crushing weight of the hand he has won.163Then he leaves the room, under the pretext of giving an order, and Nikita takes his place.164The queen renews the experiment, presses with one hand, presses with both, and with all her might.165Nikita catches her up, and then flings her down on the floor.166The room shakes beneath the blow, the bride "arises, lies down quietly, and goes to sleep," and Nikita is replaced by the king.167By the end of the third night the queen gives up all hope of squeezing her husband to death, and makes up her mind to conjugal submission.168[326]1 2← previousMagic and Witchcraft., part 2next →Magic and Witchcraft., part 4↑ back to Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-loreThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/44/page/2/