Ghost Stories., part 1 · page 21 2101Next day the two-eyed kept watch, and after it the three-eyed and so on.102The grandfather always muttered his charm 'Sleep, eye!103Sleep, second eye!104Sleep, third eye!' and so on.105But with the twelfth goat he failed, for he charmed only eleven of her eyes.106The goat saw him with the twelfth and caught him,"--and there the story ends.107[387]108In another instance the myth has been turned into one of those tales of the Munchausen class, the title of which is the "saw" _Ne lyubo, ne slushai_, _i.e._, "If you don't like, don't listen"--the final words being understood; "but let me tell you a story."109A cock finds a pea in the part of a cottage under the floor, and begins calling to the hens; the cottager hears the call, drives away the cock, and pours water over the pea.110It grows up to the floor, up to the ceiling, up to the roof; each time way is made for it, and finally it grows right up to heaven (_do nebushka_).111Says the moujik to his wife:112"Wife! wife, I say! shall I climb up into heaven and see what's going on there?113May be there's sugar there, and mead--lots of everything!"114"Climb away, if you've a mind to," replies his wife.115So he climbs up, and there he finds a large wooden house.116He enters in and sees a stove, garnished with sucking pigs and geese and pies "and everything which the soul could desire."117But the stove is guarded by a seven-eyed goat; the moujik charms six of the eyes to sleep, but overlooks the seventh.118With it the goat sees him eat and drink and then go to sleep.119The house-master comes in, is informed by the goat of all that has occurred, flies into a passion, calls his servants, and has the intruder turned out of the house.120When the moujik comes to the place where the pea-stalk had been, "he looks around--no pea-stalk is there."121He collects the cobwebs "which float on the summer air," and of them he makes a cord; this he fastens "to the edge of heaven" and begins to descend.122Long before he reaches the earth he comes to the end of his cord, so he crosses himself, and lets go.123Falling into a swamp, he remains there some time.124At last a duck builds her nest on his head, and lays an egg in it.125He catches hold of the duck's tail, and the bird pulls him out of the swamp; whereupon he goes home rejoicing, taking with him the duck and her egg, and tells his wife all that has happened.126[388]127In another variant it is an acorn which is sown under the floor.128From it springs an oak which grows to the skies.129The old man of the story climbs up it in search of acorns, and reaches heaven.130There he finds a hand-mill and a cock with a golden comb, both of which he carries off.131The mill grinds pies and pancakes, and the old man and his wife live in plenty.132But after a time a Barin or Seigneur steals the mill.133The old people are in despair, but the golden-combed cock flies after the mill, perches on the Barin's gates, and cries--134"Kukureku!135Boyarin, Boyarin!136Give us back our golden, sky-blue mill!"137The cock is flung into the well, but it drinks all the water, flies up to the Barin's house, and there reiterates its demand.138Then it is thrown into the fire, but it extinguishes the flames, flies right into the Barin's guest-chamber, and crows as before.139The guests disperse, the Barin runs after them, and the golden-combed cock seizes the mill and flies away with it.140[389]141In a variant from the Smolensk Government, it is the wife who climbs up the pea-stalk, while the husband remains down below.142When she reaches the top, she finds an _izbushka_ or cottage there, its walls made of pies, its tables of cheese, its stove of pancakes, and so forth.143After she has feasted and gone to sleep in a corner, in come three goats, of which the first has two eyes and two ears, the second has three of each of these organs, and the third has four.144The old woman sends to sleep the ears and the eyes of the first and the second goat; but when the third watches it retains the use of its fourth eye and fourth ear, in spite of the incantations uttered by the intruder, and so finds her out.145On being questioned, she explains that she has come "from the earthly realm into the heavenly," and promises not to repeat her visit if she is dismissed in peace.146So the goats let her go, and give her a bag of nuts, apples, and other good things to take with her.147She slides down the pea-stalk and tells her husband all that has happened.checked by a teacher148He persuades her to undertake a second ascent together with him, so off they set in company, their young granddaughter climbing after them.149Suddenly the pea-stalk breaks, they fall headlong and are never heard of again. "150Since that time," says the story, "no one has ever set foot in that heavenly izbushka--so no one knows anything more about it."151[390]152Clearer and fuller than these vague and fragmentary sketches of a "heavenly realm," are the pictures contained in the Russian folk-tales of the underground world.153But it is very doubtful how far the stories in which they figure represent ancient Slavonic ideas.154In the name, if not in the nature, of the _Ad_, or subterranean abode of evil spirits and sinful souls, we recognize the influence of the Byzantine Hades; but most of the tales in which it occurs are supposed to draw their original inspiration from Indian sources, while they owe to Christian, Brahmanic, Buddhistic, and Mohammedan influences the form in which they now appear.155To these "legends," as the folk-tales are styled in which the saints or their ghostly enemies occur, belongs the following narrative of--1 2← previousMagic and Witchcraft., part 9next →Ghost Stories., part 2↑ back to Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-loreThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/51/page/2/