Ghost Stories., part 2 · page 21 2101[397]102The rest of the story closely resembles the German tale of "The Pink."103[398] In the corresponding Bohemian story of "The Treacherous Servant,"[399] it may be observed, the bridge-building incident has been preserved.104But I will not dwell any longer on the story of the Fiddler, as I propose to give some account in the next chapter of several other tales of the same class, in most of which such descriptions of evil spirits are introduced as have manifestly been altered into what their narrators considered to be in accordance with Christian teaching.105And so I will revert to those ideas about the dead, and about their abiding-place, which the modern Slavonians seem to have inherited from their heathen ancestors, and I will attempt to illustrate them by a few Russian ghost-stories.106Those stories are, as a general rule, of a most ghastly nature, but there are a few into the composition of which the savage element does not enter.107The "Dead Mother," which has already been quoted,[400] belongs to the latter class; and so does the following tale--which, as it bears no title in the original, we may name,108THE RIDE ON THE GRAVESTONE.109[401]110Late one evening a certain artisan happened to be returning home from a jovial feast in a distant village.111There met him on the way an old friend, one who had been dead some ten years.112"Good health to you!" said the dead man.113"I wish you good health!" replied the reveller, and straight way forgot that his acquaintance had ever so long ago bidden the world farewell.114"Let's go to my house.115We'll quaff a cup or two once more."116"Come along.117On such a happy occasion as this meeting of ours, we may as well have a drink."118They arrived at a dwelling and there they drank and revelled.119"Now then, good-bye!120It's time for me to go home," said the artisan.121"Stay a bit.122Where do you want to go now?123Spend the night here with me."124"No, brother! don't ask me; it cannot be.125I've business to do to-morrow, so I must get home as early as possible."126"Well, good-bye! but why should you walk?127Better get on my horse; it will carry you home quickly."128"Thanks! let's have it."129He got on its back, and was carried off--just as a whirlwind flies!130All of a sudden a cock crew.131It was awful!132All around were graves, and the rider found he had a gravestone under him!133Of a somewhat similar nature is the story of--134THE TWO FRIENDS.135[402]136In the days of old there lived in a certain village two young men.137They were great friends, went to _besyedas_[403] together, in fact, regarded each other as brothers.138And they made this mutual agreement.139Whichever of the two should marry first was to invite his comrade to his wedding.140And it was not to make any difference whether he was alive or dead.141About a year after this one of the young men fell ill and died.142A few months later his comrade took it into his head to get married.143So he collected all his kinsmen, and set off to fetch his bride.144Now it happened that they drove past the graveyard, and the bridegroom recalled his friend to mind, and remembered his old agreement.145So he had the horses stopped, saying:146"I'm going to my comrade's grave.147I shall ask him to come and enjoy himself at my wedding.148A right trusty friend was he to me."149So he went to the grave and began to call aloud:150"Comrade dear!151I invite thee to my wedding."152Suddenly the grave yawned, the dead man arose, and said:153"Thanks be to thee, brother, that thou hast fulfilled thy promise.154And now, that we may profit by this happy chance, enter my abode.155Let us quaff a glass apiece of grateful drink."156"I'd have gone, only the marriage procession is stopping outside; all the folks are waiting for me."157"Eh, brother!" replied the dead man, "surely it won't take long to toss off a glass!"158The bridegroom jumped into the grave.159The dead man poured him out a cup of liquor.160He drank it off--and a hundred years passed away.161"Quaff another cup, dear friend!" said the dead man.162He drank a second cup--two hundred years passed away.163"Now, comrade dear, quaff a third cup!" said the dead man, "and then go, in God's name, and celebrate thy marriage!"164He drank the third cup--three hundred years passed away.165The dead man took leave of his comrade.166The coffin lid fell; the grave closed.167The bridegroom looked around.168Where the graveyard had been, was now a piece of waste ground.169No road was to be seen, no kinsmen, no horses.170All around grew nettles and tall grass.171He ran to the village--but the village was not what it used to be.172The houses were different; the people were all strangers to him.173He went to the priest's--but the priest was not the one who used to be there--and told him about everything that had happened.174The priest searched through the church-books, and found that, three hundred years before, this occurrence had taken place: a bridegroom had gone to the graveyard on his wedding-day, and had disappeared.175And his bride, after some time had passed by, had married another man.176[The "Rip van Winkle" story is too well known to require more than a passing allusion.177It was doubtless founded on one of the numerous folk-tales which correspond to the Christian legend of "The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus"--itself an echo of an older tale (see Baring Gould, "Curious Myths," 1872, pp.17893-112, and Cox, "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," i. 413)--and to that of the monk who listens to a bird singing in the convent garden, and remains entranced for the space of many years: of which latter legend a Russian version occurs in Chudinsky's collection (No. 17, pp.17992-4).180Very close indeed is the resemblance between the Russian story of "The Two Friends," and the Norse "Friends in Life and Death" (Asbjoernsen's New Series, No. 62, pp.1815-7).182In the latter the bridegroom knocks hard and long on his dead friend's grave.183At length its occupant appears, and accounts for his delay by saying he had been far away when the first knocks came, and so had not heard them.184Then he follows the bridegroom to church and from church, and afterwards the bridegroom sees him back to his tomb.185On the way the living man expresses a desire to see something of the world beyond the grave, and the corpse fulfils his wish, having first placed on his head a sod cut in the graveyard.186After witnessing many strange sights, the bridegroom is told to sit down and wait till his guide returns.187When he rises to his feet, he is all overgrown with mosses and shrub (var han overvoxen med Mose og Busker), and when he reaches the outer world he finds all things changed.]188But from these dim sketches of a life beyond, or rather within the grave, in which memories of old days and old friendships are preserved by ghosts of an almost genial and entirely harmless disposition, we will now turn to those more elaborate pictures in which the dead are represented under an altogether terrific aspect.189It is not as an incorporeal being that the visitor from the other world is represented in the Skazkas.190He comes not as a mere phantom, intangible, impalpable, incapable of physical exertion, haunting the dwelling which once was his home, or the spot to which he is drawn by the memory of some unexpiated crime.191It is as a vitalized corpse that he comes to trouble mankind, often subject to human appetites, constantly endowed with more than human strength and malignity.192His apparel is generally that of the grave, and he cannot endure to part with it, as may be seen from the following story--1 2← previousGhost Stories., part 1next →Ghost Stories., part 3↑ back to Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-loreThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/52/page/2/