Ghost Stories., part 3 Ghost Stories., part 3 of «Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore»: the whole text, 190 sentences and 2587 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself; 3 of them are in the tales treebank and were checked by a teacher model.
1 THE SHROUD. 2 [404] 3 In a certain village there was a girl who was lazy and slothful, hated working but would gossip and chatter away like anything. 4 Well, she took it into her head to invite the other girls to a spinning party. 5 For in the villages, as every one knows, it is the lazybones who gives the spinning-feast, and the sweet-toothed are those who go to it. 6 Well, on the appointed night she got her spinners together. 7 They span for her, and she fed them and feasted them. 8 Among other things they chatted about was this--which of them all was the boldest? 9 Says the lazybones (_lezhaka_): 10 "I'm not afraid of anything!" 11 "Well then," say the spinners, "if you're not afraid, go past the graveyard to the church, take down the holy picture from the door, and bring it here." 12 "Good, I'll bring it; only each of you must spin me a distaff-ful." 13 That was just her sort of notion: to do nothing herself, but to get others to do it for her. 14 Well, she went, took down the picture, and brought it home with her. 15 Her friends all saw that sure enough it was the picture from the church. 16 But the picture had to be taken back again, and it was now the midnight hour. 17 Who was to take it? 18 At length the lazybones said: 19 "You girls go on spinning. 20 I'll take it back myself. 21 I'm not afraid of anything!" 22 So she went and put the picture back in its place. 23 As she was passing the graveyard on her return, she saw a corpse in a white shroud, seated on a tomb. 24 It was a moonlight night; everything was visible. 25 She went up to the corpse, and drew away its shroud from it. 26 The corpse held its peace, not uttering a word; no doubt the time for it to speak had not come yet. checked by a teacher 27 Well, she took the shroud and went home. 28 "There!" says she, "I've taken back the picture and put it in its place; and, what's more, here's a shroud I took away from a corpse." 29 Some of the girls were horrified; others didn't believe what she said, and laughed at her. 30 But after they had supped and lain down to sleep, all of a sudden the corpse tapped at the window and said: 31 "Give me my shroud! 32 Give me my shroud!" 33 The girls were so frightened they didn't know whether they were alive or dead. 34 But the lazybones took the shroud, went to the window, opened it, and said: 35 "There, take it." 36 "No," replied the corpse, "restore it to the place you took it from." 37 Just then the cocks suddenly began to crow. 38 The corpse disappeared. 39 Next night, when the spinners had all gone home to their own houses, at the very same hour as before, the corpse came, tapped at the window, and cried: 40 "Give me my shroud!" 41 Well, the girl's father and mother opened the window and offered him his shroud. 42 "No," says he, "let her take it back to the place she took it from." 43 "Really now, how could one go to a graveyard with a corpse? 44 What a horrible idea!" she replied. 45 Just then the cocks crew. 46 The corpse disappeared. 47 Next day the girl's father and mother sent for the priest, told him the whole story, and entreated him to help them in their trouble. 48 "Couldn't a service[405] be performed?" they said. 49 The priest reflected awhile; then he replied: 50 "Please to tell her to come to church to-morrow." 51 Next day the lazybones went to church. 52 The service began, numbers of people came to it. 53 But just as they were going to sing the cherubim song,[406] there suddenly arose, goodness knows whence, so terrible a whirlwind that all the congregation fell flat on their faces. 54 And it caught up that girl, and then flung her down on the ground. 55 The girl disappeared from sight; nothing was left of her but her back hair. 56 [407] 57 They are generally the corpses of wizards, or of other sinners who have led specially unholy lives, which leave their graves by night and wander abroad. 58 Into such bodies, it is held, demons enter, and the combination of fiend and corpse goes forth as the terrible Vampire thirsting for blood. 59 Of the proceedings of such a being the next story gives a detailed account, from which, among other things, may be learnt the fact that Slavonic corpses attach great importance to their coffin-lids as well as to their shrouds. 60 THE COFFIN-LID. 61 [408] 62 A moujik was driving along one night with a load of pots. 63 His horse grew tired, and all of a sudden it came to a standstill alongside of a graveyard. 64 The moujik unharnessed his horse and set it free to graze; meanwhile he laid himself down on one of the graves. 65 But somehow he didn't go to sleep. 66 He remained lying there some time. checked by a teacher 67 Suddenly the grave began to open beneath him: he felt the movement and sprang to his feet. 68 The grave opened, and out of it came a corpse--wrapped in a white shroud, and holding a coffin lid--came out and ran to the church, laid the coffin-lid at the door, and then set off for the village. 69 The moujik was a daring fellow. 70 He picked up the coffin-lid and remained standing beside his cart, waiting to see what would happen. 71 After a short delay the dead man came back, and was going to snatch up his coffin-lid--but it was not to be seen. 72 Then the corpse began to track it out, traced it up to the moujik, and said: 73 "Give me my lid: if you don't, I'll tear you to bits!" 74 "And my hatchet, how about that?" answers the moujik. " 75 Why, it's I who'll be chopping you into small pieces!" 76 "Do give it back to me, good man!" begs the corpse. 77 "I'll give it when you tell me where you've been and what you've done." 78 "Well, I've been in the village, and there I've killed a couple of youngsters." 79 "Well then, now tell me how they can be brought back to life." 80 The corpse reluctantly made answer: 81 "Cut off the left skirt of my shroud, and take it with you. 82 When you come into the house where the youngsters were killed, pour some live coals into a pot and put the piece of the shroud in with them, and then lock the door. 83 The lads will be revived by the smoke immediately." 84 The moujik cut off the left skirt of the shroud, and gave up the coffin-lid. 85 The corpse went to its grave--the grave opened. 86 But just as the dead man was descending into it, all of a sudden the cocks began to crow, and he hadn't time to get properly covered over. 87 One end of the coffin-lid remained sticking out of the ground. 88 The moujik saw all this and made a note of it. 89 The day began to dawn; he harnessed his horse and drove into the village. 90 In one of the houses he heard cries and wailing. 91 In he went--there lay two dead lads. 92 "Don't cry," says he, "I can bring them to life!" 93 "Do bring them to life, kinsman," say their relatives. " 94 We'll give you half of all we possess." 95 The moujik did everything as the corpse had instructed him, and the lads came back to life. 96 Their relatives were delighted, but they immediately seized the moujik and bound him with cords, saying: 97 "No, no, trickster! 98 We'll hand you over to the authorities. 99 Since you knew how to bring them back to life, maybe it was you who killed them!" 100 "What are you thinking about, true believers! ← previous Ghost Stories., part 2next → Ghost Stories., part 4↑ back to Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg22373/53/