The Water King and Vasilissa the Wise.[143]
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Ralston, William Ralston Shedden
“My lord King! look round! what is behind us?”
The King looked back.
“There stands behind us a red house.”
“That’s my second sister’s house burning!” said the Eagle. “Now we’ll fly to where my mother and my eldest sister live.”
Well, they flew there. The Eagle’s mother and eldest sister were delighted to see them, and received the King with cordiality and respect.
“Now, my lord King,” said the Eagle, “tarry awhile with us, and afterwards I will give you a ship, and will repay you for all I ate in your house, and then—God speed you home again!”
So the Eagle gave the King a ship and two coffers—the one red, the other green—and said:
“Mind now! don’t open the coffers until you get home. Then open the red coffer in the back court, and the green coffer in the front court.”
The King took the coffers, parted with the Eagle, and sailed along the blue sea. Presently he came to a certain island, and there his ship stopped. He landed on the shore, and began thinking about the coffers, and wondering whatever there could be in them, and why the Eagle had told him not to open them. He thought and thought, and at last couldn’t hold out any more—he longed so awfully to know all about it. So he took the red coffer, set it on the ground, and opened it—and out of it came such a quantity of different kinds of cattle that there was no counting them: the island had barely room enough for them.
When the King saw that, he became exceedingly sorrowful, and began to weep and therewithal to say:
“What is there now left for me to do? how shall I get all this cattle back into so little a coffer?”
Lo! there came out of the water a man—came up to him, and asked:
“Wherefore are you weeping so bitterly, O lord King?”
“How can I help weeping!” answers the King. “How shall I be able to get all this great herd into so small a coffer?”
“If you like, I will set your mind at rest. I will pack up all your cattle for you. But on one condition only. You must give me whatever you have at home that you don’t know of.”
The King reflected.
“Whatever is there at home that I don’t know of?” says he. “I fancy I know about everything that’s there.”
He reflected, and consented. “Pack them up,” says he. “I will give you whatever I have at home that I know nothing about.”
So that man packed away all his cattle for him in the coffer. The King went on board ship and sailed away homewards.
When he reached home, then only did he learn that a son had been born to him. And he began kissing the child, caressing it, and at the same time bursting into such floods of tears!
“My lord King!” says the Queen, “tell me wherefore thou droppest bitter tears?”
“For joy!” he replies.
He was afraid to tell her the truth, that the Prince would have to be given up. Afterwards he went into the back court, opened the red coffer, and thence issued oxen and cows, sheep and rams; there were multitudes of all sorts of cattle, so that all the sheds and pastures were crammed full. He went into the front court, opened the green coffer, and there appeared a great and glorious garden. What trees there were in it to be sure! The King was so delighted that he forgot all about giving up his son.
Many years went by. One day the King took it into his head to go for a stroll, and he came to a river. At that moment the same man he had seen before came out of the water, and said:
“You’ve pretty soon become forgetful, lord King! Think a little! surely you’re in my debt!”
The King returned home full of grief, and told all the truth to the Queen and the Prince. They all mourned and wept together, but they decided that there was no help for it, the Prince must be given up. So they took him to the mouth of the river and there they left him alone.
The Prince looked around, saw a footpath, and followed trusting God would lead him somewhere. He walked and walked, and came to a dense forest: in the forest stood a hut, in the hut lived a Baba Yaga.
“Suppose I go in,” thought the Prince, and went in.
“Good day, Prince!” said the Baba Yaga. “Are you seeking work or shunning work?”
“Eh, granny! First give me to eat and to drink, and then ask me questions.”
So she gave him food and drink, and the Prince told her everything as to whither he was going and with what purpose.
Then the Baba Yaga said: “Go, my child, to the sea-shore; there will fly thither twelve spoonbills, which will turn into fair maidens, and begin bathing; do you steal quietly up and lay your hands on the eldest maiden’s shift. When you have come to terms with her, go to the Water King, and there will meet you on the way Obédalo and Opivalo, and also Moroz Treskum[144]—take all of them with you; they will do you good service.”
The Prince bid the Yaga farewell, went to the appointed spot on the sea-shore, and hid behind the bushes. Presently twelve spoonbills came flying thither, struck the moist earth, turned into fair maidens, and began to bathe. The Prince stole the eldest one’s shift, and sat down behind a bush—didn’t budge an inch. The girls finished bathing and came out on the shore: eleven of them put on their shifts, turned into birds, and flew away home. There remained only the eldest, Vasilissa the Wise. She began praying and begging the good youth:
“Do give me my shift!” she says. “You are on your way to the house of my father, the Water King. When you come I will do you good service.”
So the Prince gave her back her shift, and she immediately turned into a spoonbill and flew away after her companions. The Prince went further on; there met him by the way three heroes—Obédalo, Opivalo, and Moroz Treskum; he took them with him and went on to the Water King’s.
The Water King saw him, and said:
“Hail, friend! why have you been so long in coming to me? I have grown weary of waiting for you. Now set to work. Here is your first task. Build me in one night a great crystal bridge, so that it shall be ready for use to-morrow. If you don’t build it—off goes your head!”
The Prince went away from the Water King, and burst into a flood of tears. Vasilissa the Wise opened the window of her upper chamber, and asked:
“What are you crying about, Prince?”
“Ah! Vasilissa the Wise! how can I help crying? Your father has ordered me to build a crystal bridge in a single night, and I don’t even know how to handle an axe.”