Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
General
Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
Folklore -- Russia
"Deal with him as you please!"
The Princess ordered his feet to be cut off. Katoma submitted
patiently to the outrage.
"Very good," he thinks; "I shall suffer, it's true; but the
Prince also will know what to lead a wretched life is like!"
When both of Katoma's feet had been cut off, the Princess
glanced around, and saw that a tall tree-stump stood on one side;
so she called her servants and ordered them to set him on that
stump. But as for Prince Ivan, she tied him to the carriage by
a cord, turned the horses round, and drove back to her own
kingdom. Katoma was left sitting on the stump, weeping bitter
tears.
"Farewell, Prince Ivan!" he cries; "you won't forget me!"
Meanwhile Prince Ivan was running and bounding behind
the carriage. He knew well enough by this time what a blunder
he had made, but there was no turning back for him. When
the Princess Anna the Fair arrived in her kingdom, she set
Prince Ivan to take care of the cows. Every day he went afield
with the herd at early morn, and in the evening he drove them
back to the royal yard. At that hour the Princess was always
sitting on the balcony, and looking out to see that the number
of the cows were all right.[321]
Katoma remained sitting on the stump one day, two days,
three days, without anything to eat or drink. To get down was
utterly impossible, it seemed as if he must die of starvation.
But not far away from that place there was a dense forest. In
that forest was living a mighty hero who was quite blind. The
only way by which he could get himself food was this: whenever
he perceived by the sense of smell that any animal was running
past him, whether a hare, or a fox, or a bear, he immediately started
in chase of it, caught it--and dinner was ready for him. The
hero was exceedingly swift-footed, and there was not a single
wild beast which could run away from him. Well, one day it
fell out thus. A fox slunk past; the hero heard it, and was
after it directly. It ran up to the tall stump, and turned sharp
off on one-side; but the blind hero hurried on, took a spring,
and thumped his forehead against the stump so hard that he
knocked the stump out by the roots. Katoma fell to the ground,
and asked:
"Who are you?"
"I'm a blind hero. I've been living in the forest for thirty
years. The only way I can get my food is this: to catch some
game or other, and cook it at a wood fire. If it had not been
for that, I should have been starved to death long ago!"
"You haven't been blind all your life?"
"No, not all my life; but Princess Anna the Fair put my
eyes out!"
"There now, brother!" says Katoma; "and it's thanks to
her, too, that I'm left here without any feet. She cut them both
off, the accursed one!"
The two heroes had a talk, and agreed to live together, and
join in getting their food. The blind man says to the lame:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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