Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
General
Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
Folklore -- Russia
The legend to which I am now about to refer will serve as a proof of
the venerable antiquity of the myth from which the folk-tales, which
have just been quoted, appear to have sprung. A papyrus, which is
supposed to be "of the age of the nineteenth dynasty, about B.C.
1300," has preserved an Egyptian tale about two brothers. The younger
of these, Satou, leaves the elder, Anepou (Anubis) and retires to the
Valley of the Acacia. But, before setting off, Satou states that he
shall take his heart and place it "in the flowers of the acacia-tree,"
so that, if the tree is cut down, his heart will fall to the ground
and he will die. Having given Anepou instructions what to do in such a
case, he seeks the valley. There he hunts wild animals by day, and at
night he sleeps under the acacia-tree on which his heart rests. But at
length Noum, the Creator, forms a wife for him, and all the other gods
endow her with gifts. To this Egyptian Pandora Satou confides the
secret of his heart. One day a tress of her perfumed hair floats down
the river, and is taken to the King of Egypt. He determines to make
its owner his queen, and she, like Rhodope or Cinderella, is sought
for far and wide. When she has been found and brought to the king, she
recommends him to have the acacia cut down, so as to get rid of her
lawful husband. Accordingly the tree is cut down, the heart falls, and
Satou dies.
About this time Anepou sets out to pay his long-lost brother a visit.
Finding him dead, he searches for his heart, but searches in vain for
three years. In the fourth year, however, it suddenly becomes desirous
of returning to Egypt, and says, "I will leave this celestial sphere."
Next day Anepou finds it under the acacia, and places it in a vase
which contains some mystic fluid. When the heart has become saturated
with the moisture, the corpse shudders and opens its eyes. Anepou
pours the rest of the fluid down its throat, the heart returns to its
proper place, and Satou is restored to life.[136]
In one of the Skazkas, a _volshebnitsa_ or enchantress is introduced,
whose "death," like that of Koshchei, is spoken of as something
definite and localized. A prince has loved and lost a princess, who is
so beautiful that no man can look at her without fainting. Going in
search of her, he comes to the home of an enchantress, who invites him
to tea and gives him leave to inspect her house. As he wanders about
he comes to a cellar in which "he sees that beautiful one whom he
loves, in fire." She tells him her love for him has brought her there;
and he learns that there is no hope of freeing her unless he can find
out "where lies the death of the enchantress." So that evening he asks
his hostess about it, and she replies:
"In a certain lake stands a blue rose-tree. It is in a deep place, and
no man can reach unto it. My death is there."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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