Russian Folk-TalesAfanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
General
Russian Folk-Tales
Afanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
Folklore -- Russia
So the old man went to collect them, and said, “If only the Sun would
warm the grain, and the moon show its light on it, and Crow Crowson help
me to get the groats, I would give my eldest daughter to the little Sun,
and my middle daughter to the Moon, and my youngest to Crow Crowson.” So
the old man set to collecting the grain, and the Sun warmed it, and the
Moon shone on it, and Vóron Vóronovich helped to collect the grain.
The old man came back home and said to the eldest daughter: “You must
dress nicely and go out on the steps.” So she dressed and went out on
the steps. And the Sun laid hold of her. And he commanded the next
daughter in the same way to dress herself finely and to stand on the
steps. So she dressed herself up and went out, and the Moon seized and
took away the second daughter. And he said to the third daughter, “Dress
yourself prettily and stand on the steps.” So she dressed herself
prettily and stood on the steps, and Crow Crowson seized her and carried
her away.
Then the old man said, “I think I might go and visit my sons-in-law.” So
he went to the Sun, and at last he arrived there.
The Sun asked him, “With what shall I regale you?”
“Oh, I don’t wish for anything!”
So the Sun bade his wife make a custard ready. So the daughter prepared
the custard; the Sun sat down in the middle of the floor, and his wife
put the pan on him and the custard was soon cooked. So they gave the old
father refreshment.
Then the old father went back home and bade his wife make him a custard;
and he sat down on the floor and commanded her to put the pan with the
custard on to him.
“What are you talking about? Bake it on you!” said the old wife.
“Go on!” he replied. “Put it there; it will be baked!”
So she put the pan on him, and the custard stood there for ages and was
not ever cooked, only turned sour. It was no good. So in the end the
wife put the pan into the stove, and this time the custard was baked and
the old man got something to eat.
Next day the old man went to stay as a guest with his second son-in-law,
the Moon, and he arrived.
And the Moon said, “With what shall I regale you?”
“I do not wish for anything,” said the old man.
So the Moon got the bath heated ready for him.
The old man said, “Won’t it be very dark in the bath?”
“No,” said the Moon to him, “quite light; only step in.”
So the old man went into the bath, and the Moon twisted his little
finger into a chink, and it was quite light in the bathroom. So the old
man steamed himself thoroughly, went back home and told his wife to heat
the bath at night. So the old woman heated it, and he sent her there to
steam herself.
“But,” she said, “it will be much too dark to steam myself!”
“Go along! it will be light enough.”
So the old woman went. And the old man saw how the Moon had lit the
place up for him, and he went and bored a tiny hole in the bathroom and
thrust his finger through it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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