Russian Folk-TalesAfanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
General
Russian Folk-Tales
Afanas'ev, A. N. (Aleksandr Nikolaevich)
Folklore -- Russia
When they got home, the stepmother asked: “What was it Márya Tsarévna
ate and drank?”
“I did not see anything.”
So the witch scolded her, and next day sent the two-eyed sister with
Márya. “Go,” she said, “and see what she eats and drinks.”
And the girls came to the heath, and Márya Tsarévna said, “Come, little
sister, I will find a cushion for your head.” So she went to search, and
whispered to herself:
“Sleep, my sister, sleep,
Sleep, O sister mine;
Two-eyes go to sleep,
Close both eyes of thine.”
Two-eyes went to sleep, and Márya Tsarévna bowed down as before, to the
right foot of the cow, and looked like a princess all day long. In the
evening she roused Two-eyes; and if the stepmother was angry before, she
was much angrier this time.
So next day she sent Three-eyes, and Márya Tsarévna sent her to sleep in
the same way; only she forgot the third eye, and that went on looking
and looking at what Márya Tsarévna did. For she ran to her dun cow’s
right foot, bowed down, and ate, and drank, and went about all day long
splendidly attired.
And when she got home she laid the dry crust on the table. And the
mother asked the daughter what Márya Tsarévna had eaten and drunk.
Three-eyes told her everything; and the witch ordered the dun cow to be
slain.
“You must be mad, woman,” said the Tsar, “it’s quite a young heifer and
so beautiful!”
“I tell you,” said the stepmother, “it must be done”; and the old Tsar
consented.
But Márya Tsarévna asked him: “Father, do at least give me a little tiny
bit out of the cow!”
The old man gave her the piece, and she planted it; and a bush with
sweet berries grew up, with little birds singing on it, singing songs
fit for kings and peasants.
Now Iván Tsarévich had heard of Márya Tsarévna, went to her stepmother,
laid a bowl on the table, and said: “Whichever of the maidens brings me
the bowl full of berries, I will marry.”
So the mother sent One-eye to get the berries. But the birds drove her
away from the bush and almost pecked out her one eye; and so with
Two-eyes and Three-eyes. At last Márya Tsarévna had to go. Márya
Tsarévna took the bowl and gathered the berries, and the little birds
helped her in the task. When she got home she put the bowl on the table
and bowed down to Iván Tsarévich. So Iván Tsarévich took Márya Tsarévna
to be his wife, and they celebrated a merry wedding and lived a happy
life.
But, after a while, Márya Tsarévna bore a son. She wanted to show him to
her father, and, together with her husband, went to visit him. Then the
stepmother turned her into a goose, and decked her eldest daughter as
though she were the wife of Iván Tsarévich. And Iván Tsarévich returned
home.
The old man, who tended the children, got up early in the morning,
washed himself clean, took the child on his arm and went out to the
field, to the bush in the field. Grey geese were flying over it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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