Slavonic Fairy Tales/The Wonderful Bird

by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić

 

THE WONDERFUL BIRD.

(from the servian.)

There once lived a poor man. One morning he left his home in search of bread for his children and wife. As he was walking along the road he saw a beautiful little bird clapping its wings and looking at him; he caught it and returned home with it. He put the little bird under a sieve, so that it might not escape, and then went out again in search of bread, but not being able to get any anywhere, he returned home dispirited and sorrowful.

As soon as the man had come in, his hungry children rushed up to him and told him that the bird had laid two little eggs; one of them asked him to take the eggs to market, sell them and buy some bread with the produce. The man smiled at this proposal, and said, sighing,—

"My poor child, what shall I get for two such little eggs?"

But the child was sure that he would get a very great deal for the eggs. So the man went with the two little eggs to market. Before the gates of the city he met a stranger, who, as soon as he had seen the eggs, eagerly asked him how much he wanted for them. The man answered,—

"Give me what you like, so that I may buy some bread for myself and my family."

The stranger gave him a gold sequin, and said,—

"Here is one sequin for the eggs, and here is another for yourself if you will tell me where you got them from."

The man told him all; and when the stranger asked him whether he would sell the bird also, he answered that he would for a good price; then they returned together to the poor man's home. When they had arrived, and the stranger had seen the little bird, he said,—

"Here is one hundred gold sequins for the bird."

The man sold it to him for that sum. The stranger then and there killed the bird, pulled off its head, took out the heart, and said,—

"Roast this head and heart for me; I want to eat them."

The man put the head and heart on a spit and gave them to one of his children to roast before the fire.

Whilst the stranger was engaged in conversation with the man and his wife, the rest of the children assembled round the fire to see how the roasting was getting on, and being very hungry, one of them ate the head and the other the heart, and then ran away. Soon afterwards the stranger approached the fire to see whether the head and heart were sufficiently roasted to be eaten, and when he saw what had happened, he smote his forehead and began loudly to complain, not so much on account of the hundred sequins which he had paid for the bird, but that he had been cheated and had lost his luck in this as well as in the next world; and thus lamenting he went away.

On the following morning, when the two boys awoke, there lay under the head of him who had eaten the heart of the little bird one hundred sequins, and the boy who had eaten the head told his father and mother what was taking place all over the world, and even what the kings were thinking about. Thus it happened every morning: the first found always a hundred sequins under his head, and the second knew what was thought and done in the whole world. By this means the brothers became very rich, and at last they bribed the people to elect one of them for their king: the people's choice fell upon him who had eaten the heart of the little bird. Then the brother who had eaten the head began, from envy, as well as because he was the wisest man in the world, to hate his brother the king, and to think how he could get rid of him. At last he determined to kill him, so that he might reign in his stead. One evening, when the king was asleep, he killed him, opened the body and found in it the bird's heart; having eaten it he sewed up the body. On the following day the news spread among the people: "The king is dead! Whom shall we elect for his successor?" They set about to elect their king in this place and in that; among high and low; some proposed one, and some another; at last they came to the late king's brother and made him their king. Having become king—every morning he found under his head one hundred sequins as his brother had done—he sent to a neighbouring king asking his daughter in marriage; the king gave him his daughter, and they were married according to custom. When, on the first and second morning after the wedding, the young queen discovered that there were a hundred sequins lying under her husband's head, she was greatly surprised, and on the third morning she removed fifty and left the other half in the same place. But when the king awoke and did not find the whole hundred sequins, he caught hold of his wife as if he were going to kill her; the queen, terrified, threw away the sequins, and at the same instant the king fell down senseless, began to cough violently, and at last brought up the heart of the little bird. In a moment a hand appeared, whiter than the snow on the mountains, and seized the heart; and a voice was heard, saying,—"It was mine; but this shall be forgiven unto you!" This was the voice of the soul of the king's brother, and the hand was his shadow.

Soon afterwards the king recovered from the swoon. When he heard what had happened, he repented of his sins until his life's end, and gave alms to the poor.