Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/519

 Collectanea. 483

But the son replied, — " I shall certainly marry her." " The stain be upon your own forehead then," say they. They betroth the girl ; they have the wedding, and a year later God gives them two sons. Until this day the bride has never spoken to the bride- groom. One day the bride had put her babes in the cradle, and, as she rocked them, she would sing and weep by turns. Her husband chanced to see her, and he says, — " Wife, why do you weep? What is your sorrow?" Then she replies, — "Ah, do you never think that I also have a father and a mother some- where, and that I have feelings, and that I miss them? I was not born of a stone. I did not grow upon a tree. I beg you, let me go and see my father and mother and return again." The King's son called his general, had the wagons prepared, and five hundred soldiers, and he commanded the general to conduct the lady to her father, and then return.

They went one day's journey. At evening they camped beside a stream ; they ate and went to rest. The general could not sleep. He had been smitten by the beauty of the lady. He sought her, and said, — " Either promise to be mine, or I will kill one of your sons." " I will grant you nothing, even though you kill my son," she replied. So the general killed one of her sons.

The next morning they mounted and rode on, and at night they made a halt. Again the general went to the lady; but she would not yield, and he killed the other child. The next night the general tried once more to force her to yield, and said, — " I have killed your two sons; I will kill you too."

" May God punish you," said the lady, " but let me go and bathe in the stream, and pray and confess unto God, and then return to you."

The general tied a rope to her foot so that she should not escape. But she went to the edge of the stream, and slipping the rope from her foot tied it to a stump, and fled away. She met a shepherd, and she begged him to exchange clothing with her. He agreed, and they exchanged. She cut off her hair, put a tall felt cap on her head, and hastened to her father's house.

M. Pazig is sitting at his gate, smoking a pipe. The stranger comes and kisses his hand, salutes him, and is saluted in return. M. Pazig asks, — " You fellow with the tall cap, where do you