Wassillissa the
Beautiful.
In a certain Tzardom, across three times
nine kingdoms, beyond high mountain-chains, there vnee lived a merchant. He had
been married for twelve years, but in that time there had been born him only
one child, a daughter, who from her cradle was called Wassilissa the Beautiful.
When the little girl was eight years old the mother fell ill, and hefore many
days it was plain to be seen that she rmust die. So she called her little
daughter to her, and taking a tiny wooden doll from under the ilanket of the
bed, put it into her hands and said:
"My little Wassilissa, my dear
daughter, listen to what I say, remember well my last words and fail not to
carry out my wishes. I am dying, and with my blessing, I leave to thee this
little doll. It is very precious for there is no other like it in the whole
world. Carry it always about with thee in thy pocket and never show it to
anyone. When evil threatens thee or sorrow befalls thee, go into a corner, take
it from thy pocket and give it something to eat and drink. It will eat and
drink a little, and then thou mayest tell it thy trouble and ask its advice,
and it will tell thee how to act in thy time of need." So saying, she
kissed her little daughter on the forehead, blessed her, and shortly after
died.
Little Wassilissa grieved greatly
for her mother, and her sorrow was so deep that when the dark night came, she
lay in her bed and wept and did not sleep. At length she bethought herself of
the tiny doll, so she rose and took it from the pocket of her gown and finding
a piece of wheat-bread and a cup of kwas, she set them before it, and said:
"There, my little doll, take it. Eat a little, and drink a little, and
listen to my grief. My dear mother is dead and I am lonely for her."
Then the doll's eyes began to shine
like fire-flies, and suddenly it became alive. It ate a morsel of the bread and
took a sip of the kwas, and when it had eaten and drank, it said: "Don't
weep, little Wassilissa. Grief is worst at night. Lie down, shut shine eyes,
comfort thyself and go to sleep. The morning is wiser than the evening."
So Wassilissa the Beautiful lay down, comforted herself and went to sleep, and
the next day her grieving was not so deep and her tears were less bitter.
Now after the death of his wife, the
merchant sorrowed for many days as was right, but at the end of that time he
began to desire to marry again and to look about him for a suitable wife. This
was not difficult to find, for he had a fine house, with a stable of swift
horses, besides being a good man who gave much to the poor. Of all the women he
saw, however, the one who, to his mind, suited him best of all, was a widow of
about his own age with two daughters of her own, and she, he thought, besides
being a good housekeeper, would be a kind foster-mother to his little
Wassilissa.
So the merchant married the widow
and brought her home as his wife, but the little girl soon found that her
foster-mother was very far from being what her father had thought. She was a
cold, cruel woman, who had desired the merchant for the sake of his wealth, and
had no love for his daughter. Wassilissa was the greatest beauty in the whole
village, while her own daughters were as spare and homely as two crows, and
because of this all three enned and hated her.
They gave her all sorts of errands
to run and difficult tasks to perform, in order that the toil might make her
thin and worn and that her face might grow brown from sun and wind, and they
treated her so cruelly as to leave few joys in life for her. But all this the
little Wassilissa endured without complaint, and while the stepmother's two
daughters grew always thinner and uglier, in spite of the fact that they had no
hard tasks to do, never went out in cold or rain, and sat always with their
arms folded like ladies of a Court, she herself had cheeks like blood and milk
and grew every day more and more beautiful.
Now the reason for this was the tiny
doll, without whose help little Wassilissa could never have managed to do all
the work that was laid upon her. Each night, when everyone else was sound
asleep, she would get up from her bed, take the doll into a closet, and locking
the door, give it something to eat and drink, and say: "There, my little
doll, take it. Eat a little, drink a little, and listen to my grief I live in
my father's house, but my spiteful stepmother wishes to drive me out of the
white world. Tell me ~ How shall I act, and what shall I do?"
Then the little doll's eyes would
begin to shine like glow-worms, and it would become alive. It would eat a
little food, and sip a little drink, and then it would comfort her and tell her
how to act. While Wassilissa slept, it would get ready all her work for the
next day, so that she had only to rest in the shade and gather flowers, for the
doll would have the kitchen garden weeded, and the beds of cabbage watered, and
plenty of fresh water brought from the well, and the stoves heated exactly
right. And, besides this, the little doll told her how to make, from a certain
herb, an ointment which prevented her from ever being sun-burnt. So all the joy
in life that came to Wassilissa came to her through the tiny doll that she
always carried in her pocket.
Years passed, till Wassilissa grew
up and became of an age when it is good to marry. All the young men in the
village, high and low, rich and poor, asked for her hand, while not one of them
stopped even to look at the stepmother's two daughters, so illfavoured were
they. This angered their mother still more against Wassilissa; she answered
every gallant who came with the same words: " Never shall the younger be
wed before the older ones!" and each time, when she had let a suitor out
of the door, she would soothe her anger and hatred by beating her stepdaughter.
So while Wassilissa grew each day more lovely and graceful, she was often
miserable, and but for the little doll in her pocket, would have longed to
leave the white world.
But, sitting lonely, time soon began
to hang heavy on her hands. One day she said to the old woman: "It is dull
for me, grandmother, to sit idly hour by hour. My hands want work to do. Go,
therefore, and buy me some flax, the best and finest to be found anywhere, and
at least I can spin."
The old woman hastened and bought
some flax of the best sort and Wassilissa sat down to work. So well did she
spin that the thread came out as even and fine as a hair, and presently there
was enough to begin to weave. But so fine was the thread that no frame could be
found to weave it upon, nor would any weaver undertake to make one.
Then Wassilissa went into her
closet, took the little doll from her pocket, set food and drink before it and
asked its help. And after it had eaten a little and drunk a little, the doll
became alive and said: "Bring me an old frame and an old basket and some
hairs from a horse's mane, and I will arrange everything for thee."
Wassilissa hastened to fetch all the doll had asked for and when evening came,
said her prayers, went to sleep, and in the morning she found ready a frame,
perfectly made, to weave her fine thread upon.
She wove one month, she wove two
months - all the winter Wassilissa sat weaving, weaving her fine thread, till
the whole piece of linen was done, of a texture so fine that it could be
passed, like thread, through the eye of a needle. When the spring came she
bleached it, so white that no snow could be compared with it. Then she said to
the old woman: "Take thou the linen to the market, grandmother, and sell
it, and the money shall suffice to pay for my food and lodging." When the
old woman had examined the linen, however, she said: "Never will I sell
such cloth in the market-place; no one should wear it except it be the Tzar
himself, and to-morrow I shall carry it to the Palace."
Next day, accordingly, the old woman
went to the Tzar's splendid Palace and fell to walking up and down before the
windows. The servants came to ask-her her errand but she answered them nothing,
and kept walking up and down. At length the Tzar opened his window and asked:
"What dost thou want, old woman, that thou walkest here?"
Now there came a time when it became
necessary for the merchant to leave his home and to travel to a distant
Tzardom. He bade farewell to his wife and her two daughters, kissed Wassilissa
and gave her his blessing and departed, bidding them say a prayer each day for
his safe return. Scarce was he out of sight of the village however, when his
wife sold his house, packed all his goods and moved with them to another
dwelling far from the town, in a gloomy neighbourhood on the edge of a wild
forest. Here every day, while her two daughters were working indoors, the
merchant's wife would send Wassilissa on one errand or other into the forest,
either to find a branch of a certain rare bush or to bring her flowers or
berries.
Now deep in this forest, as the
stepmother well knew, there was a green lawn and on the lawn stood a miserable
little hut on hens' legs, where lived a certain Baba-Yaga, an old witch
grandmother. She lived alone and none dared go near the hut, for she ate people
as one eats chickens. The merchant's wife sent Wassilissa into the forest each
day, hoping she might meet the old witch and be devoured; but always the girl
came home safe and sound, because the little doll showed her where the bush,
the flowers and the berries grew, and did not let her go near the hut that
stood on hens' legs. And each time the stepmother hated her more and more
because she came to no harm.
One autumn evening the merchant's
wife called the three girls to her and gave them each a task. One of her
daughters she bade make a piece of lace, the other to knit a pair of hose, and
to Wassilissa she gave a basket of flax to be spun. She bade each finish a
certain amount. Then she put out all the fires in the house, leaving only a
single candle lighted in the room where the three girls worked, and she herself
went to sleep.
They worked an hour, they worked two
hours, they worked three hours, when one of the elder daughters took up the
tongs to straighten the wick of the candle. She pretended to do this awkwardly
(as her mother had bidden her) and put the candle out, as if by accident.
"O Tzar's Majesty!" the
old woman answered, "I have with me a marvellous piece of linen stuff, so
wondrously woven that I will show it to none but thee."
The Tzar bade them bring her before
him and when he saw the linen he was struck with astonishment at its fineness
and beauty. "What wilt thou take for it, old woman?" he asked.
"There is no price that can buy
it, Little Father Tzar," she answered; "but I have brought it to thee
as a gift." The Tzar could not thank the old woman enough. He took the
linen and sent her to her house with many rich presents.
Seamstresses were called to make
shirts for him out of the cloth; but when it had been cut up, so fine was it
that no one of them was deft and skilful enough to sew it. The best seamstresses
in all the Tzardom were summoned but none dared undertake it. So at last the
Tzar sent for the old woman and said: "If thou didst know how to spin such
thread and weave such linen, thou must also know how to sew me shirts from
it."
And the old woman answered: "O
Tzar's Majesty, it was not I who wove the linen; it is the work of my adopted
daughter."
"Take it, then," the Tzar
said, "and bid her do it for me."
The old woman brought the linen home
and told Wassilissa the Tzar's command: "Well I knew that the work would
needs be done by my own hands," said Wassilissa, and, locking herself in
her own room, began to make the shirts. So fast and well did she work that soon
a dozen were ready. Then the old woman carried them to the Tzar, while Wassilissa
washed her face, dressed her hair, put on her best gown and sat down at the
window to see what would happen. And presently a servant in the livery of the
Palace came to the house and entering, said: "The Tzar, our lord, desires
himself to see the clever needlewoman who has made his shirts and to reward ber
with his own hands."
Wassilissa rose and went at once to
the Palace, and as soon as the Tzar saw her, he fell in love with her with all
his soul. He took her by her white hand and made her sit beside him.
"Beautiful maiden," he said, "never will I part from thee and
thou shalt be my wife."
So the Tzar and Wassilissa the
Beautiful were married, and her father returned from the far distant kingdom,
and he and the old woman lived always with her in the splendid Palace, in all
joy and contentment. And as for the little wooden doll, she carried it about
with her in her pocket all her life long.
"What are we to do now ?"
asked her sister. " The fires are all out, there is no other light in all
the house, and our tasks are not done."
"We must go and fetch
fire," said the first. " The only house near is a hut in the forest,
where a Baba-Yaga lives. One of us must go and borrow fire from her."
"I have enough light from my
steel pins," said the one who was making the lace," and I will not
go."
"And I have plenty of light
from my silver needles," said the other, who was knitting the hose,"
and I will not go."
"Thou, Wassilissa," they
both said, "shalt go and fetch the fire, for thou hast neither steel pins
nor silver needles and cannot see to spin thy flax!" They both rose up,
pushed Wassilissa out of the house and locked the door, crying: "Thou
shalt not come in till thou hast fetched the fire."
Wassilissa sat down on the doorstep,
took the tiny doll from one pocket and from another the supper she had ready
for it, put the food before it and said: "There, my little doll, take it.
Eat a little and listen to my sorrow. I must go to the hut of the old Baba-Yaga
in the dark forest to borrow some fire and I fear she will eat me. Tell me!
What shall I do?"
Then the doll's eyes began to shine
like two stars and it became alive. It ate a little and said: "Do not
fear, little Wassilissa. Go where thou hast been sent. While I am with thee no
harm shall come to thee from the old witch." So Wassilissa put the doll
back into her pocket, crossed herself and started out into the dark, wild
forest.
Whether she walked a short way or a
long way the telling is easy, but the journey was hard. The wood was very dark,
and she could not help trembling from fear. Suddenly she heard the sound of a
horse's hoofs and a man on horseback galloped past her. He was dressed al1 in
white, the horse under him was milk-white and the harness was white, and just
as he passed her it became twilight.
She went a little further and again
she heard the sound of a horse's hoofs and there came another man on horseback
galloping past her. He was dressed all in red, and the horse under him was
blood-red and its harness was red, and just as he passed her the sun rose.
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