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A short story by William Ralston Shedden-Ralston |
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The Blind Man And The Cripple |
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Title: The Blind Man And The Cripple Author: William Ralston Shedden-Ralston [More Titles by Shedden-Ralston] Translator: Ralston, William Ralston Shedden, 1828-1889
THE BLIND MAN AND THE CRIPPLE.[318] In a certain kingdom there lived a king and queen; they had a son, Prince Ivan, and to look after that son was appointed a tutor named Katoma.[319] The king and queen lived to a great age, but then they fell ill, and despaired of ever recovering. So they sent for Prince Ivan and strictly enjoined him: "When we are dead, do you in everything respect and obey Katoma. If you obey him, you will prosper; but if you choose to be disobedient, you will perish like a fly." The next day the king and queen died. Prince Ivan buried his parents, and took to living according to their instructions. Whatever he had to do, he always consulted his tutor about it. Some time passed by. The Prince attained to man's estate, and began to think about getting married. So one day he went to his tutor and said: "Katoma, I'm tired of living alone, I want to marry." "Well, Prince! what's to prevent you? you're of an age at which it's time to think about a bride. Go into the great hall. There's a collection there of the portraits of all the princesses in the world; look at them and choose for yourself; whichever pleases you, to her send a proposal of marriage." Prince Ivan went into the great hall, and began examining the portraits. And the one that pleased him best was that of the Princess Anna the Fair--such a beauty! the like of her wasn't to be found in the whole world! Underneath her portrait were written these words: "If any one asks her a riddle, and she does not guess it, him shall she marry; but he whose riddle she guesses shall have his head chopped off." Prince Ivan read this inscription, became greatly afflicted, and went off to his tutor. "I've been in the great hall," says he, "and I picked out for my bride Anna the Fair; only I don't know whether it's possible to win her." "Yes, Prince; she's hard to get. If you go alone, you won't win her anyhow. But if you will take me with you, and if you will do what I tell you, perhaps the affair can be managed." Prince Ivan begged Katoma to go with him, and gave his word of honor to obey him whether in joy or grief. Well, they got ready for the journey and set off to sue for the hand of the Princess Anna the Fair. They travelled for one year, two years, three years, and traversed many countries. Says Prince Ivan-- "We've been travelling all this time, uncle, and now we're approaching the country of Princess Anna the Fair; and yet we don't know what riddle to propound." "We shall manage to think of one in good time," replied Katoma. They went a little farther. Katoma was looking down on the road, and on it lay a purse full of money. He lifted it up directly, poured all the money out of it into his own purse, and said-- "Here's a riddle for you, Prince Ivan! When you come into the presence of the Princess, propound a riddle to her in these words: 'As we were coming along, we saw Good lying on the road, and we took up the Good with Good, and placed it in our own Good!' That riddle she won't guess in a lifetime; but any other one she would find out directly. She would only have to look into her magic-book, and as soon as she had guessed it, she'd order your head to be cut off." Well, at last Prince Ivan and his tutor arrived at the lofty palace in which lived the fair Princess. At that moment she happened to be out on the balcony, and when she saw the newcomers, she sent out to know whence they came and what they wanted. Prince Ivan replied-- "I have come from such-and-such a kingdom, and I wish to sue for the hand of the Princess Anna the Fair." When she was informed of this, the Princess gave orders that the Prince should enter the palace, and there in the presence of all the princes and boyars of her council should propound his riddle. "I've made this compact," she said. "Anyone whose riddle I cannot guess, him I must marry. But anyone whose riddle I can guess, him I may put to death." "Listen to my riddle, fair princess!" said Prince Ivan. "As we came along, we saw Good lying on the road, and we took up the Good with Good, and placed it in our own Good." Princess Anna the Fair took her magic-book, and began turning over its leaves and examining the answers of riddles. She went right through the book, but she didn't get at the meaning she wanted. Thereupon the princes and boyars of her council decided that the Princess must marry Prince Ivan. She wasn't at all pleased, but there was no help for it, and so she began to get ready for the wedding. Meanwhile she considered within herself how she could spin out the time and do away with the bridegroom, and she thought the best way would be to overwhelm him with tremendous tasks. So she called Prince Ivan and said to him-- "My dear Prince Ivan, my destined husband! It is meet that we should prepare for the wedding; pray do me this small service. On such and such a spot of my kingdom there stands a lofty iron pillar. Carry it into the palace kitchen, and chop it into small chunks by way of fuel for the cook." "Excuse me, Princess," replied the prince. "Was it to chop fuel that I came here? Is that the proper sort of employment for me? I have a servant for that kind of thing, Katoma dyadka, of the oaken shapka." The Prince straightway called for his tutor, and ordered him to drag the iron pillar into the kitchen, and to chop it into small chunks by way of fuel for the cook. Katoma went to the spot indicated by the Princess, seized the pillar in his arms, brought it into the palace kitchen, and broke it into little pieces; but four of the iron chips he put into his pocket, saying-- "They'll prove useful by-and-by!" Next day the princess says to Prince Ivan-- "My dear Prince, my destined husband! to-morrow we have to go to the wedding. I will drive in a carriage, but you should ride on a heroic steed, and it is necessary that you should break him in beforehand." "I break a horse in myself! I keep a servant for that." Prince Ivan called Katoma, and said-- "Go into the stable and tell the grooms to bring forth the heroic steed; sit upon him and break him in; to-morrow I've got to ride him to the wedding." Katoma fathomed the subtle device of the Princess, but, without stopping long to talk, he went into the stable and told the grooms to bring forth the heroic steed. Twelve grooms were mustered, they unlocked twelve locks, opened twelve doors, and brought forth a magic horse bound in twelve chains of iron. Katoma went up to him. No sooner had he managed to seat himself than the magic horse leaped up from the ground and soared higher than the forest--higher than the standing forest, lower than the flitting cloud. Firm sat Katoma, with one hand grasping the mane; with the other he took from his pocket an iron chunk, and began taming the horse with it between the ears. When he had used up one chunk, he betook himself to another; when two were used up, he took to a third; when three were used up, the fourth came into play. And so grievously did he punish the heroic steed that it could not hold out any longer, but cried aloud with a human voice-- "Batyushka Katoma! don't utterly deprive me of life in the white world! Whatever you wish, that do you order: all shall be done according to your will!" "Listen, O meat for dogs!" answered Katoma; "to-morrow Prince Ivan will ride you to the wedding. Now mind! when the grooms bring you out into the wide courtyard, and the Prince goes up to you and lays his hand on you, do you stand quietly, not moving so much as an ear. And when he is seated on your back, do you sink into the earth right up to your fetlocks, and then move under him with a heavy step, just as if an immeasurable weight had been laid upon your back." The heroic steed listened to the order and sank to earth scarcely alive. Katoma seized him by the tail, and flung him close to the stable, crying-- "Ho there! coachmen and grooms; carry off this dog's-meat to its stall!" The next day arrived; the time drew near for going to the wedding. The carriage was brought round for the Princess, and the heroic steed for Prince Ivan. The people were gathered together from all sides--a countless number. The bride and bridegroom came out from the white stone halls. The Princess got into the carriage and waited to see what would become of Prince Ivan; whether the magic horse would fling his curls to the wind, and scatter his bones across the open plain. Prince Ivan approached the horse, laid his hand upon its back, placed his foot in the stirrup--the horse stood just as if petrified, didn't so much as wag an ear! The Prince got on its back, the magic horse sank into the earth up to its fetlocks. The twelve chains were taken off the horse, it began to move with an even heavy pace, while the sweat poured off it just like hail. "What a hero! What immeasurable strength!" cried the people as they gazed upon the Prince. So the bride and bridegroom were married, and then they began to move out of the church, holding each other by the hand. The Princess took it into her head to make one more trial of Prince Ivan, so she squeezed his hand so hard that he could not bear the pain. His face became suffused with blood, his eyes disappeared beneath his brows. "A fine sort of hero you are!" thought the Princess. "Your tutor has tricked me splendidly; but you sha'n't get off for nothing!" Princess Anna the Fair lived for some time with Prince Ivan as a wife ought to live with a god-given[320] husband, flattered him in every way in words, but in reality never thought of anything except by what means she might get rid of Katoma. With the Prince, without the tutor, there'd be no difficulty in settling matters! she said to herself. But whatever slanders she might invent, Prince Ivan never would allow himself to be influenced by what she said, but always felt sorry for his tutor. At the end of a year he said to his wife one day-- "Beauteous Princess, my beloved spouse! I should like to go with you to my own kingdom." "By all means," replied she, "let us go. I myself have long been wishing to see your kingdom." Well they got ready and went off; Katoma was allotted the post of coachman. They drove and drove, and as they drove along Prince Ivan went to sleep. Suddenly the Princess Anna the Fair awoke him, uttering loud complaints-- "Listen, Prince, you're always sleeping, you hear nothing! But your tutor doesn't obey me a bit, drives the horses on purpose over hill and dale, just as if he wanted to put an end to us both. I tried speaking him fair, but he jeered at me. I won't go on living any longer if you don't punish him!" Prince Ivan, 'twixt sleeping and waking, waxed very wroth with his tutor, and handed him over entirely to the Princess, saying-- "Deal with him as you please!" The Princess ordered his feet to be cut off. Katoma submitted patiently to the outrage. "Very good," he thinks; "I shall suffer, it's true; but the Prince also will know what to lead a wretched life is like!" When both of Katoma's feet had been cut off, the Princess glanced around, and saw that a tall tree-stump stood on one side; so she called her servants and ordered them to set him on that stump. But as for Prince Ivan, she tied him to the carriage by a cord, turned the horses round, and drove back to her own kingdom. Katoma was left sitting on the stump, weeping bitter tears. "Farewell, Prince Ivan!" he cries; "you won't forget me!" Meanwhile Prince Ivan was running and bounding behind the carriage. He knew well enough by this time what a blunder he had made, but there was no turning back for him. When the Princess Anna the Fair arrived in her kingdom, she set Prince Ivan to take care of the cows. Every day he went afield with the herd at early morn, and in the evening he drove them back to the royal yard. At that hour the Princess was always sitting on the balcony, and looking out to see that the number of the cows were all right.[321] Katoma remained sitting on the stump one day, two days, three days, without anything to eat or drink. To get down was utterly impossible, it seemed as if he must die of starvation. But not far away from that place there was a dense forest. In that forest was living a mighty hero who was quite blind. The only way by which he could get himself food was this: whenever he perceived by the sense of smell that any animal was running past him, whether a hare, or a fox, or a bear, he immediately started in chase of it, caught it--and dinner was ready for him. The hero was exceedingly swift-footed, and there was not a single wild beast which could run away from him. Well, one day it fell out thus. A fox slunk past; the hero heard it, and was after it directly. It ran up to the tall stump, and turned sharp off on one-side; but the blind hero hurried on, took a spring, and thumped his forehead against the stump so hard that he knocked the stump out by the roots. Katoma fell to the ground, and asked: "Who are you?" "I'm a blind hero. I've been living in the forest for thirty years. The only way I can get my food is this: to catch some game or other, and cook it at a wood fire. If it had not been for that, I should have been starved to death long ago!" "You haven't been blind all your life?" "No, not all my life; but Princess Anna the Fair put my eyes out!" "There now, brother!" says Katoma; "and it's thanks to her, too, that I'm left here without any feet. She cut them both off, the accursed one!" The two heroes had a talk, and agreed to live together, and join in getting their food. The blind man says to the lame: "Sit on my back and show me the way; I will serve you with my feet, and you me with your eyes." So he took the cripple and carried him home, and Katoma sat on his back, kept a look out all round, and cried out from time to time: "Right! Left! Straight on!" and so forth. Well, they lived some time in the forest in that way, and caught hares, foxes, and bears for their dinner. One day the cripple says-- "Surely we can never go on living all our lives without a soul [to speak to]. I have heard that in such and such a town lives a rich merchant who has a daughter; and that merchant's daughter is exceedingly kind to the poor and crippled. She gives alms to everyone. Suppose we carry her off, brother, and let her live here and keep house for us." The blind man took a cart, seated the cripple in it, and rattled it into the town, straight into the rich merchant's courtyard. The merchant's daughter saw them out of window, and immediately ran out, and came to give them alms. Approaching the cripple, she said: "Take this, in Christ's name, poor fellow!" He [seemed to be going] to take the gift, but he seized her by the hand, pulled her into the cart, and called to the blind man, who ran off with it at such a pace that no one could catch him, even on horseback. The merchant sent people in pursuit--but no, they could not come up with him. The heroes brought the merchant's daughter into their forest hut, and said to her: "Be in the place of a sister to us, live here and keep house for us; otherwise we poor sufferers will have no one to cook our meals or wash our shirts. God won't desert you if you do that!" The merchant's daughter remained with them. The heroes respected her, loved her, acknowledged her as a sister. They used to be out hunting all day, but their adopted sister was always at home. She looked after all the housekeeping, prepared the meals, washed the linen. But after a time a Baba Yaga took to haunting their hut and sucking the breasts of the merchant's daughter. No sooner have the heroes gone off to the chase, than the Baba Yaga is there in a moment. Before long the fair maiden's face began to fall away, and she grew weak and thin. The blind man could see nothing, but Katoma remarked that things weren't going well. He spoke about it to the blind man, and they went together to their adopted sister, and began questioning her. But the Baba Yaga had strictly forbidden her to tell the truth. For a long time she was afraid to acquaint them with her trouble, for a long time she held out, but at last her brothers talked her over and she told them everything without reserve. "Every time you go away to the chase," says she, "there immediately appears in the cottage a very old woman with a most evil face, and long grey hair. And she sets me to dress her head, and meanwhile she sucks my breasts." "Ah!" says the blind man, "that's a Baba Yaga. Wait a bit; we must treat her after her own fashion. To-morrow we won't go to the chase, but we'll try to entice her and lay hands upon her!" So next morning the heroes didn't go out hunting. "Now then, Uncle Footless!" says the blind man, "you get under the bench, and lie there ever so still, and I'll go into the yard and stand under the window. And as for you, sister, when the Baba Yaga comes, sit down just here, close by the window; and as you dress her hair, quietly separate the locks and throw them outside through the window. Just let me lay hold of her by those grey hairs of hers!" What was said was done. The blind man laid hold of the Baba Yaga by her grey hair, and cried-- "Ho there, Uncle Katoma! Come out from under the bench, and lay hold of this viper of a woman, while I go into the hut!" The Baba Yaga hears the bad news and tries to jump up to get her head free. (Where are you off to? That's no go, sure enough![322]) She tugs and tugs, but cannot do herself any good! Just then from under the bench crawled Uncle Katoma, fell upon her like a mountain of stone, took to strangling her until the heaven seemed to her to disappear.[323] Then into the cottage bounded the blind man, crying to the cripple-- "Now we must heap up a great pile of wood, and consume this accursed one with fire, and fling her ashes to the wind!" The Baba Yaga began imploring them: "My fathers! my darlings! forgive me. I will do all that is right." "Very good, old witch! Then show us the fountain of healing and life-giving water!" said the heroes. "Only don't kill me, and I'll show it you directly!" Well, Katoma sat on the blind man's back. The blind man took the Baba Yaga by her back hair, and she led them into the depths of the forest, brought them to a well,[324] and said-- "That is the water that cures and gives life." "Look out, Uncle Katoma!" cried the blind man; "don't make a blunder. If she tricks us now we shan't get right all our lives!" Katoma cut a green branch off a tree, and flung it into the well. The bough hadn't so much as reached the water before it all burst into a flame! "Ha! so you're still up to your tricks," said the heroes, and began to strangle the Baba Yaga, with the intention of flinging her, the accursed one, into the fiery fount. More than ever did the Baba Yaga implore for mercy, swearing a great oath that she would not deceive them this time. "On my troth I will bring you to good water," says she. The heroes consented to give her one more trial, and she took them to another fount. Uncle Katoma cut a dry spray from a tree, and flung it into the fount. The spray had not yet reached the water when it already turned green, budded, and put forth blossoms. "Come now, that's good water!" said Katoma. The blind man wetted his eyes with it, and saw directly. He lowered the cripple into the water, and the lame man's feet grew again. Then they both rejoiced greatly, and said to one another, "Now the time has come for us to get all right! We'll get everything back again we used to have! Only first we must make an end of the Baba Yaga. If we were to pardon her now, we should always be unlucky; she'd be scheming mischief all her life." Accordingly they went back to the fiery fount, and flung the Baba Yaga into it; didn't it soon make an end of her! After this Katoma married the merchant's daughter, and the three companions went to the kingdom of Anna the Fair in order to rescue Prince Ivan. When they drew near to the capital, what should they see but Prince Ivan driving a herd of cows! "Stop, herdsman!" says Katoma; "where are you driving these cows?" "I'm driving them to the Princess's courtyard," replied the Prince. "The Princess always sees for herself whether all the cows are there." "Here, herdsman; take my clothes and put them on, and I will put on yours and drive the cows." "No, brother! that cannot be done. If the Princess found it out, I should suffer harm!" "Never fear, nothing will happen! Katoma will guarantee you that." Prince Ivan sighed, and said-- "Ah, good man! If Katoma had been alive, I should not have been feeding these cows afield!" Then Katoma disclosed to him who he was. Prince Ivan warmly embraced him and burst into tears. "I never hoped even to see you again," said he. So they exchanged clothes. The tutor drove the cows to the Princess's courtyard. Anna the Fair went into the balcony, looked to see if all the cows were there, and ordered them to be driven into the sheds. All the cows went into the sheds except the last one, which remained at the gate. Katoma sprang at it, exclaiming-- "What are you waiting for, dog's-meat?" Then he seized it by the tail, and pulled it so hard that he pulled the cow's hide right off! The Princess saw this, and cried with a loud voice: "What is that brute of a cowherd doing? Seize him and bring him to me!" Then the servants seized Katoma and dragged him to the palace. He went with them, making no excuses, relying on himself. They brought him to the Princess. She looked at him and asked-- "Who are you? Where do you come from?" "I am he whose feet you cut off and whom you set on a stump. My name is Katoma dyadka, oaken shapka." "Well," thinks the Princess, "now that he's got his feet back again, I must act straight-forwardly with him for the future." And she began to beseech him and the Prince to pardon her. She confessed all her sins, and swore an oath always to love Prince Ivan, and to obey him in all things. Prince Ivan forgave her, and began to live with her in peace and concord. The hero who had been blind remained with them, but Katoma and his wife went to the house of [her father] the rich merchant, and took up their abode under his roof. [There is a story in the "Panchatantra" (v. 12) which, in default of other parallels, may be worth comparing with that part of this Skazka which refers to the blind man and the cripple in the forest. Here is an outline of it:--
FOOTNOTES: [318] Afanasief, v. No. 35. [319] In the original he is generally designated as Katòma--dyàd'ka, dubovaya shàpka, "Katòma-governor, oaken-hat." Not being able to preserve the assonance, I have dropped the greater part of his title. [320] Bogodanny (bog = God; dat', davat' = to give). One of the Russian equivalents for our hideous "father-in-law" is "god-given father" (bogodanny otets), and for "mother-in-law," bogodanny mat' or "God-given mother." (Dahl.) [321] Four lines are omitted here. See A. de Gubernatis, "Zool. Mythology," i. 181, where a solar explanation of the whole story will be found. [322] These ejaculations belong to the story-teller. [323] Literally, "Seemed to her as small as a lamb." [324] Kolòdez, a word connected with kolòda a log, trough, &c. [The end] GO TO TOP OF SCREEN |