Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. The old woman had a salty pen, and the old man had a lens pen. Once the old man made soup and went to the old woman asking for some salt.
‘Give me, Granny, a spoon of salt to put in my soup!’
The old woman chased him away. She did not give him any. Then the old man asked God:
‘My Lord, My Lord, let it thunder, let it rain, let it melt the Granny’s pen! Then she will come to me, to ask me let her in, near my fireplace!’
The Lord listened to him and made it pour with rain. The rain melted the Granny’s house. She went to the old man and started to beg him:
‘Let me, Old Man, in! Let me in, near your fireplace!’
And the old man chased her away.
‘Please, Old Man, don’t chase me away!
The old man felt pity on her and let her in. And they started to live together and many children were born. Every day the old man went to work and the old woman stayed at home to make bread. But the children were many; they were eating everything. The old man came home hungry and there was nothing to eat. It was all the same everyday and finally he became angry.
‘I will boil a cauldron of water and make all of them to soap! I am poor and I can not feed children!’
He did as he said. He boiled a cauldron of water, caught the children and dropped them in. Three of them, two boys and one girl, however hid: one was behind the door, another one under the brush, and the third one – under the bed.
The old woman baked bread and both of them began to eat. Suddenly they became very sad about the children and the old man said:
‘Oh, Granny, I wish I had left at least one to eat the crusts!’
Then the children showed themselves. And they started to live together again. The old man however started to thing again that the children eat too much.
‘I won’t kill them, he said, but I will take them to the forest. I will leave them there and the beasts will eat them.’
He said to the children:
‘Come on, children, let’s go to the forest and chop some trees!’
They took the cart and went to the forest. The old man lighted a fire and told the children:
‘You will stay here and wait for me. I will go to chop trees. Don’t be afraid – you will hear the sounds of the ax and know that I am near.’
He harnessed the horse to the cart and went home. The children were waiting, waiting… It became dark. They started to cry: ‘Oh, Lord, the bears will eat us! Oh, Lord, the wolves will eat us!’ The youngest one was crying: ‘I am hungry, sister, I am hungry!’
The girl was wondering what to do and finally she took some dust from the ground, mixed it with water, kneaded it, and put it into the fire. She started to lie to her brother: ‘Wait a little, my brother, I will bake the bread and give it to you!’
God took pity on them,, and appeared in front of them dresses as a poor old man. He asked them:
‘What are you doing here, children?’
‘Oh, old man, our father went to chop trees and is still there. The wild beasts will eat us’ – the girl answered.
‘What have you put here in the fire?’
‘I am sorry, old man, I have put dust to lie to my young brother it is bread.’
God knocked with his stick and said:
‘Look, what a tasty bread you have baked! Take it!
And when the girl took it she saw that it was big tasty bread.
‘No matter how long you will eat it, it will never end’ – the Lord said.
Than he told the girl again:
‘Look at my hair! Please, clean it from the lice!’
She started to look in his hair but didn’t see anything.
‘You do not have lice, old man. I do not find any.’
‘What do you find there, girl?’
‘I find gold and silver, old man.’
‘Let you be of gold and silver’
And she became of gold and silver. He gave to her two brothers bows with arrows and gifted them with the skill to hit what they shoot at.
The sister and the brothers started to live in the forest. Every day the brothers went hunting. They shot deer and hares, took them to their sister, and she cooked the meat. They were living like this for many years.
Years passed. Once, while the brothers were hunting, the sister fell asleep. When she woke up the fire was out. There was no fire, no matches, nothing to light the fire again. She looked around and saw a light blinking in the distance. She went to see what it was. A witch was sitting near a fire.
‘Will you give me some fire, old woman?’
‘I will give you, girl. Wait for a while.’
The old witch however was not in a hurry at all. Her son was a dragon and she has been looking for a daughter-in-law for years. The girl was waiting and waiting. It became late.
‘Please, old woman, give me some fire! – the sister was bagging. – It is late, my brothers will look for me!’
Then the old woman took a tin-box, pierced it and put ashes into it. As the girl was going home the ash was falling and leaving a track. The dragon came and started to quarrel with his mother. He understood that a human being was there and wanted to know who it was. The old woman told him everything about the girl. He asked:
‘Where can I find her?’
‘Do you see the ash? – the witch asked. Follow the ash and you will go straight there!’
The dragon did so. He found the girl, grasp her, and started to eat her. He has been eating her for five-six days. The girl turned pale, lost weight. She was not pretty any more. The younger brother said to the elder one:
‘Our sister brother is not well – she is fading, she is loosing weight. There is something that is frightening her!’
The elder brother did not believe him: ‘What can it be? There is nobody living in this forest. Only we live among the beast.’
‘Listen! – the younger said. – You will go hunting and will hide here to see who comes to frighten our sister!’
They went out and pretended they were going hunting. The younger brother however came back and hid. The dragon came whistling from the distance. The girl started to cry. Then the younger brother leveled his bow at the dragon and shot him in the head. But he had 41 heads: one was dead but the others were still alive. The brother went out and cut all the rest. Only a pile of bones left from the dragon. The children took the bone and threw them in a pit.
At the same time the witch was waiting for the dragon to return. But he did not. She understood what happened. She went to the girl and started to cry
‘Did my son come here, a dragon? He was eating me, he was frightening me, he was beating me.’
‘Don’t be afraid, old woman, - the sister answered. – My brothers killed him and threw his bones into a pit.’
‘Where are the bones, so that I can go and spit on them?’
The girl took the witch to the remains of the dragon. The witch made to combs from the bones. She went back to the girl.
‘I made two combs to thank your brothers. Give them the combs and tell them to put them together on their mustaches.’
The brothers put together the combs and suddenly turned to donkeys. The sister started to cry and the elder brother tried to calm her down:
‘Don’t cry, sister! We are already donkeys but the king has work to be done. Buy two horse-collars and dress like a man. You will burden us – more on me and less on our brother. Thus you will yearn money. You will feed yourself and us.
The girl did so and started to work for the king. Every day the donkeys listened to what people were saying. In the evening they told their sister everything.
The son of the king however became suspicious watching the workers. He was suspicious about the new worker, whether this was a girl or a boy. He was dressed like a man, he was working like a man, but the face was of gold and silver – beautiful as a girl! He went to the king and told him:
‘Look, father, this is not a man but a girl!’
‘A girl? Don’t you see she is working along with the other men?’ – the king laughed.
‘You will see, Dad! I will ask her to come with me to the market. I will look where she will go. If she is a girl she will go to the bracelets and the earrings. If this is a man, he will go to the knives.’
The brothers of the girl however heard everything and told their sister:
‘They will want you to go to the market. When you go there, do not look at the bracelets but at the knives.’
The prince took the girl to the market and said:
‘Let’s buy some bracelets!’
‘Why do we need bracelets? We are not women! Let’s buy pistols or knives!’
The prince went back to his father.
‘What happened, son?’
‘She went to the pistols but I am sure, father, that she is a woman.’
The prince went to an old woman and told her about his suspicions. She told him:
‘You will go to this boy and make him fight. You will let him fight you once, second time… The third time you will reach his hat rapidly take it off. If this is a woman, she will have long hair.’
The prince followed the old woman’s advice and the long hair of the girl showed. The prince took the girl to his father and said:
‘Do you see, father, that this is a girl? She can not hide her beauty under man’s clothes!’
They got engaged and invited all people from the kingdom. The witch also came. She was standing in a corner but the girl saw her and told the king:
‘My brothers are men not donkeys. This witch turned them to donkeys.’
The king ordered his men to catch the witch and bring her to him. They put her to sit near the king, to eat and drink. The king asked her:
‘Can you turn these two donkeys into boys?’
‘Give me white and black grapes and I will turn them into boys.’ – the witch answered.
She gave a grain each and they turned to boys again.
‘What award do you want – 40 knives or 40 horses?’ – the king asked.
‘Why do I need 40 knives? What can I do with them? Give me 40 horses and I will go home.”
Then the king ordered his solders:
‘Take her out! Tie her to the tails of 40 horses and hit lash them!’
They did as he ordered. The horses dashed to all directions and the witch was torn to 40 pieces