Popular Tales from the Norse Part 71

THE MAN AND THE DOUKANA TREE

There was once a man and his wife, who were very poor, and they had a great many children. The man was very lazy, and would do nothing to help his family. The poor mother did all she could. In the wood close by grew a Doukana Tree, which was full of fruit. Every day the man went and ate some of the fruit, but never took any home, so he ate and he ate, until there were only two Doukanas left on the Tree. One he ate, and left the other. Next day, when he went for that one, he was obliged to climb up the tree to reach it; but when he got up, the Doukana fell down; when he got down the Doukana jumped up; and so it went on until he was quite tired.

Then he asked all the animals that pa.s.sed by to help him, but they all made some excuse. They all had something to do. The horse had his work to do, or he would have no gra.s.s to eat. The donkey brayed. Last came a dog, and the man begged him hard to help him; so the dog said he would. Then the man climbed up the tree, and the Doukana jumped to the ground again, when the dog picked it up and ran off with it The man was very vexed, and ran after the dog, but it ran all the faster, so that the man could not overtake him. The dog, seeing the man after him, ran to the sea sh.o.r.e, and scratching a hole in the ground, buried himself all but his nose, which he left sticking out.

Soon after the man came up, and seeing the nose, cried out that he had 'never seen ground have nose'; and catching hold of it he tugged till he pulled out the dog, when he squeezed him with all his might to make him give up the Doukana. And that's why dogs are so small in their bodies to this very day.

NANCY FAIRY

There was once an old woman called 'Nancy Fairy'. She was a witch, and used to steal all the little babies as soon as they were born, and eat them. One day she stole a little baby, who was so beautiful that she had not the heart to eat her; but she took her home and brought her up. She called her 'daughter', named her 'Nancy Fairy', after herself, and the girl called the old woman 'Granny'.

So the girl grew up, and the more she grew the more beautiful she got.

The old woman never let her daughter know of her doings; but one day when she had brought a baby home, and had locked herself in a room, her daughter peeped through a c.h.i.n.k to see what she was about, and the old woman saw her shadow, and thought her daughter had seen what she was doing, and the daughter thought her granny had seen her, and was very much afraid.

So the old woman asked her, 'Nancy Fairy, did you see what I was doing?'

'No, Granny.'

She asked the girl several times, 'Nancy Fairy, did you see what I was doing?' and the girl always said, 'No, Granny.'

So the old woman took her up to a hut in a wood, and left her there as a punishment; and she took her food every day.

One day it happened that the king's servant, going that way, saw the beautiful girl come out of the hut. Next day he went again and saw the same beautiful girl again. So he went home and told the prince that he could show him in the wood a girl more beautiful than he had ever seen. The prince went and saw the girl, and then sent a band of soldiers to fetch her home, and took her for his bride.

A year after she had a baby. Soldiers were set to keep guard at the gate, and the room was full of nurses; but in the middle of the night the old woman came in a whirlwind and put them all to sleep. She stole the child, and on going away gave the mother a slap on the mouth which made her dumb.

Next morning there was a great stir, and they said the mother had eaten the child. There was a trial, but the mother was let off that time.

Next year she had another baby, and the same thing happened again.

The old woman came in the middle of the night in a whirlwind, and put them all to sleep. She stole the child, and struck the mother on the mouth, which made it bleed.

In the morning there was a stir; and the servant maid, who was jealous, said the mother had eaten the child. All believed it, as her mouth was covered with blood; and, besides, what would be expected of a girl brought out of the wood? So she was tried again, and condemned to be hanged.

Invitations were sent out to all the grand folk to come and see her hanged; so many fine carriages came driving up. At last, just before the time, there came a very grand carriage, all of gold, which glistened in the sun. In it were the old woman and two children, dressed in fine clothes, with the king's star on them. When the queen saw this grand carriage she got her speech and sung,

'Do spare me till I see that grand carriage.'

The old woman came into the courtyard, and asked the people if they saw any likeness to any one in the children. They said, 'they were like the prince', and asked her how she came by them, and told her she had stolen them. She said she had not stolen them; she had taken them, for they were her own; the prince had taken away her daughter without her leave, and so she had taken his children; but she was willing to give them back, if they would allow that she was right.

So they consented, and the old woman made the prince and his queen a present of the grand carriage, and so they lived happily. The old woman was allowed to come and see the children whenever she liked.

But the servant girl, who said the queen had eaten her babies, was hanged.

'THE DANCING GANG'

A water carrier once went to the river to fetch water. She dipped in her calabash, and brought out a cray-fish. The cray-fish began beating his claws on the calabash, and played such a beautiful tune, that the girl began dancing, and could not stop.

The driver of the gang wondered why she did not come, and sent another to see after her. When she came, she too began to dance. So the driver sent another, who also began to dance when she heard the music and the cray-fish singing:

Vaitsi, Vaitsi, O sulli Van.

Stay for us, stay for us, how long will you stay for us?

Then the driver sent another and another, till he had sent the whole gang.

At last he went himself, and when he found the whole gang dancing, he too began to dance; and they all danced till night, when the cray- fish went back into the water; and if they haven't done dancing, they are dancing still.

FOOTNOTES TO INTRODUCTION

[1]

How strange is the terror of Natural Science, which seems to possess, with a religious possession, so many good and pious people! How rigidly do they bind themselves hand and foot with the mere letter of the law, forgetting Him who came to teach us, that 'the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life!' What are we to say of those who, when the old crust which clogs and hampers human knowledge is cracking and breaking all around them, when the sh.e.l.l is too narrow an abode for the life within it, which is preparing to cast it off, still cling to the crust and sh.e.l.l, looking, like the disciples by the sepulchre, at the linen clothes lying, and know not that He has risen in glory? These are they who obstinately refuse to believe in the 'Testimony of the Rocks', who deny Geology the thousands, nay millions, of years which she requires to make her deposits in Nature's great saving-bank. These are they for whom the Nile, as he brings down year by year his tribute to the sea from Central Africa, lays down in vain layer after layer of alluvial deposit, which can be measured to an inch for tens of thousands of years. These are they to whom the comparatively younger growth of trees, the dragon tree of Orotava, and the cedars of California, plead in vain when they show, year after year, ring on ring of wood for thousands of years. 'No; the world is only five or six thousands of years old, or thereabouts.

The Old Testament'--the dates in which have been confessedly tampered with, and in some cases forged and fabricated by Hebrew scribes-- 'says so. We believe in it--we will believe in nothing else, not even in our senses. We will believe literally in the first chapter of Genesis, in working days and nights of twenty-four hours, even before the sun and moon were made, on the fourth day, "to divide the day from the night", and to be "for signs and for seasons, and for days and years". We will not hear of ages or periods, but "days", because the "letter" says so'. This is what our Western Brahmins say; but if they remembered that He who set sun and moon also planted the eye and ear, that he gave sense, and speech, and mind; if they considered that faith is a lively thing, elastic and expansive; that it embraces a thousand or a million years as easily as a moment of time; that bonds cannot fetter it, nor distance darken and dismay it; that it is given to man to grow with his growth and strengthen with his strength; that it rises at doubts and difficulties, and surmounts them; they would cease to condemn all the world to wear their own strait-waistcoat, cut and sewn by rabbis and doctors some thousand years ago; a garment which the human intellect has altogether outgrown, which it is ridiculous to wear, which careless and impious men laugh at when it is seen in the streets; and might begin to see that spirit is spirit, and flesh is flesh; that while one lives for ever, the other is corruptible and pa.s.ses away; that there are developments in faith as in every thing else; that as man's intellect and human knowledge have grown and expanded, so his faith must grow and expand too; that it really matters nothing at all, as an act of faith, whether the world is six thousand or six million years old; that it must have had a beginning; that there must be one great first cause, G.o.d. Surely there is no better way to bring His goodness into question, to throw doubt on His revelation, and to make it the laughing stock of the irreligious, than thus to clip the wings of faith, to throw her into a dungeon, to keep her from the light of day, to make her read through. Hebrew spectacles, and to force her to be a laggard and dullard, instead of a bright and volatile spirit, forward and foremost in the race of life.

[2]

But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so n.o.ble a G.o.dfather, and never after _ear_ so barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest'-- SHAKESPEARE, _Dedication to Venus and Adonis_.

[3]

As a specimen of their thoughtful turn of mind, even in the _Vedas_, at a time before the monstrous avatars of the Hindoo Pantheon were imagined, and when their system of philosophy, properly so called, had no existence, the following metrical translation of the 129th hymn of the 10th book of the _Rig-Veda_ may be quoted, which Professor Muller a.s.sures us is of a very early date:

Nor aught nor naught existed; yon bright sky Was not, nor Heaven's broad woof outstretched above.

What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed?

Was it the water's fathomless abyss?

There was not death--yet was there nought immortal.

There was no confine betwixt day and night; The only One breathed breathless by itself, Other than It there nothing since has been.

Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled In gloom profound--an ocean without light-- The germ that still lay covered in the husk Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.

Then first came love upon it, the new spring Of mind--yea, poets in their hearts discerned, Pondering, this bond between created things And uncreated. Comes this spark from earth, Piercing and all pervading, or from Heaven?

Then seeds were sown, and mighty powers arose-- Nature below, and power and will above-- Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here, Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?

The G.o.ds themselves came later into being-- Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?

He from whom all this great creation came, Whether His will created or was mute, The Most High Seer that is in highest heaven, He knows it--or perchance even he knows not.

If we reflect that this hymn was composed centuries before the time of Hesiod, we shall be better able to appreciate the speculative character of the Indian mind in its earliest stage.

[4]

'A Brahmin, who had vowed a sacrifice, went to the market to buy a goat. Three thieves saw him, and wanted to get hold of the goat. They stationed themselves at intervals on the high road. When the Brahmin, who carried the goat on his back, approached the first thief, the thief said, "Brahmin, why do you carry a dog on your back?" The Brahmin replied: "It is not a dog, it is a goat." A little while after, he was accosted by the second thief, who said, "Brahmin, why do you carry a dog on your back?" The Brahmin felt perplexed, put the goat down, examined it, and walked on. Soon after he was stopped by the third thief, who said, "Brahmin, why do you carry a dog on your back?" Then the Brahmin was frightened, threw down the goat, and walked home to perform his ablutions for having touched an unclean animal. The thieves took the goat and ate it.' See the notice of the Norse Tales in _The Sat.u.r.day Review_, January 15. In Max Muller's translation of the _Hitopadesa_, the story has a different ending. See also _Le Piacevoli Notti_, di M. Giovan Francesco Straparola da Caravaggio (Venice, 1567), Notte Prima, Favola III: 'Pre Scarpacifico da tre malandrini una sol volta gabbato, tre fiate gabba loro, finalmente vittorioso con la sua Nina lietamente rimane'. In which tale the beginning is a parallel to the first part of 'The Master Thief', while the end answers exactly to the Norse tale added in this edition, and called Big Peter and Little Peter'.

[5]