The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - sixth (last) part

The prince and the soldier continued the card-game. Soon the prince (after letting the soldier win again) asked him to do another service for him.
"Just tell me your wish."
I pick a big pile of rose flowers and I sit in a basket. You cover me with the flowers and take this basket, and put it on the table of the miss. "
"I don't dear to make it." Boggled the soldier at the prince's demand. "I fear to do it."
"Don't be frightened at all, just leave me on her table and exit the room." Slowly he convinced the soldier to help him. He acquired a basket, lied into it, and the soldier carried him to the girl's table.
"Here you are, miss, a delivery for you." Mumbled the soldier and quickly left the room.
The daughter of the turkey-herd woman was standing in front of her mirror, combing her hair. The prince begin to rise gently from the basket behind her, so the roses started to tower in the middle. The girl noticed it in the mirror and turned in a sudden, just when the prince appeared of the roses. They embraced each other in a great happiness, they huged and kissed each other. What should they do? Where should they go?
They do not go anywhere, they lied into bed with each other straight away.
And the pagan ordered the wind band in front of his castle for his wedding, took his most pagan suite and stood on front of the march. He sent a prestigious functionary to announce his arrival to the fiance'e. The functionary arrives to her room, opens the door, and notices that she is lieing in her bed with an unknown man. He hurries back to his king and reports: "Noble King, your fiance'e is in her bed with a stranger man."
A round oath escaped the king. "Grab his ear, and take him here, let me see what sort of man he is."
The prestigious functionary alerted the royal guards and they entered the room of the daughter of the turkey-herd woman. "Get out of the bed!" The young couple took each other's hand and went to the king like that. The soldiers followed them.
But they are as like two peas. They resemble each other so much. When the king saw them, he gazed at them for an hour. And after that he sad: "Oh, Great God would beat me, if I would break away them. I organize a wedding for them instead."
They observed their marriage. They celebrated for seven days and seven nights. And the prince and his new wife settled in the court of the pagan king.
And they lived there a life of the newly weds, until a day, when the prince started to yearn for his home. He remembered his has a father and mother, the king and the queen. His wife noticed something was wrong, and asked: "What's the matter, my dear husband?" "Oh, dear wife, we should go home, to check the things there, I can not keep quiet here, until I don't know what's with my old folks."
So they decided to go home, they got gold in their purses from the pagan king and a permission for the ferrymen to sail them cross the water. There were new ferrymen there, young ones, instead of the old sailmans, who the prince met on his way to the pagan king's land. They took their places on the board and the small boat started to float on the sea.
The prince fell asleep. He was sailing on a boat in his dream aswell. He dreamt there was a rope at his feet, which he took and thrown towards the land. And in his dream this rope turned into a dry road. He woke up. And he realized there was really a rope at his feet. He threw it out of the boat, and it turned into a road. He left the boat, told them to wait him there, and ran on this path right to the land of the Blackamoors. When he reached their land they closed in on him and dragged him in front of their king. The king ordered his soldiers not take the captive to the scaffold, but only punish him the following way: "Take him in front of the church, and put a lash beside him. Everyone, who passes should whip him twenty-one times with the lash. Make him bear this for one day." Than spoke up the Blackamoor Queen.
"Hey man, our people are all black, and this one has white colour! Make him merry our daughter!"
"You are absolutly right!" Replied the king. "So, will you marry our daughter?"
"Yes, I will." The prince couldn't choose anything else to answer, because he was afraid they would kill him otherwise. So they observed the wedding, and he became the husband of the Blackamoor Princess.
But there was a law in that country, that if a member of a married couple dies, they bury the consort of him or her aswell.
And it happened that the wife of the prince died soon after their wedding. They prepared a coffin for the princess and for him aswell, and brought them to the cemetery. There lied all the deads and those miserables who were imposed upon God with force. When the prince heard the bang of the closing gate after the leaving mourners, he pushed up the cover, and climbed out of his coffin. The graveyard was surrounded with a huge wall. Finally he found an oak-tree which was taller than the wall. He climbed it, jumped down on the other side and escaped from the land of the Blackamoors on the path which transformed of the rope.
The boat with ferrymen and the daughter of turkey-herd woman was still waiting for him at the end. They carried on with the journey and sailed the prince and his wife to the cost, where the prince once came from.
They started to wander through valleys and hills. The prince's wife was pregnant, and it was more and more arduous for her to walk. They went till afternoon, when she asked the prince for a rest. They settled on the green grass, the prince embrassed his love, and she banded her head into his leap, and fall asleep. But she didn't just fall asleep, her soul flew away, and left her body. The prince didn't notice it, he didn't move for a long time, not to wake up her. He became anxious only, when the clouds turned red on the edge of the sky. "Wake up darling, we must go on. Come, we can not stay here for the night." He cried. But his wife did not move at all. Than he realized, that she is dead. He, himself almost died of a broken heart, he cried and sobed. So, what shall he do? Where should he take her? He took her on his shoulders, and started the road in the darkness of the night.
When he reached a village, he went into the cemetery, and there he entered into a charnel house. He tore the skirt of his wife into two parts, layed one part under her, and covered her with the other. He closed the door, and went home to his parents on his own. He yielded to fate, that his wife died, he has noone to look for anymore. He turned bitter, and he did not long for anything.
However one day, he decided to have a look round in the town. As he was walking on the sideway, he discovered a café, and opposite to it a brothel, with twelve gaudy whores in it. As he passed by they were laughing, giggleing, showing off, and misbehaving in the window. The prince never saw such kind of folks before, he curiously drew near the window to peek inside. One whore notices him, and suddenly she snaps the prince's hat, and runs indside with it.
"Oh my dear God, she has stolen my hat! What sort of freak is this? Why doesn't she leave alone my hat?" - said the prince, and he entered the brothel. Inside he met a fat lady. She was sitting all day in the anteroom of the brothel, she was brooding all day, as she didn't have family. She was the owner of the brothel.
"So, what's the matter, your majesty?"
"As I was passing by, and one of the women has stolen my hat. My royal hat." Replies the prince. The fat lady shruged away. "Enter, and ask for it!"
When the prince entered, he had no time to say a word. Nothing like: Why did you take my hat? or Give me mey hat!, they didn't let him speak. They circled him and started to caress him and fondle him. And they highly detained him: "Sit down, sit down sit, down!
And they were slobbering him. He did not know what to do. When his wife died, he took it a rule, that he will not be with other woman. But as he ended up on this place, and these women turned his brain, he commanded various things to these ladies.
During this, the lady in the anteroom, the owner of the brothel, ordered a cart to the village of Derzs for pálinka. They set out for the drink with the cart. As they passed by the cemetery, where the prince burried his wife, the lady heart some yowling. She made the cart stop. The coachmen and the lady hoped off the cart and searched for the source of the noise in between the graves. But they haven't found any living creature.
Finally the lady discovered that it is coming from one of the charnel houses, she peeked through the keyhole, and she saw that a newborn baby on the stomach of her mother, she was the one, who gave the noise. She called the coachmen, they broke the lock on the door and entered the charnel house. The fat lady never had family, nor children, the only people who belonged to her were the twelve loose persons. She decided not to go anywhere else, not even to Derzs for pálinka, she whiped up the child and returned with it to the brothel.
The prince left the house at that time already, but frok, that day, he reurnjed there to time to time.
The fat lady took care of the little girl, who she found at the cemetery, as if she was her own child. She brought her up until the age of twelve. When she found her in the cemetery, she found a necklace on the neck of the dead mother, and she took it, and when the girl became enough old to wear it, she gave to her.
One day when the prince was in the brothel, having pleisure with the whores, the fat lady noticed to her adopted child: "Oh, my daughter I am have been running a brothel for more than 20 years, but I never had so fine guest as this one, who's at our house today."
"Who is that, mummy? Let me have a look!" But her step-mother was opposed to her wish.
"No, my daughter, you must not go there, you are not like those!"
"But, mummy, I don't want to go inside, just to peep from the door. I come back, right away."
"Allright, that's okay." Acceded the lady.
As she opened the door of the room, all looked upon her. The prince looked there aswell, and the little girl's face called his wife to his mind. She looked exactly like her wife, she was so beatiful. He pushed off the loose women, and run after the girl, right to the fat lady.
"Who was the one, who came to our room?"
"That's my little daughter, indeed."
"And how much do You ask for letting her come to me? I only want to speak some words with her, and to have a drink together."
The corpulent proprietress of the brothel became shocked at that. "How do you think, I would let my own little daughter to you? You have those twelve girls for you! You want my precious child? Don't even dream about it!"
"You get as much money, as you would like for that! Beleive me, it is worth for you." Tried to convince her the prince.
And the fat lady wondered, how shrill the royal person is. "One can not get rid of him. And if he falls in love with the girl? He might even want to merry her..." She turned to her: "My little pearl, do you pay attention to the words of this noble person? Would you be willing to spend some time with him?"
"If you would let me go, I would be willing to do it." Replied the girl.
The prince and the girl entered into a room. They set down on two sides of a table. The prince opened a bottle and they drunk from two glasses, which were there, on the table. The conversation started hardly, the prince asked qustions like: "Who are you?" "How are you?" Nothing important.
Than suddenly he noticed the necklace on the girl. "How fine neclace you have! It is beatiful!"
"I should thonk so! I inherited it from my mum." Answered the girl.
The prince could turn his head away. He kept repeating: "How beatiful it is, how beatiful it is!"
As they were talking with each other, he strached his hand and took the pendant of the necklace. He opened it, and inside he found the photo of his wife! Rejoicing suddenly warmed the cockles of his heart. He embrassed the girl, his daughter.
"My dear child, look upon me, I am your father!" And he took her hand, and ran with her to the proprietress. "She is my child, not yours. You took her from that charnel house!" He cried. "I recognize her after her necklace, there is my wife's coloured photo in the pendant of it!"
The lady jerked back the little girl to herself. "It is not your daughter, majesty! I brought her up, took care of her, she is mine!"
"But she is not yours, I tell you! She is my descendant, indeed! Tell me, how much money you want for giving food and giving her clothes till now."
"I don't want your money, I do not part with her."
The quarreled, and brawled, but they could not come to an understanding. "Let"s go to the courthouse. They will decide who shall get her!"
So they went to the lords of the law, where the prince explained his story, and asked them to judge the child to him. The adjudicator has known the well the proprietress of the brothel, and he knew that she doesn't have family. He decided that the girl should be raised by her father, and he let the woman ask for the expanses of the nurture of the child. Only God knows how big sum she asked for. The prince took his wallet and paid her.
And than he said to the girl: "Come, my daughter, let's go home!"
But the girl shook her had. She took the hand of her fathers hand, and led her to the cemetery, where her mother was lieing in the charnel house, where she was found. And there the daughter of the turkey-herd woman was not dead! She was only hidden form conciousness. When the prince and his daughter entered, she sat up, took her golden comb, and started to comb her haie with it. And than suddenly she sprung up, and ran out from the charnel house; her joy was so high that she didn't know what she is doing! She was so happy that she sees the white-world again, and her husband, and her daughter. They embrassed and kissed each other.
"Where do you take me, my husband?" Asked the wife of the prince.
"I take to the palace of my father!" Answered the prince.
But his wife sad to this: "Listen to me, I do not go there, not even to the area of your father's palace! Take me anywhere, but there I don't darken the door!"
She didn't mention, what did her mother in law and father in law do to her, that they sold her, but she was not willing to go to their palace.
"I do not go to your father. I follow you everywhere, exept for that place!"
And so the prince led them to a city. He bought a house, there was a big room in that house, and they lived there happily ever after.

"As I heard it, I told it so."

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - fifth part

The prince did not go back to his parents, neither to the house of the Jewish family. He went right a way to the seacoast, he wanted to cross the waves. But he haven't found any boat or canoe, or any means of transport on the coast. He waited there for a month looking out for someone, who can take him across the water. Than suddenly he saw a boat on the horizon, approaching him. There were two sailors in it. As they reached the coast, and they started to anchor, he cried at them: "I want to cross the water." "Oh, we cannot sail anyone cross the water, it is even forbidden for the bird to fly over. That is the command of the king."
"If you refuse to take me, I'll kill myself into the water." And he prepared himself to jump down from the rocks.
Than one old sailor says to the other: "Listen, they might kill us, if we sail him across, but we are both old, look at him, what a pity if his young life ends. Let's take him." "Come and jump in!" Said the other one to the prince. They started to row with him across the water.
The daughter of the turkey-herd woman was closed in separate room, guarded strictly by armed soldiers. When the boat reached the bank, the prince went to her room directly. The soldier in the door warns him: "Stop." He stops for a second, but than makes some steps again. "Stop!" Says the soldier. "Otherwise I'll shoot at you." But his words were bigger, than his braveness, he didn't dear to pull the trigger. The prince stepped up to him. "What are you doing here?" "I'm watching over the fiance'e of the king. She is locked up in this room, so she cannot escape."
"How foolish you are, soldier." Replied the prince." "How much do you get for this?"
"I do not get a penny, this is my duty, I'm a soldier."
"You are certainly fool. Why do you waste your precious time watching over her, without getting any money? Come let's play cards instead."
The soldier shook his head. "I do not have money for that."
"I'll borrow you some. Come on!" He gave half of his gold to the soldier, and they started to play. The prince was a big card player, he could even win the stars from the sky with playing cards, but he let the soldier win. "Listen soldier, if we continue this game, you'll win so much money, that you will not know what to do with it. But this is nothing compared to what you get, if you do a service for me. Will you?"
"What would it be?"
"Take this cup of wine, and take it to her. You'll get this big amount of money, if you do this for me."
"I can do this, this is nothing."
The prince threw his ring into the cup of wine, and the soldier took it to the daughter of the turkey-herd woman. When she started to drink it, the ring hit her teeth, she looked at it, and she realized who's it was.

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - fourth part

The prince started to run the streets of the town to find a place, where they can employ him. He wandered on hundreds of streets and alleys. Finally he had found a shop of an old jew. He was selling salt, paprika, vinegar and such stuff; and he supported his big family of what he earned. When he entered, the wife of the jew was at the desk; and she asked him, what does he need.
"I don't want to buy anything." Replied the prince. "Give me work, employ me." The jewish woman almost petrified with astonishment; it never happened before, that someone wanted to be an employee in their miserable store.
"Do not gird at me, you noble man! Go rather to the restaurant opposite to us, they will employ you."
But the prince kept his ground. "I'll rather stay here. Just as I told you." The woman ran to her husband.
"Come man, listen what this noble man is saying. He wants to be employed at us. What will we eat, if this shop needs to feed one more person?"
The jewish man went down to the store, to see who is pushing around with his wife." He glimpsed at the prince and took stock of him, and than he said to her: "Listen woman, where there is food for nine, there will be for ten aswell. Let him stay." And he turned to the prince: "You can stay, noble fellow. Sell the things, what you see on the shelves."
And from this moment the prince stood behind the desk. He was so beatiful, that he was shining.
The first customer, who came to the store was a girl. When she noticed the prince, all her strenght left her, and she was even not able to ask for something. After some moments, when she was coming back to herself, she said: "Salt... Give salt!"
On her way back home she knocked the doors of her girlfriends, and brought them the news about the beatiful man in the shop. The street was sounding of the girls urging their mother to send them to buy something in the shop.
Girls were rushing to the shop of the jew, the prince sold everything, and the drawers became full of money. From that day the jew was starting to do well.
Some months later, on a late afternoon the prince asked the one son of the jew, Mayshi, if he wanted to come with him. Mayshi was the closest in age to become a man among the sons of the jew. He helped a lot in the store, and they became good frineds with the prince. "Where?"
"Don't mind where, Mayshi. Just decide, if you want to come or not."
" I will."
"Take than a sack."
When the night fall down, they went to the cellar of the duke and rubbed it.
Some time later the prince asked Mayshi again: "Do you want to come with me?" Mayshi didn't say a word, but he took the sack, and they went again. They returned to cellar from time to time, and from the money they rubbed they made a bigger house for the family, they opened restaurants, cafés all along the street.
One night, when they went to the cellar, Mayshi asked the prince if he could be the first to enter. "You entered before me so many times, let me be the first today."
"Don't go Mayshi, because it will be fire for you, and smoke for me!" Answered the prince. But Mayshi was beseeching to him until he let him go. Mayshi entered, went down the stairs, and right there, after the last stair, he got caught by a trap.
When the prince arrived after him, he saw what happened. He said outloud: "Jump off stone!" But the blocks stayed on the boy.
The prince started to cry. "What shall I do with You, Mayshi? You can not come out, they will find you here, and they will recognize you, and revenge themselves on you and on your family."
"You are right." Said Mayshi. "Do, what you think is the best."
The prince stayed with him until the dawn, and than he realized, that Mayshi died from the squeeze of the blocks. Than he took his knife, and cut the face of Mayshi many times, so no man could recognize him, and than he ran away.
When the duke's guards found Mayshi's corp in the cellar, they reported him about the case, the duke turned to his twelve councillors. "What shall I do with this person without face? How can I find out, who was the burglar?"
The councillors said to him: "Don't worry, noble Duke. Take a horse, and tide this corp to it's tail, and pull across the entire town. His family will recognize him. Tell the soldiers to make a mark on the gate of the house where they start to cry, when they pass by."
So they grabbed the corp, and started to pull it on the streets of the town.
The prince was sitting in the gate of the shop, with the youngest child of the jew, they were making a shoe. When they came with the body of Mayshi the small boy recognized his brother and started to cry. "They killed Mayshi! They killed my brother!" The prince took the prodding tool and hit it into the palm of the boy. The soldiers came, and asked why is he criing. The prince told them, that they were making a shoe, and the boy hit the tool into his hand. The soldiers couldn't decide if they beleive him or not, so they put a mark on their gate, and left.
During the night the prince took a similar chalk and made a mark on each gate of the town. So when next day the duke came to see the house, where they were criing, he could not find it, because there was a mark on each gate, even on the gate of his own palace.
"What kind of advise did you give me?" He asked his twelve councillors.
"We have said to mark only one gate."
"There's a mark on each one. What shall I do now?"
"Do not be upset noble Duke, follow our advise. Arrange a tea-evening in your court. And invite everyone, even blinds, criples, so they can come and eat, drink and carouse free of charge. You'll see, even he, the burglar's friend, who was there all the time, who knows the secret of your cellar, and who cut the face of his dead mate, even he will take upon himself to come here, and he will go immediately to your beatiful daughter's room. Command the miss to cut a mop of his hair. And the next day we will catch him."
The duke announced the tea-evening, and that everyone can come, even criples and gipsy-guys. A big crowd came, who would not like to carouse without paying? The prince thaught: "I will not miss this party occasion, of course I need to be there." He dressed up in gold and in velvet, and appeared at the evening. He didn't stay long among others, soon after his arrival he went up to the room of the duke's daughter. In the moment, when the miss glimpsed him, heaviness caught her, the boy was so beatiful. They went and lied down together right away, and they started to pet each other. They made love. And afterwards, when the prince fell asleep, the miss took the sciccors from the drawer and cut a mop of the prince's hair.
After a while the boy woke up. He stood in front of the mirror to comb his hair, and he noticed, that there is part missing from his hair. He realized it is some kind of trick with him, so he went among the carousing people, and took his own scissors from his pocket and as they were dancing or chating with each other, click-clack, he cut into one's and other's hair; he marked them the same way as it was done with him.
Before the morning came, the duke visited his daughter, and asked her, what she have done.
"I did, what you asked me to do, I marked that beatiful man." Replied the miss.
"I don't mind if he is beatiful or not. In the morning we will get him."
But when the morning came, and the duke was standing in his gate to check all visitors' hair, he had to realize there were mops missing from each hair. "Saint God bless you my sweet daughter! Tell me honestly, this big team of man had all been at your room the last evening? What have you done?"
They could not catch the boy. "What kind of advise you gave to me, you twelve councillors!" Cried the duke. "What shall I do now?! Look this big shame on me!"
The councillors put their heads together. "Listen nobe Duke, we have one more advise. Try if it works. If it won't work we can not help you any more. Announce that if there is anybody who can tell point by point what had happened with you, you will give the half of your lands and your daughter aswell.
The duke announced, and many young men, princes, dukes, poor ones came to the duke's palace on that day. Even the duke's friends came to listen to these fellows. The parents of the prince, the king and the queen came aswell.
They all listened to the different stories. The duke asked the first one:
"What have you done?"
"I killed a dragon?"
"Anything else?"
"I can not mention more."
"Than we don't have any more words to you. We are searching for something else."
The next one said a wolf, an other a man. No one could guess all the acts of the prince.
He thaught, that if things happened, he will be honest, and he will tell them all what he had done. So he signed up on the list, and he showed up in the palace of the duke.
When he entered the room the duke asked him right away. "Tell me boy, what have you done?"
"Oh Duke, how can you be so impatient? Ask rather how far I come from, ask if I am not tired, if I am not thirsty, take me a glass of wine, give me a seat. Let me rest before you question me."
The duke looked at him in astonishment. No man talked with him like this before. He took a chair, and offered the prince to sit down. The prince asked for a glass of wine. They took him. He drunk it all at once.
"Now you can interrogate me."
"Can you tell me what have happened with me? For instance what happened in my cellar?"
"Of course I can tell you, that's why I came."
And the prince told the whole story. He started from the begining, when he went on the hunting, with his father. At the point, when he talked about the cellar, the duke noticed: "It was a remarkable amount of tresure, you know, my son? On what could you spent it all?"
"I ate it, I drunk it. I am a young man." Answered the prince. When he finished his story, he pointed at the king: "And noble Duke, if you beleive it, or not, this king is my father, who I talked about. And this lady with crown, his wife, she is my mother."
The duke became released, that it was one of his friend's son, who done all this to him. When his daughter was a little girl, and the prince was a small boy, and he lived at home with his parents, the duke and the king and the queen were planning that their children will get married one day. After this point the duke started to talk with him much more friendly. "Here is a paper about the half of my lands. And take my daughter."
"Noble Duke, I don't want your daughter. Give her to someone else, who is up for her. But the paper about the half of your lands, I will take that. And now I will go home with my parents."
He went to the queen and the king, they huged each other.
"Let's go home, mother and father." But before going home, he wanted to say good-bye to the jewish family, where he worked. So he went there.
But on his way he noticed a little cottage, which he never noticed before. There was an old witch standing in the window, staring at him.
"What are you staring on me?" Asked the boy.
"Of course I'm staring at you. Why shouldn't I? Why shouldn't I stare at you, if I now why you are not finding your place? And if I know, that you will also not find it, if you go home with your parents. You will run up and down the streets, just like before you came away. I know what are you longing for."
"What is that?"
"They took away her in front of my cottage."
"Who are you talking about?"
"Your fiancee."
"And where did they take her?"
"They took her across the big water. Across the Black-water. And her wedding will be tomorrow right at noon."
"Can this be true?" Asked the prince.
"I am saying it to you, and it is true." Replied the witch.

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - third part

The prince threw his hat in the direction, where he saw the bonfire and climbed down the tree, and started off in that way. He reached the edge of the forrest. There blazed the big fire, and twenty-four gaudy bandits sat around it. They were turning a buffalo on a skewer above the flames.
"Whatever comes to me, I need to go there." Said the prince. "I'll check who are these." He mustered his courage, and steped up to them. "Good evening!" He saluted them.
"For you aswell. What kind of fellow are you?" Asked one of them.
"Just like you." Replied the prince.
"If that's true, just take some of this meet." Came the answer. The prince couldn't do anything, he took his pocketknife, cut a piece of the meet and started to eat it, in a fine and classy way, just how it fits to a noble person. The eyes of the bandits met.
"Oh you are not at all like us. Look how it goes." And they threw big pieces of the buffalo-meet in their mouthes, as big as a chair. "Okay, if you figure out, what we have been lurking for in the neighbourhood for twenty-four years, you are going to be our cheaf."
"You have gave me an easy task." Replied the prince. "I know exactly, that you are lieing in a wait for burgle in the cellar of the duke, who lives nearby. The cellar is full of gold, but you never managed to enter, because from east there is cock and from west there is a dog guarding the gates of the cellar. When they notice you at the gates they allways start to make noise, and wake up the guards of the duke. But I know the solution for the problem."
"Hurrah, hurrah! You're our cheaf, lead us to the cellar." Cried the bandits, and they all started off. The prince brought one of the bones of the buffalo, and tied a little noose on it. When they have reached te eastern gate, and the cock started to crow, he threw the bone with the little noose on the neck of the cock, and they all run away. The dog has smelled the bone, and started search for source of the smell. When the dog found the cock with the bone in it's neck, it ate the whole animal. And the bandits had time to brake the lock of the eastern gate. They all went in, and when the dog had come after them, they shot it down in the cellar, so no one could hear the noise of the shot. They took away as many gold, as they could.
When they spent all the money they had robed, they decided to go back to the cellar. But the duke had put unbrakeable metal lock on the door, so they undid the wall next to the door. When they made the hole, an idea came into mind of the prince. "Listen, I'm the cheaf, I'll go first." He told them. "You come after me in the order as I call your names." He sliped through the hole, and called them one by one. And when a bandit came through the hole, he stood behind him, grabbed his hair, and cut his neck with his knife. He killed all the twenty-four bandits, and made a pile of them in the cellar. He took gold with him, and left the place. He didn't go back to the shady joint of the bandits, but he went to town.

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - second part

There was somewhere a black world. And in the black world lived another king. No single woman wanted to marry this king, because anyone who tried, was murdered by him.
They were saying about him, that he is so pagan, that he would let Sun's blood effuse, if it would go with him to the altar. But the king could't stand that he had to fast in love. So he took on one hundred merchants, to go from village to village and from town to town and buy him a wife. They travelled with pouches full of gold and cried in each town: "We are buying women, cripples, lames, blind ones." But there was no single soul, who wanted to put his daughter or wife up for sale.
Until they have reached the town, where the king and queen lived, who have employed the turkey-herd woman. As the king have heard the criing of the merchants, he called for his wife. "Hey come, and listen to what these men are shouting, let's sell them the dughter of the turkey-herd woman, so she will get so far, that she will be never able to come back home." So they called in to the palace one of the merchants, and told to him: " We have a girl for sale, but we only sell it to you, if you promise you take her so far away, that she will never find her way back home." "Oh have no fear about that." Answered the merchant. They brought to him the girl, who was shining from beauty, but the merchant even didn't throw a glance at her. He put her in a dog-box, so she will not be able to recognize the way the are going.
When the pagan king so her, he immadietly fall in love with her. And he had locked her in room, under the eye of guards, until he prepares their wedding.
When the merchants have took the girl with them, the king in the white world made a copy of her of gypsum, and made a funeral for her.
When their son finnished his studies in Germany, he came back home, and asked about his mate from his child-hood. His parents told him, that she had died, and they have buried her. The boy didn't want to beleive it. "It's not true!" He mumbled. "It's not true!" He started to run the streets, and kept asking the people passing by, if it was true, that the daughter of the turkey-herd woman has died. He went to the graveyard, and asked after the grave of the girl. When he saw the name of the girl on the headstone, he cried, he sobed but he couldn't do anything, he had to take in, that he can not do anything, no one can resuscitate dead people, expect for God. So he went home.
At home he had fallen into melancholy. He sat for days wordlessly, with tears in his eyes, he was wringing his hands, he was thinking, and he didn't receive any food. He was mourning for his mate. His lips became like the lips of a rabbit, and he became so week, that he started to shiver every now and than.
The king almost became mad of worry. He asked his wife, what he should do. "Take him on a hunt. Go to the forrest, bring all dukes with you, and bring him aswell. Shoot on deers and wild-boars. Maybe he will forget his sorrowful thoughts."
They announced the hunt. It would have been a big shame for the prince, if he hadn't gone with them. He took a gun, and went to the stable to choose a fine horse.
They rode to the forrest. Others told him to follow a path, and they will chase the beasts towards him, so he only have to shoot them. He conceded, and the hunting started. The blew the horns, beated the drums, span the clappers, screeched, shouted, cluncked.
The prince started to ride on the path, and a little later there came a little hare, and stood right in front of him. He took his gun the shoot it, but the hare tilted his tail, in way that seemed, as if it was asking for mercy. The prince let down his gun. "Nope will I hurt it, it is a bland hare. I will rather go to it, and capture it live!" He got off his horse, and tried to catch the hare. But the hare sprang on. He tried again, but the hare sprang a litlle further again. He was chasing the hare into the middle of the bushy forrest. He thought, that he will manage better if he can use both hands, so he tied his horse to a tree, and left his gun there, and followed the hare into the scrub. And the hare kept spranging in front of him. Once, when he tried to catch it, the hare sprang one much bigger than before, and disappeared. The prince didn't see it anywhere. And he didn't even know, where he was. He realized, that he got lost, and it became dark. "Oh my God, where am I? Where should I go? What shall I do?" After puzzleing his brain, he decided, that he will climb on a high tree, so that he will be able to see, if there is light coming from somewhere. He did so, and somewhere in the far distance he saw a bonfire.

The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman - first part

We are making a performance of a Transylvanian Gipsy folk tale with the ensemble of Föld Theatre. The title is Wise of the World. To collect material to our performance I am reading other Gipsy stories, they are amazingly beatiful.
There is one, with an enthralling description of a love relationship which goes through on abundance of tribulations.
The Daughter of the Turkey-herd Woman
There was once a very wealthy king and a queen, who had no child. So they had take on someone to take care of their poultry. They employed a turkey-herd woman. After several years she became pregnant, and at the same time the queen became pregnant aswell. They have given birth to their babies on the same day. Both babies, the daughter of the turkey-herd woman and son of the king and queen were beatifully shining, and the entire white world (= the world where humans live) was shining from their beauty, when the parents were holding up them, to show them to the sun.
When they became six , and they had to go to school, the king has decided, that since the girl has born in the court, so it is his duty to pay her education, they will go to the same school.
They went to school each morning together, hand in hand, and the young prince thought that the girl is his sister.
Once, when they were fourteen years old their classmates told to the boy: "This girls is not your sister, she is the daughter of the turkey-herd woman, and you are the son of the king.
The boy didn't want to beleive, what they were saying, he went home, and asked his dad, if the girl was his sister or not. The king told him the truth.
The boy mused on what he had heard. And he decided, if the girl is not his sister, she will be her wife. And on the next day, when they were coming home from the school he nipped the girl, and another day he stroked her. The girl didn't counter the approaching of the boy. They matched to each other more and more, so much that in secret they started to make love to each other.
But one day the king has noticed from his window what the youngsters are doing, he called for his wife.
"Don't you notice something on these two kids"
"Not at all, they're playing, and going to school together."
"Mind, what I'm saying to you; some day we are going the have a big scandal, that God gave a child to this girl."
So the queen ambushed them again, and when she realized, that they are kissing and petting each other; she deliberated with her husband over what shall they do. They can not permit their son to marry a girl with a poor background. They decided that when the prince will finnish the elementary school, they will send him to study in Germany, so he forgets the girl.
The prince obeyed his parents will. They made him a passport, and escorted him to the trainstation.
The boy was not even on half way of the journey, when he took his golden pen, and started to write a letter on paper, white as the snow. My true love, thanks for God, I'm fine. I'm here and here. I love you very much."
But it was the king, who found the envelope on the gate-post. He became angry and burned it in the fireplace. And when the boy has arrived to the school, his first thought was the girl, so he wrote to her again. But the king received it again.