The Cinder-youth

Once upon a time that was no time, in the days when the servants of

Allah were many and the misery of man was great, there lived a poor

woman who had three sons and one daughter. The youngest son was

half-witted, and used to roll about all day in the warm ashes.

One day the two elder brothers went out to plough, and said to their

mother: “Boil us something, and send our sister out with it into the

field.”--Now the three-faced devil had pitched his tent close to this

field, and in order that the girl might not come near them he determined

to persuade her to go all round about instead of straight to them.

The mother cooked the dinner and the girl went into the field with it,

but the devil contrived to make her lose her road, so that she wandered

further and further away from the place where she wanted to go. At last,

when her poor head was quite confused, the devil’s wife appeared before

her and asked the terrified girl what she meant by trespassing there.

Then she talked her over and persuaded her to come home with her, that

she might hide her from the vengeance of the devil, her husband.

But the three-faced devil had got home before them, and when they

arrived the old woman told the girl to make haste and get something

ready to eat while her maid-servant stirred up the fire. But scarcely

had she begun to get the dish ready than the devil crept stealthily up

behind her, opened his mouth wide, and swallowed the girl whole, clothes

and all.

Meanwhile her brothers were waiting in the field for their dinner, but

neither the damsel nor the victuals appeared. Afternoon came and went

and evening too, and then the lads went home, and when they heard from

their mother that their sister had gone to seek them early in the

morning they suspected what had happened--their little sister must have

fallen into the hands of the devil. The two elder brothers did not think

twice about it, but the elder of them set off at once to seek his

sister.

He went on and on, puffing at his chibook, sniffing the perfume of

flowers and drinking coffee, till he came to an oven by the wayside. By

the oven sat an old man, who asked the youth on what errand he was

bent. The youth told him of his sister’s case, and said he was going in

search of the three-faced devil, and would not be content till he had

killed him.--“Thou wilt never be able to slay the devil,” said the man,

“till thou hast eaten of bread that has been baked in this oven.”--The

youth thought this no very difficult matter, took the loaves out of the

oven, but scarcely had he bitten a piece out of one of them than the

oven, the man, and the loaves all disappeared before his eyes, and the

bit he had taken swelled within him so that he nearly burst.

The youth hadn’t gone two steps further on when he saw on the highway a

large cauldron, and the cauldron was full of wine. A man was sitting in

front of the cauldron, and he asked him the way, and told him the tale

of the devil. “Thou wilt never be able to cope with the devil,” said the

man, “if thou dost not drink of this wine.” The youth drank, but: “Woe

betide my stomach, woe betide my bowels!” for so plagued was he that he

could not have stood upright if he had not seen two bridges before him.

One of these bridges was of wood and the other was of iron, and beyond

the two bridges were two apple-trees, and one bore unripe bitter apples

and the other sweet ripe ones.

The three-faced devil was waiting on the road to see which bridge he

would choose, the wooden or the iron one, and which apples he would eat,

the sour or the sweet ones. The youth went along the iron bridge, lest

the wooden one might break down, and plucked the sweet apples, because

the green ones were bitter. That was just what the devil wanted him to

do, and he at once sent his mother to meet the youth and entice him into

his house as he had done his sister, and it was not long before he also

found his way into the devil’s belly.

And next in order, the middling brother, not wishing to be behind-hand,

also went in search of his kinsmen. He also could not eat of the bread

his inside also was plagued by the wine, he went across the iron bridge

and ate of the sweet apples, and so he also found his way into the

devil’s belly. Only the youngest brother who lay among the ashes

remained. His mother besought him not to forsake her in her old age. If

the others had gone he at least could remain and comfort her, she said.

But the youth would not listen. “I will not rest,” said Cinderer, “till

I have found the three lost ones, my two brothers and my sister, and

slain the devil.” Then he rose from his chimney corner, and no sooner

had he shaken the ashes from off him than such a tempest arose that all

the labourers at work in the fields left their ploughs where they stood,

and ran off as far as their eyes could see. Then the youngest son

gathered together the ploughshares and bade a blacksmith make a lance of

them, but a lance of such a kind as would fly into the air and come back

again to the hand that hurled it without breaking its iron point. The

smith made the lance, and the youth hurled it. Up into the air flew the

lance, but when it came down again on to the tip of his little finger it

broke to pieces. Then the youth shook himself still more violently in

the ashes, and again the labourers in the field fled away before the

terrible tempest which immediately arose, and the youth gathered

together a still greater multitude of ploughshares and took them to the

smith. The smith made a second lance, and that also flew up into the air

and broke to pieces when it came down again. Then the youth shook

himself in the ashes a third time, and such a hurricane arose that there

was scarce a ploughshare in the whole country-side that was not carried

away. It was only with great difficulty that the smith could make the

third lance, but when that came down on the youth’s finger it did not

break in pieces like the others. “This will do pretty well,” said the

youth, and catching up the lance he went forth into the wide world.

He went on and on and on till he also came to the oven and the cauldron.

The men who guarded the oven and the cauldron stopped him and asked him

his business, and on finding out that he was going to kill the devil,

they told the youth that he must first eat the bread of the oven and

then drink the wine in the cauldron if he could. The son of the cinders

wished for nothing better. He ate the loaves that were baked in the

oven, drank all the wine, and further on he saw the wooden bridge and

the iron bridge, and beyond the bridges the apple-trees.

The devil had observed the youth from afar, and his courage began to

ooze out of him when he saw the deeds of the son of the ashes. “Any fool

can go across the iron bridge,” thought the youth, “I’ll go across the

wooden one,” and as it was no very great feat to eat the sweet apples he

ate the sour ones.--“There will be no joking with this one,” said the

devil, “I see I must get ready my lance and measure my strength with

him.”

The son of the ashes saw the devil from afar, and full of the knowledge

of his own valour went straight up to him.

“If thou doest not homage to me, I’ll swallow thee straight off,” cried

the devil.

“And if thou doest not homage to me, I’ll knock thee to pieces with my

lance,” replied the youth.

“Oh ho! if we’re so brave as all that,” cried the three-faced monster,

“let us out with our lances without losing any more time.”

So the devil out with his lance, whirled it round his head, and aimed it

with all his might at the youth, who gave but one little twist with his

finger, and crick-crack! the devil’s lance broke all to bits. “Now it’s

my turn,” cried the son of the cinders; and he hurled his lance at the

devil with such force that the devil’s first soul flew out of his

nose.--“At it again once more, if thou art a man,” yelled the devil,

with a great effort. “Not I,” cried the youth, “for my mother only bore

me once,” whereupon the devil breathed forth his last soul also. Then

the youth went on to seek the devil’s wife. Her also he chased down the

road after her husband, and when he had cut them both in two, lo and

behold! all three of his kinsfolk stood before him, so he turned back

home and took them with him. Now his brothers and sister had grown very

thirsty in the devil’s belly, and when they saw a large well by the

wayside, they asked their brother Cinder-son to draw them a little

water. Then the youths took off their girdles, tied them together, and

let down the biggest brother, but he had scarcely descended more than

half-way down when he began to shriek unmercifully: “Oh, oh, draw me up,

I have had enough,” so that they had to pull him up and let the second

brother try. And with him it fared the same way. “Now ’tis my turn,”

cried Cinder-son, “but mind you do not pull me

up, however loudly I holloa.” So they let down the youngest brother, and

he too began to holloa and bawl, but they paid no heed to it, and let

him down till he stood on the dry bottom of the well. A door stood

before him, he opened it, and there were three lovely damsels sitting in

a room together, and each of them shone like the moon when she is only

fourteen days old. The three damsels were amazed at the sight of the

youth. How durst he come into the devil’s cavern? they asked--and they

begged and besought him to escape as he valued dear life. But the youth

would not budge at any price, till he had got the better of this devil

also. The end of the matter was that he slew the devil and released the

three damsels, who were Sultan’s daughters, and had been stolen from

their fathers and kept here for the last seven years. The two elder

princesses he intended for his two brothers, but the youngest, who was

also the loveliest, he chose for himself, and filling the pitcher with

water he brought the damsels to the bottom of the well, right below the

mouth of it.

First of all he let them draw up the eldest princess for his eldest

brother, then he made them pull up the middling princess for his

middling brother, and then it came to the youngest damsel’s turn. But

she desired that the youth should be drawn up at all hazards and herself

afterwards. “Thy brethren,” she explained, “will be wroth with thee for

keeping the loveliest damsel for thyself, and will not draw thee out of

the well for sheer jealousy.”

“I’ll find my way out even then,” answered the youth, and though she

begged and besought him till there was no more soul in her, he would not

listen to her. Then the damsel drew from her breast a casket and said to

the youth: “If any mischief befall thee, open this casket. Inside it is

a piece of flint, and if thou strike it once a negro efrit will appear

before thee and fulfil all thy desires. If thy brethren leave thee in

the well, go to the palace of the devil and stand by the well. Two rams

come there every day, a black one and a white one; if thou cling fast to

the white one, thou wilt come to the surface of the earth, but if thou

cling on to the black one thou wilt sink down into the seventh world.”

Then he let them draw up the youngest damsel, and no sooner did his

brethren see their brother’s bride and perceive that she was the

loveliest of all, than jealousy overtook them, and in their wrath they

left him in the well and went home with the damsels.

So what else could the poor youth at the bottom of the well do than go

back to the devil’s palace, stand by the well, and wait for the two

rams? Not very long afterwards a white ram came bounding along before

him, and after that a black ram, and the youth, instead of catching

hold of the white ram, seized the black one and immediately perceived

that he was at the bottom of the seventh world.... He went on and on, he

went for a long time and he went for a short time, he went by day and he

went by night, he went up hill and down dale till he could do no more,

and stopped short by a large tree to take a little rest. But what was

that he saw before him? A large serpent was gliding up the trunk of the

tree and would have devoured all the young birds on the tree if

Cinder-son had let him. But the youth quickly drew forth his lance and

cut the serpent in two with a single blow. Then, like one who has done

his work well, he lay down at the foot of the tree, and inasmuch as he

was tired and it was warm he fell asleep at once.

Now while he slept the emerald Anka, who is the mother of the birds and

the Padishah of the Peris, passed by that way, and when she saw the

sleeping youth she fancied him to be her enemy, who was wont to destroy

her children year by year. She was about to cut him to pieces, when the

birds whispered to her not to hurt the youth, because he had killed

their enemy the serpent. It was only then that the Anka perceived the

two halves of the serpent. And now, lest anything should harm the

sleeping youth, she hopped round and round him, and touched him softly

and sheltered him with both her wings lest the sun should scorch him,

and when he awoke from his sleep the wing of the bird was spread over

him like a tent. And now the Anka approached him and said she would fain

reward him for his good deed, and he might make a request of her. Then

replied the youth: “I would fain get to the surface of the earth again.”

“Be it so,” said the emerald bird, “but first thou must get forty tons

of ox-flesh and forty pitchers of water and sit on my back with them, so

that when I say ‘Gik!’ thou mayest give me to eat, and when I say ‘Gak!’

thou mayest give me to drink.”

Then the youth bethought him of his casket, took the flint-stone out of

it, and struck it once, and immediately a black efrit with a mouth as

big as the world stood before him and said: “What dost thou command, my

Sultan?”--“Forty tons of ox-flesh, and forty pitchers of water,” said

the youth. In a short time the efrit brought the flesh and the water,

and the youth packed it all up together and mounted on the wing of the

bird. Off they went, and whenever the Anka cried “Gik!” he gave her

flesh, and whenever she cried “Gak!” he gave her water. They flew from

one layer of worlds to the next, till in a short time they got above the

surface of the earth again, and he dismounted from the bird’s back and

said to her: “Wait here a while, and in a short time I shall be back.”

Then the youth took out his coffer, struck the flint-stone, and bade the

black bounding efrit get him tidings of the three sisters. In a short

time the efrit re-appeared with the three damsels, who were preparing a

banquet for the brothers. He made them all sit on the bird’s back, took

with him again forty tons of ox-flesh and forty pitchers of water, and

away they all went to the land of the three damsels. Every time the Anka

said “Gik!” he gave her flesh to eat, and every time she said “Gak!” he

gave her water to drink. But as the youth now had three with him besides

himself, it came to pass that the flesh ran short, so that when the Anka

said “Gik!” once more he had nothing to give her. Then the youth drew

his knife, cut a piece of flesh out of his thigh, and stuffed it into

the bird’s mouth.[10] The Anka perceived that it was human flesh and did

not eat it, but kept it in her mouth, and when they had reached the

realm of the three damsels, the bird told him that he might now go in

peace.

But the poor youth could not move a step because of the smart in his

leg. “Thou go on first,” he said to the bird, “but I will first rest me

here a while.”

“Nay, but thou art a droll rogue,” quoth the bird, and with that it spit

out of its mouth the piece of human flesh and put it back in its proper

place just as if it had never been cut out.

The whole city was amazed at the sight of the return of the Sultan’s

daughters. The old Padishah could scarce believe his own eyes. He looked

and looked and then he embraced the first princess; he looked and looked

and then he kissed the second princess, and when they had told him the

story he gave his whole kingdom and his three daughters to Cinder-son.

Then the youth sent for his mother and his sister, and they all sat down

to the banquet together. Moreover he found his sister a husband who was

the son of the Vizier, and for forty days and forty nights they were

full of joyfulness.

[10] The same incident occurs in the Cossack fairy-tale of the Bird

Zhar and the Russian fairy-tale of the Bird Mogol.