Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 09 (11 page)

Then, his pistol being empty, he grasped the barrel with both
hands, and stood ready to use it as a club should the Yara
approach and closer. But now it seemed her turn to feel afraid,
for she paused an instant while he pressed forward, still holding
the pistol above his head, prepared to strike.

In his excitement he had forgotten the river, and it was not till
the cold water touched his feet that he stood still by instinct.
The Yara saw that he was wavering, and suffering herself to sway
gently backwards and forwards on the surface of the river, she
began to sing. The song floated through the trees, now far and
now near; no one could tell whence it came, the whole air seemed
full of it. Alonzo felt his senses going and his will failing.
His arms dropped heavily to his side, but in falling struck
against the sea shell, which, as he had promised Julia, he had
always carried in his coat.

His dimmed mind was just clear enough to remember what she had
said, and with trembling fingers, that were almost powerless to
grasp, he drew it out. As he did so the song grew sweeter and
more tender than before, but he shut his ears to it and bent his
head over the shell. Out of its depths arose the voice of Julia
singing to him as she had sung when she gave him the shell, and
though the notes sounded faint at first, they swelled louder and
louder till the mist which had gathered about him was blown away.

Then he raised his head, feeling that he had been through strange
places, where he could never wander any more; and he held himself
erect and strong, and looked about him. Nothing was to be seen
but the shining of the river, and the dark shadows of the trees;
nothing was to be heard but the hum of the insects, as they
darted through the night.

(Adapted from Folklore Bresilien.)

In a very cold country, far across the seas, where ice and snow
cover the ground for many months in the year, there lived a
little hare, who, as his father and mother were both dead, was
brought up by his grandmother. As he was too young, and she was
too old, to work, they were very poor, and often did not have
enough to eat.

One day, when the little fellow was hungrier than usual, he asked
his grandmother if he might go down to the river and catch a fish
for their breakfast, as the thaw had come and the water was
flowing freely again. She laughed at him for thinking that any
fish would let itself be caught by a hare, especially such a
young one; but as she had the rheumatism very badly, and could
get no food herself, she let him go. 'If he does not catch a
fish he may find something else,' she said to herself. So she
told her grandson where to look for the net, and how he was to
set it across the river; but just as he was starting, feeling
himself quite a man, she called him back.

'After all, I don't know what is the use of your going, my boy!
For even if you should catch a fish, I have no fire to cook it
with.'

'Let me catch my fish, and I will soon make you a fire,' he
answered gaily, for he was young, and knew nothing about the
difficulties of fire-making.

It took him some time to haul the net through bushes and over
fields, but at length he reached a pool in the river which he had
often heard was swarming with fish, and here he set the net, as
his grandmother had directed him.

He was so excited that he hardly slept all night, and at the very
first streak of dawn he ran as fast as ever he could down to the
river. His heart beat as quickly as if he had had dogs behind
him, and he hardly dared to look, lest he should be disappointed.
Would there be even one fish? And at this thought the pangs of
hunger made him feel quite sick with fear. But he need not have
been afraid; in every mesh of the net was a fine fat fish, and of
course the net itself was so heavy that he could only lift one
corner. He threw some of the fish back into the water, and
buried some more in a hole under a stone, where he would be sure
to find them. Then he rolled up the net with the rest, put it on
his back and carried it home. The weight of the load caused his
back to ache, and he was thankful to drop it outside their hut,
while he rushed in, full of joy, to tell his grandmother. 'Be
quick and clean them!' he said, 'and I will go to those people's
tents on the other side of the water.'

The old woman stared at him in horror as she listened to his
proposal. Other people had tried to steal fire before, and few
indeed had come back with their lives; but as, contrary to all
her expectations, he had managed to catch such a number of fish,
she thought that perhaps there was some magic about him which she
did not know of, and did not try to hinder him.

When the fish were all taken out, he fetched the net which he had
laid out to dry, folded it up very small, and ran down to the
river, hoping that he might find a place narrow enough for him to
jump over; but he soon saw that it was too wide for even the best
jumper in the world. For a few moments he stood there, wondering
what was to be done, then there darted into his head some words
of a spell which he had once heard a wizard use, while drinking
from the river. He repeated them, as well as he could remember,
and waited to see what would happen. In five minutes such a
grunting and a puffing was heard, and columns of water rose into
the air, though he could not tell what had made them. Then round
the bend of the stream came fifteen huge whales, which he ordered
to place themselves heads to tails, like stepping stones, so that
he could jump from one to the other till he landed on the
opposite shore. Directly he got there he told the whales that he
did not need them any more, and sat down in the sand to rest.

Unluckily some children who were playing about caught sight of
him, and one of them, stealing softly up behind him, laid tight
hold of his ears. The hare, who had been watching the whales as
they sailed down the river, gave a violent start, and struggled
to get away; but the boy held on tight, and ran back home, as
fast as he could go.

'Throw it in the pot,' said the old woman, as soon as he had told
his story; 'put it in that basket, and as soon as the water boils
in the pot we will hang it over the fire!'

'Better kill it first,' said the old man; and the hare listened,
horribly frightened, but still looking secretly to see if there
was no hole through which he could escape, if he had a chance of
doing so. Yes, there was one, right in the top of the tent, so,
shaking himself, as if with fright, he let the end of his net
unroll itself a little.

'I wish that a spark of fire would fall on my net,' whispered he;
and the next minute a great log fell forward into the midst of
the tent, causing every one to spring backwards. The sparks were
scattered in every direction, and one fell on the net, making a
little blaze. In an instant the hare had leaped through the
hole, and was racing towards the river, with men, women, and
children after him. There was no time to call back the whales,
so, holding the net tight in his mouth, he wished himself across
the river. Then he jumped high into the air, and landed safe on
the other side, and after turning round to be sure that there was
no chance of anyone pursuing him, trotted happily home to his
grandmother.

'Didn't I tell you I would bring you fire?' said he, holding up
his net, which was now burning briskly.

'But how did you cross the water?' inquired the old woman.

'Oh, I just jumped!' said he. And his grandmother asked him no
more questions, for she saw that he was wiser than she.

('Indian Folk Tales.' Bureau of Ethnology.)

There was once a turtle who lived among a great many people of
different kinds, in a large camp near a big river which was born
right up amongst the snows, and flowed straight away south till
it reached a sea where the water was always hot.

There were many other turtles in the camp, and this turtle was
kind and pleasant to them all, but he did not care for any of
them very much, and felt rather lonely.

At last he built himself a hut, and filled it with skins for
seats, and made it as comfortable as any hut for miles round; and
when it was quite finished he looked about among the young women
to see which of them he should ask to be his wife.

It took him some time to make up his mind, for no turtle likes
being hurried, but at length he found one girl who seemed
prettier and more industrious than the rest, and one day he
entered her home, and said: 'Will you marry me?'

The young woman was so surprised at this question that she
dropped the beaded slipper she was making, and stared at the
turtle. She felt inclined to laugh—the idea was so absurd; but
she was kind-hearted and polite, so she looked as grave as she
could, and answered:

'But how are you going to provide for a family? Why, when the
camp moves, you will not even be able to keep up with the rest!'

'I can keep up with the best of them,' replied the turtle,
tossing his head. But though he was very much offended he did
not let the girl see it, and begged and, prayed her so hard to
marry him that, at last, she consented, very unwillingly.

'You will have to wait till the spring, though,' she said; 'I
must make a great many slippers and dresses for myself, as I
shall not have much time afterwards.'

This did not please the turtle; but he knew it was no use
talking, so all he answered was:

'I shall go to war and take some captives, and I shall be away
several months. And when I return I shall expect you to be ready
to marry me.'

So he went back to his hut, and at once set about his
preparations. The first thing he did was to call all his
relations together, and ask them if they would come with him and
make war on the people of a neighbouring village. The turtles,
who were tired of doing nothing, agreed at once, and next day the
whole tribe left the camp. The girl was standing at the door of
her hut as they passed, and laughed out loud—they moved so
slowly. Her lover, who was marching at the head, grew very angry
at this, and cried out:

'In four days from now you will be weeping instead of laughing,
because there will be hundreds of miles between you and me.'

'In four days,' replied the girl—who only promised to marry him
in order to get rid of him—'in four days you will hardly be out
of sight.'

'Oh, I did not mean four days, but four YEARS,' answered the
turtle, hastily; 'whatever happens I shall be back by then.'

The army marched on, till one day, when they felt as if they must
have got half round the earth, though they were scarcely four
miles from the camp, they found a large tree lying across their
path. They looked at it with dismay, and the oldest among them
put their heads together to see what was to be done.

'Can't we manage to get past by the top?' asked one.

'Why, it would take us YEARS,' exclaimed another. 'Just look at
all those tall green branches, spreading in every direction. If
once we got entangled in THEM, we should never get out again!'

'Well then, let us go round by the bottom,' said a third.

'How are we to do that, when the roots have made a deep hole, and
above that is a high bank?' replied a fourth. 'No; the only way
I can think of, is to burn a large hole in the trunk.' And this
they did, but the trunk was very thick, and would not burn
through.

'It is no use, we must give it up,' they agreed at last. 'After
all, nobody need ever know! We have been away such a long while
that we might easily have had all sorts of adventures.' And so
the whole company turned homewards again.

They took even longer to go back than they had to come, for they
were tired and footsore with their journey. When they drew near
the camp they plucked up their courage, and began to sing a war-
song. At this the villagers came flocking to see what spoils the
turtles had won, but, as they approached, each turtle seized some
one by the wrist, exclaiming: 'You are our spoils; you are our
prisoners!'

'Now that I have got you I will keep you,' said the leader, who
had happened to seize his betrothed.

Everybody was naturally very angry at this behaviour, and the
girl most of all, and in her secret heart she determined to have
her revenge. But, just at present, the turtles were too strong,
so the prisoners had to put on their smartest slippers and their
brightest clothes, and dance a war dance while the turtles sang.
They danced so long that it seemed as if they would never stop,
till the turtle who was leading the singing suddenly broke into a
loud chant:

Whoever comes here, will die, will die!

At this all the dancers grew so frightened that they burst
through the ring of their captors, and ran back to the village,
the turtles following—very slowly. On the way the chief turtle
met a man, who said to him:

'That woman who was to have been your wife has married another
man!'

'Is that true?' said the turtle. 'Then I must see him.'

But as soon as the villager was out of sight the turtle stopped,
and taking a bundle containing fringes and ornaments from his
back, he hung them about him, so that they rattled as he walked.
When he was quite close to the hut where the woman lived, he
cried out:

'Here I am to claim the woman who promised to be my wife.'

'Oh, here is the turtle,' whispered the husband hurriedly; 'what
is to be done now?'

'Leave that to me; I will manage him,' replied the wife, and at
that moment the turtle came in, and seized her by the wrist.
'Come with me,' he said sternly.

'You broke your promise,' answered she. 'You said you would be
back soon, and it is more than a year since you went! How was I
to know that you were alive?'