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The Jogi's Punishment

"A rajah made a jogi welcome in his city, building a house where he might receive guests. The rajah's only child was a beautiful daughter, who was betrothed to a neighboring prince. One day this daughter visited the jogi, who was instantly attracted to her. She guessed his intention and fled, and the jogi threw a lance after her, wounding her in the leg.

The next day, the jogi claimed to have been visited by a demon, which came disguised as a beautiful young woman but transformed into a hideous monster. The rajah had to find a beautiful young woman with a lance wound. When he did so, and realized it was his daughter, the jogi declared that his true daughter had been replaced in infancy by this evil spirit. The king made a chest, and they put the daughter in it and threw it in the river.

The next morning, her betrothed was hunting by the river and found the chest. He freed her and found that she was his betrothed. They married on the spot. The prince had a great monkey put in the chest in the princess's place, and the chest put back in the river. The jogi had his pupils retrieve it and then ordered them not to come into the room, whatever screams they heard. He took out a silken cord to strangle the princess. Shortly thereafter, they heard screams for help but did not enter. Eventually they did and found the jogi's body.

When the princess heard the jogi was dead, she made her peace with her father."

The Juniper Tree

"A woman wishes for a child as red as blood and as white as snow. She knows she is about to die, so she requests that she be buried under a juniper tree that her family has outside, as that is where she wished for the child. After a few months she gives birth to a son and dies a few days later. She is buried underneath the Juniper tree. Her husband grieves for a long time, and gets married again. His second wife gives birth to a daughter, Marjory, but hates the son because he would be the one to inherit all the family's money, and she wishes it to be her daughter. One day, she offers Marjory an apple and she graciously accepts it. Then she has an evil thought and cruelly offers the boy one. As he reaches in a box to get it, she slams the box's heavy lid on him, beheading him. She then takes a bandage and ties his head back to his body, and tells Marjory to ask him for the apple, and if he doesn't give it, to give him a good box on the ear. Marjory kindly asks for the apple, and then boxes him on the ear, resulting in the boy's head falling off. Marjory goes to her mother and tells her in sobs that she killed her brother. Her mother reassures Marjory and they both agree not to tell the father. Marjory cannot stop weeping. When the father returns the boy has 'gone to stay with his uncle'. The father is upset that the boy did not say goodbye and tells Marjory that he will be home soon. The stepmother then turns the boy's body into a stew without anyone knowing apart from her and Marjory.

The father eats the stew, suspecting nothing, and declares it delicious. Marjory, however, keeps the bones left over from the meal and buries them beneath the Juniper tree. A beautiful bird flies out of the tree. It goes and sings a song to a goldsmith about its cruel death at the hands of its mother and how caring his sister is. The goldsmith gives the bird a golden chain because the song is so beautiful. The bird also sings the same song to a shoemaker, who gives it a pair of red shoes, and to millers, who give it a millstone. It then flies back home and sings its song. The father goes out to see what is singing such a beautiful song and the golden chain falls about his neck. The father tells everyone that a beautiful bird gave him a chain. It sings again and Marjory goes out to see if this is true, and the red shoes fall to her. She comes in giggling happily and tells everyone how happy she is with what the bird has given her. All this time the stepmother is complaining of heat, claiming she has a horrid fire burning in her veins. It sings a third time, the stepmother goes out,hoping for relief, and the bird drops the millstone on her, crushing and killing her. The father and Marjory go out to see what caused the loud crash, but find nothing but a swirl of smoke and a stone. The brother is standing there, looking happy, and they all go inside for dinner."

Kallo and the Goblins

"A fat woman had an ugly beast older daughter, Marbo, and a beautiful younger daughter, Kallo. People admired Kallo and pitied Marbo; Marbo resented it and made Kallo do all the work. One day, the mother asked for one of them to go to the mill to grind flour; Marbo insisted on sending Kallo. Kallo got there, many people were grinding, and her grain was poured in just before the miller went to bed; she had to wait. At midnight, goblins came out and threatened to eat her. Kallo said they could not eat her in her old dress; she needed a new dress. When they stole a fine dress for her, she said she needed other things, a coat, an umbrella, a comb, face powder, and anything she could think of. Then dawn came, and the goblins had to leave. The miller ground her grain, and Kallo went back with what the goblins had given her and the flour.

Marbo envied her and wasted the flour. On New Year's Day, more was needed, and Marbo went for it. When the goblins came, they scratched her face, and she screamed for help; the miller saved her, but she gained nothing. Kallo used the goblins' face powder on her and healed her face."

Katie Woodencloak

"A king with a daughter married a widowed queen with a daughter. He had to go off to war. The stepmother maltreated and starved her stepdaughter. A dun bull helped the stepdaughter, telling her that she would find a cloth in his left ear. When she spread the cloth, she had all the food she needed. The queen discovered this. When the king returned, the queen feigned sickness and then bribed a doctor to say that she needed the flesh of the dun bull to be well again.

The princess told the bull, who told her they must flee.

They passed through a wood of copper. Although the bull told her not to break any branches, she broke off a leaf. The bull told her to keep the leaf and not lose it under any circumstances. A troll roared that they were touching his wood, and he and the bull fought. The bull won, but the princess had to cure him with a horn of ointment that the troll carried on his person.

The same happened in a silver wood and a golden one, so she had a silver leaf and golden apple as well.

They came to a castle. The bull gave her a wooden cloak and told her to ask for work at the castle as "Katie Woodencloak". But first she must cut off his head, flay him, and put the hide away in the rock with the leaves and apple. Then she should knock on the stone whenever she needed anything. She did not want to, but he finally persuaded her.

She got work in the scullery, and one day she carried water to the prince for bathing. He, not wanting water from such a filthy creature, threw it over her. She went to the rock and had herself magnificently dressed in copper to go to church, and the prince fell in love with her at once. She told him she came from Bath and used a charm to keep him from following her, but he had caught one of her gloves.

A second time, she brought him a towel, to the same treatment, and went to church dressed in silver. She told the prince she came from Towelland, and she dropped her riding whip.

A third time, she brought him a comb, to the same treatment, and went to church dressed in gold. She told the prince she came from Combland, and he got her golden shoe.

The king had all women come to try on the shoe, and it fit Katie's stepsister. A bird warned the prince that the stepsister had cut her foot to fit in the shoe, and sang that it was Katie Woodencloak's shoe.

Having disposed of the false bride, the prince asked after Katie Woodencloak. Though he was warned off, he insisted, so they married and lived happily ever after."

King Kojata

"A king and a queen had no children. One day, the king was travelling (hunting to forget his childlessness in the Polish, inspecting his country in the Russian), and grew thirsty. He found a spring with a cup floating in it. Trying to grab the cup did not succeed; it always evaded his hands. When he dropped to drink directly, a creature in the well (the King Kostiei in Polish,) grabbed his beard and would not free him until he promised to give it something: in Polish, the most precious thing in his palace, which was not there when he left it; in the Russian, something he knew nothing about, and which he would find on his return home.

He promised. On his return, he found his wife had had a son. He told no one of the exchange, but when the prince was grown, an old man appeared to him in the woods and told him to tell his father to make good on his bargain. When he told the king, the king told him the truth. The prince set out to pay it.

He came to a lake where thirty ducks (Russian) or twelve geese (Polish) were swimming, and where there were clothes on the shore. He took one. The birds came ashore, changed into women, and dressed themselves, except the one whose dress he had. That one, as a bird, looked about, and begged the prince to give her back her clothing. He did so. She was grateful, told him that she was the youngest daughter of the man he had been promised to, and promised to aid him. She told him that when he reached her father, he was to approach him on his knees, without any fear.

He obeyed her, although her father gave fearful yells. When he had nearly reached him, her father laughed and said it was well that he had not been frightened. In the morning, he ordered the prince to build him a marble palace in a day. He went to his room, the daughter came to him as a bee, and promised to do it for him, and the next day, the palace was built. The next day, he demanded that the prince pick out his youngest daughter from her sisters. She told him she would be the one with the ladybug on her eyelid (Polish) or fly on her cheek (Russian), and he was able to find her. The third day, he told the prince to make him a pair of boots. The prince was no shoemaker, and the youngest daughter told him that they must flee. She spat on the ground (Polish) or breathed on the window and made frost (Russian), and they fled. When the servants came for the prince, the spit or frost answered for them. Finally, he ordered the door broken, which revealed their flight.

The servants chased them. The maiden turned herself into a river, the prince into the bridge, and put three roads into the forest over the bridge. The servants, not knowing which way to go, turned back. Her father told them that they had been the bridge and river. When the servants returned, the maiden turned herself and the prince into a dense forest, with many paths, and the servants became lost and could not find them. When they returned, her father decided to chase them himself. The maiden said that he could go no further than the first church. She demanded his cross. With it, she made herself a church and the prince a priest. Her father demanded if the priest had seen them, and he said that they had passed and had sent their greetings. Her father had to turn back.

The shorter Polish version ends here.

In the Russian and the longer Polish variants, they came to a town. The prince insisted on going to see it. She warned him that the king and queen would lead out a little child, but he must not kiss it, or he would forget her. She turned into a milestone to await him, but he kissed the child and forgot her. She turned herself into a flower to be trampled. An old man transplanted her, and found that whenever he left, the housework was done. A witch advised him to wait and throw a cloth over whatever moved. This revealed her, and he told that the prince was to marry. She went to the feast and got the cook to let her make the wedding cake. When it was cut, two doves flew out, and one of them begged the other to not abandon it, as the prince had abandoned the maiden. The prince got up at once, found her, found his horse, and rode off with her to his father's kingdom."

The King of Erin and the Queen of the Lonesome Island

"A king went hunting. Near evening, he saw the first animal, a black pig, and so chased it. The pig swam out to sea, and the king followed it. His horse drowned, but he swam and saw an island. On it, he found a house with razors on the threshold and needles on the lintel, but he jumped between them and sat by the fire. A meal came, without his seeing anyone bring it, and he ate. At night, he sensed a woman in the room but could not touch her. He tried to leave the next two days, but the woman used magic to keep him from finding his way. On the third night, the woman appeared and said she had been the pig; she and her two sisters were captive there until their son should free them. In the morning, she gave him a boat to get back, and nine months later, she had a son.

When her son was grown, she wept one day, and explained that the king of Erin would die the next day, because the king of Spain had brought a great army against him. The son said he would help if he were there, and the mother sent him by magic. He asked the king of Spain for a day's truce and went to the king of Erin as a guest. The next day, he arrayed himself as a champion and drove the king of Spain's army from the field. The king of Erin had two sons, cowards who had hidden from the fight, but their mother told the king that the champion was the older of them. During the feasting, the queen gave the champion a drink that made him drowsy and then pushed him from the window into the sea, but he swam for four days and nights until he came to a rock where he lived for three months. A ship rescued him; the captain had tried to reach the Lonesome Island and failed because of fire. With the son, he succeeded, and the son told his mother what had happened with the queen.

The new king of Spain came to avenge his father's death, and the mother sent her son again; the queen made the same claim about her older son and put some chicken blood into her mouth, claiming it was her heart's blood and she needed water from Tubber Tintye to recover. The son went for it with her two sons. They met a woman washing her hair in a golden basin. She called the son her sister-son and told him it was too hard. They stayed the night, and the next morning the older of the queen's sons claimed to be ill and unable to go on. They went on to another aunt of the son's. At this house, she told him that the people of Tubber Tintye slept for seven years and woke for seven years, and learned from an eagle they had just gone to sleep. The younger of the queen's son claimed to be ill and unable to go on. The aunt gave her nephew a bridle and told him to shake it before the stables and take whatever horse came out. He took the dirty, lean, shaggy little horse that came. It called him the son of the king of Erin and the queen of the Lonesome Island, which was the first the son had heard of his father. The horse leapt over the river of fire, and the son jumped from its back into the window at the castle. He found many monsters and then a chamber with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He went on through twelve more chambers, each with a sleeping woman more beautiful than the last, until at last he came to the golden room, where the queen slept, with the well at her feet. He decided to stay there, and did for six days and nights. A table there had a loaf of bread and a leg of meat, and if every man in Erin had eaten from that table from a year, there would have been as much food on it at the end. He left a letter so that the queen might know that he was the one who had been there, and took the bread and the meat. He sprang from the window back onto the back of the horse.

The horse carried him away and had him chopp it into four quarters and strike them with a rod; this turned them back into the four princes that they had been before. He freed his two aunts from their spell and went back with them and the queen's sons. The older of the queen's sons stole the water and gave it to his mother. The son went back with his aunts to the Lonesome Island.

After seven years, the queen of Tubber Tintye woke and found she had a six-year-old son. Her sage said only a hero could have made it there, and a hero would have left some sign. They found his letter, which pleased the queen. She brought her army to the castle of the king of Erin and demanded the man who had come to her castle while she slept. The king summoned the queen's two son in turn, each of whom claimed to have done it, but she demanded that each one ride her horse, and it threw and killed them. The king sent a message to the Lonesome Island, and the queen there and her son came. He could ride the horse, and so she knew he was the man. She put a belt on the queen of Erin that magically tightened, and forced from her the knowledge that her older son was the gardener's, and the younger the brewer's. The queen of Tubber Tintye had the king of Erin burn her. The king of Erin married the queen of the Lonesome Island, and his son married the queen of Tubber Tintye."

The King of Love

"A man made his living gathering wild herbs. One day he took his youngest daughter, Rosella, with him, and she pulled up a radish. A Turk appeared and said she must come to his master and be punished. He brought them underground, where a green bird appeared, washed in milk, and became a man. The Turk told what had happened. The father said that there was no sign that the radish had belonged to him. The man married Rosella and gave her father a sack of gold. One day, while the man was away, her sisters visited her. She told them that her husband had forbidden her to ask who he was, but they persuaded her to ask his name. He told her that he was the King of Love and vanished.

She wandered in search of him, calling for him, and an ogress appeared, demanding to know why Rosella called on her nephew. The ogress took pity on her and let her stay the night, telling her that she was one of seven sister ogresses, and the worst was her mother-in-law. Each day, Rosella met another; on the seventh day, a sister of the King of Love told Rosella to climb her hair into the house while their mother was out. Then she and her sisters told Rosella to seize their mother and pinch her until the ogress cried out to be left alone in her son's name.

Rosella did this, and the ogress wanted to eat her, but the ogress's daughters stopped her. Then she insisted that Rosella carry a letter for her. In the wilderness, Rosella called on the King of Love again. He warned her to flatter things along the way: to drink from and praise two rivers, to eat and praise fruit from an orchard, to eat bread from an oven and praise it, to feed two dogs, to sweep a hall, and to polish a knife, razor and scissors. Then she was to deliver the letter, seize a box from the table, and run. When she did this, the ogress called after her for things to destroy her, but they refused because of her kindness. Curious, she opened the box; musical instruments escaped, and she had to call on her husband again to get them back.

The ogress wanted to eat Rosella again but her daughters stopped her again. She ordered her to fill a mattress with feathers from all the birds in the air. The King of Love got the King of Birds to have the birds fill the mattress. Then the ogress married her son to the daughter of the King of Portugal, and had Rosella hold the torches for the bridal chamber; but the king got his bride to switch places with Rosella, and the ground opened up and swallowed the bride.

The ogress declared that Rosella's child would not be born until she unclasped her hands. The King of Love had his body laid out as if he were dead, and his sisters lamented him. The ogress unclasped her hands, demanding to know how he had died. Rosella's son was born. This so enraged the ogress that she died."

The King of the Golden Mountain

"A merchant with a young son and daughter lost everything except a field. Walking in that field, he met a black mannikin who promised to make him rich if, in twelve years, he brought the first thing that rubbed against his leg when he went home. The merchant agreed. When he got home, his boy rubbed against his leg. He went to the attic and found money, but when the twelve years were up, he grew sad. His son got the story from him and assured him that the black man had no power over him. The son had himself blessed by the priest and went to argue with the black man. Finally, the mannikin agreed that the boy could be put in a boat and shoved off into the water.

The boat carried him to another shore. A snake met him, but was a transformed princess. She told him if for three nights he let twelve black men beat him, she would be freed. He agreed and did it, and she married him, making him the King of the Gold Mountain, and in time bore him a son. When the boy was seven, the king wanted to see his own parents. His wife thought it would bring evil, but gave him a ring that would wish him to his parents and back again, telling him must not wish her to come with him. He went, but to get in the town, he had to put off his fine and magnificent clothing for a shepherd's; once inside, first he had to persuade his parents that he was their son, and then he could not persuade him that he was a king. Frustrated, he wished his wife and son with him. When he slept, his wife took the ring and wished herself and their son back to the Gold Mountain.

He walked until he found three giants quarreling over their inheritance: a sword that would cut off all heads but the owner's, if ordered to; a cloak of invisibility; and boots that would carry the wearer anywhere. He said he had to try them first, and with them, got the Gold Mountain, where his wife was marrying another. He ate everything that she put on her plate until she complained she needed a deliverer. He told her that she had had one and ordered everyone off. When they tried to seize him, he had the sword cut off their heads and he was alone and King of the Gold Mountain."