Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 06 (6 page)

'Oh, I just wanted to know; and how could anyone find me out
here?' and she began to cry.

'Oh, don't cry, I was only in fun,' said the ogre.

He was soon asleep again, and a yellow light shone through the
castle.

'Come quick!' called Dschemil from the chest; 'we must fly now
while the ogre is asleep.'

'Not yet,' she said, 'there is a yellow light shining. I don't
think he is asleep.'

So they waited for an hour. Then Dschemil whispered again: 'Wake
up! There is no time to lose!'

'Let me see if he is asleep,' said she, and she peeped in, and
saw a red light shining. Then she stole back to her cousin, and
asked, 'But how are we to get out?'

'Get the rope, and I will let you down.'

So she fetched the rope, the hatchet, and the pin and the
needles, and said, 'Take them, and put them in the pocket of your
cloak, and be sure not to lose them.'

Dschemil put them carefully in his pocket, and tied the rope
round her, and let her down over the wall.

'Are you safe?' he asked.

'Yes, quite.'

'Then untie the rope, so that I may draw it up.'

And Dschemila did as she was told, and in a few minutes he stood
beside her.

Now all this time the ogre was asleep, and had heard nothing.
Then his dog came to him and said, 'O, sleeper, are you having
pleasant dreams? Dschemila has forsaken you and run away.'

The ogre got out of bed, gave the dog a kick, then went back
again, and slept till morning.

When it grew light, he rose, and called, 'Dschemila! Dschemila!'
but he only heard the echo of his own voice! Then he dressed
himself quickly; buckled on his sword and whistled to his dog,
and followed the road which he knew the fugitives must have
taken. 'Cousin,' said Dschemila suddenly, and turning round as
she spoke.

'What is it?' answered he.

'The ogre is coming after us. I saw him.'

'But where is he? I don't see him.'

'Over there. He only looks about as tall as a needle.'

Then they both began to run as fast as they could, while the ogre
and his dog kept drawing always nearer. A few more steps, and he
would have been by their side, when Dschemila threw the darning
needle behind her. In a moment it became an iron mountain between
them and their enemy.

'We will break it down, my dog and I,' cried the ogre in a rage,
and they dashed at the mountain till they had forced a path
through, and came ever nearer and nearer.

'Cousin! ' said Dschemila suddenly.

'What is it?'

'The ogre is coming after us with his dog.'

'You go on in front then,' answered he; and they both ran on as
fast as they could, while the ogre and the dog drew always nearer
and nearer.

'They are close upon us! ' cried the maiden, glancing behind,
'you must throw the pin.'

So Dschemil took the pin from his cloak and threw it behind him,
and a dense thicket of thorns sprang up round them, which the
ogre and his dog could not pass through.

'I will get through it somehow, if I burrow underground,' cried
he, and very soon he and the dog were on the other side.

'Cousin,' said Dschemila, 'they are close to us now.'

'Go on in front, and fear nothing,' replied Dschemil.

So she ran on a little way, and then stopped.

'He is only a few yards away now,' she said, and Dschemil flung
the hatchet on the ground, and it turned into a lake.

'I will drink, and my dog shall drink, till it is dry,' shrieked
the ogre, and the dog drank so much that it burst and died. But
the ogre did not stop for that, and soon the whole lake was
nearly dry. Then he exclaimed, 'Dschemila, let your head become a
donkey's head, and your hair fur!'

But when it was done, Dschemil looked at her in horror, and said,
' She is really a donkey, and not a woman at all! '

And he left her, and went home.

For two days poor Dschemila wandered about alone, weeping
bitterly. When her cousin drew near his native town, he began to
think over his conduct, and to feel ashamed of himself.

'Perhaps by this time she has changed back to her proper shape,'
he said to himself, 'I will go and see!'

So he made all the haste he could, and at last he saw her seated
on a rock, trying to keep off the wolves, who longed to have her
for dinner. He drove them off and said, 'Get up, dear cousin, you
have had a narrow escape.'

Dschemila stood up and answered, 'Bravo, my friend. You persuaded
me to fly with you, and then left me helplessly to my fate.'

'Shall I tell you the truth?' asked he.

'Tell it.'

'I thought you were a witch, and I was afraid of you.'

'Did you not see me before my transformation? and did you not
watch it happen under your very eyes, when the ogre bewitched
me?'

'What shall I do?' said Dschemil. 'If I take you into the town,
everyone will laugh, and say, "Is that a new kind of toy you have
got? It has hands like a woman, feet like a woman, the body of a
woman; but its head is the head of an ass, and its hair is fur."
'

'Well, what do you mean to do with me?' asked Dschemila. 'Better
take me home to my mother by night, and tell no one anything
about it.'

'So I will,' said he.

They waited where they were till it was nearly dark, then
Dschemil brought his cousin home.

'Is that Dschemil?' asked the mother when he knocked softly.

'Yes, it is.'

'And have you found her?'

'Yes, and I have brought her to you.'

'Oh, where is she? let me see her!' cried the mother.

'Here, behind me,' answered Dschemil.

But when the poor woman caught sight of her daughter, she
shrieked, and exclaimed, 'Are you making fun of me? When did I
ever give birth to an ass?'

'Hush!' said Dschemil, 'it is not necessary to let the whole
world know! And if you look at her body, you will see two scars
on it.'

'Mother,' sobbed Dschemila, 'do you really not know your own
daughter?'

'Yes, of course I know her.'

'What are her two scars then?'

'On her thigh is a scar from the bite of a dog, and on her breast
is the mark of a burn, where she pulled a lamp over her when she
was little.'

'Then look at me, and see if I am not your daughter,' said
Dschemila, throwing off her clothes and showing her two scars.

And at the sight her mother embraced her, weeping.

'Dear daughter,' she cried, 'what evil fate has befallen you?'

'It was the ogre who carried me off first, and then bewitched
me,' answered Dschemila.

'But what is to be done with you?' asked her mother.

'Hide me away, and tell no one anything about me. And you, dear
cousin, say nothing to the neighbours, and if they should put
questions, you can make answer that I have not yet been found.'

'So I will,' replied he.

Then he and her mother took her upstairs and hid her in a
cupboard, where she stayed for a whole month, only going out to
walk when all the world was asleep.

Meanwhile Dschemil had returned to his own home, where his father
and mother, his brothers and neighbours, greeted him joyfully.

'When did you come back?' said they, 'and have you found
Dschemila?'

'No, I searched the whole world after her, and could hear nothing
of her.'

'Did you part company with the man who started with you?'

'Yes; after three days he got so weak and useless he could not go
on. It must be a month by now since he reached home again. I went
on and visited every castle, and looked in every house. But there
were no signs of her; and so I gave it up.'

And they answered him: 'We told you before that it was no good.
An ogre or an ogress must have snapped her up, and how can you
expect to find her?'

'I loved her too much to be still,' he said.

But his friends did not understand, and soon they spoke to him
again about it.

'We will seek for a wife for you. There are plenty of girls
prettier than Dschemila.'

'I dare say; but I don't want them.'

'But what will you do with all the cushions and carpets, and
beautiful things you bought for your house?'

'They can stay in the chests.'

'But the moths will eat them! For a few weeks, it is of no
consequence, but after a year or two they will be quite useless.'

'And if they have to lie there ten years I will have Dschemila,
and her only, for my wife. For a month, or even two months, I
will rest here quietly. Then I will go and seek her afresh.'

'Oh, you are quite mad! Is she the only maiden in the world?
There are plenty of others better worth having than she is.'

'If there are I have not seen them! And why do you make all this
fuss? Every man knows his own business best.

'Why, it is you who are making all the fuss yourself.'

But Dschemil turned and went into the house, for he did not want
to quarrel.

Three months later a Jew, who was travelling across the desert,
came to the castle, and laid himself down under the wall to rest.

In the evening the ogre saw him there and said to him, 'Jew, what
are you doing here? Have you anything to sell?'

'I have only some clothes,' answered the Jew, who was in mortal
terror of the ogre.

'Oh, don't be afraid of me,' said the ogre, laughing. 'I shall
not eat you. Indeed, I mean to go a bit of the way with you
myself.'

'I am ready, gracious sir,' replied the Jew, rising to his feet.

'Well, go straight on till you reach a town, and in that town you
will find a maiden called Dschemila and a young man called
Dschemil. Take this mirror and this comb with you, and say to
Dschemila, "Your father, the ogre, greets you, and begs you to
look at your face in this mirror, and it will appear as it was
before, and to comb your hair with this comb, and it will be as
formerly." If you do not carry out my orders, I will eat you the
next time we meet.'

'Oh, I will obey you punctually,' cried the Jew.

After thirty days the Jew entered the gate of the town, and sat
down in the first street he came to, hungry, thirsty, and very
tired.

Quite by chance, Dschemil happened to pass by, and seeing a man
sitting there, full in the glare of the sun, he stopped, and
said, ' Get up at once, Jew; you will have a sunstroke if you sit
in such a place.'

'Ah, good sir,' replied the Jew, 'for a whole month I have been
travelling, and I am too tired to move.'

'Which way did you come?' asked Dschemil.

'From out there,' answered the Jew pointing behind him.

'And you have been travelling for a month, you say? Well, did you
see anything remarkable?'

'Yes, good sir; I saw a castle, and lay down to rest under its
shadow. And an ogre woke me, and told me to come to this town,
where I should find a young man called Dschemil, and a girl
called Dschemila.'

'My name is Dschemil. What does the ogre want with me?'

'He gave me some presents for Dschemila. How can I see her?'

'Come with me, and you shall give them into her own hands.'

So the two went together to the house of Dschemil's uncle, and
Dschemil led the Jew into his aunt's room.

'Aunt!' he cried, 'this Jew who is with me has come from the
ogre, and has brought with him, as presents, a mirror and a comb
which the ogre has sent her.'

'But it may be only some wicked trick on the part of the ogre,'
said she.

'Oh, I don't think so,' answered the young man, 'give her the
things.'

Then the maiden was called, and she came out of her hiding place,
and went up to the Jew, saying, 'Where have you come from, Jew?'

'From your father the ogre.'

'And what errand did he send you on?'

'He told me I was to give you this mirror and this comb, and to
say "Look in this mirror, and comb your hair with this comb, and
both will become as they were formerly." '

And Dschemila took the mirror and looked into it, and combed her
hair with the comb, and she had no longer an ass's head, but the
face of a beautiful maiden.

Great was the joy of both mother and cousin at this wonderful
sight, and the news that Dschemila had returned soon spread, and
the neighbours came flocking in with greetings.

'When did you come back?'

'My cousin brought me.'

'Why, he told us he could not find you! '

'Oh, I did that on purpose,' answered Dschemil. 'I did not want
everyone to know.'

Then he turned to his father and his mother, his brothers and his
sisters-in-law, and said, 'We must set to work at once, for the
wedding will be to-day.'

A beautiful litter was prepared to carry the bride to her new
home, but she shrank back, saying, 'I am afraid, lest the ogre
should carry me off again.'

'How can the ogre get at you when we are all here?' they said.
'There are two thousand of us all told, and every man has his
sword.'

'He will manage it somehow,' answered Dschemila, 'he is a
powerful king!'

'She is right,' said an old man. 'Take away the litter, and let
her go on foot if she is afraid.'

'But it is absurd!' exclaimed the rest; 'how can the ogre get
hold of her?'

'I will not go,' said Dschemila again. 'You do not know that
monster; I do.'

And while they were disputing the bridegroom arrived.

'Let her alone. She shall stay in her father's house. After all,
I can live here, and the wedding feast shall be made ready.'

And so they were married at last, and died without having had a
single quarrel.

(Marehen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolis,)

Once there was a man who shunned the world, and lived in the
wilderness. He owned nothing but a flock of sheep, whose milk and
wool he sold, and so procured himself bread to eat; he also
carried wooden spoons, and sold them. He had a wife and one
little girl, and after a long time his wife had another child.
The evening it was born the man went to the nearest village to
fetch a nurse, and on the way he met a monk who begged him for a
night's lodging. This the man willingly granted, and took him
home with him. There being no one far nor near to baptize the
child, the man asked the monk to do him this service, and the
child was given the name of Janni.