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167

Von Hahn, Griechische und Albanesische Märchen. Gesammelt, ubersetzt und erlautert von J. G. von Hahn. Leipzig, 1864. vol. ii, p. 225. Variant of Story No. XXVII. (From Smyrna.)

"ALLERLEIRAUH."
(second version).

ABSTRACT

Death-bed promise--Deceased wife's ring marriage test-- Unnatural father--Pate aid--Counter-tasks--Magic dresses (furnished by devil)--Heroine stipulates to go unseen to bath assisted by Fate escapes to cave. Heroine disguise--Lives there for six years.--Steals food from hunting prince, spoiling remainder with salt. On the third occasion prince discovers her in hairy dress, and takes her to palace. She remains speechless--Meeting-place (wedding)--Threefold flight--Money scattered to detain pursuers--Love-sick prince--Recognition food (ring, watch, and string of pearls given at weddings). Prince cuts off heroine's hairy disguise -[Happy marriage.]

TABULATION

(1) A king promises his dying wife to marry only one whom her ring fits.-- (2) He sends through the whole world, but the ring fits no one.-- (3) After the messengers return, his daughter finds the ring on the table, puts it on, and it fits her. The king therefore demands to marry her.-- (4) She flies to her room and cries out to her Fate, asking why she had been awarded such a doom. Her Fate appears, and tells her to require from her father first a silver, then a golden, and lastly a pearl dress without slit or seam.-- (5) No tailor in the kingdom can supply such dresses, but the king, while hunting, meets the devil and gets them from him. Then, by the advice of her Fate, the heroine requires a long-haired dress, through which neither her eyes, her face, her hands, nor her feet shall be recognised. The devil furnishes this also.-- (6) She then declares herself willing, hut stipulates first to go unseen to the bath, and the king bids his subjects close their shops and keep indoors while she passes through the streets. She is then conveyed by her Fate, unseen by anyone, to a cave in a high mountain, where she remains six years living on bread and water brought to her twice a day by her Fate-- (7) At last a prince puts up a hunting-box in the neighbourhood of the cave.-- (8) The smell of the food cooking there attracts the heroine, and at sight of her the cooks run away. She helps herself to the food and spoils with salt what she leaves behind.-- (9) The third time she does this the prince sees her, tracks her to her cavern, and takes her to his palace. There she is called the Hairy, from her dress. She remains speechless, answering always by signs. The prince becomes so much attached to her that his mother grows jealous.-- (10) At a great wedding, attended by the prince and his mother, she appears thrice in her three dresses. The prince falls in love with her, and obtains from his mother the first time a ring, the next a watch, and the third time a band of pearls, which he gives her successively. She escapes each time by throwing money among the crowd.-- (11) The prince falls sick of love for the unknown lady, and his mother bakes pastry for him.-- (12) The heroine wishes to try her hand at making some, but she is forbidden. The prince overhears the contention, and interferes in her favour. She puts into the pastry she makes, first the ring, then the watch, and lastly the band of pearls. All the pastry but hers is burnt. The prince recognises the tokens. He sends and begs shears which will cut iron and steel, and cuts her hairy garment off.

Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes, abstracted and tabulated. London: David Nutt for the Folklore Society, 1893.

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