Translated from Lithuanian by Gloria O’Brien
There once lived
a wealthy nobleman and his servant, Juozas. One night, the man dreamt that the
moon bowed to a star. No one was able to explain the meaning of this dream, and
it occurred to him to put the question to his servant, who answered,
“That means, my lord, that someday you will bow to me.”
The nobleman,
infuriated by this response, grabbed an axe and swung it with all his might at
Juozas. He missed, and the axe stuck in
the wall; Juozas ran away, and spent the night hiding in the barn.
The next morning,
as she milked the cows, an old crone began to complain:
“Only one good
person in the place, and he has been driven away!“
He heard her, and
answered:
“Here I am, Granny, don’t lament. There will come a time, when the moon will bow to a star!”
The old woman answered, “Run, my child, don’t stay a moment longer: if he finds you, the lord will kill you!”
And so he left the estate. He traveled long, and after several days he met a man who ran with a log tied beneath each foot.
“Why do you run in that way?” he asked the fellow.
“I run out of joy, and I have tied these logs to my feet so that I do not run too fast or too far”.
“Well, let’s travel together”, suggested the servant, and the man agreed.
An hour later, they saw a man gnawing on a birch tree. “What are you doing?” they both asked. “Oh, I felt a little hungry, and so I decided to have a little snack.”
“Why don’t you come along with us, and I’ll give you something better to eat.” And so he did.
A little further on, they came upon a man lying at the edge of a lake, and as they watched, the lake’s waters became lower and lower.
“What are you doing here?” the three asked him. “Well, I felt a little thirsty, so I’m having a little drink. This little lake will not be enough for me - I will have to find another.”
“Let us all travel together!” And he agreed. As the four went along, they added one to their group who had been aiming over a hundred-mile journey, to shoot at a mosquito; a second fellow who had an ear pressed to the ground, the better to hear the grass growing; and a third, who held his thumb in his mouth because if he let go, he would be covered in frost and cold.
Eventually the group of travelers reached a large city, ruled by a stern and wrathful king, who had recently announced that all foreigners who
crossed his kingdom’s borders would be given three difficult tasks. Those unable to complete the tasks would perish at the hands of the king’s guard.
As soon as Juozas
and his group of friends entered the city, they were seized by the royal
guards. Brought before the king, Juozas
and his group agreed to perform three tasks.
First, the king
decreed they must compete in a footrace with the royal runners, who entered the
track area showing off their swiftness, seeming as fast as the deer. But then,
he who had logs tied to his feet,
appeared as the representative of the group. The city‘s people all asked him, why he had logs tied to his feet. “This way is better for me!” he answered, and when he started to run, he left all the king’s runners behind and was first to reach the designated finish line.
The second task set by the king, was to report the time shown on a clock one hundred miles away. Juozas drew his group together and explained their task in great detail. One had seen the clock, and the second had heard it, both quietly whispered their answers to him.
So Juozas the servant told the king: “The clock shows ten, and now strikes twelve.” It was the correct answer, as the king had arranged it thus.
The third task was to consume all the food in the castle over one night. Juozas and the birch-gnawing fellow entered the castle’s pantries and storerooms. The fellow told Juozas, “Hurry now, brother, if you want a snack, take it now, because once I get started, not even a bone will be left.” And so it was - not even a plate was left.
The three tasks had been carried out, but the wrathful king begrudged to let the group go. He insisted that they must complete a fourth task to earn their liberty. Over one night, they had to drink up all the wine in the castle’s cellars.
They entered the wine cellars, which were filled with wine casks and bottles in shelves up to the ceilings. And he who had been drinking the lake, licking his lips, said, “Drink now, my friends, because when I start, not a drop will be left.” And so it was - and even that was not enough for him - when he had drained the cellars, he went outside and drank up the fish-pond, silt and all.
Still the king was unwilling to let them go. Unable to devise another impossible task for them, he invited them to a large chamber and there imprisoned them. After a while, they noticed that the floor of the chamber began to get warmer and warmer. The king had put them in a room with a metal floor and had a fire built underneath. But the last one who joined their group displayed his own usefulness by letting his thumb fall from his mouth. The room immediately grew cold. The following morning, the king arrived to see if his captives were all roasted. As soon as he opened the door, his nose was frozen solid.
Seeing that his efforts were all unsuccessful, the king gave up and asked Juozas and his friends, what sort of gifts they would require from him. Juozas answered that he wanted a royal carriage and horses. And the king fulfilled his wish.
It happened, later, that Juozas was driving through his former lord’s fields, and the lord came outside to see a royal carriage passing by.
All the field workers bowed as the carriage passed, and the lord bowed lowest. Juozas recognized the nobleman, and stepped out of the carriage to say, “See, my lord, you wanted to kill me when I correctly interpreted your dream, and now, you have bowed before me.”
Source:
From “Nemuno Šalies
Pasakos”
“Tales From
the Land of the Nemunas”
Compiled by Petras Cvirka
Published in 1999 by “Aušra” -
© - English Translation -
Gloria O’Brien 2008
This article was pinted in Bridges – 2008