Chapter XXVIII: Section I: Tales Illustrative of the "kalevipoeg" (3)

But there is no peace nor rest in the course of time, for days
of happiness appear to pass more quickly than hours of trouble.
Soon after the wedding, autumn set in, followed by frost and
snow, and the young couple did not feel much inclination to
leave the house. But when spring returned, the prince and his
young consort went to walk in the garden. There they heard a
magpie crying out from the summit of a tree, "O what an
ungrateful creature to neglect the friends who have helped him
so much, in his days of happiness! Must the two poor girls sit
spinning gold thread all their lives? The lame old woman is not
the mother of the maidens, but a wicked witch who stole them
away from a far country when they were children. The old woman
has committed many crimes, and deserves no mercy. Let her be
punished with boiled hemlock, or she will perhaps direct
another witch's coil against the child who has been rescued."
[Pg 233]

This reminded the prince of all that had happened, and he told his consort how he had gone to the cottage in the wood to ask the advice of her sisters, and how the maidens had taught him the language of birds, and he had promised to release them from their servitude. His wife begged him with tears in her eyes to go to the aid of her sisters. When they awoke next morning, she said, "I had an important dream last night. I dreamed that the old mother had left the house, and that the girls were alone. No doubt this would be a good opportunity to go to their aid."

The prince immediately equipped a troop of soldiers, and led
them to the cottage in the wood, where they arrived on the
following day. The maidens were alone, as the dream had
fore-shadowed, and ran out with joyful cries to meet their
deliverers. A soldier was ordered to gather hemlock-roots, and
to boil them for the punishment of the old woman, so that she
should need no more food if she came home, and ate a
sufficiency of them. They passed the night in the cottage, and
on the following morning set out early on the road with the
maidens, so that they reached the town in the evening. Great
was the joy of the
[Pg 234]
sisters, who had not seen each other for two years.

The old woman returned home the same night, and greedily
devoured the food which she found on the table. Then she crept
into bed to rest, but she never awoke again, for the hemlock
put an end to her wicked life. A week later the prince sent a
trusty captain to see how things were going on, when he found
the old woman dead. Fifty loads of golden thread were found in
the secret chamber, and were divided among the sisters. As soon
as the treasure was carried away, the captain sent the red cock
on the roof.
[134] But while the cock was already stretching his red comb
out of the smoke-hole, a great cat with fiery eyes clambered
down the wall from the roof. The soldiers chased the cat, and
soon caught her, when a bird sang from the summit of a tree,
"Fix the cat in a trap by her tail, and all will come to
light." The men obeyed.

"Don't torture me, good people," said the cat. "I am a human
being like yourselves, and have been changed into the shape of
a cat by witchcraft, though it was a just return for my
wickedness.
[Pg 235]
I was the housekeeper in the palace of a great king a long way
from here, and the old woman was the queen's first
chambermaid. We were led by avarice to plot together secretly
to steal the king's three daughters and a great treasure, and
then to make our escape. After we had contrived to make away
with all the golden vessels, which the old woman changed into
golden flax, we took the children, when the eldest was three
years old, and the youngest six months. The old woman was
afraid that I might repent and change my intentions, so she
transformed me into a cat. Her death loosed my tongue, but I
did not recover my former shape." When the captain heard this,
he answered, "You deserve no better fate than the old woman,"
and ordered her to be thrown into the fire.

It was not long before the two elder princesses married kings' sons, like their youngest sister, and the golden thread which they had spun in the cottage in the wood provided them with rich dowries. But they never discovered their parents, nor the place of their birth. It was reported that the old woman had buried many more loads of golden thread in the ground, but no one could find the spot.

[Pg 236]