The Singing Bone

In a certain country there was once great lamentation over a wild boar
that laid waste the farmer's fields, killed the cattle, and ripped up
people's bodies with his tusks. The King promised a large reward to
anyone who would free the land from this plague; but the beast was so
big and strong that no one dared to go near the forest in which it
lived. At last the King gave notice that whosoever should capture or
kill the wild boar should have his only daughter to wife.

Now there lived in the country two brothers, sons of a poor man, who
declared themselves willing to undertake the hazardous enterprise; the
elder, who was crafty and shrewd, out of pride; the younger, who was
innocent and simple, from a kind heart. The King said, "In order that
you may be the more sure of finding the beast, you must go into the
forest from opposite sides." So the elder went in on the west side, and
the younger on the east.

When the younger had gone a short way, a little man stepped up to him.
He held in his hand a black spear and said, "I give you this spear
because your heart is pure and good; with this you can boldly attack
the wild boar, and it will do you no harm."

He thanked the little man, shouldered the spear, and went on
fearlessly.

Before long he saw the beast, which rushed at him; but he held the
spear towards it, and in its blind fury it ran so swiftly against it
that its heart was cloven in twain. Then he took the monster on his
back and went homewards with it to the King.

As he came out at the other side of the wood, there stood at the
entrance a house where people were making merry with wine and dancing.
His elder brother had gone in here, and, thinking that after all the
boar would not run away from him, was going to drink until he felt
brave. But when he saw his young brother coming out of the wood laden
with his booty, his envious, evil heart gave him no peace. He called
out to him, "Come in, dear brother, rest and refresh yourself with a
cup of wine."

The youth, who suspected no evil, went in and told him about the good
little man who had given him the spear wherewith he had slain the boar.

The elder brother kept him there until the evening, and then they went
away together, and when in the darkness they came to a bridge over a
brook, the elder brother let the other go first; and when he was
half-way across he gave him such a blow from behind that he fell down
dead. He buried him beneath the bridge, took the boar, and carried it
to the King, pretending that he had killed it; whereupon he obtained
the King's daughter in marriage. And when his younger brother did not
come back he said, "The boar must have killed him," and every one
believed it.

But as nothing remains hidden from God, so this black deed also was to
come to light.

Years afterwards a shepherd was driving his herd across the bridge, and
saw lying in the sand beneath, a snow-white little bone. He thought
that it would make a good mouth-piece, so he clambered down, picked it
up, and cut out of it a mouth-piece for his horn. But when he blew
through it for the first time, to his great astonishment, the bone
began of its own accord to sing:

"Ah, friend, thou blowest upon my bone!
Long have I lain beside the water;
My brother slew me for the boar,
And took for his wife the King's young daughter."


"What a wonderful horn!" said the shepherd; "it sings by itself; I must
take it to my lord the King." And when he came with it to the King the
horn again began to sing its little song. The King understood it all,
and caused the ground below the bridge to be dug up, and then the whole
skeleton of the murdered man came to light. The wicked brother could
not deny the deed, and was sewn up in a sack and drowned. But the bones
of the murdered man were laid to rest in a beautiful tomb in the
churchyard.
