77 lines
3.8 KiB
Text
77 lines
3.8 KiB
Text
The Singing Bone
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In a certain country there was once great lamentation over a wild boar
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that laid waste the farmer’s fields, killed the cattle, and ripped up
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people’s bodies with his tusks. The King promised a large reward to
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anyone who would free the land from this plague; but the beast was so
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big and strong that no one dared to go near the forest in which it
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lived. At last the King gave notice that whosoever should capture or
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kill the wild boar should have his only daughter to wife.
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Now there lived in the country two brothers, sons of a poor man, who
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declared themselves willing to undertake the hazardous enterprise; the
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elder, who was crafty and shrewd, out of pride; the younger, who was
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innocent and simple, from a kind heart. The King said, “In order that
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you may be the more sure of finding the beast, you must go into the
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forest from opposite sides.” So the elder went in on the west side, and
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the younger on the east.
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When the younger had gone a short way, a little man stepped up to him.
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He held in his hand a black spear and said, “I give you this spear
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because your heart is pure and good; with this you can boldly attack
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the wild boar, and it will do you no harm.”
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He thanked the little man, shouldered the spear, and went on
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fearlessly.
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Before long he saw the beast, which rushed at him; but he held the
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spear towards it, and in its blind fury it ran so swiftly against it
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that its heart was cloven in twain. Then he took the monster on his
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back and went homewards with it to the King.
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As he came out at the other side of the wood, there stood at the
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entrance a house where people were making merry with wine and dancing.
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His elder brother had gone in here, and, thinking that after all the
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boar would not run away from him, was going to drink until he felt
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brave. But when he saw his young brother coming out of the wood laden
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with his booty, his envious, evil heart gave him no peace. He called
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out to him, “Come in, dear brother, rest and refresh yourself with a
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cup of wine.”
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The youth, who suspected no evil, went in and told him about the good
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little man who had given him the spear wherewith he had slain the boar.
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The elder brother kept him there until the evening, and then they went
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away together, and when in the darkness they came to a bridge over a
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brook, the elder brother let the other go first; and when he was
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half-way across he gave him such a blow from behind that he fell down
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dead. He buried him beneath the bridge, took the boar, and carried it
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to the King, pretending that he had killed it; whereupon he obtained
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the King’s daughter in marriage. And when his younger brother did not
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come back he said, “The boar must have killed him,” and every one
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believed it.
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But as nothing remains hidden from God, so this black deed also was to
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come to light.
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Years afterwards a shepherd was driving his herd across the bridge, and
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saw lying in the sand beneath, a snow-white little bone. He thought
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that it would make a good mouth-piece, so he clambered down, picked it
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up, and cut out of it a mouth-piece for his horn. But when he blew
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through it for the first time, to his great astonishment, the bone
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began of its own accord to sing:
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“Ah, friend, thou blowest upon my bone!
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Long have I lain beside the water;
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My brother slew me for the boar,
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And took for his wife the King’s young daughter.”
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“What a wonderful horn!” said the shepherd; “it sings by itself; I must
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take it to my lord the King.” And when he came with it to the King the
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horn again began to sing its little song. The King understood it all,
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and caused the ground below the bridge to be dug up, and then the whole
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skeleton of the murdered man came to light. The wicked brother could
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not deny the deed, and was sewn up in a sack and drowned. But the bones
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of the murdered man were laid to rest in a beautiful tomb in the
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churchyard.
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