Once upon a time there was a mother, a father, two children and a girl. The father was traveller and one day when he was away the two children said to his mother: “We are going to meet the father.” Mother said: “ Yes, yes, go.”
Arrived at the woods, the children stopped to play. Shortly thereafter, they see their father from afar, they run towards him and cling to his legs, saying: “Daddy, my father, my father!”
The father was in a bad mood that day, and he says: “Do not make me angry! Go away!” But the children do not listen to him and continue to cling to his legs.
Nervous as he was, the father screams : “Damn you, let the Devil take you!”
At that moment the Devil comes out and takes away both of them without his father noticing.
At home, when the mother saw her father return without the children, she began to feel anxious and cry. And her husband first told her he did not know anything, then he told her about his curse, and that he had not seen them since.
Then the little sister said, “Even if I’m going to die, I want to go look for them.” And although Dad and Mom did not want to, she took some food and left.
She found a palace with an iron door. She entered: there was a gentleman. She asked him, “Have you seen my brothers, that the Devil took them away?”
The gentleman said to her: “I do not know. You can go there: there is a room with twenty-four beds. See if they were in any of those beds.”
In fact, the girl found her brothers in bed and was very happy. “My brothers, are you here? But then you’re fine!”
The brothers said to her: “ Come and see if we are well.”
She lifted the blankets and saw under many flames of fire.
“ Ouch, brothers! “ she said. “ What can I do to save you? “
And they: “If you remain silent for seven years, you will save us: but take care, you will have a lot to deal with.”
She replied: “ Well, do not worry, I understand, “ and left. She passed in front of that gentleman who motioned for her to approach, but she shook her head, crossed herself and went away.
She walked and walked till she found herself in a forest: tired as she was, she put herself to sleep. A hunting king found her there asleep. “Look how beautiful!” and he woke her up and asked her why she was in the woods. She nodded her head that she did not want anything. The King asked her: “ Do you want to come with me? “ and she nodded. The King spoke at higher volume, thinking that she was deaf and dumb but then he realized that she could hear also words in a low voice.
He got home, drove her out of carriage, and then told his mother that he had found a mute girl sleeping in the woods, and that he was going to marry her. The mother said:” But I do not want to!” and he replied: “ But here I command” and he married her.
The mother-in-law was bad-hearted and did spite and misfortune to her daughter-in-law: but her daughter-in-law did not answer and endure. In the meantime she got herself pregnant. The mother-in-law brought a fake letter to her son: that he needed to go quickly to the city because the people would eat all the goods. The king leaves the bride in that state and goes away. The bride has a baby, but the mother-in-law, in agreement with the godmother, takes a dog and puts it beside her in bed. The child sticks it in a box and takes it to the roof of the building. The poor young woman saw and felt everything and started despairing, but she thought of the condemnation of her brothers and made herself force to be silent.
Immediately her mother-in-law wrote to her son a letter that the bride had made a dog. The answer from the King was that he did not want to hear more about the bride; to give a little money to support herself and make her leaves the building before he returns.
Instead, the old woman gave orders to a servant that the young woman is taken away, killed and then thrown into the sea, and her clothes had to be brought home.
The servant, who had come to the beach, said, “Now, my mistress, lower your head, I have to kill you.” She thrown herself at his knees and her hands came with tears in her eyes. Compassion came to the servant. He did not want to kill her, but only cut her hair, took her all her clothes and in return he gave her his shirt and his pants.
Left alone on the beach, the young woman finally saw a ship and made a sign. It was a ship of soldiers, and believing it was a boy, they asked him who he was. She gestured to explain that she was a shipwrecked sailor and she was the only survivor. The soldiers said to him, “Well, even if you’re dumb, you’ll be fighting with us.”
There was a battle and the young woman also began to fire the cannon: the comrades, seeing her courage, promoted her corporal instantly. When that war was done, she asked for the grace to leave the service, and was granted to her.
Once on the ground, she did not know which way to go: at night, she saw a dilapidated house and went in there. At midnight she heard a step, spied, and saw thirteen killers coming out from behind the house. Let them go away, then go see where they came from, and find a large table spread. There was food for thirteen people, and she went to eat a little bit per dish, so they couldn’t notice. Then she went back to hiding, but she had forgotten a spoon in a plate. The assassins returned that it was still night, and one saw the spoon and said: – Oh. ! Here we have some treachery!
Another said, “Well, let’s go outside, and one of us will stay on guard,” and so they did.
She who believed they were all away, jumped out, and the murderer caught her. “ Oh, I got you rogue! Now you will see!”
More dead than alive, the girl motioned to him that she was silent, and that she had come there because she did not know where to go. The killer consoled her and gave her to drink and eat. The other companions came back, heard the story, and said to her, “As long as you’re here, stay with us.” If not, we need to kill you.
She ended up nodding, and stayed with them.
The killers never left her alone. One day the leader told her: “ Tomorrow night we will have to go all in the palace of the King, “ (and he tells her the name), “ to take away the treasure. You must come too.”
That King was the young man’s husband, and she then wrote him a letter advising him to arm his house well because he was in danger. And when at midnight the murderers found themselves at the door of the palace and entered one by one, the servants barricaded and hidden there one by one killed them. Thus the chief died and five others; all the others who came from here, fled, and left the young woman alone there, dressed as a murderer as well. The servants took her, bound her, and took her to prison. From the cell, the young woman saw that the gallows were already planted in the square. Only one day to the end of her seven years of silence. In gestures she asked for the grace to wait for the next day to make her die, and the King gave it to her. The next day they took her to the stage and she, from the first step, made a sign that instead of the three wait the four. The King granted it to. Four o’clock sound, she already climbed the other step, when two warriors came forward. They introduce themselves to the King and ask him the license to speak.
“ Speak!” – says the King
“ Why is that young man going to death?”
And the King explained it to him.
“ Then know that he is not a man but he is our sister!” and they tell the King how she has been silent for seven years. And they say to her: “Speak well now, we are safe.”
They freed her from the shackles, and she, in the presence of all the people, said, “I am the bride of the King, and by my mother-in-law’s wickedness my creature was put to death. Go there on the roof and take that box and see if I had a dog or a baby “.
The king sent the servants to get the box, and there were baby bones inside.
Then all the people began to shout: “On the gallows, instead of her, the Queen and the godmother!” So the two old women were hanged, and the young woman returned to the palace with her husband, and the two brothers became first men of the Court.