Prizren—his residence—he cast it into the fire, but by doing this he could not harm it. Then he placed it in a mortar, ground it to powder and deposited it in a golden casket, which he kept in his own private chamber, which the servants never entered.
A year later, just on Easter Sunday, Tsar Stjepan went to church and forgot the keys of his private chamber. His daughter, Grozdana, walking through the palace, came to his private chamber, and when she caught sight of the golden casket she half opened it, and, thinking it contained snuff, sniffed the contents. But after the lapse of half a year, Grozdana’s heart “grew big within her.” Her mother, noticing it, said to the Tsar:
“O Tsar Stjepan, sun that never setteth!
Someone has become our daughter’s lover.
Our Grozdana’s heart grows big within her.”
Tsar Stjepan refused to believe her, as nobody could approach his palace nor kiss the face of Grozdana. But the Tsaritsa did not cease to persuade him, till at last he called his daughter before him, and no sooner had he set eyes upon her than he asked who was it that was visiting the palace and kissing her face? Grozdana in tears replied:
“There is none that cometh to the palace
Saving only thou and my dear mother,
Nor has any man ever kissed my face.”
Then her father asked her whether she had fallen in love with any man, to which she replied, calling God to witness, that this was not so; and then she told him all that she had done with the powder, and if he did not believe her, let him hang her on the “dry wild olive tree.” But when this was done, the “dry wild olive tree sprouted” and put forth green leaves. When Tsar Stjepan beheld this, he repented of what he had done and buried her honourably.
