Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar/The Soldier and the Demons
THE SOLDIER AND THE DEMONS.
A faithful soldier, having served his master for many a long year, received his pay, and was on his way to his native land. He had to go through many kingdoms; at last he stopped in one, and came to the house of an old woman.
"How are things getting on in your country?" he asked; "is everything well?"
"Not quite, soldier," she answered. "You see, our king has a daughter, who is very beautiful—Princess Martha we call her. Well, a foreign prince came to our country, and made her an offer of marriage; but our princess refused him, and a good job too; the wretch flew into a dreadful rage, and let a number of demons loose upon her. It is already the third year that this has been going on, and the poor dear princess has not slept once all the time on account of these little demons, but cries out in despair all night long."
"Can no one do anything for her?"
"No, soldier; the king has tried everything in his power to save her from the evil spirits, and many a man has been brought to the palace to try and drive away the demons, but all in vain; no one can do anything."
"Well," said the soldier, "I will go and try my luck; perhaps I can do something for the princess, and maybe the king will give me the means for my journey home if I am successful."
So saying, he took off his cloak, cleaned his buttons, and marched off to the king.
"Good day, soldier," said the king; "what news have you brought?"
"I wish your daughter better, your Majesty. I hear that Princess Martha is very ill; perhaps I can do something for her, and get rid of the demons in some way."
"Very well, brother; if you do that you shall be handsomely rewarded."
"But I can do nothing unless your Majesty will promise to supply me with certain things that I may want."
"Say what it is you require, soldier, and I shall take care that you have it."
"Well, your Majesty, I shall first of all want a bushel of iron bullets, a bushel of nuts, a pound of candles, two packs of cards, an iron rod, and last, but not least, a figure of a man in iron, on springs. That is all I require."
"All, indeed! Quite enough too, I can tell you. However, if you really think you can save my daughter, you shall have everything you wish, and more."
Next day everything was ready, the soldier, after closing all the windows and all the doors, with the exception of one which he left open, made the sign of the cross over them; he then illuminated the princess's room with the candles; on the table he put the two packs of cards; and then filled his pockets with the iron bullets and nuts. After that he went to the open door and waited. Presently, just at midnight, a number of unclean spirits approached the palace, but were greatly disgusted to find that they could not get in. At last, one of them, on seeing the open door, changed itself into a man, and was about to walk in.
"Who goes there?" called out the soldier.
"Let me in, brother, I am only one of the court footmen."
"Then where have you been loitering about at this time of night, you rascal?"
"Wherever I may have been, I am not there now; that is certain. Give us a drink, old boy."
"Give you a drink, indeed! What do you take me for?"
"Well, at any rate, you might have the politeness to give me some of your nuts. I see you have plenty in your pockets."
"Here you are, you impudent rascal;" said the soldier, giving him an iron bullet.
The demon took it, and it is needless to say that he found great difficulty in cracking it; meanwhile the soldier cracked five and twenty nuts, and ate them.
"How awfully hard your nuts are, soldier," said the demon; "and what tremendously strong teeth you must have to be able to crack them!"
"What a poor sort of chap you must be, to be sure. Why I have lived fifty-five years with the king, and am an old man now; in fact, I was no chicken when I came; and have hardly a tooth in my head; and those that I have are as blunt as they can possibly be! You ought to have seen me when I was young. I had the most wonderful teeth then, and so beautifully white that everybody used to talk about them."
The demon coughed.
"Suppose we have a game at cards," said he, taking up a pack.
"What shall we play for?"
"Money, of course."
"Money, indeed! what money can a soldier have? You stupid. Why he never has more than three kopeks at the most to bless himself with. No, my friend, let us rather play for blows; that is what we soldiers do."
"Right you are!" And they began their game.
"Now for the blows, soldier," said the demon.
"No," answered the soldier, "wait till the knave of clubs turns up, then you can strike, otherwise it is not worth while exciting yourself."
"Agreed!" cried the demon; and they went on playing.
It was the soldier's turn to strike.
"Now then," said he, "present your forehead, and let me show you what we soldiers can do in the way of blows! You will not forget them in a hurry, I can tell you!"
The demon fell on his knees, and begged the soldier to have mercy on him, and not to strike too hard.
"Get along with your impudence!" cried the soldier.
"Oh, soldier! take as much of my money as you like, only let me off the blows,"
"What use would your money be to me? I don't want it. I played for blows, and not for your stupid money! However, if you like, I have got a younger brother; let us go to him. He may not give you such hard blows as I; but, of course, if you do not wish to go to him, I must give them to you myself."
"No! no! take me to your younger brother, by all means!"
So the soldier marched him off to the iron man. He touched the springs, and the iron man gave the unfortunate demon a blow which sent him spinning to the other side of the room. The soldier stopped him.
"Remember," he said, "you are still to receive nine blows. You have only had one. Come along."
But the demon had evidently had enough, for he jumped up and made off as best he could.
In the morning the king came and asked Princess Martha how she had passed the night.
"Very well, thank you, father dear," she answered; "no one disturbed me at all."
On the following night the demons came again to the palace, in order to torment the princess, but finding everything closed except that one door, one of them went in. But it was not our friend of the night before. This demon had also the pleasure of seeing the soldier, and conversing with him, and receiving an equally warm welcome.
Well, this went on for thirteen nights, each night bringing a different demon to the palace; and as each unfortunate little demon received the same kind of treatment from the soldier and his younger brother, they at last struck work, and would go near the palace no more.
"Well, nephews," said the head-demon, "as none of you seem to care about visiting this soldier, I shall go myself."
And with a very haughty air he entered the palace. He soon got on very friendly terms with the soldier, and after a while they both began a game at cards, in which, of course, the soldier managed to win. The soldier then took the head-demon and presented him to his younger brother. The iron man, after having his springs touched, caught the demon very affectionately in his iron hands, and held him firmly, while the soldier seized the iron rod, and began beating the unfortunate demon most unmercifully, saying,—
"This will cure you of tormenting the princess!"
At last the rod broke in halves over the demon's back.
"Oh, nephews, that soldier has very nearly beaten me to death!" exclaimed the demon, when he had at length joined his band.
"Well, uncle; at any rate you saw for yourself what an ingenious man that soldier is," said one.
"It is a fortnight since I had the pleasure of going to the palace and making his acquaintance, and my head still aches from the warm welcome I received. I only thank my stars that he did not beat me himself, but made his younger brother do it."
The demons then held a meeting, and began discussing how they could best get the soldier out of the palace. At last, after a great deal of talking and thinking, they decided to give him (the soldier) all their gold, and coax him out of the place. Off ran the demons to the soldier, who, when he saw them all coming together, was seriously alarmed, and cried out in a loud voice,—
"Run away, brothers, as fast as ever you can, some creditors are coming this way, and if they catch sight of you they will give you more soldier-blows, worse than those my little brother gave you; so if you don't want to get killed, run for your lives."
"Enough, soldier! we have only come to pay our respects, and thank you for the kind way in which you received us every night, and also to offer you as much gold as you like, on condition that you leave this palace, and promise to trouble it no more with your presence."
The soldier thought for a moment before answering them.
"No," he replied at last; "gold is of no use to me, but if you really do wish me to leave the palace, I have an idea, which won't deprive you of your gold, and which I think will prove very satisfactory."
"What is it, soldier? What is it?" cried the delighted little demons.
"Well, just get into my knapsack, every blessed one of you; it is not a very difficult task."
"Yes! yes! but what then?"
"What then?—why, after you have all got in, so that I can close it up, you can, after a time—get out again, that's all."
"Oh, all right! open your knapsack, brother, and let us jump in! Hooray!!"
And the little demons, overwhelmed with joy, turned somersaults in the air and sprang into the knapsack one after another, thinking all the while that it was such an easy and simple way of doing business.
"Lie more together, or I shall not be able to fasten the buckles."
"Shut it up now," said one little devil, "it is rather a tight fit, but what matters if we can get you away, a little squeezing won't hurt us very much, and it certainly won't harm you; so close it up, sharp!"
"That's easier said than done; but one thing is certain, if I can't fasten it up, you won't get me out of the palace in a hurry."
"Oh, shut up your mouth, as well as your knapsack! If you wouldn't talk half so much, you would be more likely to finish your—"
But the little demon could not finish his sentence, as the soldier gave the knapsack a good shake just then, and succeeded in closing it. A little yell from the inmates inside followed, but the soldier, taking no notice, with a self-satisfied smile, threw the knapsack over his shoulders, and marched off to the king.
"Would your Majesty be so good as to order thirty iron hammers, each weighing half a ton."
The king whistled; nevertheless he gave the order, and very soon the hammers were ready. The soldier took the knapsack to a blacksmith's shop, put it on the anvil, and asked the blacksmith to beat it as hard as he could with the iron hammers; this done, the soldier took up the knapsack and again went before the king.
"My task is done, your Majesty," he said; "the evil spirits will torment the princess no more."
The king was delighted.
"You are a clever fellow; go, therefore, and make merry in all the taverns in my kingdom; do whatever you please, everything will be open to you."
After making merry for a whole month, the soldier returned to the king.
"I have enjoyed myself thoroughly, your Majesty, and now I want to continue my journey homewards."
"But why not stay with me, soldier, and become one of my courtiers?"
"Your Majesty is most kind, but I should like to return to my native land; I have not been there for many a year, and wish to see some of my friends and relations again."
"Well, be off, and God bless you."
The king, as a reward for all that the soldier had done, gave him carriages, horses, and more money than he could well spend, however long he might live.
Off went our soldier to his native land, and on his way he met with an old friend of his.
"Good day, brother!" cried the soldier.
"Holloa, old boy! how are you?" asked the other.
"Just as of old, my friend; only Providence sent some luck in my way, and I am a rich man now, thank goodness; so come, let us make merry, old boy; go you and fetch some wine, while I go to your hut and make myself known to your women-folk."
"I should be delighted, old fellow, but my cattle are not housed yet, worse luck, or I should go; but as I can't, I must trouble you to fetch it yourself, the tavern is only just round the corner."
"All right; but first I want to get rid of my knapsack. Would you mind taking it to your hut, and putting it down somewhere carefully; and tell your wife on no account to open it."
His friend took the knapsack into his hut; telling his wife, and some other women who happened to be there, to take care of it but not to open it, whilst he went to house the cattle. But the women could not withstand the temptation.
"Let us open this knapsack, and see what is in it!"
They had hardly undone it, when out jumped the demons, making a tremendous noise, breaking all the windows and door, and then ran off as hard as ever they could. But on their way they met their enemy the soldier.
"Oh, you wicked ones!" he cried; "so you are loose again, are you?"
On hearing his voice, the demons were greatly alarmed, and in their endeavours to get away from their enemy, threw themselves under a mill, where they remain to this day.
Our soldier went back to the hut, scolded the women well for not having obeyed him, and after spending a jolly day with his old friend, he travelled home to his native land, where he is now living in happiness, peace, and plenty.