Цыганская народная сказка. The Tale of the Sister that Cursed her Brothers

The Tale of the Sister that Cursed her Brothers

A Gypsy folk tale

In a Gypsy encampment there lived two brothers and their sister in a rich family. Time was creeping on and the beautiful lass fell in love with a poor Gypsy from the same camp. She married him, despite the ban of her brothers. They began living together in a beat-up tent of her husband, barely making ends meet. The brothers laughed at them:

"Aha, sister, you have found your happiness, innit?"

However, despite their poverty, the young couple lived quietly, and three years later they already had three children.
One day the two brothers decided to go on their Romany affair - horse stealing. And the poor Gypsy went up to them and said:

"Can I go with you?"

The rich brothers did not want to see him riding along with them. They felt hatred for him, but their sister persuaded her brothers.

"Okay, here we go." - they said...

The fortune hunters strayed from one farm to another, and finally they came upon a herd of horses. It was night and they could see almost nothing. Each of the Gypsies silently took a pair of horses, and they drove them towards the Gypsy camp. When it dawned, they decided to have a day's rest in the forest. The partners wandered into the depths of the woods, so that no one could find them. They built a fire and put a kettle up to boil. The brothers glanced then at their horses and realized with sorrow that they had taken the skinny nags. But the poor Gypsy cleaned up a couple of thoroughbred mares, so magnificent, as if their dream came true. Very upset were the rich brethren! They were up to no good.

"Listen, bro, why is it that some poor guy got a piece of happiness?" - one brother asked the other on the sly. - "We have got almost nothing, but he stole the excellent trotters! For each horse, we can barter a dozen! Let's finish him off, bro?"

The brothers decided to act that way. They attacked the poor Gypsy treacherously and stabbed him, when he was asleep. They took his horses and turned back to their camp. The sister met them near their tent and asked:

"Where is my husband?"

"Look, sister, so it happened that he was riding behind us. When we caught the horses, the villagers found us and gave a chase. We rushed away in different directions. My brother and I ran to one side, but your husband turned to another." - said the younger brother.

"Why didn't you wait for him?" - asked the woman.

"No, all day long we were waiting for him in the forest. But we couldn't know where he was riding; whether he captured the horses or he had them taken away. We don't even know if he is alive or not!" - replied the elder brother.

Since then the unhappy woman was waiting for her husband, but he had not returned home. Her brothers already traded their horses for luxury goods and were feasting all day long. But the three children of their sister, one smaller than the other, were sitting hungry at home. Their old tent was worn out, their cart was crooked, and they had no horses unlike other Romanies.

Autumn came then, and it was time when the whole Gypsy encampment had to move to the southern region. The two brothers came to their sister and said:

"The caravan is going out in the morning. Pack your bags, you will go with us!"

"No, - said the sister - I'm not going to follow you wherever you may be. I will be waiting for my husband so long as he comes back."

"Well, look, it's none of our business!" - replied her brothers.

While it was dawning, the Gypsy camp got up and pulled away. The Gypsy woman and her children were left alone, waiting for their husband and father in the abandoned camp. They were waiting for more than a week, asking passers-by about their "angel of light" - nobody had heard of him. Then the woman put her belongings on the cart and seated her kids in it. She harnessed herself between two shafts in place of a horse and went on her way. They walked from one village to another, asking local people about their husband and father.

"Good woman, tell me, haven't you seen such a Gypsy here?" - asked the Gypsy woman in the next village. - "Maybe there was a rumour that someone has stolen something?"

"No, dear, I have heard nothing. And who are you looking for?" - asked her the good woman.

"I am looking for my husband. As he was gone, I have not heard anything about him."

Thus the Gypsy woman went her way, dragging the cart with her kids and their meagre belongings. Having come to a village, she stopped near the church and asked for handouts; then she fed her children and trudged on.

One day the poor woman came to the place, where her brothers killed her husband. She set their tent and was ready to spend the night there. The woman put her children to bed and sat by the fire, pondering about her life. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice:

"Honey, my dear wife!"

The woman jumped up and froze in surprise - there was her husband standing in front of her! She threw herself into his arms, rejoicing and suffering at the same time:
"Where have you been, my dear? So long I have been waiting for you!" - she said.

Until the break of dawn they sat about the campfire, looking at each other and at their beloved children. And when the sun rays illuminated the tops of the trees, the man stood up and said:

"My wife, my love; I will tell you a terrible secret. I cannot be with you during a day, and you should not be looking for me in vain! Only at night, I can see you."

"What does it mean?" - screamed the woman in fright.

"You just do not scare our children - I am dead! Your brothers had murdered me on this very spot, because of the stolen horses. They were jealous of me because I took the best mares. They killed me because they were greedy. They stabbed me and left here without a funeral service, without burial! Honey, please, do as I say. I will come here every night during a week. You should wait for me and we can be together six more nights. Then you should properly perform all the rituals, according to the church canon - only in this case my heart would calm down! And then my body should be interred in the ground."

He just finished the last word, the roosters crowed and the Gypsy disappeared. The woman mourned for a while, but it was impossible to change anything. She did everything as her husband told her. She buried her husband on the edge of the forest, without telling her children about their father. Then she decided to return to her native Gypsy encampment...

When they came to the camp, she saw her brothers:

"Hey, sister, how are you? Well, have you found your husband?" - they asked her.

"Where could I find him? - replied the woman.
"It's no wonder; he probably captured the richest horses and ran away, looking for a better life. He left us in the lurch; he gave us peasants to the slaughter!" - said the elder brother.

"God damn you, brothers, for your words and for what you have done with my husband!" - shouted the woman. - "You stabbed him because of your greed and envy! It was you, who robbed the last piece of bread from my children! Woe betide you!"

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The Tale of the Sister that Cursed her Brothers