Once upon a time there was a peasant in a village. One day he went to a country fair in the nearest town and took his only daughter with him. While they were riding in a cart along the road, suddenly a woman came out of the forest and silently stopped beside their horse, which stood in fear. The woman was dressed in white from top to toe. Her eyes were closed, but floods of tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Auntie, what are you crying about?" - asked her the young girl. Her father pulled her by the hand to be silent, but it was too late. The Woman in White opened her eyes - they were burning like two hot pieces of coal!
"Father, buy the best silk fabric for a white dress, - for your daughter," - that was all that said the woman and then she disappeared, as if she had not been there at all. Only a cold breeze blew over the forest, following her way and tearing leaves from the trees.
The Peasant crossed himself.
"What are you afraid of, daddy?" - laughed the daughter. - "I guess I'm to be married to a decent bloke and I will go to the wedding in a white dress, just like city girls. Sure daddy, buy me a white silk cloth, I can't go around wearing rags like these!"
Her father was silent and just brushed tears away from his eyes. He knew that it was the very Witch in White, - a harbinger of someone's impending death. He realized that he had to buy silk fabric not for a wedding dress, but for his daughter's shroud. He did not say anything to his daughter, even a word...
That market day was very long and the case in the forest did not give him a moment's peace. He kept his eyes on his daughter and was looking forward to the end of the day's trading. There was a terrible sadness in his heart! It was impossible to learn in advance, when the trouble would sneak up and how to protect himself and his daughter from it.
The evening was coming when he recollected that somewhere in the town, close to the market square, there lived an old witch doctor. Ordinary people were rather afraid of him and usually avoided his help, but the peasant came to him with his daughter, told him everything that had happened, and offered to give him a good fee.
"Don't offer me money," - said the witch doctor. - "I will help you for free, because many years ago, at the same way, I had met the Witch in White and she prophesied death for my fiancee. My honey was a beauty exactly like your daughter. I hadn't known at that time how to save ourselves, but now I know. How much do you love your daughter? Are you ready to give your life for her?"
The farmer blanched with terror, but his voice remained firm: "She is the only child of me and my wife. If she dies, we also will be dead. I am ready for everything to save her!"
"So, listen to me," - said the doctor. - "You should spend the whole night in the town, and tomorrow in the morning you should buy the most beautiful and expensive white cloth, and then you should go alone down the same road. As you get to the place, where you had met that woman, take a knife and start shredding the silk fabric to shreds. And what would happen next, who knows... Pray to God for your sins!"
So did the peasant - he carried out everything exactly as he was told. He bought a piece of the best silk fabric; then he went out of the town and stopped his horse in the middle of the road at the same place, where he had met the woman. He rose slowly in his cart and began shredding the white cloth. Soon the Witch in White came out of the forest, stopped beside him and started to reprove him:
"What are you doing, a mortal? Don't you know, why I had told you to buy silk fabric for a white dress?"
"Here you are, I see!" - replied the man bravely. - "In opposite, I know everything but it doesn't matter! We will lead my daughter to the Altar in a homespun dress. That is nothing for us, - all sorts of silk and brocade! Take them for yourself; you, White Skirt, Wicked Witch!"
With burning eyes, the Witch was looking at the white rags... Finally, she could not bear it any longer and rushed to the man, grabbed the white shreds and then disappeared. The man could not move for a long time. Then he returned to the town and found his daughter alive and healthy.
Since then no one had heard or seen the Witch in White on that road.
Next year the peasant's daughter got married and she had been at her wedding not in a white dress, but in an ordinary sarafan.
And then she lived happily for the whole life and she was heartily grateful to her father.
![The Witch in White [Славянский Владимир Владимирович]](/img/s/slawjanskij_wladimir_wladimirowich/thewitchinwhite/thewitchinwhite-1.jpg)