The Hunter and The Swan Maiden

By the blue sea, in a certain empire, there dwelt once upon a time a king who was a bachelor, and he had a whole company of hunters, and the hunters used to go a-hunting with him and shoot the birds that flew about, and provided meat for their master's table. In this company served a youthful hunter named Ranata, a clever marksman was he, never missing his aim, wherefore the King loved him better than all his comrades.

One day he chanced to go a hunting very early, even at break of day. He went into a dense, dark forest, and there he saw a white swan sitting on a river bank. Ranata stretched his bow, took aim, fired and broke one of the swan's little wings, and the bird fell from the tree down upon the damp earth. The marksman picked it up, and was about to twist its neck and put it in his pouch, when the swan thus spoke to him:

"Alas! Young marksman! Do not twist my poor little silly neck, drive me not out of the white world. You were better to take me alive, carry me home, put me in your little window, and lo! the moment that slumber comes over me, at that very moment, I say, stroke me the wrong side down with your right hand, and great good fortune shall be yours!"

The marksman was much amazed.

"Eh, what is this?" thought him.

"My eyes tell me that this is a bird, and nothing else, yet it speaks with a human voice! Such a thing has never happened to me before."

So he took the bird home, placed it in the windowsill, and waited and waited. That was not very long before the bird laid its head beneath its wing and began to doze. Then the marksman raised his right hand and stroked it, quite lightly, the wrong side down. The swan instantly fell to the floor and became a fair maiden, and so beautiful is she that the like of it can only be told in tales, but is neither to be imagined nor guessed at.

And she spoke to the good youth who was the royal hunter, and said:

"You had wit enough to win me, have also wit enough to live with me. You are my predestined husband, and I am your pre-ordained wife."

They were immediately of one mind.

Ranata married, lived at home, and rejoiced in his young wife, yet forgot not his service either. Every morning, before break of day, he took his weapon, went into the forest, shot various kinds of wild beasts, and took them to the royal kitchen. But it was plain that his loving wife was much tormented by these hunting expeditions, and one day she said to him:

"Listen, my husband! I am fearful for you! Every blessed day you does cast yourself into the forest, does wander through fen and morass, and returned to home wet through and through, and we are living none the better for it. What sort of a trade does you call this! Look now, I have a plan where by you also shall profit from it. Get me now a hundred or two of coins, and I'll manage all the rest."

Then Ranata hastened to his comrades, and borrowed a coin from one, and two coins from another till he had collected about two hundred coins. These then he brought to his wife.

"Now," said she, "buy me various kinds of silk with all this money!"

The hunter went and bought various kinds of silk with the two hundred rubles. She took them and said:

"Be not sorrowful! Pray to God and you lay down to sleep, for the morning is wiser than the evening!"

So the husband fell asleep, and the wife went out upon the balcony, opened her book of spells, and immediately two invisible youths appeared before her and said:

"What are you wished to command?"

"Take this silk, and in a single hour weave me a carpet more wondrous than anything to be found in the wide world, and let the whole kingdom be embroidered on this carpet, with all its cities and villages and rivers and lakes."

Then they set to work and wove the carpet, and it was wondrous to behold, wondrous above everything. In the morning the wife handed the carpet to her husband.

"There," said she, "take it to the market place and sell it to the merchants, but look now! haggle not about the price, but take whatever they offer thee for it."

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[Author's Note]

Anyone of you is from Russia? I make this story inspired by the folk tale I read in the past. Hope you enjoy this short ride.