I am in Macedonia again to research about the life of the Roma people here, and today I would like to tell you a story I heard from my friend Aida, who heard it from her grandfather when she was a little girl.
Once there were a man and a woman who already had many children. But one day they had another one. Shortly after that someone knocked at their door late at night. It was a travelling merchant who said he had been looking for an inn but could not find one. He asked for a place to sleep. So they let him sleep in their bedroom while they themselves slept on the floor in the other room. This travelling merchant was very rich and he was afraid for the money he was carrying with him. So he decided not to sleep. He would just rest and stay awake. But this was the third night after the baby had been born. And in the third night always three fairies come to write down the destiny of the newborn baby.
The first one said: “I think it would be best to write down that the child will die after one week.”
“But why?” said the second fairy.
“Look here, the family are so poor, they already have ten children, this one is the eleventh. I think it would be better for them if they did not have to feed another hungry mouth.”
“Oh, but it would be a pity to let such a pretty boy die. Let’s write something different”, the second fairy said.
“Look”, said the third fairy. “Here is a rich man, and just three days ago his wife gave birth to a pretty girl. Let’s write down that the poor boy will meet that girl and they will get married.”
And this they did.
The merchant had been away from home for a long time and he had not known that his wife was expecting a baby. And now he heard that his daughter should be married to this poor family’s youngest son! No, he thought, I don’t want to be related to such a family of beggars. Somehow he had to change the fate the fairies had written down. So he decided to steal the baby and leave it somewhere in the woods to starve or be devoured by wild beasts. And as it was still the middle of the night, he immediately got up and did just that. Then he travelled home. When he felt his conscience nagging he thought: Oh come on, they have ten more children! In fact I did a good deed not to let them feed another hungry mouth.
The merchant went on with his life and travelled here and there to do business. After some fifteen or sixteen years he spent the night at an inn where he was served by an especially friendly waiter. The boy was very polite, immediately understood the merchants wishes and served the meal without making a single mistake or spilling anything on the tablecloth. The merchant congratulated the innkeeper on his well educated and skilful waiter and asked him, where the boy came from.
“Oh, the poor boy”, the innkeeper said. “it really is a miracle. A few years ago this boy could not speak a single word and was walking on all fours. He was found in the woods by a hunter. This hunter, you must know, had been hunting a bear, and when he finally shot it, it was a she-bear, and the boy had been in her company. It seems the boy has grown up in the woods with the bears. So the hunter took him home and taught him to walk and speak like a human being, and look what a fine picture of a young man he has become.”
The merchant realised that this must be the baby boy he had abducted so many years ago and that his plan had gone wrong and maybe after all the boy would still be destined to marry his daughter. But still he did not want to accept this, so he thought out another plan. He told the boy: “Listen, I have an urgent message for my wife, but it will be some weeks before I have the chance to go home. So could you deliver a letter for me? Of course I will pay you for your troubles.”
The boy agreed, and the merchant wrote a letter to his wife and handed it to the boy and sent him away. It was a three days’ journey, and after two days the boy was very tired and sat near the road to rest a bit. At the roadside there was an old man who was resting too, and the boy shared some of his food with the old man. Then the old man told him to sleep a little while he would watch. The boy lay down and slept, and the old man opened the letter and read it. The merchant had written to his wife: “When this boy arrives, let him spend the night at our house. But put poison in his food so he will not wake up again, and then be sure to have him buried at our village cemetery”. The old man was very angry about this letter. He threw it away and wrote another one, which said: “When this very nice, well educated and polite boy arrives, immediately marry him to our daughter. Do not wait for me, because I still have a lot of business to do and will not be home for many weeks.”
When the boy arrived at the merchant’s house he immediately fell in love with the daughter because she was very beautiful, and she fell in love with him too. And when the mother had read the letter and saw that the boy was really nice and good looking and well educated she arranged for the two young people to get married.
When the merchant arrived home after a month or so, he saw the flower garlands over the door that were still there from the wedding, as is the custom. He was very astonished and angrily questioned his wife what was the meaning of all this.
“But you yourself told me I should arrange the wedding without waiting for you!” the wife said and showed him the letter.
The merchant thought that this must be the work of the fairies, but he still did not give up. He talked to one of his servants who was herding sheep for him, and said: “Tomorrow I will send a young man to you to fetch the fattest of your sheep. But when this young man arrives, kill him immediately, I will pay you generously for this.” And the shepherd agreed.
In the evening he told his new son-in-law: “Well, I was not present at your wedding, so I want to have another celebration. In the morning please go and get the fattest sheep from my herd for the feast.”
In the morning the young man overslept, and when the merchant’s wife got up and noticed that the young couple were still asleep she did not want to disturb them. Instead she woke up her own son and sent him to get the sheep. When the merchant woke up he asked his wife: “Did our son-in-law go to fetch the sheep for the feast?”
And she answered him: “Ah, you know, I did not want to disturb the young couple so I sent our son for the sheep instead.”
The merchant quickly ran after his son and arrived at the place where the sheep were grazing just in time to prevent his servant from committing the murder. And then at last he accepted the fate the fairies had written down and he had two sheep slaughtered instead of one and there was a great feast that lasted three days and the young man and the merchant’s daughter lived happily ever after.