FAIRY TALES (text) - 77. THE BALD MAN AND THE LITTLE BROTHER OF PASHA

THE BALD MAN AND THE LITTLE BROTHER OF PASHA

There was once a woman who had two sons. The eldest son had migrated to a distant place and there he had become a pasha. The little brother grew up and all his friends said “lucky you that have a brother who is a pasha”, but the boy said he had no brother. Then the boy went home and asked his mother, she was forced to say that he had a brother and he was in a certain place. The boy said he would go to see him and she said to him: – Go son, but if you meet with a bald man on the road come back home again.

The boy went and three days after he met a bald man so he returned home. Then later he went back and six days after it happened the same to him, but this time he did not return.

The bald man asked the boy where he was going to and he said he had a brother who was a pasha and he was going to meet him. Then he became a friend with the bald man and they continued the road together. But the bald man did tricks to the boy till they went to a well and he convinced the boy to go down the well to take some water while he would carry the rope.

When the boy wanted the bald man to pull him he said he would do that only if they exchanged with each-other so that the bald would become the pasha’s brother.

Full of fear the boy did what the bald man said and the man was honored like he was the pasha’s brother.

After spending some time, the bald man who fakes as the pasha’s younger brother, pretended to be sick and when Pasha asked him about what he had, he said he wanted a cabbage from those that harpy keeps. Pasha told him that nobody could do that but the bald man said: -Tell the boy who was with me to go, if he doesn’t do a thing then cut off his head.

Pasha who did not know he was his little brother, told him what the bald man had asked.

The boy cried day and night because he did not know what to do, and one night he had a dream where an old man appeared and said:

“Do not cry son, but take away forty pounds of honey and forty pounds of milk and go to that place at midday when the harpy won’t be there.” The boy asked Pasha these things and on the road he met the old man in the dream and he said: – When you come to that place stir the milk and honey with clay and then find a place to hide. She will love that and she will give you all you want. Go and take three cabbages and eat some then come and meet me and I will give you one of them for the sick person

He did what the old man told him to do and he succeeded. Several days after the same thing happened. He had to go again to a place where wild beasts lived. The old man in the dream helped him again and he succeeded again. He went to the palace where the Beauty lived and when she entered the room with eleven girls, she got surprised to see the boy there and asked him what he was doing there. The boy said he had come to take her. She began to laugh and began to ask all the wild beasts how did they leave him escape. They began to tell her that he had treated them better than she did. He took the Beauty with him and turned to the pasha. When he approached the house, the bald saw him with the Beauty and was afraid he would tell the truth to pasha, so he took the sword to kill him. Pasha felt pity for the boy so he gave him the water of immortality. When the boy came back to life he told the truth. The pasha ordered for the death of the bald man. The little brother married with the Beauty and they invited their mother to the great wedding they had.