The Hedgehog, the Merchant, the King, and the Poor Man

There was once a merchant, a king, and also a poor man. One day the merchant went out to hunt, and he traveled and journeyed until, oh! my lord's son, he found himself in such a thick forest that he could see neither sky nor earth; he just groped around like a blind man. Here, upon my soul! Whether the merchant tried to free himself by turning to the left or the right, he only went into a thicker place. When he had been there five days, in hunger and thirst, stumbling about in the great wild wood without liberation, the merchant called out: "Oh, my God, if anyone would take me out of this great wild thicket to the right road, I would give him the best of my three daughters, and as a wedding gift three sacks of coin."

"I'll lead thee out right away," said someone before him. The merchant looked to the right, to the left, but not a soul did he see. "Don't look around," said the certain one again, "look under thy feet." The merchant then looked in front and saw that near his feet was a little hedgehog, and to him he directed then his word and speech. "Well, if thou wilt lead me out, I will give thee my best daughter and three sacks of coin; the first will be gold, the second silver, and the third copper." The hedgehog went on ahead, the merchant walked after. Soon they came out of the great wild wood. Then the hedgehog went back, and the merchant turned his wagon-tongue homeward.

Now the king went to hunt, and went in the same way as the merchant; and he too was lost in the great wild wood. The king went to the right and the left, tried in every way to free himself; all he gained was that he came to a thicker and a darker place. He too stumbled around five days in the thick wood, without food or drink. On the sixth morning the king cried out: "Oh, my God! If anyone would free me from this dense wood, even if a worm, I would give him the most beautiful of my daughters, and as a wedding gift three coaches full of coin."

"I'll lead thee out right away," said someone near him. The king looked to the right, to the left, but saw not a soul. "Why stare around? Look at thy feet; here I am." The king then looked at his feet and saw a little hedgehog stretched out, and said to him: "Well, hedgehog, if thou wilt lead me forth, I'll give thee the fairest of my daughters and three coaches full of coin--the first gold, the second silver, the third copper." The hedgehog went ahead, the king followed, and in this way they soon came out of the great wild wood. The hedgehog went back to his own place; the king reached home in safety.

Very well, a poor man went out for dry branches. He went like the merchant and king, and he got astray, so that he wandered dry and hungry for five days in the great wild wood; and whether he turned to the right or the left he gained only this, that he went deeper into the denseness. "My God," cried the poor man at last, "send me a liberator! If he would lead me out of this place, as I have neither gold nor silver, I would take him as a son, and care for him as my own child."

"Well, my lord father, I'll lead thee out; only follow." "Where art thou, dear son?" "Here, under thy feet; only look this way, my lord father." The poor man looked near his feet, and saw a little hedgehog stretched out. "Well, my dear son, lead me out and I'll keep my promise." The hedgehog went ahead, the poor man followed, and soon they came out of the great wild wood. The hedgehog then went back to his own place, and the poor man strolled home.

Well, things remained thus till once after bedtime there was a knocking at the poor man's door. "My lord father, rise up, open the door." The poor man, who was lying on the stove, heard only that someone was knocking at the door. "My lord father, rise up, open the door." The poor man heard, and heard that someone was knocking and as he thought calling out: "My lord father, rise up, open the door;" but in his world life he had never had a son. The third time he heard clearly, "My lord father, rise up, open the door." The poor man did not take this as a joke. He rose up and opened the door. My lord's son, who came in to him? No one else than the little hedgehog.

"God give a good evening to my lord father and to my mother as well," said the hedgehog. "God receive thee, my dear son. Hast thou come then?" "I have indeed, as thou seest, my lord father; but I am very tired, therefore wake up my mother and let her make a bed for me in my chamber." What was the poor man to do? He woke up his wife; she made a towering bed, and the hedgehog lay in it. In the morning the poor man and his wife sat down to breakfast. They did not wish to forget their adopted son, but gave him food on a wooden plate under a bench by the fire. The hedgehog did not touch it. "Well, my son," asked the poor man, "why not eat?" "I do not eat, my lord father, because it is not proper to treat an adopted son like some orphan or another; therefore it beseems me not to eat all alone from a wooden plate under a bench at the fire. Seat me nicely at the table by thy side, put a tin plate before me, and place my food on it."

What was the poor man to do? He seated the Hedgehog at his side, put a tin plate before him, and measured out food on it; then the Hedgehog ate with his father and mother. When they had finished breakfast the Hedgehog spoke thuswise: "Well, my lord father, hast thou a couple of thalers?" "I have." "I suppose thou art keeping them to buy salt and wood with?" "Yes, my son." "I speak not of that, I am speaking of this: lend me the money; I will return it a thousand-fold. Set not thy mind much on salt and wood now; but go, my lord father, to the market. In such and such a place an old woman has a black cock for sale; buy him of her. If she asks a small price, give her double; for that will be my steed. When thou hast bought the cock for two prices, in such and such a place is a saddler; go to him. In a corner of his shop is a cast-away, thrown-away, ragged, torn saddle; buy that for me, but give him two prices also.

If he asks little, give him double." The poor man put on his coat, put the two thalers in his pocket, went to the market, bought the black cock and the cast-away, thrown-away saddle for two prices; each one for two small bits of money.

The Hedgehog then saddled the black cock with the cast-away, thrown-away saddle, sat upon him, and went to the court of the rich merchant whom he had led out of the great wild wood; he knocked at the door and called: "Hei, father-in-law, open the gate, let me in!" The rich merchant opened the gate in great wonder. Who was coming? No one other than our Hedgehog, riding on a black cock.

"Hear me, rich merchant," began the Hedgehog; "knowest thou thy promise? When I led thee out of the great wild wood, dost remember thy promise to give me the best of thy three daughters and three sacks of coin? Now I have come for the maid and the money." What could the rich merchant do? He called his three daughters into the white chamber, and turned to the Hedgehog, saying: "Well, choose among the three the one who pleases thy eye, thy mouth, and thy heart." The Hedgehog chose the second daughter, for she was the most beautiful of the three. The merchant then measured out three sacks of coin--in the first, as he had said, there was gold, in the second silver, in the third copper; then he put his daughter and the three sacks of coin in a coach, to which four horses were attached, and he sent on her way his most beautiful daughter, with the Hedgehog.

They traveled and journeyed till the Hedgehog, who was riding at the side of the coach on his black cock, came up, looked in through the window, and saw that the bride was in tears.

"Why dost thou cry, why dost thou weep, my heart's beautiful love?" asked the Hedgehog of the maiden. "Why should I not cry, why should I not weep, when God has punished me with such a nasty thing as thee?--for I know not whether thou art a man or a beast." "If this is thy only trouble, my heart's beautiful love, we can easily cure it; I'll keep the three sacks of coin for myself, and thee I'll send back to thy father, for I see that of me thou art not worthy." Thus was it settled; the Hedgehog kept the three sacks of coin, but the merchant's daughter he sent back to her father. The Hedgehog then took the coin to the poor man, who became so rich that I think another could not be found like him in seven villages.

Now the Hedgehog plucked up courage, saddled his black cock, sat on him, and rode away to the king, stood before him, and spoke in this fashion: "Dost thou remember, king, that when I brought thee out of the great wild wood, thou didst promise that if I would show the right road thou wouldst give me the most beautiful of thy three daughters and fill for me three coaches, the first with gold, the second with silver, and the third with copper coin? I am here so that thou mayest keep thy word." The king called his three daughters to the white chamber and said: "I made a promise, and this is it: to give one of my three daughters to this Hedgehog as wife; I promised because the Hedgehog led me out of a great wild wood, in which I wandered for five days without food or drink, and he saved me from certain death. Therefore say, my dear daughters, which of you will agree to marry the Hedgehog."

The eldest daughter turned away, the second turned away also; but the youngest and fairest spoke thus: "If thou, my father the king, hast made such a promise, I will marry him. Let the will of God be done if he has appointed such a husband for me." "Thou art my dearest and best daughter," said the king; and he kissed her again and again. Then the king measured out three coaches of coin, seated the princess in a chariot of gold and glass and started her on her journey, amid bitter tear-shedding, with the Hedgehog, who rode at the side of the chariot on his black cock. They traveled and journeyed across forty-nine kingdoms till the Hedgehog rode up to the chariot, opened the window, looked in, and saw that the princess was not weeping, but was in the best cheerful humor.

"Oh, my heart's beautiful love," said the princess, "why art thou riding on that black cock? Better come here and sit at my side on the velvet cushion." "Thou art not afraid of me?" "I am not afraid." "Thou art not disgusted with me?" "No; if God has given thee to me, then thou shouldst be mine." "Thou art my only and most beloved wife!" said the Hedgehog; and with that he shook himself, and straightway turned into such a pearl-given, charming, twenty-four-years-old king's son that tongue could not tell--golden-haired, golden-mouthed, golden-toothed. And the black cock shook himself three times, and became such a golden-haired magic steed that his equal would have to be sought for; the cast-away, thrown-away saddle became golden, everything on it was gold to the last buckle.

The king's son then picked out the most beautiful place in the kingdom; standing in the middle of this he thought once, and suddenly that instant there stood before him a copper-roofed marble palace, turning on a cock's foot, and in it every kind of the most varied and beautiful golden furniture--everything and everything was of gold, beginning with the mirror-frame and ending with the cooking-spoon. The king's son conducted the beautiful golden bird--the fair princess--into the pearl-given palace, where, like birds in a nest, they lived in quiet harmony. When the merchant's three daughters and the two elder princesses heard of the happiness of the youngest princess--how well she had married--in their sorrow one of them jumped into a well, another drowned herself in a hemp-pond, and a third was drawn dead out of the river Tisza [Theiss].

In this way four of the maidens came to an evil end; but the second daughter of the merchant gritted her teeth venomously at the princess, and made a firm and merciless resolve that she would imbitter her life's happiness. She went therefore to the palace, and found service in the guise of an old woman. She, the devil-given, came at a critical time; for the Burkus king[8] had declared war against the king's son, and the princess, while her husband was in the field, was left to the care of the merchant's daughter, disguised as an old woman. Milk might as well be confided to a cat as the princess to that cockroach of the underground kingdom. While the king's son was gone, the Lord gave the princess two beautiful children.

The old woman packed them into a basket, put them under a tree in the woods, then ran back to the princess, who, recovering from a faint into which she had fallen, asked the old woman to give her the children so that she might embrace and kiss them.

[8] The Prussian king,--King of Prussia.

"High queen," answered the old woman, "what is the use in delay or denial? They were two untimely, hairy monsters, and to save thee from terror at sight of them, I threw both into the river." The two children slept quietly under the tree till a white deer burst with great noise through the thicket, went straight as if sent, and taking the basket hung it on his antlers; then the white deer disappeared in the forest, went on till he came to the bank of a stream, where he called three times. The Forest Maiden appeared as if by magic, took the basket with great delight, and ran panting into her own palace. The two children were seven years with the Forest Maiden, who reared them as carefully as if they had been her own.