|| A Greek fairytale ||
Once upon a time there were two brothers. One was very rich and the other was poor. One day the poor man’s wife went to the rich man and begged him for work so that she may take home some decent bread.
He answered her: “Come twice a week and knead bread for us. “The poor woman was glad for she thought that they would give her some of the bread after the baking. So she left.
The next day she went very early in the morning to the rich man’s house to knead bread, and when she had kneaded it and ended her work, they bade her farewell and told her to be sure and come next time, without giving her so much as a cup of cold water.
She waited to see if they would send a loaf of bread, but they did not.
In two or three days they sent word for her to come and knead again, for they liked her kneading much. This time she did not wash her hands till she got home, and then to washed them in a dish. Then she gave this water to her children calling it ‘milk-soup’
This continued for a month and her children grew healthier, partly due to the broth, but mostly because they were content.
One day the rich brother passing the poor brother’s hut noticed the healthy kids and confronted his wife if she was giving food to his sister-in-law.
She said that she gave nothing but mentioned that the sister-in-law doesn’t wash her hands. So they put a stop to that too as they were spiteful people.
Now the poor woman was really sad and complained to her husband. The husband told her, “Don’t worry, dearest. I will work harder and sell more firewood so that we feed the children.”
So he set out early the next day and wandered far off. He climbed a hillock, for there were many dried out trees on top. He found one large tree and climbed it to get the top branches. “This will fetch some good money”, he thought
After some chopping, he heard a noise not far off and looked. Dragons! In the sky!
He froze on the branch. You don’t see dragons everyday! He strained his eyes. Yes, they were dragons, coming out of a castle that was on an adjoining hill. He counted them, there were forty nine of them.
The dragons didn’t seem to have noticed the man, for they flew away leaving the castle door open, for that was their custom. The poor brother was scared but curiosity got the better of him and went to the castle. It was full of treasure, gold and precious stones.
Then he filled it with as much as his back could carry, and went away at once, for he feared the dragons can come back any moment.
The dragons returned and noticed that they had been robbed and they swore to find and punish the thief. The man went straight home and told his wife the story. They bought a small house, moved into it with their children and lived happily for months.
News of their prosperity reached the rich brother. He himself was not doing too well in his business.
He reached out to his poor brother (who is no longer poor, but we will refer him like that) and begged him to share the secret of his wealth.
The poor brother, being a kind one, told him the whole story.
He took him on the path and showed him the castle from afar saying, “Be careful brother, if you count forty nine dragons, only then go inside and after you are done, swiftly leave” He then returned home.
The rich brother, waited on a tree. The dragons came out after a while. There were only forty eight but the man miscounted as forty nine. He went in and was tore into quarters by the one dragon guarding the castle.
When two days had passed away the wife of the rich man persuaded her brother-in-law to go look for him. So he went.
He got up into the tree, and when the dragons came out he counted them with great care, and they were forty-nine in all. Then he went into the castle and was shocked to find his brother’s body hanging in four quarters. But he had no time to lose! So he took him down, filled his bag with treasure and fled.
The sister-in-law was inconsolable, “You must find me a tailor to sew him together, for I cannot bury him like that in four pieces.” The poor man went out at once and got a tailor, who sewed him together.
The rich brother was buried and the poor brother gave his sister-in-law half the treasure he had got.
Meanwhile, the dragons came back and saw the body was removed. “So there was an accomplice”, they thought and resolved to find him.
They went into the town in disguise and sought for a tailor to make them forty-nine coats. The tailor remarked that after sewing a dead man, this was like a piece of cake. Then they asked him, “Pray do you know the man who brought you the dead man to sew?”
So the tailor showed them the poor man’s house. The dragons planned to attack the entire household the next day night. Then they went away to a joiner’s, and ordered forty-eight chests, just big enough for them to get into.
When they were finished, the forty-eight dragons got inside, and the forty-ninth remained outside. And the dragon went to the poor man’s place, and said to him, “Kind sir, I have had forty-eight chests sent me and I want you to be so kind as to let me leave them here for the night.”
The poor man consented and got the forty eight chests into the stable with the help of his servants, as that was the only place there was. All his seven children started playing and jumping on them.
One of his servants came to him and said that the chests maybe bewitched for he heard them groaning. Then the man thought a moment, and said, “Forty-eight! and the one that brought them makes forty-nine.”
With the help of his servants, he arranged for all the chests to be thrown into the sea. This was duly done and no one ever heard of them again.
The next day, the forty ninth dragon came and the man cunningly told him that one chest was found open, “and I don’t know,” says he, “what you had inside.”
When the dragon peeped into the chest, the man swiftly flung him into the chest with a rake and blocked the opening with the same rake and had the chest thrown into the sea. He then inherited the dragon’s castle, and lived there happily with his family.
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