Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/70

In a Serbian national tale we find a similar example. The Serbs say, the tale runs, that Constantinople (Carigrad) was not built by man, but that “it was built by itself.” They say that once upon a time a certain Tsar went out hunting and, as he was riding along, his horse stepped upon the skull of a man. And the skull said: “Why do you step upon me? Dead as I am, I shall weary you.” When the Tsar heard this, he dismounted, took up the skull and carried it home. There he burned it in the fire, and when it had cooled he ground the charred bones to powder. The powder he wrapped in paper and put it in a chest. Some time afterwards, during the Tsar’s absence, his daughter, who was a maiden of marriageable age, took his keys, opened the chest and began to examine its contents. When she came to the paper package, she realised that it contained a powder, but she did not know what kind of powder it was. So she placed her finger on her tongue, moistened it, and picked up some of the powder with it to taste it, and find out what kind of powder it might be. Then she folded up the paper just as it had been before and left it in the chest. But from that moment she became pregnant. When, presently, enquiries were made to discover how she came to be in this state, it was found that this thing was due to the skull. In due course, the Tsar’s daughter gave birth to a son. When the Tsar took the infant in his arms, the child, small as he was, immediately “seized the Tsar by the beard.” Then the Tsar commanded that two dishes should be brought, one filled with red-hot coals and the other with ducats, so that he might see whether the child had acted thus from childish folly or of set purpose. “If the child is merely foolish,” said he, “he will stretch out his hands for the red-hot coals; but if not he will try to seize the ducats.” When both the red-hot coals and the ducats were brought before the child, he immediately reached for the ducats, taking no notice of the red-hot coals. Then the Tsar understood that