Child being placed in coffin

Once upon a time there were two homeless people who wandered around during the day and found a place to stay at night.

One night, they came to a village. They wanted to find a place to spend the night, but no family in the village was willing to take them in. No matter which door they knocked on, they were rejected.

Finally, they found a poor family who had more children than there were months in a year. At this time, the owner's wife was about to give birth again.

The poor man said to the homeless man: "I would be happy to let you spend the night at home, but I just can't find a place for you to lie down. We have too many children at home."

"It doesn't matter," the two homeless men replied, "just spread some wheat straw on the ground and sleep for one night."

"Okay," the poor man said, "if you are willing to sleep on the ground But there is another problem. My wife is about to give birth. What should you do? "

"The problem can be solved as long as we find a way."

Talk. After it was done, the poor man came in with some wheat straw and spread it on the ground so that they could sleep. The owner was so poor that he didn't even have sheets to lay on the straw. Two tramps asked their host for some bread.

The poor man told them that he had not seen bread for twenty years and lived only on corn cakes.

So the two tramps had no choice but to lie down hungry.

Suddenly, the poor man’s wife groaned in pain.

"Oh," she cried, "it hurts me so much!"

Hearing the moan, the poor man was startled. He thought, if his wife gave birth to a baby now, where would the two homeless people live? Besides, there was no midwife.

At this time, one homeless man said to another:

"Go outside and see the sky."

The homeless man came back soon after going out and said : "The clouds are very thick."

"Well," his companion replied, "that means it is still very early for the child to be born."

However, the woman's moans The sound got louder and louder.

The woman hummed loudly, and the first tramp said to his companion:

"Go out again and see the sky."

After the tramp went out He came back and said: "The clouds are beginning to part."

"It's still early for the baby to be born," his companion replied.

However, the woman's moans became louder. She moaned so loudly that the first tramp said to the other: "Go out again and see how the weather is."

His companion came back after going out and said: "The weather is fine and cloudless. ."

"Then it's time for the baby to be born," said the older tramp.

Sure enough, in less than a minute, the woman gave birth to a beautiful little baby boy.

At the same moment, a baby was also born in the neighbor's house. That family was a rich man, very rich, and the housewife gave birth to a little baby girl. It was the rich man of this family who refused to let the homeless man stay overnight.

At dawn, the two tramps got up and hit the road. The older one deliberately dropped a ring in the straw. In fact, he wanted to test the poor man's character.

The poor man found the ring when he was cleaning up the house and taking away the wheat straw from the ground.

"Hey," he said, "these two tramps left the ring here. It's in the wheat straw." He said to his wife, "I'm going to give it back to them!" But which way should I go? I don't even know which direction they are going." Still, the poor man ran out to look for them. Far away from the village, he saw the figures of two tramps and followed them, calling to them and waving his hat, but they didn't hear them.

One of the homeless men finally heard his cry and said to his companions:

“Listen, the poor man is chasing us in a hurry, and he is still shaking. Wear your hat. Will something happen?"

"Let's wait for him," said the other, "and see what happens."

Poor man. When he caught up with them, he said breathlessly:

"Which of you left your ring? I came here as a gift."

"Thank you so much," said the older man said, "We have to repay you."

"In this case, I have a request," the poor man replied, "Can you please come back with me, because I am too poor and can't find Let me baptize my newborn child."

"We would be happy to go back with you."

So they went back together. The family was so poor that they didn't even have tattered swaddling clothes to wrap the baby, so the two tramps had no choice but to take the naked baby to be baptized.

At the same time, the rich man’s daughter was also held and baptized. The godmothers--you know, rich people don't worry about finding godmothers for their children--pressed that the rich man's daughter should be baptized before the poor man's son. Seeing this scene, one of the tramps said:

"It can't be like this, good people! Those who wear hats go first, and those who wear turbans last."

So, the poor man's The son was baptized before the rich man's daughter.

When they returned home after the baptism, the godmothers told the rich man everything that had happened. They said that two tramps carried the poor man's son to the baptism, but they did not let the rich man's daughter be baptized first.

One tramp also said that the one wearing the hat comes first, then the one wearing the turban.

After hearing this, the rich man cursed and cursed again and again. He said over and over again that the poor man didn’t even have enough corn cakes to eat. Look what he would entertain the child’s godfather!

Although the poor woman had just given birth the night before, she felt no pain at all. After chatting for a while, a homeless man asked her:

"Do you have some white flour to bake some cakes for us?"

"Oh," the poor woman replied, "I am already two I haven’t seen any trace of white flour in ten years!”

“Look into that wooden barrel,” the tramp said. “There is always a little bit of flour stuck to the edge of the barrel. Maybe you can pull it out. ”

The poor woman went out and scraped a little flour from the side of the barrel, which was so little that it could not even fill the thimble circle.

"Okay," the tramp said to her, "Pour the flour into the wooden basin."

"This little flour is not enough to stick to the bottom of the basin!" Poor woman explain.

"It doesn't matter, just pour the flour into the basin!"

The poor woman put the flour in the wooden basin and poured some water on it.

"Just knead the dough!" the tramp said to her.

The poor woman tried her best to do as she was told. However, there is nothing to knead in the basin. She simply kneaded all the flour into a ball, only a small amount, as big as a corn kernel.

At this time, another homeless man asked the poor man to go to the attic and have a look. Maybe he could find a little bit of meat left.

"Alas," the poor man sighed, "even the rope used to hang the bacon has been gnawed away by rats."

"Do as I say," The homeless man encouraged him and said, "Go and take a closer look."

The poor man went up to the attic. As soon as he stepped onto the attic, his head hit a fan of pork. He looked around and saw, ah, so much meat, there were several fans of bacon, ribs, sausages and all kinds of meat, stuffed to the brim. He couldn't help shouting down from the attic.

"Which piece of meat should I take?" he asked.

"Just take the piece you hit first!" is the answer below.

So, he carried the entire fan of meat down.

The tramp said to the poor woman, don’t touch the dough yet. He asked her to light the fire first and make it bright. Then the poor woman kept the fire burning brightly, as people do when baking bread.

"Okay," said the tramp, "cut the dough into six parts and put them in the oven to bake!"

"Where to put them?" Poor woman asked inexplicably. "Bake so much dough in such a strong fire and it won't turn into charcoal! There won't even be ashes left."

"Just leave it alone," the tramp comforted her, " Just cut the dough into six pieces and throw them into the oven."

The poor woman broke the dough into six pieces, each piece was only as big as a grain of wheat.

She put them all into the furnace and stacked them up. She thought: This is the last time we will see bread baked. I wonder if we can bake bread.

After a while, the tramp asked the poor woman to go over and see if the bread in the stove could be baked. The poor woman looked into the stove and was stunned by the sight: six small doughs turned into six large loaves, each weighing a bushel.

The tramp asked the poor man again if there was still some wine at home.

"Alas," the poor man replied, "we have been filling cornmeal in wine barrels for God knows how long. Now, the wine barrels are rotten and cannot even contain cornmeal."

"Go on, go to the cellar and have a look!" the tramp urged him.

The poor man walked into the cellar. Ah, the barrel is full of wine. Good red wine. He brought up two full cans of wine.

"Hey," said the poor man, "there is a barrel full of wine in the cellar."

"Look, isn't this it!" said the tramp, "just now you He insisted that there was no meat and no wine!"

They put a piece of pork into a big pot and cooked it. The vegetable rice was cooked quickly. They sat down to have dinner.

At this time, the rich man's family was also holding a dinner party, and the invited relatives and friends ate, drank, and had fun. Suddenly, the rich man said to his child's godfather:

"I wonder what the beggar entertained his child's godfather."

The group of women gathered at the rich man's house, together with other Like women, they are all curious by nature, so they go to the poor man's house to find out the truth. Just as they were peeking into the house, one of the homeless men noticed someone under the window, so he took out two plump ribs from the pot and threw them out of the window, saying, "That's for the dogs!"

The women picked up all the ribs and left not a single piece for the dog.

"Hey, this family's baptismal banquet is so rich! It's much better than ours."

The tramp threw another large piece of snow-white bread out of the window. The women picked up the white bread again and pocketed it in their aprons. Tramps would throw meat and bread out of the window from time to time. After a while, all the women had an apron full of food in their pockets.

They returned to the rich man’s house, and the rich man asked them in surprise: ① Calculate the capacity unit of grains, etc., one bushel is approximately equal to 35 to 36 kilograms - Translation Annotation

“Hey, ladies "How is it there?"

"A real baptismal banquet is being held there, which is very different from the one here." They replied. "Look, they threw so many pieces of meat out of the window, and they said it was for the dogs! We all picked them up, and it was us, not the dogs, who wanted to eat them. The wine they drank was so red. Like blood.”

The baptismal feast of the poor man’s family continues. This group of women tiptoed to the door of the poor man's house again. One tramp whispered into another's ear, but the voice was loud enough for the women to hear clearly: "Hey, just wait and see, this child will definitely marry the rich man's daughter in the future. !”

Of course those women went back and told the rich man exactly what he said.

"What, marry my daughter?" the rich man shouted angrily. "That beggar boy? I want to kill him first!"

The next day, the two tramps said goodbye to the poor man's family and continued on the road. It didn’t take long for the poor man’s family to eat and drink all the meat and wine. The family could only survive on corn tortillas.

Since then, the rich man has been thinking about how to trick the poor man's child into killing him.

So, one day, he went to the poor man’s house and said to the poor man:

“Give me your little son, you can’t afford to raise him anyway. Maybe I will marry my daughter to him in the future. I will take good care of him. I will exchange it for him with two bushels of corn." In order to prevent the child from starving, the poor man agreed without thinking. The rich man gave two bushels of corn in exchange for his younger son.

The first thing the rich man did when he got home was to nail a small coffin. He put the poor man's son in a coffin, then put the coffin into the river and let the water wash it away.

The river washed away the small coffin, farther and farther, until it reached the wall of a mill by the river.

At this time, the miller who was fishing by the river discovered the small coffin. "It must have rained heavily somewhere upstream," the miller said to himself. "The water washed away the small coffin in the house."

The miller carefully lifted the small coffin from the water to the shore. , carry it home. He said to his wife: "Look, mother, this is a small coffin floating on the water! I don't know what's inside. Maybe it's a child."

The miller opened the lid of the coffin, and inside Sure enough, there was a beautiful little boy lying dying.

"Oh, how lucky we are, the God of destiny has sent us a son!" said the miller. "We have no children, and we are all old, and there is no hope of having more children."< /p>

They untied the rags, wrapped the child in clean swaddling clothes, and fed him food. From then on, they fed the child as carefully as they would their own son. The miller and his wife were both old and loved their children even more.

The child gradually grew into a handsome young man. The rich man's daughter also grew up to be a girl to be married. Soon many suitors came, and the girl agreed to marry the first suitor. As a result, the rich man's family was busy arranging marriage arrangements.

The rich man hitched a cart pulled by four oxen and took a cart full of wheat to the mill to grind it into flour for the wedding banquet.

When he came to the mill, he found a handsome young man there. The young man was grinding flour, and the old miller was just walking up and down. The rich man immediately thought, could this boy be the boy he put in the coffin and threw into the river? He observed carefully for a while and was sure that the young man was the child from back then.

"Although my daughter is engaged now, she is still in danger of being married away by him." The rich man said secretly in his heart.

So he said to the miller:

"I forgot something. Please send this young man to deliver a letter to my wife."

The old man The miller replied:

"I would be happy to let him go, but there is a lot of work here, and I can't handle it without him."

"He will be back soon, "The rich man reassured him.

After repeated pleas, the old miller finally agreed to let the young man go.

The young man took the rich man's letter and set out on the road. He had to pass a meadow.

There are many bushes growing in that meadow. As he was passing there, a gray-haired old man's voice came from behind a bush: "My child, where are you going in such a hurry?"

"I want to go to the village," the young man replied, "to deliver a letter to the rich man's wife."

"Bring me the letter!" the old man said to him.

"You are not allowed to open the letter," the young man protested.

"Come on, let me see it!"

The old man insisted on reading the letter, but the young man couldn't resist, so he had to hand the letter to him. The old man opened the letter, and this is what he wrote inside:

"My beloved wife, if you have always obeyed me, then you should obey my instructions twice as much this time! Be sure to poison enough to kill one Human poison was mixed into wine and given to the boy who brought the message, because he must die.

"

The old man thought for a while, and immediately wrote another letter, put it in an envelope, and sealed the envelope as it was.

"Well, kid," the old man said, "this It's your letter. Take it to the lady! "

The young man brought the letter to the rich man's wife. She opened the letter and read it. The letter read like this:

"My dear wife, if you always obey me, then , you should obey my instructions twice as much this time! After reading the letter, he immediately betrothed his daughter to the young man who sent the letter! Be sure to follow the instructions without making any mistakes! ”

After reading the letter, the rich man’s wife immediately went to the village office and asked a notary to certify the marriage of the two young men.

It turned out that the old man standing behind the bushes was none other than the man who had been married back then. The homeless man happened to spend the night there when the boy was born, and he wrote this letter.

The rich man put the ground flour into his pocket and transported it to his home in an ox cart. When he entered the yard, he saw two young men standing on the porch, hugging each other tightly as young people often do. Seeing this, the rich man cracked his whip in anger.

"Old woman. ," he asked angrily. "Is this what I wrote to you? "

"Here is the letter," his wife replied, "read it for yourself! It's your handwritten letter. "

The rich man looked at the letter, and it was indeed his handwriting.

"Well, it doesn't matter," he said, "Even so, he can't marry my daughter. I have to find a way to get rid of him. "

He turned to the poor young man and said:

"It is useless for you to hold a wedding ceremony with my daughter, she will not become your wife. You can only truly marry my daughter after you get three flowers from the noble King of Flowers! ”

They packed the young man’s luggage, and he set off on the road. He walked and walked, passing through 7749 countries, and kept walking until all the food in the luggage was gone. .

He finally came to a town where a king lived. The young man thought for a while and went in to see the king.

The king was covered in abscesses and couldn't move. He asked the young man: "Where are you going?" "

"I am going to the noble King of Flowers," the young man replied, "and ask him for three flowers. "

"Oh, really? "The king said. "Since you are going there, you must ask Kao why my whole body is covered with thick sores. When you return, come here and tell me why. ”

He ordered people to fill the young man’s bag with food and gave him money. The young man was on the road again. He walked and walked. After passing through seventy-seven and forty-nine countries, he continued to move forward. He walked until all the food in the bag was gone.

At this time, he came to another town. The king was a blind man. Food, so as to continue on the road, go to the palace to meet the king.

The king also asked him like the last king:

“Where are you going? "

After the young man answered him, the king said:

"Well, when you see Kao, ask him why I am blind. When you return, come here and tell me his answer. ”

The young man’s luggage was filled with food again, and he bid farewell to the king. He walked and walked, and after passing through seventy-seven and forty-nine countries, he continued to walk forward until he reached the end of his luggage.

At this time, he came to a big river. How to cross the river?

While he was at a loss, He found a woman pulling the raft back and forth on the shore, first upstream and then downstream. He shouted to the woman: "Pull me across the river!" "

"Where are you going? ”

“Go to the noble Kao. "

"Okay," the woman said, "I'll take you across the river, but you have to ask Kao why I have to pull the raft up and down here all year long. "

"Okay," the young man reassured her, "I will ask for you. ”

So the woman took the young man across the river.