Adventures of a Young Man (Russian Folktale) – Part II

Mamariha descended on a lonely spot at the foot of a hill so that no one observed the magic powers of his horse. He heard an announcement made by the king. It said that whoever can uproot a gigantic tree behind the palace and unearth a treasure buried under it, will get any reward he wished.

Mamariha had heard that the king had a beautiful daughter. He walked up to the king and said, “Will you let me marry your daughter if I can do the feat?”

“Why not!” said the king goggling his eyes and surveying him,

“And what about half of the kingdom?” asked Mamariha.

“Granted!” growled the king. “And what about your head if you cannot perform the feat by tomorrow morning? Will it be ours?” he asked.

“Granted,” Mamariha.

He waited for the darkness to fall. Then he brought out the second pouch and ordered the goblins to come out and do the needful. By morning the tree had been uprooted and the buried treasure discovered.

“How wonderful! Can we see your pouch?” asked the king.

Mamariha had no hesitation in handing over his property to his would-be father-in-law.

“And what more do you have?” the king asked with curiosity.

Mamariha showed him the other pouch and his magic boots and spoke to him about his horse too. There was no harm, he thought, in telling his bride’s father about the wealth he possessed.

Once the king had them, he smiled and drove Mamariha out of his city.

Poor Mamariha! He felt so ejected! He walked on and on till he reached the riverbank. He felt both hungry and thirsty.

He plucked some red berries and ate them, Then he leaned towards the river for drinking water, But what is it did he see? His reflection on the glass-clear water showed that he had grown a pair of horns!

He, however, did not lose patience. He drank the water to his heart’s content and, to his joy found that the horns had disappeared.

He gathered some more berries and walked back to the city, now disguised as a forest dweller. “The most delicious
berries one can ever dream of!” he shouted in front of the palace.

The princess peeped from her window on the upper floor. Her maids came running and bought the whole lot of
berries Mamariha had.

The princess ate them and so did her maids and the queen.

“Delicious!” they exclaimed. The king, who had stepped into the queen’s apartment, threw a couple of the rare berries into his mouth.

Suddenly they saw their reflections on the large mirror in the queen’s room. They had become a horned royalty!

Oh shame! What to do? The physicians pleaded helplessness before this unheard-of disease. The fellow who had sold the berries was not to be found. Mamariha was there of course, but he had shed his disguise.

“Announce that whoever can make our horns vanish will wed the princess and get half of the kingdom!” the king told his minister.

“My lord, who will believe you? You had promised the same prizes to Mamariha the young man who uprooted the
tree,” said the minister.

The king became the very image of repentance. Meanwhile an official of his located Mamariha and told him about
the plight of the royal family.

Mamariha had meanwhile fetched a jarful of water from the river. He proceeded to the palace, poured a little of it into a cup and recited some prayers and handed over the cup to the princess. The princess drank the water. Her horns vanished. She clapped her hands in joy and told the king, “Father, I will marry this young man and no one else.”

“So be it, but…” he remorsefully felt his own horns and looked at the horns on the queen’s head.

“My lord, my magic will not work on you unless you return to me my properties and promise to give me half of your
kingdom before a gathering of your subjects.”

The king was obliged to fulfil the conditions. Mamariha treated them all to the water and their horns vanished. He was married to the princess and was given half the kingdom.

Soon he found out the three men whose property the pouches and the boots were. Each of them had grown wealthy investing the coins he had given them. Mamariha offered them their magic items. But they said, “You outwitted the bandits and got them. They are yours!”

So, Mamariha reigned for long ‘and did many wonderful things with the help of those pouches and the boots. Once in a while, he rode his flying horse, with the princess seated behind him. His subjects came out of their houses and applauded the feat, looking upward.

Retold by Sunanda Reddy!