Once upon a time there lived a young gypsy.
He was from a wealthy family and was engaged in selling horses at fairs.
One day he went to the fair, did his job profitably and returned home. The path from the city to his home is not close to him. Night overtook the gypsy on his way.
He was just about to settle down for the night when he suddenly heard gypsy singing nearby, like voices spilling out over the night dew. He turned the gypsies towards the voices and after a while drove up to the camp. This camp stood in a large clearing near the river. There were fires burning around, and gypsies sat around the fires and sang songs. And they sang so well that you can really listen to them. The gypsy stopped nearby, hobbled the horses, but did not go close to the fires. I decided to take a closer look first.
Gypsies from someone else’s camp: what kind of people are they, what kind of tribe? And he himself is getting closer and closer. Suddenly he noticed a beautiful gypsy woman near the fire, she sang and danced so well that the gypsy’s heart sank and caught fire. This guy was single, and he decided at all costs to meet this girl who had put on so much weight to him. The gypsy promised himself to marry this beauty.
Once you have given your word, you must keep it!
While the gypsies were dancing and singing, the guy did not approach the camp, and when it became dawn and the camp scattered among the tents, the guy noticed which of the tents this beautiful gypsy went to, and went after her. He decided to persuade the girl or steal her while the gypsies were sleeping. He crept up to the tent, opened the flap and retreated back in horror.
He saw a terrible picture. In that tent the gypsies were lying side by side: some had no arms, some had no legs, some had no heads.
The gypsy's hair began to move. He realized that he had encountered a dead camp.
However, the guy’s fear gradually passed, and the gypsy began to look for the beautiful girl. He sees her lying on the ground, lifeless. The gypsy was saddened, and then decided: my dead and mine alive! I’ll steal it anyway, come what may! At least she comes alive at night, and that’s good.
The gypsy put the dead girl on his tarantass and left. The whole day he took her away from the camp, and when night came, the gypsy came to life and stood up:
-Where are you taking me? Are you crazy? After all, now my brothers will overtake you and kill you. Don't you know that it is impossible to hide from the dead? Turn your horses back quickly, otherwise you will be lost.
“I’m not afraid of your brothers, I love you, you’re mine dead and you’re mine alive!”
Before he had time to say these words, the clatter of horse hooves was heard: the brothers overtook the fugitives.
They beat the gypsy half to death, and took their sister back.
The next morning the gypsy woke up - there was no girl. The guy washed himself in the river, rested a little and decided; - No, since I gave my word, I won’t go back on it. You just need to gallop away from the dead camp so that the brothers don’t catch up.
Again the gypsy found the dead camp and again, as soon as the gypsies scattered into the tents, he stole his beloved and rushed out of the camp like a whirlwind. As soon as night fell, everything repeated itself: the brothers again attacked the trail of the fugitives, again beat the gypsy half to death and took away their sister.
“No, you won’t be able to deal with me that easily,” the gypsy decided, “if I used to ride a tarantass, now try to catch up with me on horseback.”
I did it as I intended.
The third time he stole the dead gypsy, laid her across the saddle and rushed off.
And the gypsy would have escaped the chase this time if he had the same horses as his brothers, but it is only known that the dead rider has magic horses. A gypsy chooses a path in the forest, but the magic horse flies straight ahead. A gypsy swims across the river, and a magic horse gallops straight across the water. Towards morning the brothers overtook the fugitive. But this time they didn’t beat him, they only said:
- Choose your destiny, boy. If you don't agree, we'll kill you now. All the same, you won’t see our sister, because there has never been such a thing as a dead woman marrying a living one. And this is what happened to us: we stopped in a camp near a village; the men were mowing hay at that time. We let the horses go to hay at night, and then they ate all the hay. As the men saw this, some took a pitchfork, some an ax, some a scythe. And the whole village came to our camp. So they beat us every single one. They beat me and didn’t bury me. That is why our souls have no peace. You bury our bodies in the earth, drink your fill and go with God, we won’t do you any harm.
He promised the gypsies to his brothers to do as they asked, but he did not keep his word in everything: he buried the camp and performed the funeral service as it should be, but did not perform the funeral service for his dead love and did not bury him either.
The beauty came to life at night and said to him:
-What have you done? I didn’t listen to my brothers and brought trouble on me. Now there will be no peace for my soul forever. I am destined to wander the earth.
The gypsy said so and disappeared.
And the guy didn’t live even three days after that. He died of boredom.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru