One evening three sisters were swimming in the lake.
So they swam, splashed and went ashore.
The two older ones got dressed, and the younger one - her name was Egle - just stretched out her hand to her shirt, suddenly someone would hiss at her!
Egle looked - it had already crawled up her sleeve.
- Go away! - the girl screamed.
“Promise that you will marry me, I’ll leave,” he said in a human voice.
Egle got angry, and the sisters laughed.
- Why not a groom for you! - They say. - Agree, sister.
And they ran home.
Egle was left alone on the shore. The sun had set and it was completely dark. Egle is scared, how can you go home without a shirt?
- Honey, give me your shirt! - she asks. And he keeps repeating himself:
- Call yourself my bride.
“Okay,” Egle shouted, “have it your way!”
- It’s already crawled out of my sleeve. And Egle grabbed her shirt and quickly went after her sisters.
The next morning Egle sat down by the window to spin yarn. He sits spinning and sings songs. I forgot to think about the snake. Suddenly he hears a rustling and hissing in the yard. The girl looked in the window and froze with fear.
The yard is full of snakes! They hiss and squirm. And the three largest, fattest ones crawled onto the threshold, through the crack under the door - they slipped into the house.
Egle - hurry out of the room and into the cage. Huddled in a corner, trembling with fear.
And the snakes say to their father and mother:
“We came as matchmakers from the king of lake waters himself.” Equip your youngest daughter. She promised to marry our master.
What to do here! Even if it’s a king, he’s still a creeping, cold bastard - how can he give up his beloved daughter for such a person! But you can’t refuse - the girl herself gave her word.
Just at that time, their old neighbor was visiting them. That old woman quietly says to her father and mother:
- Give the white goose instead of your daughter. Where to make out the snakes!
Father and mother did just that. They brought out the white goose and said to the matchmakers:
- Here is our youngest daughter. Take the bride to the groom as soon as possible.
The snakes put the white goose in a trough and took it out of the yard. As soon as we arrived at the gate, they heard a cuckoo on the fence calling:
Cuckoo, cuckoo! The girl was hidden, the goose was matched. Cuckoo!
The snakes returned to the house, hissed, whistled - give them a real bride.
Again the old woman neighbor whispers to her father and mother:
- Bring them a white sheep.
Mother and father brought a white sheep.
“I didn’t want to part with my daughter,” they say, “but what can you do!” Take her, take her to the groom.
The snakes led the white sheep. We were halfway there when suddenly the cuckoo crowed from the tree again:
Cuckoo, cuckoo! The girl was hidden, the sheep was matched. Cuckoo!
The matchmakers came crawling back.
“No,” they say, “not that bride.” And the old woman neighbor teaches everything:
- Give the snakes the white cow.
They brought a white cow, wrapped a scarlet ribbon around her neck, and gave it to the matchmakers. The snakes drove the white cow along the country road and brought it all the way to the highway. And there a cuckoo sits in the bushes, saying like a cuckoo:
-Kuk-ku, kuk-ku! The girl was hidden, the cow was matched. Cuckoo!
The matchmakers returned and said:
- We come to you with honor, and here you are! We were deceived three times! Look, the fourth time you deceive, you will not escape trouble. We will gnaw your trees in the gardens with our teeth, and destroy the crops in the fields with our tails.
Egle heard these words and went out to the matchmakers.
“I,” he says, “gave my word, and I answer.” Take me to the groom.
Matchmakers crawl along the road, Egle follows the matchmakers, grass snakes hover in the dust behind Egle - the bride is escorted to the groom. And the cuckoo flies after them, saying like a cuckoo:
This is the bride! Smart and pretty
Slender, like a Christmas tree,
Curls - like silk!
We approached the lake. The water in the lake began to foam, bubble and flow away from the shore. And a young man appeared on the coastal sand - stately, handsome, in rich clothes.
“I am your groom,” the young man said to Egle. - My name is Zhaltis. For other people I am, but for you, girl, I shed my snake skin, I revealed my name to you alone. Will you love me, beauty?
“I will love you,” said Egle, “I will be your faithful wife.” - And she followed the groom into the underwater kingdom.
Nine years have passed since then. Egle bore her husband two sons and a daughter. Egle lived well. And the children turned out to be affectionate and obedient, and her husband loved and took care of her. Only now Egle is homesick. The underwater kingdom became not pleasant to her, she wanted to look at her father and mother, exchange affectionate words with her brothers, and sing songs with her sisters at the spinning wheel. She asks her husband:
- Let me go, Zhaltis, to go home and stay, to show our children to father and mother. But Zhaltis doesn’t let go.
- Is it bad for you in the underwater kingdom? - asks her.
“No, it’s good,” Egle replies, “but that daughter is bad if she forgets her father and mother forever.”
“Well, have it your way,” says Zaltis. “I’ll let you go, but first you spin a golden tow for me.”
Egle sat down to yarn. One day spins, another spins, but the tow does not decrease, as if it is even getting larger. And the old nanny, who was nursing her youngest daughter, looked at how Egle was spinning yarn, shook her head and said:
“Even if you live to be my age, you won’t be able to hide all the tow.”
- What should we do, nanny? - asks Egle.
- And you heated the knitting needle in the fire and pierced the tow with it.
Egle took a knitting needle, heated it up and just stuck it into the tow - suddenly a large toad jumped out of the ball. This toad sat in a tow and released golden threads from its mouth. Egle spun yarn at one end, and at the other end the tow became even longer. Well, now Egle hid the whole tow in one night.
The next morning she brings yarn to her husband and says:
- What you ordered, I did. Fulfill what you promised.
“Okay,” Zaltis answered, “I don’t go back on my words.” I’ll let you go to your mother and father when you take off these shoes.
Zhaltis took iron shoes from under the bench and handed them to his wife. Egle put on iron shoes. From morning to evening he walks on sharp stones, climbs rocks, and there’s even a scratch on his iron sole!
Nanny looks at her and shakes her head:
“You’re in vain, daughter, tormenting yourself.” If you live a hundred years, your shoes will be intact for a hundred years.
- Teach me what to do, nanny! - Egle asks.
“Take it to the blacksmith and tell them to throw them into the forge.” That's what Egle did. The blacksmith overheated the iron in the forge - it became brittle and fragile, like glass. In one hour Egle wore out her shoes. She comes to her husband and says:
- Will you let go now?
“I’ll let you go,” says Zaltis. - But how can you show up at your home without a hare pie? Look, people will judge you - you’re too proud, they’ll say.
Then Egle remembered. Even when she was little, and it happened that her father and mother left home somewhere, they never returned empty-handed. They will bring a pie, give all the children a piece and say the following words: “We were walking along the road, we went into a hare’s house, the hare baked us a pie, here’s a piece for you.” This has been the case throughout Lithuania since ancient times. Egle felt ashamed that she had forgotten her grandfather’s custom, and ran to bake a pie. And my husband slowly hid all the buckets and pots, leaving one sieve. How to carry water in a sieve, how to knead dough? Water will spill, flour will spill.
But even here the old nanny helped. She took some rye bread and sealed the holes. Egle kneaded the dough in the sieve - not a drop of water was spilled, not a handful of flour was spilled.
Egle baked a pie and began to say goodbye to her husband.
Her husband tells her:
- No guests for more than nine days. And watch how you go back so that no one sees you off. Stand on the shore and call me like this:
If my priceless friend is alive -
The water began to bubble,
From the abyss of spray, foam, -
The foam is white, milky!
If my darling is killed
And swims in the dark abyss -
It will boil over the wave
The foam is red and bloody.
And you, my sons, and you, daughter, give your word: what you know, don’t tell people.
The children gave their word.
Then Zhaltis turned into a snake and carried his wife and children to the shore of the lake.
What a joy it was when Egle and her children knocked on the door of their home!
Father and mother can’t stop looking at their daughter and grandchildren, brothers and sisters can’t stop talking about Egle.
Only the neighbors bypass their house and say:
— The snake has returned with its young. It’s good that she left her husband at home. There would be no harm from them!
It's a shame for the brothers. They began to persuade their sister:
- Give up your husband, stay with us forever. And if your husband comes for you, we will not give you away. Egle answers:
- It’s not the point, brothers, what you’re saying. How can a wife refuse her living husband, how can she deprive her children of their own father? And if my husband doesn’t come for me, I myself, when the time is ripe, will call him from the waters of the lake.
- How are you going to call him?
“Eh, brothers,” Egle replies, “it’s not for you to call him, it’s not for you to know about it.” You better not ask me, I still won’t tell you.
And the old neighbor woman teaches the brothers.
“You’re approaching from the wrong side,” he says. Whatever the mother doesn’t say, the little children will blurt it out.
So the brothers gathered at night into the forest to graze their horses and took their eldest son Egle with them. In the forest, the horses were released onto the green grass, a fire was built, and they began to ask the boy his father’s name and what call he responded to.
The eldest son did not tell them anything. They ask with affection - he remains silent, they torture him with beatings - only tears are shed.
“Well,” the brothers say, “this one took after his mother, maybe we’d better come to an agreement with the younger one.”
In the morning they returned home. Egle asks his son:
- Why are your eyes red, son?
“The fire was burning smoky in the forest,” her son answers, “and that’s why her eyes turned red.”
The next night the brothers again went into the forest to graze their horses and invited their youngest son Egle with them. And they didn’t get anything from him.
We returned home the next morning. Egle looked at her son and asked:
- What is this, son, and are your eyes red? Did your uncles offend you?
“No, they didn’t offend,” her son answers. “I didn’t sleep all night, guarding the horses, and my eyes turned red.”
And on the third night the brothers gathered in the forest. They caressed the little niece and lured her with them.
She was with her mother and nanny, her beloved child. No one ever laid a finger on her or said an evil word. So her uncles began to question and torture her. She fixed her eyes on the ground, said nothing, just shook her head: “I don’t know anything.” And when her uncles threatened her with a flexible rod, she trembled all over, turned white as a handkerchief, and told everything. And she said what her father’s name was, and what call he responded to - she opened it. Well, that's all the uncles need. They also threatened her not to say a word to her mother, and took her home.
And they themselves grabbed the scythes and went to the lake. They did their evil deed, wiped their braids on the grass and turned back. As soon as they began to hang the braids in the hallway, Egle heard an iron ringing, and her heart sank.
“What, brothers,” he asks, “did you get up to work so early?”
The brothers answer:
— Dense grass lies more evenly in the morning dew.
But Egle’s soul is still restless. That same day she got ready to go back to her husband. At the threshold she said goodbye to her mother and father, at the gate she hugged her sisters and brothers - she did not allow anyone to accompany her. She and the children approached the lake, stood on the shore and said, as her husband taught her:
If my priceless friend is alive -
The water began to bubble,
From the abyss of spray, foam, -
The foam is white, milky!
If my darling is killed
And swims in the dark abyss -
It will boil over the wave
Red foam, bloody...
Here the lake waters stirred and foamed. Yes, it is not white foam that sways on the waves, not white like milk, but red like blood. And from the bottom a voice was heard:
At a foggy hour,
At the hour of dawn
I was ruined by evil people.
Dear daughter,
Why are you
Did you say your father's name?
Egle began to cry and sob. Then she turned to the children and said:
“You don’t have an affectionate father, I don’t have a beloved husband.” No one will welcome us in the underwater kingdom, and we cannot live under the same roof with evil killers. Let it be as I say:
My dear sons,
You kept your word firmly -
Turn into oak and ash,
Without bending, stand proud.
You, little daughter,
Not a strong soul in trouble,
Become a timid aspen
The leaves always tremble.
I don't want to become sad,
Become a gloomy, dark spruce,
Shedding streams of amber tears,
At night, moan with a blizzard.
And as she said, so it happened: the eldest son turned into a tall oak, the youngest into an ash tree, and the daughter into a trembling aspen.
Egle herself turned into a dark spruce. Since then, spruce, oak, ash and aspen have flourished on the earth. The spruce bows its branches down like a sad widow. When the wind blows a little, the small leaves of the aspen tremble, as if from fear. And oak and ash trunks are strong and solid, like the heart of a faithful person. And why this is so, only those who heard from their grandfathers about poor Egle and her children know.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru