Two camps roamed around the world: one camp was rich, and the other was poor. And a boy from a poor camp fell in love with a girl from a rich camp. And she loved him more than life itself. So they decided to get married. The boy sent matchmakers to a rich family. Everything was done according to honor, as is customary among gypsies, and the matchmakers came to the rich man’s tent with the trees. But he didn’t let them on the threshold, but broke the trees and threw them away.
“I will find a good groom for my daughter, so that he comes from a rich family, but I don’t need grooms like yours for nothing.”
The girl was lying at her father’s feet, she kept asking him to spare her, not to separate her from her loved one, but the father did not listen, and even more furious, he grabbed a whip and whipped his daughter half to death.
“I’ll beat you until I knock all thoughts about this gypsy out of you!” - he threatened.
A girl and a guy began to meet secretly. What to do? And they decided to run away. And as they decided, so they did.
One dark night, a guy sneaked into a rich camp, stole three of the best horses, harnessed them, grabbed the bride, lashed her with a whip, and only dust flew up. They galloped off. The gypsies could not catch up with them. The father harbored a fierce grudge. I didn’t want to hear my daughter’s name.
He never reconciled with his son-in-law and did not let him into his camp when they confessed.
They had to wander alone.
What is it like to wander alone, without a camp? This is a bad thing. When everyone is together, you see, it’s easier to live, you see, and someone will help, but for some, and even the poor, it’s completely bad. One day it’s thick, and the next it’s empty! By the time it was autumn, it started to get colder. A gypsy and a gypsy settled down in the village. They rented a poor peasant's house. There is not a penny of money, but you have to live on something. So the gypsy decided to drive twenty miles from home and try his luck. He left his wife at home and went on the road.
He drives and drives, thinking bitterly: “How will we continue to live? We have nothing, no money, no tent, the last horse is barely breathing, and the gypsies won’t let us in.” And suddenly he sees: horses are grazing on the lawn, and there is no one nearby. “Let me,” he thinks, “I’ll try my luck and take the horse, look, I’ll exchange it later for a profit!” There will be enough money for the winter.”
No sooner said than done. He began to sneak up on the horses, and just wanted to grab the most beautiful horse, out of nowhere, a shepherd with a gun. The shepherd fired at the gypsy and killed him on the spot.
When the gypsy found out that her husband was killed, she almost lost her life from grief. She buried him, cut off her braids and put him in the coffin, and she herself said:
- Don’t be sad, my dear, I’ll come to you soon!
Every day she went to her husband’s grave, cried and lamented. However, there is no time to dwell on grief, and one fine day she stopped going to the cemetery.
That same day the gypsy woman got ready to go to bed in her beggar’s hut. She looked out the window and saw: a shadow moving across the yard, and then steps in the entryway. The door opens and her husband appears on the threshold, as young and handsome as before.
He lit the stove and set up the samovar. They drank tea and went to bed. And the next morning she wakes up - he’s gone again! From then on, it was like this: exactly five minutes to twelve, her husband came to her, and she was already waiting for him. The samovar was boiling, the stove was burning as usual.
For some time now neighbors have noticed that the poor gypsy woman living on the outskirts of the village has begun to completely lose her countenance.
-What happened to you?
You will soon turn into a shadow! - the women said.
- Are you grieving for your husband?
You can’t be sad for so long!
“I can’t,” the gypsy woman answers, “forget my husband.” Every day I see him in front of me, and when night falls, he himself appears! We drink tea, talk, he caresses and loves me as before.
- Lord, is he really coming to see you? So he will bring you to the point where you go to the next world...
Maybe I should take you to a nun? She is a wise woman, she knows everything and will advise you on what to do.
“I don’t want anything, leave me alone.” But the neighbors did not stop and forcibly dragged the gypsy to the old woman.
And she says to her:
“No other way than your husband has turned into an evil spirit.” Don’t be sad, I will help you get rid of evil spirits. You draw crosses above the door. Evil spirits will not dare to cross the cross.
“What are you, old man,” the gypsy woman was frightened, “I can’t do this.” How can I disown my husband?
After all, if he stops coming to me, I will die of boredom.
The gypsy woman said so and left, and the neighbor secretly took a piece of coal from her and placed crosses on all the doors of the gypsy’s house.
Evening is coming. Midnight has already passed, and the gypsy is still not there. A gypsy woman is sitting, waiting for her husband. The samovar had almost boiled over, the stove had burned out. And suddenly it was as if a stone hit the window. The window shattered, and the gypsy’s face appeared, twisted in anger: sparks were flying from his eyes, his hair was sticking out on end.
- Well, you’re meeting your husband, beloved wife! Thank you, I didn’t expect it,” but he jumped out the window and entered the house. - Get ready!
The gypsy was scared. She realized that if she left with him now, she would never come back.
- Wait, my dear, my dear husband. I’ve already lit the bathhouse, let me wash myself! I'll be quick.
I'll manage in a moment.
The gypsy frowned, but did not contradict. The gypsy washed herself and began to collect her simple things and get dressed slowly. She put on a whole bunch of things, and then opened the chest where she kept her jewelry, and began trying on beads and earrings.
– Why are you messing around there? Hurry up, we have to leave already.
“Now, dear, just let me put on my mother’s beads, they are very dear to me.”
– Why did you put so many blouses on yourself?
- It’s cold outside, what a wind!
– Don’t be afraid, I’ll warm you up!
It's very warm in my house.
Whether it was long or short, they went out onto the street. And there’s a real storm outside: the wind is whistling in your ears, the trees are bending to the ground, the last leaves are flying in all directions. Black clouds covered the moon, it was so dark you could prick your eyes out.
They went out onto the road. The gypsy sees a pair of horses harnessed to a cart, so extraordinary that she has never seen them in her life: the wool is burning with fire, sparks are flying from the eyes.
They got into the cart. The gypsy whistled and the horses galloped off.
The moon appeared from behind the clouds, and then the gypsy noticed that the horses were flying through the air, not on the ground, and her husband was sitting in front and singing songs:
The moon is shining in the sky, And the dead man is rushing with the maiden!
They move on. The gypsy is absolutely breathtaking. She’s scared, but the gypsy keeps singing and singing:
The moon is shining in the sky, And the dead man is rushing with the maiden!
Finally, the gypsies stop their horses at the very gates of the cemetery. He whistled again - and the horses disappeared. A gypsy and a gypsy woman walk among the crosses and come to a dug grave. The gypsy jumps into the pit and shouts:
- Come here quickly, throw away your clothes and jump yourself!
“No other way than my death has come,” the gypsy thought, but she immediately realized and began to slowly, slowly take off her clothes one by one and give them to her husband. He will take off one scarf and hand it over, then a second one, take off one blouse, then a second one. And everything little by little, little by little...
– Why are you digging around there? - the gypsy shouts from the pit. - We need to hurry!
And then the gypsy woman’s beads flew off her neck. She tore the thread imperceptibly, and the beads scattered on the ground.
“Oh,” he shouts, “my dear husband, I can’t go to you without a mother’s gift!”
She began to collect beads: she would pick up a bead and give it to her husband. Until I collected every single bead, I didn’t calm down. And then the morning dawn began to dawn, the very edge of the forest brightened.
- Jump to me! - the gypsy shouted.
- Now, I’ll just give you the earrings...
She threw one earring into the grave, was about to take off the second, and the gypsy was already stretching out his hands to her, wanting to grab her. The gypsy pulled back, and at that moment the third rooster crowed. The gypsy gnashed his teeth, groaned, screamed wildly and fell face down into the pit. The lid of the coffin slammed shut, the earth flew onto it, and a grave mound was formed. The gypsy fell dead to the ground.
How long she lay like that, she doesn’t remember anything, and when she woke up, she saw: she had nothing on, and the earring was clenched in her fist. The gypsy looked at the grave, got scared and ran to the cemetery church. She climbed onto the bell tower and began ringing all the bells.
People came running, the priest came. They see: a naked gypsy climbed onto the bell tower and is ringing. Father shouts:
- Baptized and blessed, appear! Unbaptized and unblessed, perish!
“Father,” the gypsy woman shouts, “I’m baptized and blessed, but I can’t go out in public, I don’t have any clothes on.”
They brought clothes to the gypsy, and she went downstairs. The priest gave her communion, and she gradually told about everything.
The people marveled at such a story. The gypsy woman led the people to her husband’s grave.
They dug up the ground, looked, and there the gypsy was lying face down, and around him his wife’s clothes, all torn and wrinkled, and the beads were immediately split. The priest ordered to drive an aspen stake into the grave. That's what people did. From that time on, the gypsy did not appear again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru