Once upon a time, across the Peruvian Sea, on the hill of St. Gellert, there was a great city in the world, and in it lived a poor woman. This poor woman had nothing under God's free sky but a bad house and a lean cow. She had a half-mad son, whom the whole town called the Stupid Farmer, because he never did anything but crawl about like the soul of Orban, or sit in the front of the house, swatting at flies on the stems of his feet.
Once the poor woman went to the forest to fetch some wood, and told Farmer Gagyi to stay at home and look after the cow. But Farmer Gagyi had other ideas, there was a market in town; he got himself, drove the cow out to sell it, but they didn't even ask him what he was keeping it for.
He was just about to drive it back, when he saw a Jew with a fancy katulyah (skatulya, box - ed.); he asked the Jew to give it to him for the cow; the Jew got it; and soon the bargain was struck. Farmer Gagyi took the cow home with great joy, laughing all the way. When he came to their house, he dropped the cat, and twelve giants jumped out of it and surrounded Farmer Gagyi.
- What can I do for you, Master Fool? What can I do for you, Master Fool?
Poor Farmer Gagyi was so scared that he couldn't speak for a while. But at last he thought.
- So I command that here, in this place, instead of a shabby hovel, a palace like the king's be built.
No sooner had he said it than it was built even more beautifully than the king's.
Master Gagyi was speechless, and for a while he stared at all the beautiful things, not daring to enter the palace; but at last he put his head on it and went in. When he saw that there was no one in there, he was quite brave.
Meanwhile the neighbours surrounded the palace, not knowing what to make of it, and they were all babbling about what it was, where it had come from. Once the poor woman came home, she was also very astonished, she asked the neighbours that maybe she was not in the right place, that maybe she was lost, that her house was not here, "but I know all the Kendteks, the Kendteks are my neighbours, it must be the same".
When they were at their most puzzled, Farmer Gagyi rushed out of the house, took his mother's hand, led her up to the palace, and there told her everything. The poor woman, when she heard that there was no cow, began to scold Farmer Gagyi:
- Oh, you fool, you fool, I always said you didn't have sense enough to give a cow for that raggedy cat! How can we live now, how can we earn our daily bread?
The stupid farmer could hardly make us believe that after this there would be everything we needed, food and drink, everything that would please our eyes and mouths. Then he took out the turkey and threw it to the ground. Out of it sprang the twelve giants.
- What can I do for you, Master Fool? What can I do for you, Master Fool?
- Nothing more than to have this table full of all kinds of food.
No sooner had he said it than the table was so full of all the expensive food and drink in the world that it was torn down. The clumsy farmer was as full as a bagpipe. His mother took a little nibble, but she didn't dare eat much.
Meanwhile, the fame of the palace of the Gagyi farmer was spreading in the town, all kinds of people, princes, counts, big hat-wearing Tots, came to see his miracle. They interrogated Farmer Gagyi, how the palace came to be there so suddenly, but he told no one, he just lived with his mother in the great manor.
Once Farmer Gagyi had the idea that he should get married. His mother agreed that it was a good idea, and advised her neighbour's daughter. But Farmer Gagyi didn't even want to know about it, but was determined to marry the king's only daughter.
His mother kept telling him not to give it to him, that it was not for him; he only threw up the peas on the wall, because Farmer Gagyi would not give in to his will, but kept urging his mother to ask the princess to marry him. The poor woman had nothing to do, she dressed up in her festive clothes, went to the king, told him what she was doing. The king was terribly angry; he almost refused to take her out on his ebrud.
- My, my, what a beggar's fist, even daring to look at my daughter, now that she's got a bit of a grip on the cucumber tree! He'll tell her never to covet it!
The poor woman went home and told Farmer Gagyi what the king had said. But even then Farmer Gagyi only said that he would have the king's wife, whoever saw her. And that very day he went to his godfather and said, "Go to the king and tell him that I know that whatever he wishes, I will do anything if he gives me his daughter."
His godfather went to the king and told him what Farmer Gagyi had done. It drove a nail through the king's head. So he said that he would not mind giving him his daughter if he would build a golden bridge from his palace to the palace of the farmer, with a diamond arm and a glass arch, so that his daughter could walk on it.
His godfather told Farmer Gagyi what the king had said; Farmer Gagyi jumped for joy, saying that if that was the only problem, it was easy to help. His godfather did not know what to make of it, but thought his mind was clearing. In the evening, when he was about to go to bed, Farmer Gagyi took the katulya from the mirror and threw it to the ground. Out popped the twelve giants.
- What can I do for you, Master Fool? What can I do for you, Master Fool?
- Nothing else, but that by the time I rise in the morning, you shall make a golden bridge from the king's palace to my palace, with a diamond arm and a glass bolthole.
In the morning, when the king got up, he looked out of the window and saw what a magnificent bridge Farmer Gagyi had made in the night. He was speechless. What could be done, the Princess had to marry Farmer Gullible.
Here Farmer Gagyi took his wife home with great joy. At first the poor woman cried and cried, but at last, when she saw that all her husband's wishes were granted in the twinkling of an eye, she was delighted! She fell in love with him. He only wished he could find out where he got all that stuff, how he got the bridge and the palace made. But all his questions were in vain, for he said the word "Gagyi gazda" in one ear and "Gagyi gazda" in the other.
One day, Farmer Gagyi went away from home, and there was no one left in the house but his wife. A miserable beggar came to him, asked him in the name of God to have mercy on him, and soon the woman had nothing to give him, so she took the cat from the mirror and gave it to him.
- Take kend, it will be good, if you get kend a few pennies somewhere, you can put it in.
The beggar went away with a loud cry that such a rich woman could have given him, if nothing else, a piece of bacon.
As soon as he reached the street, he dropped the cat, the twelve giants jumped out of the cat, and surrounded the poor beggar.
- What can I get for you, gamós (crutch - editor) beggar? What can I do for you, gamós beggar?
And he, poor fellow, was so frightened that he fell off his feet; he could think of nothing clever to do, and the last thing he ordered was that fool to take the palace and all its contents with him into the middle of the salt sea. The giants took up the palace, and did not stop until they had got it to the middle of the salt sea, and there they set it down, and the palace floated on the water.
The wife of the Gagyi farmer was still in it; but she knew nothing about it, because she was asleep. When the giants had put down the palace, the beggar of the gambol went in to her, and told her all about how the palace had come there. The princess immediately realized that the giants had made the farmer do everything, and she asked the beggar for the money back, thinking to herself that she would put the palace back where it was, and then everything would be fine again.
But the eyes of the beggar were opened. Not only did he return it, but he wished the princess to love him and be his wife. The princess always cried, for she would have cried if the beggar had been lame, but he was ugly, his face was beaten into the gutter, and here and there a hair of his head would have been sprouting, but no white person could have fallen in love with him, let alone a beautiful princess.
Meanwhile, Farmer Gagyi went home, looking for his palace, and not finding it, he was very sad, asking from grass to grass if he knew anything about it. At last there was a coachman who saw the twelve giants taking him to the salt sea.
So Farmer Gagyi set out to visit his palace and his wife. But first he made himself an iron shackle, and put it on his leg, and vowed not to cast it off until he found his palace.
He went, he went, he went, he went, he went, he went, he went, he went, he went, he went, he went. The crab spoke to him:
- Help me, you foolish farmer, take me up in your bag, expect good in the place of evil!
The idiot farmer took pity on him, picked him up and put him in his bag.
Again he went, he went, he found a mouse drowning in some water; he could not get out. This one also called to him:
- Help me, Master Fool, free me from the water, take me up in your bag, expect good instead of evil!
He took pity on this too, picked it up and put it in his bag.
He went again, he walked, he walked for seven days and seven nights, and then he reached the shore of the salt sea. He saw the palace floating far away in the middle of the sea. He was very sad because he saw that there was no way he could get there.
As soon as he mopes like that, the crab in the bag starts to sound:
- Why are you moping, my dear master?
- Of course I'm sad when I see that there is no way to get into my palace.
- Well, I'm going to swim in and see how things are going in there. You wait here on the beach.
The cancer got in. A shitty landlord waited on the beach all day, but it never came. He had already crossed himself that it would not come out, but it would come out of the water. He asked him what he had seen.
- Hey, my dear master, things are going strangely in there; the beggar beggar wants to marry the princess, but she says she doesn't want him, body or soul, "you'd better give me that cat". But the beggar does not give it, but wears it around his neck day and night on a thin chain. I would have stolen it, but I could not cut the chain. The idiot farmer was even more depressed. But now the mouse has spoken:
- Do not grieve, dear master, I thought to myself. The crab man will take me in on his back, I'll chew the chain, we'll get the turtle out.
And so it was. The mouse sat on the crab's back, they swam into the palace; just then the beggar was pulling the skin off the frost, the little mouse went up, cut the turtle off the chain, the crab put it on his back and the mouse on his back, and they swam out. Far away, the crab saw them coming, he couldn't wait for them to get out, he threw the crab to the ground. The twelve giants jumped out of it and surrounded Farmer Brainy.
- What can I get you, dear old Master Gagyi? God bless you, too!
- Nothing else but to put my palace, all of it, back to its old place with me, and that beggar on the gallows to be thrown out of it, and live as he can.
The giants picked up the palace, took it back to its old place with Master Gryffindor, the mouse and the crab. They put the bag on the back of the beggar with the gamo again and let him go.
The old king, when he saw that Farmer Gagyi's palace was back in its old place, and when he saw his daughter safe and sound before his eyes, loved Farmer Gagyi so much that he gave him half his kingdom, and they had another great feast, and are still alive, if they are not dead.
