Once upon a time, and once upon a time, and once upon a time, and once upon a time, and once upon a time, and once upon a time, and once upon a time, and once upon a time.
There was a widow living next door to the widower, and she had two daughters, but one was uglier than the other.
Once the widow said to the widower: marry her, and see how good things will be for him and his daughter. The widower thought, "That will be good! If there are two of us, the burden will be shared."
He didn't think twice, he married the widow. But a week or two had hardly passed, and he bitterly regretted his marriage, for the new wife thought only of her own daughters, and dressed them in fine clothes; and the widower's daughter was good for a rag. So they called the poor girl Cinderella.
Time goes by, one day a man goes into town and asks the girls:
- Well, girls, what shall I bring you from the city?
Soon the two ugly girls came out, and they could hardly tell what he had brought them. Precious silk dressing gowns, gold rings, earrings, bracelets, and goodness knows what else.
- Shall I bring you nothing, Cinderella? - asked her father.
- 'Don't bring me anything, father,' said Cinderella, 'I'm fine in my ragged clothes.
- "But if I'm bringing for the other two, I won't forget you," the man said.
- Very well, father, if you want to bring me something, bring me three nuts, I'll be content with that.
- "Well, that's not much," said the man, and with that he went into town.
There he bought his stepdaughters everything they wanted, and indeed he brought his daughter nothing but three walnuts.
The next day was Sunday, and the ugly girls dressed up in fancy clothes and went to church.
Cinderella also wanted to go, but they left her at home, and so that she would not sit without things, they poured out a bucket (a measure of grain, 25-30 litres of grain - editor) of concoction (a small, black, poisonous seed, the seed of the concoction weed - editor) of wheat into the yard, and ordered her to clean all the concoction from one grain when they returned from the temple, otherwise woe betide her.
Oh, my God, cried poor Cinderella, her tears falling like a shower of rain.
- My God, my God," he sighed to himself, "how can I clean this wheat?
Well, at that moment a flock of white pigeons descend on the yard, swoop down on the wheat, and in the blink of an eye have picked the husk out of the wheat. Jumping and dancing for joy, Cinderella didn't know what to do.
Thinking to himself, let him have a good Sunday, he cracks open one of the three nuts. He cracks open a walnut, and lo and behold, a shiny, beautiful brass shell falls out of the walnut's hair. Cinderella was amazed, she looked at it, she turned it round and round, and then, what she thought, what she didn't think, she suddenly took it, and went to the temple.
It happened that the prince was in the temple, and when Cinderella entered, the prince looked at her and never took his eyes off her. And the people watched and marvelled. They thought she was some royal lady, and no one knew Cinderella. Not her father, her mother, her aunts.
But Cinderella didn't wait for the priest to say amen, she suddenly turned out of the church so that she could be home in her tattered dress by the time the others came home.
Yes, but the prince was not staying in the temple either. At once he came out with his footman, and sent him after Cinderella to see where she was going.
But Cinderella in her little copper slippers went as swift as the wind. In a moment she was out of sight of the footman, and he looked in every courtyard and every house, but Cinderella was nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile the girls came home, and said with great boasting:
- Hey, what have we seen, Cinderella! If you could have seen that!
- What did you see? - asked Cinderella.
- There was the prince in the temple, and then there was some princess, but she was as beautiful as a shining star in the sky.
- 'Oh, I saw that all right,' said Cinderella.
- How could you have seen it?
- Where from?! I went up the ladder to the chimney and watched him as he walked along the street.
- Yes! Are you climbing up the chimney instead of cleaning the wheat?
Cinderella said quietly:
- Oh, fear not, I have cleaned the wheat too.
The daughters then burst with rage when they saw that there was not a grain of concret in the wheat - but it was as pure as gold. In a great rage they cut the barn into pieces so that he could never climb up the chimney again, and in the afternoon, when they went to the vespers (late afternoon, evening church service - ed.), they poured two pails of concave wheat into the yard for Cinderella to clean. Then they went to the church, and sat down in the front pew, all fussily, like two peacocks, and wiggled and waggled, in case the prince might somehow look at them. For the prince went to the church in the afternoon, to see if Cinderella would be there again.
But Cinderella was still sitting in the courtyard, weeping and crying to herself that everyone could go to church but her. The doves helped her once, but would they come a second time?
Well, he didn't have long to mourn, two more white pigeons landed than had landed the morning before. They poked their beaks into the wheat, and in a moment there was not much more than a grain of concolio in it. And with that, whoosh! they flew away.
Cinderella took out the second nut to see if she could find something in it.
For she found in it such a beautiful silver crown that she could not have been better than a queen. She immediately put it on and went to the church. Oh, my goodness, when she entered the church, all eyes fell on her, even the priest stopped in his prayers, and the two ugly girls could make themselves presentable, for the prince looked only at Cinderella, and never took his eyes off her. But Cinderella did not wait a second time for the sermon to end, but suddenly rose from her seat, and flashed out of the temple like a fairy.
Then the prince with his footman, through the village, but they ran in vain. Cinderella disappeared from their sight a second time.
The girls come home, they say with great boasting:
- Well, Cinderella, you're sorry you couldn't be in church! There was the prince again, and an even more beautiful princess than the morning before.
- 'Oh, I saw that princess well,' said Cinderella.
- How could you have seen it?
- I climbed up to the top of the fence, and from there I could see him walking down the street in a silver dress and a silver robe.
- Yes! Have you cleaned the wheat?
- There it is, look, I cleaned that one too.
And then the venom and the vengeance ate the daughters. They covered the fence with thorns so that Cinderella could never stand on it again, and the following Sunday they poured four bushels of wheat with thorns into the yard, so that she would have something to trouble and torment herself with.
Well, the girls go to church, Cinderella stays at home, and begins to look at the wheat, but she has hardly started, the white doves came with a great flapping of wings, so many that they barely fit in the courtyard, and they were there for a minute or two - the wheat became as pure as gold, and with that they flew on.
- 'Oh, dear God,' Cinderella prayed, 'that you would help me again!
He cracked open the third nut to see what was inside.
There was what was in the first and second nut, but from the third came a golden robe that shone like the sun, it rustled like silk, and when Cinderella put it on and stood before the little mirror, she did not know herself.
He goes into the temple, and as soon as he enters, the people stand up, bow down before him, even his aunts, who are also killed by revenge, because either the prince looked at them or he did not, from now on he only looked at Cinderella.
Cinderella did not wait for the sermon to end, but suddenly turned out of the church and ran home, but not as fast as before, and the prince's valet saw from afar which gate she had turned into. He ran to it, and thrust a golden rose into the cleft of the gate-keeper's tree, that he might show his master where the fair maiden dwelt.
The butler goes back and reports to the prince what he saw and what he did.
- 'All right,' says the prince, 'let's go home, and let me get into a six-horse carriage, and we'll go to visit that girl.
Meanwhile the girls had gone home from the church, and were already shouting to Cinderella from the gate:
- Hey, Cinderella, you can mope about not being in church! There was that beautiful princess again, in a gold and gold robe.
- 'Oh, I saw it well,' said Cinderella.
- How did you see it?
- Where from? I climbed up the strawberry tree, and I could see it well from there.
- So... you're climbing strawberry trees? You certainly haven't cleaned the wheat.
- Of course, of course, look, there's not a single grain of concretions in it.
The girls were angry and annoyed, and in their anger they cut down the mulberry tree so that Cinderella could never climb it again.
But Cinderella's father had already heard this, he told the girls:
- I see that you cannot live together in peace, I separate you from each other.
He took Cinderella with him to the end of the village and left her in the care of an old woman. No sooner had Cinderella left home than the prince came in a six-horse carriage. Straight through the gate, into the half of which the butler had stuck the golden rose.
They enter the house, but Cinderella is nowhere to be seen.
The prince asks the woman:
- Where is your daughter, good woman?
- Oh, majestic prince! I have two, I'll call them in a moment.
He calls his daughters, but the prince is saddened, and says:
- None of them are the one I'm looking for. Don't you have another daughter? - asked the prince.
- I have none, sire, nor ever had any.
The prince goes out in great sorrow, they go through the village; they look in every courtyard, they call at every house, they can't find the beautiful Cinderella anywhere. At the end of the village, in the little house where Cinderella lived, they did not even want to look in; but they changed their minds and went in and asked the old woman:
- Do you have a daughter, a wife?
- I have none, my soul, never had any.
- Is there no one else's daughter in the house?
- Yes, sire, I have a poor girl living here, but she is not worth seeing.
Said the prince:
- It's worth it, it's not worth it, I'll check it out.
At that moment, out of the door steps Cinderella in her gold and gold robes. The old woman was astonished, she didn't even recognize Cinderella in that gown.
The prince went up, took her hand, and said in a hearty voice:
- It's you! You're the one I'm looking for! Get in my carriage, I'll take you to my palace. Be my wife!
They were soon in the carriage, and did not stop until they reached the king's castle. At once they called a priest, had a great feast, and are still alive, if they are not dead.
(Elek Benedek: Hungarian tale- and mythology Volume 3)
