Once, when I was such a rambunctious child, my father told me to take two oxen and go to the forest to fetch wood. I take the two oxen and go to the forest. I just kept going, just kept going, but the mud was so thick that once half my boots got stuck in it, and I was left barefoot. I'd pull my boots out of the mud, but they wouldn't come.
What to do, what to do? I ran home for a crowbar and used it to pry my boots out of the mud. But while I went to get the pole, the two oxen drove off with the cart without a sign or a trace. What was I to do now? If I went home, my father would skin me; I got myself, went to Várad, and became a "filter" (filter: a coat-like garment made of grey cloth - ed.). My master gave me a raggedy crane, and I put it around my neck, and I was such a gentleman that...
The next morning my master says: "Take that basket, brother, let's go to the market and buy peas for lunch." We went to the market, we bought everything, but we forgot to buy peas. When we got home, my master noticed that there were no peas. He's about to tell me: "Son, go back to the market, we forgot to buy peas, you buy them."
I went back and bought some peas, but I couldn't find my way home. I'm looking for our house, I'm looking for our house, I'm looking for our house. Well, what am I to do now, where shall I sleep? One day I saw a little world in the window of a house; I went into the house. Inside, an old woman was cooking a pot of porridge in a pot so big it couldn't hold three kettles.
I was hungry too, I said to the woman, "Auntie, give me some porridge." The woman immediately put a bowl of gruel in front of me, and I was so full of stuffed cabbage that my belly is still full of bran.
As soon as I was full, I went to bed in the hut, and I got into my grinder. One day the farmer comes home drunk from the mutt, and the wife serves him the pulicka. The man sees me in the hut, and tells me to go and eat with him; I was already well fed, I didn't want to go, but he told me that I'd eat it anyway, but not to eat it! So I sat down at the table, but I couldn't eat a bite, I had my fingers tied up, and I let the pulicka out.
When you were full, he jumped up and started dancing, and he got me to dance with him. We danced and danced, and once my crane finger came off, the pulicka started to come out. The man thought I was spilling something else, so he grabbed a stick. "What are you doing? Get out of here!" It's a good thing I could run away, because it would have been all over my back.
I ran, I ran, and once I came to a mill house. I caught myself, I lay down in the throat. As I was lying there, three thieves came up with a stolen sheep, skinned it, and started to argue about where to put it so they wouldn't get caught.
One of them thought it should be pushed into the throat; he brought it right up to the throat.I was scared he was going to throw it at me, I shouted, "Don't throw that thing at me." And the three thieves were frightened, and ran away, and left all the mutton. The miller woke up at the noise, came out and praised me for scaring the thieves away:
"Well, my brother, you're a good boy, would you join me as a servant?" "Sure I will," I said, and I did. My master gave me an egg to eat, but I had no knife, so he gave me his beautiful star-shaped knife to eat with. I ate and ate the egg, and once I dropped the star-shaped knife into it. How am I supposed to get it out now? There was a sixteen-buckle ladder there, I put it in, but even that didn't reach the bottom, I couldn't get the knife out. I was afraid my miller would beat me for the knife, so I ran away.
I trudged through hill and valley, through ditch and bush, and once I came to a small house. I tried to get in through the door, I couldn't get in, not even diving, I tried the window, I could easily get in standing up. There was a wedding going on inside, the wedding was also in progress, there was a dino-manure, juice and juice was enough, the Danube and the Tisza were in the bag.
No sooner had I entered than I was told to go to the pharmacy for some good saffron. "I'm not going" - There it was[1] I was right on the ear. "Go, brother, to the apothecary for some good saffron; here's a donkey, sit on it, but don't spur it, for its steel nails will give fire, run down its tinder belly, its straw rim will catch fire, its bladder will burst, and you'll be without a horse."
So he mounted the donkey; while he was going, he went slowly, but on the way he skinned it, his steel hoop gave fire, ran along its belly, the straw was set on fire, its bladder burst, and I was soon without a horse.
Then he threw up all the saffron, came into the wedding hall, and also began to make the straw-robed ladies dance. There was a big yellow soup bag in the corner; I kept telling the boy, "Don't make those straw-bottomed ladies dance so hard, or you'll kick the yellow soup bag out with the brass spur of the oatmeal."
But he didn't listen, he just kept turning them around, teasing them, and then he kicked the bag. Now that was expensive fun! - The yellow juice was too thick for the donkey to touch, and he swallowed it and then he drowned. He would have drowned, but I ran up to the attic, a dog was cooking the meat, I hit him in the side, and he got a two-pronged iron hook, and I hung it on his nose and got him out. If you don't believe me, you can still see the two holes in the nose, where the hook was.
(László Arany: Hungarian folk tales)
