Once upon a time there was a brave swordsman (a fighter, a battler; a duellist - ed.), there was no one to oppose him. He went everywhere with a gun, a dagger, and a jatagan (a knife carried in a belt - editor). At night, however, this brave man was so afraid that he dared not leave his house.
A monkey dancing fireman once visited the place, and he was charsy (market) our hero was about to go to when he sees the monkey. He watched it dance and leap so fast that he almost forgot to open his mouth. He was so staring at the monkey that he didn't think about anything else, and only then did he jump when suddenly darkness fell.
- What should I do now? - he thinks to himself and starts walking home with a big sigh. Meanwhile, at home, his wife is tired of waiting and his husband has not come, so he locks the gate and bolts it.
The champion arrives late, but cannot get into his house. He knocks on one neighbour's door, knocks on another's, the gates are locked everywhere. As he disappears in his great confusion and fear, a light shines towards him in the distance.
- "Maybe someone lives there," he thinks to himself and picks his feet to get to safety somehow. He reaches the light, there was a pub in front of him and as he enters he sees a lot of people inside. He goes up to them and asks them if they'll take him in as a guest.
- You are welcome, - they tell him - but a dev (devil) comes by at night and takes one of us away. He'll come here tonight too, it may be your turn.
- "Well, let him come," says the champion and settles in the pub.
He asks the people there why they do not go beyond the devon his mind?
- "There is no help for it," people say, "it comes and takes us all at once.
Says the champion:
- I'm going to put an end to this, you're all going to get out of this trouble.
Then he gets up, digs a big hole and tells the people to fill it with cottage cheese. The people go and bring lots of cottage cheese from home and fill the big hole with it. And the champion buries it and they sit back in their places as if nothing had happened.
Suddenly there's a gale of wind, a roar that shakes heaven and earth. A dev arrived among them. The people are so frightened that their lips are parted in fear.
- Where is my portion today? - cries the dev.
They point out to the champion that here, it's his turn, he can take it if he wants. And he reaches for the dev after the champion. Our hero is speaking:
- Not until then, dev mate. If you're such a famous champion, I'd be like you. Let's have a wrestle, and if you beat me, you can do what you like with me; and if I beat you, you swear never to set foot in here again.
He stands on the ropes and asks what wrestling should be like.
- 'If indeed you have so much power,' says the champion, 'can you bang the earth so hard that the water will come out of it?
Take the dev and he stamped his foot on the ground so hard that he sank knee-deep in the sand.
- You see," says the champion, "there's no sign of water.
- It's your turn, - says the dev - whether you can push the water out of the ground!
- "Out then," the champion asserts, and with that he rushes in, stands on the pit and kicks the ground so hard that he is sunk up to his waist in the pit. The water just poured out of the cottage cheese.
Scares the dev seeing the great power, but because his hunger was great, he says to the champion:
- All right, I won't hurt you, I'll settle for another.
- "That's not how we agreed," says the champion, "let's wrestle again. If you catch me, I'll be your food.
Asks the devwhat the second wrestling match should be.
The champion replies:
- If you're human on the ground, take this leaven and squeeze water out of it.
Takes the dev the flint and squeezes it so hard that the stone crumbles to dust, but of course there is no trace of water. Now it's the champion's turn. He takes the stone in his grip, puts a piece of cheese on it and as soon as he squeezes it, water drips out of the cheese. He squeezes the dev in the face of the strength of the champion.
- Forty of us are brothers and sisters, - from Sepeg - I am the youngest. If you want, I can take you to my brothers and sisters and you can live among us.
- 'All right,' says the champion, 'but I'm not going on foot. I sit on your back and we set off.
Keep the dev his back, the champion jumps on him and they head home with the other forty devhez. As they go, they walk, he sees the devthat man is as light as a feather on his back.
- Buddy, - says the dev - I must be stronger than you, I'll eat you up.
The champion replies:
- I wanted to spare you, that's why I didn't weigh you down. If I wanted to make you feel my strength, you couldn't carry me on your back.
Do not believe him in the dev and encourages him to put as much weight on his back as he can. The champion takes out his knife and as soon as he sticks it into the dev in his brain, his devilishness cries out that enough is enough, he can't take any more of his burden.
- "I didn't tell you," the champion reproves, "that you can't stand my strength.
Relieving the dev and as they go on their way, he finds his burden light again.
- 'Friend,' he says again, 'yet your body is light; I will eat you.
- "Fool," cries the champion, "if I put my weight on you, you'll crumble under me so that no. Do you want me to weigh you down?
- Well, go on," says the dev-evil.
Again the champion takes his knife and thrusts it into the back of his head so hard that he cries out dev:
- Stop it, stop it, don't put so much weight on the back of my head, or I'll fall down.
- "I told you so, you can't carry my weight," says the champion, and as soon as they are on the road again, they arrive at the devto the wedge.
- 'I have brought you a champion,' he says to his brothers, 'so strong that he can fight all forty of us.
He tells them what this man has not done.
- Why did you bring it on us? - are snapping at him devek. - If this man is so strong, we can't win his stomach with food.
They approach the champion and say to him:
- If you get hungry, we can slaughter a couple of oxen or so.
The champion sees that they are intimidated by the devand he says to them casually, "Get those oxen out of there quickly.
Even more frightened of the devThey rush off into the woods and slaughter forty oxen for their mate. Meanwhile our man digs a big hole, covers it with straw, and as soon as they bring him a leg of oxen, he snaps at them not to make fun of him with that one leg. They hurry to the devThey go for the other thigh and while running for it, he throws the first thigh into the pit. When they return, they are horrified to see that he has already eaten one of the legs.
The champion takes the other thigh and loses them for the other. By the time they come back with it, the second thigh is in the pit. They bring him all forty, put some in the pit, and when he has finished with all the animals, he tells them that he has not had enough to eat. They all swim to the devwhere to find all that food. They're taking it on the chin:
- Sorry buddy, we can't give you more this time, but we're out of food.
Not a word from the champion, everyone minding their own business.
They ran out one day of devfrom the water. They get out the cheese-men, each with forty or so on his back, and go to the spring for water.
- "Take forty or so on your back," they tell our man, "and draw from the spring.
The champion sees that he can't take forty, but he can't take one. So says the devto:
- I would need about six hundred knots of rope.
- Why all the ropes? - they ask him.
- "Maybe I don't carry water all day," says the champion. - I'll take the rope, tie it to the spring and bring it all back here, water and all. You won't have to run for water anymore.
The forty look at each other dev.
- It's not going to do any good to bring the whole source down on us. If he gets mad about something, he might throw us in.
- 'Just leave it,' they say to the champion, 'we've had enough water for today.
Then they settle down and have a chat and a cup of coffee.
Over time, the wood runs out of devek. One by one they go into the forest and carry the many trees home. They tell our man that it is his turn to carry the trees.
- 'All right,' says the man, 'first bring a thousand or so pounds of tar and ten thousand or so pounds of spade.
- Why do you need it? - they ask him.
- So that I don't have to run so much for the wood," says the champion. - I tie the forest to the istrang and put it all on my shoulders. At least I don't have to fetch them one by one.
Again, just looking at the many dev, they become even more frightened and reflective:
If we give him all that grain, he'll come and bring the whole forest down on us. He's gonna crush us to death. Let's just leave it all and carry the wood home ourselves.
Time goes by, summer is here and the cherries are ripening. Says one dev for our people:
- The cherries are ripe in the garden, let's go and taste them.
Go to the champion of the devvel. Hold the dev the top of a cherry tree, pull it off and eat the fruit. Our man holds the branch in his hand and as soon as he lets go of the dev takes its turn, the branch bounces back, pulls the champion with it and throws him over to the other side of the tree. A rabbit was resting under a lure, and our man fell on it. The champion catches the rabbit and shouts for joy:
- If I'd fallen on the other side, you'd have run away from me, wouldn't you, rabbit. I've arranged things so that you're right in my grasp.
As soon as he saw the dev his cut-through mate, gloatingly shouts:
- You're a light lad, though, that a twig could fool you. I'll eat you up.
The champion replies casually:
- You don't know what you're talking about, buddy. That's why I lightened up on myself and didn't put any weight on the branch, so I could get hold of that rabbit.
- I don't think so, - says the dev - I'll eat you up.
The champion sees that there could be trouble.
- Let's have a wrestle, says our man, if you beat me, you can eat me.
The two wrestlers fall into each other and as soon as our hero holds the dev waist, looks up at the sky, looks down at the ground, then looks at the devre.
- What are you looking at? - asks the dev.
- I'm looking," says our man, "at how to get a good grip on you. If I throw you upwards, you'll fly up into the sky, fall back down and split like an unripe pumpkin. If I throw you down, you'll sink into the ground so hard you won't stop until the seventh layer. And then I looked at you and saw you were young and my heart fell for you.
It will jump the dev at this speech and cries out to our hero to have mercy on him.
- "Just this once," says the champion, and heads back to his house to rest.
Run to the dev to the others and tell them what he has to do.
- 'There is such power in that man,' he explains to them, 'that he wanted to throw me up into the sky and down to the depths of the earth. If he had done so, not a particle of me would have remained intact.
They all get upset and also scold their youngest brother.
- You brought it upon us, you deliver us from it, or we shall all perish in its power.
It's the small dev and sneaks up on the champion:
- "Buddy," he asks him, "maybe you don't have a wife and children.
- Of course," says the champion.
- So why don't you want to visit them? - asks the dev.
- Of course I would! - came the reply.
- I'll give you a lift if you want - offers the dev.
- That's not the time, says the champion. - If you give me a couple of sacks of gold and a horse, I might return home.
Run to the dev to the others and they are already filling the sacks and bringing the gold and the horse. The man jumps on the horse, puts the sacks on it and they set off for the devhome with you.
It didn't take long before the champion was home. He knocks on his door, is opened and goes into his house to his wife and children. He ties the horse in the stable, puts the gold away, and the devand says goodbye to. He buys a nice big konak(palace) and live in his world, while the world is the world.
(Ignác Kúnos: Tales from the Island of Roses)
