Udea And Her Seven Brothers

: The Grey Fairy Book

Once upon a time there was a man and his wife who had seven boys.

The children lived in the open air and grew big and strong, and

the six eldest spent part of every day hunting wild beasts. The

youngest did not care so much about sport, and he often stayed

with his mother.



One morning, however, as the whole seven were going out for a

long expedition, they said to their aunt, 'Dear aunt, if a baby
/> sister comes into the world to-day, wave a white handkerchief,

and we will return immediately; but if it is only a boy, just

brandish a sickle, and we will go on with what we are doing.'



Now the baby when it arrived really proved to be a girl, but as

the aunt could not bear the boys, she thought it was a good

opportunity to get rid of them. So she waved the sickle. And when

the seven brothers saw the sign they said, 'Now we have nothing

to go back for,' and plunged deeper into the desert.



The little girl soon grew to be a big girl, and she was called by

all her friends (though she did not know it) 'Udea, who had

driven her seven brothers into strange lands.'



One day, when she had been quarrelling with her playmates, the

oldest among them said to her, 'It is a pity you were born, as

ever since, your brothers have been obliged to roam about the

world.'



Udea did not answer, but went home to her mother and asked her,

'Have I really got brothers?'



'Yes,' replied her mother, 'seven of them. But they went away the

day you were born, and I have never heard of them since.'



Then the girl said, 'I will go and look for them till I find

them.'



'My dear child,' answered her mother, 'it is fifteen years since

they left, and no man has seen them. How will you know which way

to go?'



'Oh, I will follow them, north and south, east and west, and

though I may travel far, yet some day I will find them.'



Then her mother said no more, but gave her a camel and some food,

and a negro and his wife to take care of her, and she fastened a

cowrie shell round the camel's neck for a charm, and bade her

daughter go in peace.



During the first day the party journeyed on without any

adventures, but the second morning the negro said to the girl,

'Get down, and let the negress ride instead of you.'



'Mother,' cried Udea.



'What is it?' asked her mother.



'Barka wants me to dismount from my camel.'



'Leave her alone, Barka,' commanded the mother, and Barka did not

dare to persist.



But on the following day he said again to Udea, 'Get down, and

let the negress ride instead of you,' and though Udea called to

her mother she was too far away, and the mother never heard her.

Then the negro seized her roughly and threw her on the ground,

and said to his wife, 'Climb up,' and the negress climbed up,

while the girl walked by the side. She had meant to ride all the

way on her camel as her feet were bare and the stones cut them

till the blood came. But she had to walk on till night, when they

halted, and the next morning it was the same thing again. Weary

and bleeding the poor girl began to cry, and implored the negro

to let her ride, if only for a little. But he took no notice,

except to bid her walk a little faster.



By-and-by they passed a caravan, and the negro stopped and asked

the leader if they had come across seven young men, who were

thought to be hunting somewhere about. And the man answered, 'Go

straight on, and by midday you will reach the castle where they

live.'



When he heard this, the black melted some pitch in the sun, and

smeared the girl with it, till she looked as much a negro as he

did. Next he bade his wife get down from the camel, and told Udea

to mount, which she was thankful to do. So they arrived at her

brothers' castle.



Leaving the camel kneeling at the entrance for Udea to dismount,

the negro knocked loudly at the door, which was opened by the

youngest brother, all the others being away hunting. He did not

of course recognise Udea, but he knew the negro and his wife, and

welcomed them gladly, adding, 'But who does the other negress

belong to?'



'Oh, that is your sister!' said they.



'My sister! but she is coal black!'



'That may be, but she is your sister for all that.'



The young man asked no more questions, but took them into the

castle, and he himself waited outside till his brothers came

home.



As soon as they were alone, the negro whispered to Udea, 'If you

dare to tell your brothers that I made you walk, or that I

smeared you with pitch, I will kill you.'



'Oh, I will be sure to say nothing,' replied the girl, trembling,

and at that moment the six elder brothers appeared in sight.



'I have some good news for you,' said the youngest, hastening to

meet them; 'our sister is here!'



'Nonsense,' they answered. 'We have no sister; you know the child

that was born was a boy.'



'But that was not true,' replied he, 'and here she is with the

negro and his wife. Only--she too is black,' he added softly, but

his brothers did not hear him, and pushed past joyfully.



'How are you, good old Barka?' they said to the negro; 'and how

comes it that we never knew that we had a sister till now?' and

they greeted Udea warmly, while she shed tears of relief and

gladness.



The next morning they all agreed that they would not go out

hunting. And the eldest brother took Udea on his knee, and she

combed his hair and talked to him of their home till the tears

ran down his cheeks and dropped on her bare arm. And where the

tears fell a white mark was made. Then the brother took a cloth

and rubbed the place, and he saw that she was not black at all.



'Tell me, who painted you over like this?' cried he.



'I am afraid to tell you,' sobbed the girl, 'the negro will kill

me.'



'Afraid! and with seven brothers!'



'Well, I will tell you then,' she answered. 'The negro forced me

to dismount from the camel and let his wife ride instead. And the

stones cut my feet till they bled and I had to bind them. And

after that, when we heard your castle was near by, he took pitch

and smeared my body with it.'



Then the brother rushed in wrath from the room, and seizing his

sword, cut off first the negro's head and then his wife's. He

next brought in some warm water, and washed his sister all over,

till her skin was white and shining again.



'Ah, now we see that you are our sister!' they all said. 'What

fools the negro must have thought us, to believe for an instant

that we could have a sister who was black!' And all that day and

the next they remained in the castle.



But on the third morning they said to their sister: 'Dear sister,

you must lock yourself into this castle, with only the cat for

company. And be very careful never to eat anything which she does

not eat too. You must be sure to give her a bit of everything. In

seven days we shall be back again.'



'All right,' she answered, and locked herself into the castle

with the cat.



On the eighth day the brothers came home. 'How are you?' they

asked. 'You have not been anxious?'



'No, why should I be anxious? The gates were fast locked, and in

the castle are seven doors, and the seventh is of iron. What is

there to frighten me?'



'No one will try to hurt us,' said the brothers, 'for they fear

us greatly. But for yourself, we implore you to do nothing

without consulting the cat, who has grown up in the house, and

take care never to neglect her advice.'



'All right,' replied Udea, 'and whatever I eat she shall have

half.'



'Capital! and if ever you are in danger the cat will come and

tell us--only elves and pigeons, which fly round your window,

know where to find us.'



'This is the first I have heard of the pigeons,' said Udea. 'Why

did you not speak of them before?'



We always leave them food and water for seven days,' replied the

brothers.



'Ah,' sighed the girl, 'if I had only known, I would have given

them fresh food and fresh water; for after seven days anything

becomes bad. Would it not be better if I fed them every day?'



'Much better,' said they, 'and we shall feel any kindnesses you

do towards the cat or the pigeons exactly as if they were shown

to ourselves.'



'Set your minds at ease,' answered the girl, 'I will treat them

as if they were my brothers.'



That night the brothers slept in the castle, but after breakfast

next morning they buckled on their weapons and mounted their

horses, and rode off to their hunting grounds, calling out to

their sister, 'Mind you let nobody in till we come back.'



'Very well,' cried she, and kept the doors carefully locked for

seven days and on the eighth the brothers returned as before.

Then, after spending one evening with her, they departed as soon

as they had done breakfast.



Directly they were out of sight Udea began to clean the house,

and among the dust she found a bean which she ate.



'What are you eating?' asked the cat.



'Nothing,' said she.



'Open your mouth, and let me see.' The girl did as she was told,

and then the cat said 'Why did you not give me half?'



'I forgot,' answered she, 'but there are plenty of beans about,

you can have as many as you like.'



'No, that won't do. I want half of that particular bean.'



'But how can I give it you? I tell you I have eaten it. I can

roast you a hundred others.'



'No, I want half of that one.'



'Oh! do as you like, only go away!' cried she.



So the cat ran straight to the kitchen fire, and spit on it and

put it out, and when Udea came to cook the supper she had nothing

to light it with. 'Why did you put the fire out?' asked she.



'Just to show you how nicely you would be able to cook the

supper. Didn't you tell me to do what I liked?'



The girl left the kitchen and climbed up on the roof of the

castle and looked out. Far, far away, so far that she could

hardly see it, was the glow of a fire. 'I will go and fetch a

burning coal from there and light my fire,' thought she, and

opened the door of the castle. When she reached the place where

the fire was kindled, a hideous man-eater was crouching over it.



'Peace be with you, grandfather,' said she.



'The same to you,' replied the man-eater. 'What brings you here,

Udea?'



'I came to ask for a lump of burning coal, to light my fire

with.'



'Do you want a big lump or a little lump?'



'Why, what difference does it make?' said she.



'If you have a big lump you must give me a strip of your skin

from your ear to your thumb, and if you have a little lump, you

must give me a strip from your ear to your little finger.'



Udea, who thought that one sounded as bad as the other, said she

would take the big lump, and when the man-eater had cut the skin,

she went home again. And as she hastened on a raven beheld the

blood on the ground, and plastered it with earth, and stayed by

her till she reached the castle. And as she entered the door he

flew past, and she shrieked from fright, for up to that moment

she had not seen him. In her terror she called after him. 'May

you get the same start as you have given me!'



'Why should you wish me harm,' asked the raven pausing in his

flight, 'when I have done you a service?'



'What service have you done me?' said she.



'Oh, you shall soon see,' replied the raven, and with his bill he

scraped away all the earth he had smeared over the blood and then

flew away.



In the night the man-eater got up, and followed the blood till he

came to Udea's castle. He entered through the gate which she had

left open, and went on till he reached the inside of the house.

But here he was stopped by the seven doors, six of wood and one

of iron, and all fast locked. And he called through them 'Oh

Udea, what did you see your grandfather doing?'



'I saw him spread silk under him, and silk over him, and lay

himself down in a four-post bed.'



When he heard that, the man-eater broke in one door, and laughed

and went away.



And the second night he came back, and asked her again what she

had seen her grandfather doing, and she answered him as before,

and he broke in another door, and laughed and went away, and so

each night till he reached the seventh door. Then the maiden

wrote a letter to her brothers, and bound it round the neck of a

pigeon, and said to it, 'Oh, thou pigeon that served my father

and my grandfather, carry this letter to my brothers, and come

back at once.' And the pigeon flew away.



It flew and it flew and it flew till it found the brothers. The

eldest unfastened the letter from the pigeon's neck, and read

what his sister had written: 'I am in a great strait, my

brothers. If you do not rescue me to-night, to-morrow I shall be

no longer living, for the man-eater has broken open six doors,

and only the iron door is left. So haste, haste, post haste.'



'Quick, quick! my brothers,' cried he.



'What is the matter?' asked they.



'If we cannot reach our sister to-night, to-morrow she will be

the prey of the man-eater.'



And without more words they sprang on their horses, and rode like

the wind.



The gate of the castle was thrown down, and they entered the

court and called loudly to their sister. But the poor girl was so

ill with fear and anxiety that she could not even speak. Then the

brothers dismounted and passed through the six open doors, till

they stood before the iron one, which was still shut. 'Udea,

open!' they cried, 'it is only your brothers!' And she arose and

unlocked the door, and throwing herself on the neck of the eldest

burst into tears.



'Tell us what has happened,' he said, 'and how the man- eater

traced you here.' 'It is all the cat's fault,' replied Udea.

'She put out my fire so that I could not cook. All about a bean!

I ate one and forgot to give her any of it.'



'But we told you so particularly,' said the eldest brother,

'never to eat anything without sharing it with the cat.'



'Yes, but I tell you I forgot,' answered Udea.



'Does the man-eater come here every night?' asked the brothers.



'Every night,' said Udea, 'and he breaks one door in and then

goes away.'



Then all the brothers cried together, 'We will dig a great hole,

and fill it with burning wood, and spread a covering over the

top; and when the man-eater arrives we will push him into it.' So

they all set to work and prepared the great hole, and set fire to

the wood, till it was reduced to a mass of glowing charcoal. And

when the man-eater came, and called as usual, 'Udea, what did you

see your grandfather doing?' she answered, 'I saw him pull off

the ass' skin and devour the ass, and he fell in the fire, and

the fire burned him up.'



Then the man-eater was filled with rage, and he flung himself

upon the iron door and burst it in. On the other side stood

Udea's seven brothers, who said, 'Come, rest yourself a little on

this mat.' And the man-eater sat down, and he fell right into the

burning pit which was under the mat, and they heaped on more

wood, till nothing was left of him, not even a bone. Only one of

his finger-nails was blown away, and fell into an upper chamber

where Udea was standing, and stuck under one of the nails of her

own fingers. And she sank lifeless to the earth.



Meanwhile her brothers sat below waiting for her and wondering

why she did not come. 'What can have happened to her!' exclaimed

the eldest brother. 'Perhaps she has fallen into the fire, too.'

So one of the others ran upstairs and found his sister stretched

on the floor. 'Udea! Udea!' he cried, but she did not move or

reply. Then he saw that she was dead, and rushed down to his

brothers in the courtyard and called out, 'Come quickly, our

sister is dead!' In a moment they were all beside her and knew

that it was true, and they made a bier and laid her on it, and

placed her across a camel, and said to the camel, 'Take her to

her mother, but be careful not to halt by the way, and let no man

capture you, and see you kneel down before no man, save him who

shall say "string" [Footnote: 'Riemen.'] to you. But to him who

says "string," then kneel.'



So the camel started, and when it had accomplished half its

journey it met three men, who ran after it in order to catch it;

but they could not. Then they cried 'Stop!' but the camel only

went the faster. The three men panted behind till one said to the

others, 'Wait a minute! The string of my sandal is broken!' The

camel caught the word 'string' and knelt down at once, and the

men came up and found a dead girl lying on a bier, with a ring on

her finger. And as one of the young men took hold of her hand to

pull off the ring, he knocked out the man-eater's finger-nail,

which had stuck there, and the maiden sat up and said, 'Let him

live who gave me life, and slay him who slew me!' And when the

camel heard the maiden speak, it turned and carried her back to

her brothers.



Now the brothers were still seated in the court bewailing their

sister, and their eyes were dim with weeping so that they could

hardly see. And when the camel stood before them they said,

'Perhaps it has brought back our sister!' and rose to give it a

beating. But the camel knelt down and the girl dismounted, and

they flung themselves on her neck and wept more than ever for

gladness.



'Tell me,' said the eldest, as soon as he could speak, 'how it

all came about, and what killed you.'



'I was waiting in the upper chamber,' said she, 'and a nail of

the man-eater's stuck under my nail, and I fell dead upon the

ground. That is all I know.'



'But who pulled out the nail?' asked he.



'A man took hold of my hand and tried to pull off my ring, and

the nail jumped out and I was alive again. And when the camel

heard me say "Let him live who gave me life, slay him who slew

me!" it turned and brought me back to the castle. That is my

story.'



She was silent and the eldest brother spoke. 'Will you listen to

what I have to say, my brothers?'



And they replied, 'How should we not hear you? Are you not our

father as well as our brother?'



'Then this is my advice. Let us take our sister back to our

father and mother, that we may see them once more before they

die.'



And the young men agreed, and they mounted their horses and

placed their sister in a litter on the camel. So they set out.



At the end of five days' journey they reached the old home where

their father and mother dwelt alone. And the heart of their

father rejoiced, and he said to them, 'Dear sons, why did you go

away and leave your mother and me to weep for you night and day?'



'Dear father,' answered the son, 'let us rest a little now, and

then I will tell you everything from the beginning.'



'All right,' replied the father, and waited patiently for three

days.



And on the morning of the fourth day the eldest brother said,

'Dear father, would you like to hear our adventures?'



'Certainly I should!'



'Well, it was our aunt who was the cause of our leaving home, for

we agreed that if the baby was a sister she should wave a white

handkerchief, and if it was a brother, she should brandish a

sickle, for then there would be nothing to come back for, and we

might wander far away. Now our aunt could not bear us, and hated

us to live in the same house with her, so she brandished the

sickle, and we went away. That is all our story.'



And that is all this story.



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