 Once
upon a time, an old man had two children, a boy and a girl.
He married a witch, who became the children's stepmother. As
any stepmother she was treating bed her children. Finally she
decided to get rid of them.
The woman went to his husband and told him he must get rid of the children
or she would never again speak to him. She told the old man to take them to
the forest and leave them there. Even if he begged his wife for mercy she wouldn't
changed her mind.
Soon the old man went to his children and told them to go into the woods to
look for sticks for firewood. But things did not go as the old man and the
old woman had planned. The children were covered in the ashes that they had
been playing with in the garden. As they walked, the ashes made a trail behind
them and marked the way home. When they were deep into the dark woods, the
old man vanished and left his kids there.
The children did not panic. The little girl saw the trail made by the ashes,
and they decided to follow it back home. Once arrived, they decided to hide
because they feared their stepmother would be cross at them for losing their
father in the woods. As night came on, the air grew chill and the two scrambled
up onto the roof of their family's small mud hut and curled-up close to the
warm chimney. They dozed there and did not notice when their unhappy father
finally arrived home from his terrible deed.
The witch was so pleased she got rid of the children that decided to tease
her husband. After dinner, she asked him: "Well, where are your children?
Why do they not come to the table for the bones?". Upon hearing her voice
rise through the chimney, the children woke and answered loudly: "Here
we are mother. We are coming for our dinner."
As soon as the children were asleep, the old woman turned her harsh tongue
on the old man and called him all sorts of cruel names. She ordered him to
try again.
On the next day the old man succeeded to get rid of his kids. They cried until
they had no more tears left. Than they started looking for food and water. They
found only roots to eat and they could not find a spring. Shortly after, they
found rainwater pooled in the tracks of a fox. The boy dropped to the ground
to drink but was stopped by his sister who said: "brother, if you drink
the water, you'll turn into a fox and there will be no one to look after me." The
boy loved his sister dearly and did not drink the water. Soon, they came upon
rainwater collected in the tracks of a big bear. The boy was nearly delirious
with thirst but the little girl warned him: "brother, do not drink that
water or you will become a bear and kill me.". The boy again did not drink.
Later, they came upon rainwater pooled in the tracks of a stag and the boy
could not be persuaded to not drink the water. He dropped to his knees and
drank. As soon as he drank the water, he was turned into a magnificent golden
stag. His body was all shining gold and he had gems sparkling at the tips of
his antlers. He was so beautiful that the wind stopped blowing because it was
awed at the sight of him.
 There
was a cradle of silken thread strung between the stag's antlers
and the former boy knelt before his disbelieving sister with
big tears in his eyes and told her to climb into the cradle.
The girl did so and off they went together to make their
home in the dark woods. The stag built a nest for his little
sister up high in a tree to keep her safe from animals. So
they lived for many years until a king's son went hunting
into the woods. The little girl had become a beautiful woman.
She had shining black hair and big black eyes and the prince's
heart was lost to her from the moment he first saw her perched
high in her nest.
The prince abandoned the hunt and returned home to his kingdom, from where
he sent word he would pay a big reward to the one who won for him the hand
of the beautiful girl hidden in the forest tree. The wisest of all the wise
women of the kingdom went to the prince and pledged that she would bring him
this girl as his bride.
The wise woman soon arrived near the tree where the girl lived and settled
down to watch the girl from a hiding place. She saw the girl's brother arriving
and feeding the girl.
The wise woman thought for many days how she could woo the girl for the love-struck
prince. She could not speak the strange language of the golden stag, so she
decided it would be best to lure the girl down from the safety of her tree.
So, the wise woman returned to the prince's kingdom to ask the King for the
things she needed to carry-out her plan.
She asked for two horses, a cart, a trivet, a bucket, and a jug of water, and
then set off for the woods. She left the cart and carried her supplies to the
base of the girl's tree. Once there, she lit a small fire and placed the trivet
upon it upside down. The girl was watching the wise woman and called down to
her to tell her that she had placed the trivet the wrong way around. The wise
woman kept placing the trivet the wrong way despite the girl's helpful instructions
until she finally had it right.
Next the wise woman placed the bucket upside down on the trivet and poured
the water on it. The wise woman despaired aloud that she would ever get her
water boiled and the girl was quick to offer her help from the top of her tree.
She told the old woman to turn the bucket the other way around but it took
many instructions before the old woman got it right. This time the girl asked
the old woman how it was that she should have lived so long but still did not
know how to do such a simple thing as boiling water. The wise woman lied and
said that she had been a wealthy woman whose servants had done everything for
her but that now she was poor and all of her belongings were burned into ash
and she had to live in the woods.
 The
girl felt sorry for the old woman and offered to climb down
from the safety of her tree to boil the water. This was exactly
what the wise woman had planned. As soon as the girl's feet
touched the ground, the wise woman grabbed her and put a
gag on her mouth. Then she called to the groom who had accompanied
her and carried the frightened girl to the cart and drove
off to the prince's kingdom.
When they arrived at the palace, the prince asked her to marry him. The girl
was quite shocked by the whole turn of events. She accepted the prince proposal
and married him.
Meanwhile, the stag had discovered the disappearance of his sister, and he
started to cry so loud that all who heard him felt a deep sympathy for him.
Soon, the stag noticed the footprints and the marks of a scuffle on the ground.
He followed the footprints until he came to wheel marks and then he followed
them to the palace gate, where he began crying. The girl heard her brother's
voice and ran to him. She told the prince that this wondrous golden stag with
the jeweled horns was her brother and the prince invited him to live in a beautiful
gilt stable and feed on the sweetest grasses in the kingdom.
All were happy now because the prince and the girl had fallen deeply in love
and the stag and his sister were able to be together and safe. Or so they thought.
They did not count on the machinations of a certain gypsy girl. This gypsy
hated the new princess because she had been the prince's sweetheart before
his marriage. The gypsy decided to kill the girl to get revenge.
One day both the stag and the prince were away and the gypsy girl knew that
this might be her only chance to get rid herself of both of them. She approached
the girl and invited her to go pick up wild flowers. The girl was very pleased
with the suggestion and they went together. Once the girl had become thirsty,
the gypsy offered her a cup of water into which she had put a terrible sleeping
potion that would make the girl sleep so deeply that she would seem to be dead.
As soon as she had drunken the water, she fell to sleep. The gypsy planned
to let the animals of the forest kill and eat the poor girl while she returned
to the prince and assumed the girl's identity.
The gypsy girl took the princess' beautiful clothes and put them on and then
made herself look like princess. Since she had made-up her face so cleverly
and since she disguised her voice, no one suspected anything. Only the stag
knew she was not her sister. Whenever she came near him the stag cried. This
made the gypsy nervous and she tried to convince the prince that the stag was
sick and needed to be killed.
The prince did not relish the idea of destroying his brother-in-law and did
not agree to kill the stag. The stag run into the woods to find her sister;
and he had find her. He ran up to the prince and ran off again and kept doing
this repeatedly in order to get the prince to follow him to his true wife.
Because the stag looked at him so piteously, the prince followed him into the
woods.
When they came to the spot where the girl was sleeping, the prince thought
she was dead. He was nearly mad with grief and bade his men to carry his beloved
home to the palace. Once there, he called all of the doctors and wizards in
the kingdom to the palace to try to bring his back to life. One of them realized
right away that the princess was only sleeping and he revived her with a special
potion. Once the girl was awake, she was able to tell her husband what had
happened. The prince ordered the gypsy girl stoned to death for trying to murder
his wife and the prince, princess and stag lived happily ever after.
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