Читать книгу Favorite Children's Stories from China & Tibet - Lotta Carswell-Hume - Страница 8

A Chinese Cinderella

West China

In the dim past, before the Ts'in and Han dynasties, there was a chieftain named Wu, who lived in a mountain cave. The people of the countryside called him "Cave Chief Wu."

Now Cave Chief Wu had two wives and a beautiful daughter named Shih Chieh. When this daughter was ten years old, her mother died, and she and her father became close friends. Shih Chieh was not only beautiful; she was clever, as well, and always happy. But one day her father died, and after that the stepmother became so jealous of Shih Chieh's beauty that she sought every possible way to mistreat her. She made the girl cut wood in dangerous places and draw water from deep wells, hoping that some day she would meet with an accident.

One day when Shih Chieh was out in her garden, she caught a beautiful little fish with red fins and golden eyes. It was so tiny that she kept it in a basin in her room. Every day she changed the water in the basin, but at last the fish grew so big that she had no bowl large enough to hold it.

Shih Chieh waited until her cruel stepmother had gone away one day, then she took the fish out and slipped it into the pond in the garden. Every day after that, she crept secretly into the garden to feed the fish scraps of food. So Shih Chieh and the beautiful fish became great friends and when she came to the pond each morning, the fish would swim to the edge of the pool, lift its head from the water, and rest it on the bank as on a pillow.

The cruel stepmother somehow heard about the beautiful fish with red fins and golden eyes, and she went often to the garden to try to see it for herself; but the fish would never show itself for anyone but Shih Chieh. The stepmother became very frustrated and angry and secretly determined to kill the fish. One day she said to Shih Chieh: "Aren't you tired today? It is a bright day, so let me wash your coat for you. Go draw water from the neighbor's well. When you return with it, I will wash your coat."

As soon as Shih Chieh had left with her pail, the stepmother hurriedly put on the daughter's clothes and, hiding a sharp sword in her sleeve, she went to the pond and called to the fish. The fish, thinking it was his mistress, raised his head out of the water. Instantly the cruel stepmother drew the sword from her sleeve and killed the fish. She carried it home, cooked it, and ate its delicious meat, then buried the bones under a mound in the field.

The next day Shih Chieh came out to the garden as usual and scattered crumbs on the pool, but the lovely fish with red fins and golden eyes did not come to greet her. Sitting on the bank, she wept piteously. Suddenly a man with tousled hair, and dressed in rough clothing, came down from heaven and comforted her.

"Do not weep, my child. Your mother has killed your fish and hidden its bones under a mound in the field."

Then he leaned close to her and whispered: "I will tell you a great secret. If you will pray to those bones, every wish you have will be granted."

As Shih Chieh turned to thank this stranger, he disappeared from view.

Shih Chieh did exactly as the strange visitor had told her. Each day she prayed to the bones of the fish and, just as she had been promised, gold, pearls, and beautiful dresses came to her as soon as she had wished for them.

Now, as it happened, the seventh day of the seventh moon was the day of the Cave Festival. The stepmother took her own daughter, who was not nearly so beautiful as Shih Chieh, and went off to the festival, leaving Shih Chieh behind to tend the house.

"Mind you watch the fruit in the courtyard while we are gone," she called out sharply to Shih Chieh as they went out the gate.

But as soon as they were out of sight, Shih Chieh raced to the mound in the field and asked her fish's bones for a beautiful gown and slippers to wear to the festival. At once she found herself clad in a delectable gown of azure blue and wearing a pair of shining golden slippers. She might have been a fairy queen tripping down the road, so beautiful was she as she followed her mother and sister to the festival.

As she entered the court and joined the dances, everyone turned to look at her, for among all the guests there was no one so lovely as Shih Chieh.

"Why, this girl looks exactly like Shih Chieh," whispered her step-sister. The stepmother scowled in anger. When Shih Chieh saw that they had recognized her, she hurried away from the ball and made haste back to her house. But, in her rush, she dropped one of her golden slippers. The merrymaking was at its height, and no one noticed the Cave Man as he stooped and picked up the shining golden slipper after she had dropped it.

When the stepmother returned home, she found Shih Chieh fast asleep, and she decided that she could not have been at the festival, after all.

The Cave Man's home was on an island on which was the kingdom of T'o Huan, whose military power was the strongest among all the thirty islands in the region. The Cave people sold the golden slipper Shih Chieh had dropped at the festival to the king of T'o Huan.

This king thought that he had never seen anything in his life so lovely as that golden slipper. He was sure that the person who had worn the slipper must be as lovely. The slipper was as light as a moonbeam and it made no sound, even when treading upon stone. So the king sent his heralds to all parts of his realm to ask all the women to try the slipper on. But no one was found who could wear it. Then he commanded the heralds to search every house far and wide to find the mate to the slipper. At last the emissaries returned with the news that another slipper, identical in design, had been found in Shih Chieh's house.

The king of T'o Huan was so excited at this news that he decided to go himself to find the maiden who could wear the slipper.

Shih Chieh hid when she heard that the king was coming, but, when he demanded to see her, she appeared dressed in the same gown of azure blue that she had worn at the festival, and wearing one golden slipper. She looked as beautiful as a goddess, and, when she slipped her slender foot into the lost slipper, it fitted perfectly, and the king bore her away to his kingdom to be his wife. Her stepmother was beside herself with rage and her stepsister wept for a week in annoyance. Before she left, Shih Chieh visited the garden to collect the fish's bones and bring them away with her to her new home.

During the first year of their new life, the king discovered the secret of the fish bones and greedily asked for such an endless number of jewels and jade pieces that the next year his requests went unanswered. Then the king buried the fish bones on the sea coast, together with one hundred bushels of pearls, enclosing them all in a golden parapet.

Several years later the king went back to this spot to unearth the pearls in order to distribute them among his soldiers, who had threatened to rebel. To his dismay, he found that the pearls and bones had all been washed away in the tide.