The Magic Veil

The Magic Veil

A young farmer lived an impoverished existence in his little hut, but he never complained because the beauty of nature was more precious to his sensi­tive soul than any wealth.

One day his attention was caught by a lovely smell coming from the woods. He followed the sweet frag­rance until he reached a pine tree and saw, caught in the branches, an unbe­lievably beautiful veil, woven from rays of sunshine, beams of moonlight, and studded all over with stars. The young man had just disentangled the veil from the tree, when there appeared a young maiden who asked for it back. At first the young mail refused, at which the unknown girl burst into tears.

“I am a nymph,” she explained, “and without my veil I will never again be able to rejoin my sisters.”

“If you really are a nymph, then you can prove it,” said the young man, “by dancing for me as only nymphs know how to dance.” So the maiden began to dance in mid-air, her veil flying round and round the farmer, and from the veil there fell thousands and thousands of flowers.

Later, the farmer never could tell Ii he had dreamt it all, or if it had really happened, but from that day on the young man rejoiced even more in the beauty of nature.

The man with a bump

Once there lived a man who had a big bump on his face. He was a friendly and kind man who lived happily with his wife.

His neighbour also had a bump, but he was unfriendly and grumbled the whole day long.

One day, the friendly man went into the mountain forests to get some fire-wood. However it began to rain and he had to look for a dry place to shelter he saw a big hole in a tree and he crawled quickly into it. But the rain did not stop and it was nearly night time . soon it was dark.

Suddenly, he heard strange sounds. “What could that be?” he asked himself and looked outside. He saw some red, blue and white devils who were all drinking wine.

“This is awful,” said the man who now trembled with fear meanwhile, the devils began to dance to an unusual tune. But it was so gay that the old man came out of the hole and joined the dancing.

“Look at this funny man! Isn’t he a good dancer! Please dance again,” the devil shouted happily.

Towards morning, the devils begged the old man to come again the next night. “What precious thing can you give us so that we know you will come again?” asked the devils. Then they saw the bump on the old man’s face and said, “We shall keep this bump,” and they pulled it off his face.

As the daylight came, all of the devils disappeared.

The old man was happy that this face was no longer heavy and ugly and he hurried home to tell his wife the whole story. Meanwhile, his neighbour listened from outside, “I shall also dance before the devils so that they will take away my bump!”

He thought. But he forgot that he was not a good dancer.

That evening he hurried towards the mountain where the devils appeared. He saw the tree with the hole in and he crept inside to wait for the devils to come

When it was dark the red, blue and white devils came and began to drink their wine and play their music.

“The man who was such a good dancer hasn’t come yet.” They said to each other, “It is already quite late, what shall we do? We have his precious bump, he will surely come to get that.”

The neighbour looked out of the hole in the tree. However he was so frightened that his leg became stiff. Suddenly, one of the devils saw him. “Ah there he is hiding in the tree,” he said and pulled him out.

“We have been waiting, now dance! Quickly!”

The old man tried to hop around but it was not good enough and the devils did not like it.

“Let us give him back this bump,” said a devil. So they put the bump from the gay old man onto the other cheek of his neighbour. Then they chased him away. The poor man now had two bumps and he ran home feeling very sorry for himself.