“The Little Tailor,” from In the Land of Marvels: Folk-tales from Austria and Bohemia by Theodor Vernaleken, 1889.
Once there was a poor day-labourer who, with his wife and three children, found it hard to make both ends meet When the eldest son was fourteen years old, he was apprenticed to a locksmith; and the next in like manner. But when the turn of the youngest, whose name was Hans, came, he was much too weak to learn a trade, and was therefore made to take care of his father's geese.
One day there came an old wife to the cottage of the labourer. Her calling was that of a witch or sorceress; and knowing this, the mother asked her what they were to do with little Hansel. The old woman said, “Why, let him be a tailor; that's a trade which has a gold mine in it. And do you know what? There's a little thimble for you; give it to Hans. Very well; and now, God bless you!' Saying this, she gave the mother a little thimble, and the mother handed this over to Hans, who was just returning from his geese-keeping. He thanked the old wife heartily, and she, pleased with his great gratitude, gave him a pair of scissors into the bargain, and bade him never work with another thimble or pair of scissors than her own.
Next week Hans went to a tailor in the village. Having the enchanted thimble, he could soon sew better than any tailor had ever been able to sew before. Then he had to learn to cut out; and he succeeded equally well with his magic scissors, and so his apprenticeship was soon declared at an end.
He now went to the next town, where no one would take him because he was so small; for he looked like a boy of only six years old. At last he found work with a tailor’s widow. She soon, for his cleverness, made him foreman over her ten workmen. They were almost ready to burst with envy, for they were much older, and had already been a long time in the widow's service. So they said to one another, “We must play this yellow-beak (young bird) a trick; we can't put up with it that the little chap should be our foreman.”
They had noticed that Hans never used any scissors but his own, and they resolved therefore to take these from him, and to use them themselves. No sooner said than done. One of the journeymen took his scissors one day and cut out a coat with them. He soon saw the scissors went on and on, cutting of themselves, and how his hand followed after. But oh, horror! when he unfolded the coat, it was cut out for a hunchback, and one of the arms was half an ell longer than the other. Swearing and cursing, he flung the scissors away, and consulted with his mates about accusing Hans of witchcraft, but Hans got an inkling of it, and ran away.
When he had travelled for two days, he came to a town, in which all the people were clothed in meal-sacks. He went under the gate of the town, and was seized by a couple of men clothed in red flour-sacks, and pushed into a house where there was a number of men clothed in black flour-sacks. One of them struck the table with his fist till it cracked again, and cried out, “In what clothing earnest thou to this town, and who art thou?” Hans replied, “I am a tailor; and as for my clothing, it is after the latest fashion.” “Ha! unlucky one,” cried the judge, for such he was, “knowest thou not then that every one who enters this town must put on a sack, and that for transgression of this law thou must receive a hundred stripes? And knowest thou not that every tailor who enters this town must fight with a giant for the king's daughter?”
“Nay, how should I know that?” said Hans, quite stupefied. “Ignorance is no excuse,” answered the judge; “thou must fight with the giant, but the flogging shall be remitted, for thou wilt certainly find thy end in the battle with the giant.”
‘Good,’ thought Hans, ‘I am spared something.’ He was now led by two soldiers into a prison, where he was to remain until the next day. The jailer felt grief for the poor little tailor, and stayed up with him the whole night chatting with him. “I say,” said Hans, “tell me, now, why do you go about in sacks, and why do you hate tailors so much? I can't understand why it is a crime to carry on the honourable trade of tailor.”
“Now,” said the jailer, “I’ll tell you the whole story. Our queen was very vain, and this vanity went so far that she wore seven new dresses every day. Although this cost a fearful lot of money, it would not have mattered so much had not the luxurious habit passed on to the queen's daughter. But she carried it much further than her mother, for she did nothing all day but put her dresses off and on. At last the king's patience was at an end; he turned the queen out, shut up his daughter in a tower, and had her watched by a giant. Then he proclaimed it to be law that all the dwellers in the city should wear sacks, and drove the tailors, as the cause of his misfortune, out of his kingdom, and forbade them ever to return.”
Next morning early, Hans, accompanied by soldiers and police, went to the forest. When they came near enough to hear the giant snoring, the policemen left Hans, and told him he was now to go straight forward. Suddenly the old wife who had given him the thimble stood before him, and said, “There is a hedgehog and a bird, take heed of both; thou wilt find good use for them both.” So saying, she disappeared.
Hans went on, until suddenly he heard the giant's voice, and saw his dreadful form appearing from behind a tree. “Thou wretched little manikin, wilt thou measure thyself with me? See, now, which can send the bowl furthest, I or thou; here is a bowling-green.”
He took a bowl from the sack and sent it a long, long way. But Hans made his hedgehog run, and the hedgehog never stopped until he was ahead of the giant's bowl. Angrily he cried, “Very well, this time thou hast won; now come hither. Seest thou that this tower has fifteen floors; now I will strike the last.” However he only threw his stone into the twelfth floor. “Now, try your cast!”
Hans made his bird fly up, and it flew far away above the tower. “Thou hast won again; now try who can leap highest,” said the giant, and jumped over an oak.
“Good,” said Hans; “now be so good as to bend down this poplar for me, that I may measure it.” The giant bent it, and Hans held fast to the top of it. “You can let go,” he cried to the giant; “I know how long it is.” The giant let go, and Hans flew from the poplar over some trees which were higher than the oak over which the giant had leapt.
Then the giant cried, “Thou hast saved thy life, and won the king's daughter besides!” Then he lifted Hans up, so that on the third floor he could see the princess through a window. Forthwith Hans walked through the window.
Then Hans and the princess went to the king, and told him that the giant had been conquered.
The king abdicated in favour of Hans, and Hans lived with his queen many long years.
But what did the new king with the magic things?
With the scissors he cut good men out of bad, and with the thimble he sewed on his soldiers' chopped-off heads, arms, and feet, and all were then as fresh and well as before. And if you don't believe it, you can let it alone.
Vernaleken, Theodor. In the Land of Marvels: Folk-tales from Austria and Bohemia. S. Sonnenschein & Co., 1889.
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