K107E. Delayed births. 15.27.28.

A woman remains pregnant for many years and gives birth only after her wonderful husband or someone else who has left her allows her to do so.

Sicilians, Romanians, Serbs, Hungarians, Gagauz people, Ukrainians (Transcarpathia).

Southern Europe. Sicilians [the poor shoemaker has three daughters; he sits on a rock, exclaims, Oh! ; a young man appears, asks why his name was, takes him to an underground castle, gives him gold, tells him to marry his youngest daughter; she agrees; it was King Cardiddu; the witch bewitched him because he refused take her daughter; he forbids his wife to unlock one room; sisters come and advise her to unlock; at night she lights a candle, wax drips on K., she ends up in the woods; the king says she must now go to witch; she demands to sweep and not sweep, make and not make a fire, cook and not make a bed; every time K. appears, teaches how to make half; teaches you to ask the birds to wash the pile underwear; a witch sends a girl with a letter to her sister; K. teaches that it is necessary to praise the river, where water is mixed with blood, she will calm down; take bones from the donkey, give the dog hay, and the dog's donkey hay; praise the door, it will stop opening and closing; you can't open the box along the way; run as soon as the witch reads the letter, it says that the letter that brought the letter must be eaten; the girl opens the box, it starts to ring, K. comes to fix things for the last time; the witch tells the door, the dog, etc. to keep the fugitive, but they say that the girl was good to them; the river is evil against the witch when she runs up, drowns her; the witch gives her daughter to K.; the girl stands at the foot of the bed, the witch's daughter is in bed; K. asks to switch places for a while; the witch brings down the floor, her daughter, not the girl, dies; K. s They run away to his wife, he turns into a vegetable garden, she is a gardener; a church and a clerk; a pond and an eel; a witch cannot catch him; at home she crosses her arms over her head until she is open, K.'s wife is born; K. tells ring the funeral bells, the witch believes he is dead, takes off her hands, K.'s wife gives birth to a son; the bells ring for health, the witch smashed her head against the wall]: Gonzenbach 2004a [1870], No. 49:324-332.

The Balkans. Romanians [spouses are childless, the woman suggests adopting any creature that comes out to meet his grandfather first; this is a pig; the king will pass off his daughter as the one who built a golden bridge from his house to the palace, Executes unsuccessful applicants; a pig sends an old man to marry the princess; a pig creates a bridge, turns the hut into a palace; marries, sheds pigskin at night; the princess's mother teaches to throw skin into fire; the husband girds his wife with an iron hoop, says that he is Fat Frumos, you should look for him in the Frankincense Monastery; the bridge and palace disappear; the wife comes to Saint Sereda's hut; she asks no one knows about the Frankincense Monastery; she gives a woman a golden spinning wheel, prosphora, a cup of wine; the same goes to St. Fridays (gives a golden reel); at St. Trinity at the end of the world (gives a golden tray and a hen with chickens); there only a lame lark knows the way, leads to the Frankincense Monastery (like paradise); a woman waits at the well, the witch's maid sees her gold items; the key witch allows her to spend one, second, third night in the FF bedroom in exchange for the gold items she receives, giving FF a sleep potion each time; the third time, on the advice of the servant, FF doesn't drink potions, he hugs his wife, the hoop falls apart, the witch is tied to an immense mare; the witch was a pig who wanted to marry FF to one of her 11 daughters (piglets, whom, when he left the house, saw an old man who adopted a pig)]: Sadetsky 1973:342-358; Romanians [the king asks his three daughters what to bring them from the city; the eldest two ask for outfits; the youngest is singing walnut leaf; an invisible voice promises to give him what will be the first to meet him when she returns; the youngest daughter comes out; the father brings her to a certain place and she disappears from sight; finds herself in the underworld, where the prince must spend another 6 years in fear of the dragon; a year later she gave birth to a son and came to see her family; when she comes pregnant for the fourth time, she talks about her happiness, and she gives a candle and tells her to look at her sleeping husband; he says that he has now lost three-quarters of his strength; tells his wife that she will not give birth before he puts his hand on her stomach; cloud takes him away; the wife goes to the moon (she gives a golden fork), to St. Friday (headscarf), St. Sunday (golden hen with chickens; tells us where the prince and the dragon live); the dragon buys items for permission to spend the night with the prince, adds a sleepy potion; for the third time, the prince hears a wife who gives birth to gold-haired twins; a prince brews a dragon in resin; they return home, taking older children left to the prince's sisters on the way]: Bîrlea 1966:420-422; Serbs [queen asks God for a son, even a snake; 22 years later, the serpent asked him to marry any girl; his parents offered him to choose himself; he pointed to a poor girl; his wife is soon pregnant; mother-in-law persuaded me to confess: at night, snakes become handsome; my mother-in-law advised me to take the skin at night and give it to her through the window; burned her skin; husband: you'll see me when you foot iron shoes and an iron staff; and You can give birth when I forgive you; wife has been pregnant for three years; went in search; came to the mother of the Sun Girl; she hid her; the Sun feels the human spirit; the Sun sent for the Month; the mother of the Sun gave a golden spinning wheel; the same; the Month sent to the Wind; the mother of the Month gave a golden hen with chickens; Wind: your husband is king in another kingdom, married; the mother of the Wind gave a gold loom; Wind: lay out your gifts there in front of the palace; gives them to the queen three nights in turn with her husband; she gives her husband a sleepy potion; on the third night, the servant told the king, who quietly poured out the potion; the wife immediately gave birth to a boy with golden hands and hair; all three of them returned to their country]: Karadzic 1854, No. 10:81-891 (=Eschker 1992, No. 4:34-40); Gagauz people [childless old woman sends her husband to find a child; he brings a pig; a pig tells him to marry a boyar's daughter; the boyar tells him to create a golden bridge, a garden with golden apples; everything appears; tells the house to stand on the water - the house stands; the boyar gives his daughter; at the wedding, the pig sheds his pigskin, becomes handsome; at night the wife throws her skin into the fire; the husband puts a hoop on her belt, only his hand will take it off, only then the wife will be born ; she comes to Duma-báb (makes sure no one spins on Friday), who refers to her sister Pazar-bab (watches on Sunday); she gathers birds; only a lame bird saw the woman's husband at Jade b ábu (witch); P. gives him a gold spinning wheel, arshin, reel - sell J. for the right to spend the night with a guy; J. puts him to sleep for two nights, his wife cannot wake up; on the third night, the maid told the guy not to drink potions; he takes off his wife's belt, she gives birth to a boy, all three return home]: Syrf 2013:149-153; Hungarians (synopsis of Hungarian versions) [the royal (living in the castle) couple is childless, wants a child, even if it is a snake; sometimes a son is born as a snake because of the witchcraft of a witch; a serpent grows up and demands that a princess be married to him; two express their disgust, are killed by a snake; the third is good; at night, the serpent turns into a prince; the wife is pregnant; the village witch or mother-in-law advises to burn the snakeskin; the prince grieves that his wife did not wait for the spell to expire, disappears; the wife will find him when she plants wheat seeds and chestnuts, irrigates them with her tears, bakes bread and bread from ripe chestnuts; this will take 7 years and she will travel for another 7 years in search of her husband; her husband girds her iron hoop: she will not be born until he touches her belly with his hand; wife: no one will wash the blood stains on your shirt but me; some sisters feel sorry for the girl, their sons Sun, Month and Wind show her the way; she gets a golden spindle, spindle and yarn; her husband is married to another princess, hunts all day; the girl is hired as a laundress; for three gold items she buys 3 nights with a prince, but the first days he is intoxicated with sleeping pills and she can't get to him; on the third evening, the servant tells him what he saw and heard, the prince pours out wine; the wife gives birth to a gold-haired boy or twins; they are 7 years old, they play in the couple's bedroom; the new wife (and her witch mother) are punished; the old key found is better than the new one]: Dégh 1990:49-50.

Central Europe. Ukrainians (Transcarpathia) [the mother in her hearts wished her son to turn into a snake; the king is blind, he will be healed by water from a spring; only the youngest daughter decides to take water, although the voice of the snake is from the spring promises to make her his wife for this; the king leaves his daughter in a separate room, crawls at night, sheds her skin, becomes handsome; the family stole, burned the skin; the husband disappears, saying that the wife does not will be born until he puts two fingers on her; only the Third Wind directs her to the Black Sea; gives her a valek, he must be given to Snake's new wife to wash her shirt from blood in exchange for permission to sleep with her husband night; the second wife puts her husband to sleep; the same on the second night (for a golden hen with chickens); the servant tells her husband everything, he does not drink potions; the third gift is gold yarn and a spindle; the wife gives birth to two boys , one has golden curls; he grows up, is led by a frog, turns into a beauty; she is carried away by a 12-headed Serpent; a snake kills the wind, but the girl must be a frog for three days; the father shot his son , because she does not see his bride; the bride revives him with living and dead water]: Verkhovyna's Tales 1970:265-271 (=Day 1981:98-106).