Surreal European Stories, From A Roma

First story about Zoltan and a Magic Violin

Zoltán and His Magic Violin

 

A long time ago, in those flat open spaces in the Hungarian countryside known as the Puszta, there was a Romani Gypsy village. All of the Romani families were notorious hard workers, that is , all except Zoltán. 

Zoltán lived with his sister Sabina, who was also a widow, and her three children. 

Sabina originally had wanted Zoltán to live with her to help her around the house, and with the children, but all Zoltán wanted to do was play pranks on her, and the other villagers, and when not doing that, Zoltán liked to sleep under the night sky and count the many stars over the wide open Puszta. 

On one particular day, Zoltán followed Sabina, unbeknownst to her, into a nearby wood where she was gathering sticks and berries. She was was engrossed in her work, and even started to hum a happy czardas as she knelt in the brush, picking berries and putting them in her basket. 

Zoltán hid behind a tree, and just when she got up to brush the leaves and debris from her apron, Zoltán jumped out and startled poor Sabina, causing her to throw her berries and sticks into the air, scattering them all over the ground. 

" Zoltán, do you do nothing but cause trouble, and terrorize your poor sister? Why don´t you go and find something constructive do, rather than upsetting those who are actually working?" 

She scolded him.  Zoltán only laughed and slapped his knee, and afterwards, went in search of more mischief. 

Zoltán soon came to the house of his cousin, who traded and sold horses for a living. He lived in a small house that had a farmyard, and a pasture for his horses. 

Zoltán´s cousin was standing by the fence surrounding his house, and in his hand he was holding the the tethers attached to three horses he was about to take to a local fair in town to sell them. 

He and Zoltán chatted over the fence for a moment, when the cousin decided that he needed to run inside his house to get something, leaving Zoltán to hld the horses. 

As soon as his cousin´s back was turned, what did that miscievious Zoltán do but let the horses go into the pasture, where they bounded and played, kicking up their hooves, and eventually rolling in a nearby mud puddle. 

When Zoltán´s cousin came out of his house he, was most upset to see his three beautiful clean horses, now rolling in the dirt, and running freely. 

He took off his Gabor hat, and threw it on the ground, uttering many curses as he ran after Zoltán, brandishing a riding crop!!

Zoltán only laughed as usual, and went running off himself, leaving his cousin with the difficult task of having to catch and clean his horses all over again. 

On another ocassion, Zoltán espied some of the children in his village on their way to school, among them were his sister´s children. They  walked along the dirt path,chatting about how they would rather be at home playing outside, than sitting in a stuffy schoolhouse, listening to a strict schoolmarm drone on about their lessons. 

Zoltán told them to follow him, where he took them to the cottage he lived in. 

There, he packed a picnic in a large hamper, and invited them out into a field, where instead of going to school, they all sat on the grass, eating sandwiches and goulash, and running around, turning cartwheels with Zoltán and listening to his stories. 

The local school mistress was furious when she found her students so, and immediately went to speak to Sabina, who had just come back from selling garlic and trinkets in town. 

" Your brother has enticed my students away from their lessons, and now look at them, running about willy-nilly  instead of reading their books and writing their assignments!  That Zoltán of your´s needs discipline more than those children! Why don´t you tell him to get a job, and stop meddling in the affairs of others!"

She yelled at poor Sabina, and it was that day that Sabina decided that the school mistress was right in telling her so, and she went off to the elders of the tribe that evening, to talk to them, and see if anything could be done. 

Sabina went to the house of Kako János, who was the main patriarch of the village, and also happened to be Zoltán´s favorite uncle.

When Sabina got to his house, an angry mob of villagers was already there at the front door of Kako János, some of them brandishing pitchforks, rolling pins, and an ocassional knife. 

Kako János stood on his doorstep, scratching his head, confused as to why they were gathered in front of his house. 

" Where is that meddling Zoltán, I want to make him pay for letting my horses go!" The cousin came forth and said. 

"Zoltán enticed my students away from their lessons, inviting them to play instead of being in school!" The schoolmarm said, also coming forward. 

Still others loudly voiced their complaints about Zoltán´s pranks and mischief.

Sabina stood up in front of all them, and frantically began to appologize on the behalf of Zoltán. 

This was to know avail, and Kako János himself asked the villagers what they thought was the best action to take. 

One villagers with a pitchfork, stepped up, and said :

"Here´s an idea, tell Zoltán that if he doesn´t work, he must be banned from the village." 

All of the others agreed this was the right course of action to follow. 

Sabina and Kako János looked at one another, and with a heavy heart, Kako János agreed that perhaps it was the only way that Zoltán would learn a valuable lesson. 

That night, Sabina brought Kako János back to their cottage, and waited for Zoltán to come home. 

Zoltán came back late, with two pretty peasant girls, one on each arm, and the three of them were laughing and chatting. Sabina and Kako János glared at Zoltán as he came in, and his jovial demeanor vanished when he noticed that neither of them were happy. After Zoltán sent the peasant girls away, Kako János and Sabina made Zoltán sit in a chair, as they explained to him that it was time for Zoltán to leave and make his own way in the world. 

" I am sorry to tell you this Zoltán, but you are being banished from our village on account on your foolish behavior. You may, however, come back if you can procure work, and promise us that you will continue to work for your keep." 

As Kako János spoke, Sabina went in the room Zoltán stayed in, and came back with a bundle attached to a stick. The bundle contained Zoltán´s Sunday best suit and a large loaf of bread wrapped in a handerkerchief. 

When she presented Zoltán with the bundle, tears dropped from Zoltán´s dark eyes, and he now realized to some degree  the seriousness of his actions. 

Sabina told Zoltán that he must make his way towards Budapest, where there was a restaurant where he had yet another cousin working as a waiter, and possibly Zoltán could get a job as well, either waiting tables, or washing dishes, and there would be other work in Budapest as well, if Zoltán looked for it.

Kako János and Sabina led Zoltán out the door of the cottage, and both embraced him affectionately. Before sending their nephew and brother  off, Kako János dropped a few Forints in Zoltán´s hand, telling him to use the money wisely on his journey, and as it was early fall, and the weather was cooling, Sabina took off her very own shawl, and draped it over Zoltán´s shoulders. 

After a few more tears, and embraces, Zoltán, with his bundle over his shoulder, set off for Budapest. 

After walking two or three kilometers, Zoltán decided to stop in one of the fields where the Csikós keep their cattle. Zoltán rested  under a tree, where he took his bread from his bundle, and ate it, and afterward fell asleep, wrapping himself in his sister´s shawl. 

The following day, down the dirt path, Zoltán espied a peddler´s wagon off the side of the road. Zoltán decided to go towards it, to see what the peddler had for sale. 

When Zoltán approached it, he found that the peddler´s wagon had many good things for sale, but the thing that attracted Zoltán´s attention most, was a violin. 

" Jó napot, good sir, is there anything that I can help you with?" 

The peddler  greeted Zoltán. 

" How much for that violin there?" Zoltán asked him, pointing to the violin. 

"Oh, that old violin is quite expensive, let me tell you, for it is no ordinary violin, it is a Stradivarius, and I assure you its the only one in all of Hungary. 

" Its a Stradi- what?" Zoltán asked, for Zoltán knew nothing of things outside of his own village. 

The peddler, changing his story, said:

"Oh, I meant to say that this violin is a "magic" violin,  and that there is not another like it in all of Europe." 

On hearing the word ´magic´, Zoltán got very excited and he greedily demanded to hold it. The peddler told him that he would not show it to him, if Zoltán didn´t show him his Forints first. 

Zoltán put the Forints Kako János had given him on the counter, but on seeing Zoltán´s bundle over his shoulder, he told Zoltán that his measley amount of Forints wasn´t enough. 

Zoltán put his bundle on the counter, and showed the peddler his Sunday´s best suit, and also displayed Sabina´s shawl she had given him. 

The peddler was finally satisfied with these items, and the Forints included, and so he handed Zoltán his purchase, which was really nothing more than an ordinary violin, and was far from being either a Stradivarius, or being magical. 

Zoltán, now left without so much as a Fillér, let alone a change of clothes and the shawl his sister gave him, skipped into the fields of the Puszta, and began to practice his new violin...there was just one problem, and that was Zoltán had never played a violin in his life, though he knew other Roma who played, he himself never learned. 

Zoltán drug the old bow over the creaking strings that had not been tuned in God knows how long, producing the worse sound that ever was heard, much like the scratching of nails upon a chalkboard.

Zoltán paused and tried again, and the same wretched sound ocurred. 

Then, remembering that the violin was ´magic´, Zoltán got the bright idea that perhaps he needed to say an incantation, or perform some kind of spell to activate the violin´s powers. 

Zoltán first tried holding the violin and bow up to the heavens, and said  prayer, then, he respectfully set the violin upon the ground, waiting to see what would happen. Nothing. 

He next spun around in circles three times, and spit upon the ground next to the violin.  Still nothing. 

 Then he decided to perform a ritual that one of the old Chovexanis in his village had taught him, and that was to bury the violin, say an incantation, and lay  flowers or herbs over it, and wait for it to come alive. 

Zoltán did just that, and  after finding a sufficient amont of weeds and flowers, he waited for the violin to levitate to him from the ground, but Zoltán was impatient, and it began to dawn on him that he may have been swindled. 

On thinking on this, his temper rose, and taking his Gabor hat from his head, he threw it on the ground, uttering many curses against the peddler, and all of those in his profession. 

Shortly after Zoltán´s temper tantrum, the earth began to shake, and the violin rose from the ground to Zoltán´s eye level, and just hovered there. 

Zoltán was too shocked to speak, and he turned pale at first, not sure whether to flee, or to have a heart attack. 

Then, all of a sudden the violin played upon itself a lively czardas, and Zoltán now realized that the violin truly was a ´magic´violin. 

Zoltán took the violin, and as if something had possesed him, Zoltán began to play through the violin´s energy. 

" Király!" Zoltán shouted, turning a cartwheel. " Now I can go to Budapest and make money with this magic violin, and all I have to do is make it look like I am the one playing it!" Going down the road, was an old Csikós drving a cart pulled by an ox, and as he was on his way to Budapest for business, Zoltán asked if may hitch a ride with him. The Csikós told Zoltán to hop on the back of the cart, and so he rode to Budapest, with his violin in hand. 

Once in Budapest, Zoltán was amazed by the big city lifestyle. He had never seen such buildings before, and  he looked up in awe at the lovely statues and marveled at the  fountains, and nearly swooned when he saw the beautiful Danube glittering in the twilight  from one of the many bridges spanning the river.  Zoltán soon found the restaurant that his cousin worked at, and to his surprise, it was quite a fancy restaurant. Zoltán went inside, and asked to speak to the manager of the establishment, whilst standing at the mahogany bar. The restaurant was elegantly furnished with wine red velvet drapes, mirrors in golden frames, and   tables set with fine china and  candlelight. The diners were dressed in their finest, and the wait staff were sporting sophisticated uniforms in black and white. 

The manager approached the bar where Zoltán stood, and looked him up and down, from his worn out boots to his tattered, dusty trousers, to his torn calico shirt and his battered Gabor hat, and also the beat up old violin he held. 

" Let me guess, another Gypsy musician from some country village who can play violin, and you want a job no doubt in my restaurant, is that it?"

The manager said to Zoltán sneeringly. 

Zoltán could feel himself getting hot under the collar again, but instead of answering him with a an equally rude retort, he simply positioned his violin under his chin, and let the ´magic´speak for itself. 

The manager rolled his eyes and was about to walk away, but Zoltán played a melancholy classical piece that made even the diners stop dead in their tracks on hearing it. Not one spoon or fork clanged against the dinnerware while Zoltán played. Afterward, the diners and waiters who had been listening gave a round of applause, and the manager of the restaurant stood with his mouth open. 

He immediately grabbed Zoltán by the arm, pulled him to a storeroom, where he supplied him with one of the restaurant´s elegant uniforms for their entertainment, and told Zoltán to play in the diningroom again. 

 In no time at all, Zoltán became a regular fixture at the restaurant, and his name was on everyone´s lips as the best Gypsy musician to play in this side of Budapest, and he also made a lot of Forints. 

After a few months of work, Zoltán saved enough to rent a flat near the restaurant, and  also bought himself nice clothes, and ate in all the best cafés and restaurants, and  frequented the casinos. Life was good for Zoltán, as long as he had his magic violin. 

One night, when Zoltán had been scheduled to play again during the dinner hour in the restaurant, he showed up late. He arrived out of breath, and was still in the process of putting on his uniform vest.  Zoltán positioned his violin as usual under his chin, but instead of the dulcet tones that normally emminated from his instrument, there came a terrible screeching  sound as Zoltán drug the bow over the strings, again like that of nails on a chalkboard. 

All of the diners stopped chatting and eating, and gave Zoltán a mean glare from their tables. Zoltán took an embarrassed gulp, and positioned his violin again, and commenced. 

Still nothing but that accursed screeching poured forth. The manager came out of his office, and asked what was going on, and what was wrong with Zoltán that he couldn´t play. Zoltán tried a third time, as the manager also stood  looking at Zoltán menacingly, his arms folded across his chest, tapping his foot on the floor. The result was the same, and Zoltán was told that his time in the restaurant as their prime violinist was over. The manager of the restaurant grabbed Zoltán by his arm, and without any words, threw him out the backdoor of the restaurant. 

Dejectedly, Zoltán walked back towards his flat, but not before dropping the old violin into a sack of garbage he passed on the street. It wasn´t long after that, that a poor old drunk vagabond happened to be pawing through the garbage, and when he found the violin, it played for him, just as it had played for Zoltán, but Zoltán never knew that. 

Things soon took a turn for the worse for Zoltán, and before he knew it he was back to where he was before, without so much as a Fillér to his name. He was eventually  evicted from his flat, forced to sell the nice possesions he had acquired when he was working, and  what little money he had left, he spent on food and drink. His thoughts also turned towards his old village, and he thought of Kako János and his sister Sabina. Budapest no longer held the enchantment for him it once did, and so, he made his way back to his village.

Zoltán walked most of the way this time, and only stopped ocassionally to beg bread from a peasant or two. He passed by other Roma too, who had their wagons and animals, but he was too ashamed to speak to them, and he walked passed them with his shoulders hunched and his arms folded over his chest, shivering from the cold. Finally, with sore, bleeding feet,  his pants torn to shreds, and his skin cold and dirty, he arrived one chilly morning at his village. His cousin was out on horseback, and as soon as he saw Zoltán in the distance, he trotted over to the house of Kako János and knocked on his door. 

" Zoltán´s back!!" He told him joyfully, and it wasn´t long before the whole village was alerted of Zoltán´s arrival. 

Everyone greeted Zoltán cheerfully, and especially his sister Sabina, who had her children clinging to her skirts as always. Sabina brought Zoltán in the house, and prepared a hot meal for him, while he took a bath and changed into a warm sweater and fresh trousers. 

At dinner, Sabina and Kako János asked Zoltán to tell them of his adventures in Budapest, which he did with much enthusiasm, but when he spoke of the  magic violin, Sabina was highly skeptical, whereas Kako János laughed and chalked it up to one of Zoltán´s many Roma Tales. 

After Zoltán ate, he sat down in a rocking chair, and rested in front of a small stove. Sabina only wanted to know one more thing, before she and her children went to their beds, and that was, had her brother learned anything from his experiences, to which Zoltán replied:

" A rom who does not work, clearly, never eats."

                                                FIN