Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-03-26
THE W1TCH'S CITADEL.
By CARMEN SYLVIA Queen of Rou-
mania.
[Copy right, 1895, by the Author. ]

| w HeH you ascend the valley OF the
Carpathians, from the rapid stream Of
the Prahova river, the mountain, Baba
Cetatia, or the Witch's Citadel, is CON
cealed from view, as it lies behind the
Bulegi, where it rises conelike, and has
the appearance of being covered with
ruins on it's summit.
Beyond these ruins extend afar the
regions of perpetual snow, which are
bounded by the Businesses of the Jipi,
or twin mountains. A very, very long
time ago, at that period when the lion
would lie down with the lamb and
when the fierce eagle would made with
the tender dove, there stood there q
proud and lordly castle which was the
center of continual movement. Many
persons came and went the long day
through, and active feet frequently
crossed its threshold. A brilliant light
burned there throughout the night, and
above the constant humming OF spin
die might be heard the chanting Of o
sweet, weirdlike melody
The passersby would glance upward
with looks of terror, while they muir
INJURED, ''She is still at her spinning,
then!" For the Bahia, or witch, was the
keeper of the castle and was wicked
old sorceress, to whom the gnomes
brought nightly huge nuggets of gold,
gathered from the bowels of the earth,
From this gold it was that she spun the
beteela, or long streams of gold thread,
which form the head adornment of ev
cry Roumanian bride during the mar
riage ceremony.
Many bushels Of gold We're measured
and sorted by her at dead of night, and
woe to the unlucky earth spirit whose
measure was found wanting for he must
expiate his fault by being thrust be-
twixt the trunk and bark Of gigantic
forest oak, which held and pressed him
until he rendered up the last grain Of
the precious metal, or perhaps he would
be affixed to tree by his beard and
might writhe and shrek to his heart s
content, for the Bahia would turn deaf
ear to ali lamentations. Because of this
hardness of character, and also because
her exterior was as hard and dry and as
wrinkled and gnarled as a knotted oak,
she had been surnamed Baba Coaia, or
Old Mother Bark.
Twas she alone who possessed the Sc
cret gift of spinning these beteela, of
which she had prepared and laid up SO
large store that it would suffice for
many centuries to come.
p This Baba Coaja was blessed with a
sweet young daughter named Alba, q
maiden of surprising beauty, white as
the snow which spread its eternal man
tie over the mountains summit. Deli
cate as the bloom on ripening peach
was her cheek, her soft brown eyes like
velvet, and her hair more golden than
the threads spun by her terrible mother.
Alba was always kept carefully con-
cealed from the sight of men, for the
Bahia feared that any one, on seeing her,
should ask her hand in marriage, and
that she might thus be deprived of her
. chief aid, for Alba was skillful and
, lightened her labor. She it was who
wound off the wefts of thread and ar,
ranged it IN piles, each pile of which
contained sufficient beteela for tbs
needs of brides for century to come,
Her task was wearisome the moro sc
because her mother, while she spun,
chanted the most terrible maledictions
and evil wishes to fall on the heads OF
, the brides who were destined to weai
t these beteela.
f Alba's heart was heaving when she
3 thought with sorrow of all the adver-
sity which was being prepared before
hand for innocent heads, and she SCI
about to form a plan for averting it.
During the absence of her mother one
day she placed herself at the spindle
and spun a whole piece of gold, hel
mind only occupied the while with
e wishes for happiness and good fortune
a for those who might wear it. On hel
e return Bahia Coaja soon discovered this,
J. and fiinging herself III n great rage upor
her daughter and beating her threw on
= the ground III heap all the golden
wells, crying out:
Never shalt thou marry until thou
hast singled out thy own work from
among that of the rest. y The Bahia Ii
reality was very glad to have found !;
pretext for keeping her daughter witt
g her, more especially as it had been fore
told that Alba was destined to misfor-
tune and an early death.
d This lovely child was the sole creature
in the whole world whom she loved, but
s is spite of the efforts she now made tC
: render Alba contented and happy, and
the costly gifts lavishod on her, nothing
could bring back the color to her cheek:
or the light to her eyes, for the only
boon which she craved, her liberty, wa:
now denied to her.
e With ardent longing she desired,
were it but for an hour or two, to stroll
S under the shade Of the majestic ole
c trees which grew and spread out theil
g branches at the foot of the mountain, OIL
:. whose summit she vegetated.
:. Here, on the high peak, only shor
- stubbly grass meagerly clothed its blacl
W crest, and here the cruel winter time
d was of much longer duration than thai
of summer She grew sad and detected
as the wind howled and stormed, shak
, ing the old castle to its very foundation
and she would sit for hours gazing into
;+-