The Water Rock

Many a fog, rain, wind, and snow were driven onto Ceahlău, but as many the overflowing lights, the beams of rays in the clear sky and of its passionate prince. Just like, in the past, were the joys and sorrows of the people who saw to their daily living, the loneliness of unwillingness or the overwhelming warmth of love. The elders who do not forget their forefathers’ words, say the place called Piatra cu apă [The Water Rock] a sad life story happened once. We need to understand carefully the meaning of this story to this day…

Thus, in the old times, when people around Ceahlău could only live on shepherding and hunting, in a village at the foot of the mountain there lived an extremely wealthy man. Now then, that man, who had everything he needed, could not enjoy sunny days. As he was so ugly and mean, his wish to find a hardworking and beautiful wife was in vain! The land and the huge house were for nothing and so were the things he had and the sheep since he couldn’t enjoy the sweet word, the loving look of a woman, and at night still alone would turn in his bed…

Eventually, he heard of a poor, hardworking and very attractive girl, old enough to be married. What did he think? He harnessed his most handsome horses at his cart, loaded it with several bags of grains, and several small bags of clothes and food, he tied two heifers behind the cart and started on his way to the girl’s parents to ask them their daughter’s hand!

Well, the mean man had heard the poor parents’ stables were empty and so was the yard and that they could not find a way to take poverty out of their house… So, what he did and how, no one knows, but promising to the poor father two more oxen and a purse of gold coins – he managed to find a wife for himself! As the girl, seeing their bitter tears of her parents and of her sisters, who stuck like a burr on her to marry the rich man, so that they could all escape from that poverty, agreed to be the ugly and mean man’s wife and followed him…

For a few years, she was a submissive and obedient wife, but only she knew how much bitterness she was gathering in her heart and how many tears she was shedding secretly as she hated so much his ugly and means husband. And here we are, one summer, wandering for herbs around the Polițelor cu crini [Shelves with lilies] in Mount Ceahlău, she came across her love: she met a handsome, well built young shepherd, who was wandering too in search for a stray sheep…

Now then, if this young shepherd was meant to the miserable wife, they love each other for three summers, in the mountain. The legend also says that even the dog – that would follow its mistress all over the place upon the orders of the money bug, as it was trained to attack any stranger that would dare get near her – watch over the small hollow in the rock where they would live their happiness. But, again no one knows how, the mean and ugly husband did find out in the end! He was furious and foaming, still he did not say a word to his wife! … He paid some loafers though who, as agreed, clubbed to death the young shepherd and threw his body into the abyss under the rock sheltering the nest of their ardent love.

The miserable wife kept coming to look for her lover but to no avail. She would wait for him patiently for an hour or two…

After more than a week, the dog started to yelp and, getting closer to the edge of the abyss, began howling painfully. It made its mistress get closer fearfully. Alas! – she almost fainted with pain! – she could see her lover’s crushed body hanging among few large tree trunks in the “shelves” with “lilies.”

The elders say she never left the spot for three weeks. She kept mourning and her painful and endless screams echoed in the surrounding valleys. Then one night, quietness came down again, shivering in the valley the poor woman had climbed so many times bouncing with love… When people climbed the mountain to find the spot of the terrible misfortunes, in the hollow that once sheltered the two, they could see in awe that there was water dripping – the tears of the eyes that weep the lost love to this day…