This short judgment tale was recorded in July 1896 from Pylyp Opalenko in Voronovo, in the former Ung county, and published by Volodymyr Hnatiuk in the first volume of his ethnographic materials from Hungarian Rus'. It belongs to the popular cycle of stories about Solomon's judgments, where wisdom appears through a compact practical test.

The source title calls the two disputants жебраки, rendered here as "beggars." The translation keeps the source's social label visible while avoiding contemptuous framing: the tale itself turns on two poor men sharing a horse and cart on the road.

Several local cart and foal terms are rendered by contextual English equivalents in the translation. The source forms are preserved below in the source text, and the colophon notes the translation choices.

King Solomon asked God for wisdom, so that he might rule over all people. Whoever came to him with a dispute, King Solomon settled it.

Two beggars had joined forces: one had a horse, and the other had a little cart, and the two of them rode together in the wagon. Then the mare had a little one, and it tumbled under the little cart. One of the beggars began to say that his cart had had a foal.

The beggars began to quarrel so much that they even began to fight, since no one could settle the matter for them. So they went to King Solomon and each one told his complaint. The king heard that the foal belonged to the one whose mare it was, while the other, even before the king, kept arguing that his cart had had the foal.

The king said to him, "You fool! Your cart would not have had a foal if it had given birth; it would have had only little carts. Whatever the creature is, so is its mother."

Recorded in July 1896 from Pylyp Opalenko in Voronovo, Ung county.

Hnatiuk's parallel note says that this fragment belongs to the cycle of tales called the Judgments of Solomon, and cites Ivan Franko, Pypin, and Tikhonravov.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from Volodymyr Hnatiuk's Етноґрафічні материяли з Угорської Руси. Том I. Лєґенди і новелї, published in Lviv in 1897 as Етноґрафічний збірник, volume III. The translated unit is legend 15, Соломон розсуджує жебраків, printed on page 49.

The English was translated directly from the source-language text, using the OCR only as a navigation aid and checking the text against the source-page image from the scanned PDF. No existing English translation was used as the base.

Dialect note: тильіґа / тильіґатку is rendered as "cart" / "little cart"; жерибйа and гашьа are both rendered as "foal"; and покарбульало пут тильіґу is rendered contextually as "tumbled under the little cart." These are reader-facing contextual translations, not full dictionary glosses. The source forms are preserved in the source text below.

Source route: Internet Archive identifier etnohr_03-1; source image checked at IA PDF page 66 / printed page 49. The underlying 1897 source is public-domain-era under the Good Works Library's United States operating posture.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Соломон розсуджує жебраків

Ukrainian/Rusyn source text from Volodymyr Hnatiuk's 1897 Етноґрафічні материяли з Угорської Руси. Том I. Лєґенди і новелї, legend 15, printed page 49. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

15. Соломон розсуджує жебраків.

Соломон царь упросіў собі мудрость уд Бога нат усїми людьми управльати. Хто у якуй вині прийшоў, того розправіў Соломон царь. Та двайі жебраки у йидно сьа іспрьагли: йиден маў коньа, а другий тильіґатку, та сьа обайі возили на возі. І так тота кобіла мала маленькойи; та сьа покарбульало пут тильіґу. І тот жебрак пучьаў казати, жи то його тильіґа мала жерибйа. Жебраки сьа почали вадити на тулько, жи почали сьа й бити, іш то йіх ніхто ни муг розправити. І забрали сьа до Соломона царьйа і ісказали вину, тот і тот. Царь чуу, жи того гашьа, чийа йи кобіла, а сесь і коло царьйа противить ся, жи то його тильіґа мала гашьа. Каже му царь: Ти дурний! твойа тильіґа ни мала би була гашьа, кидь була би сьа укотила, лем маленькі тильішки, бо йака створа йи, такой мати.

Зап. в липни, 1896, від Пилипа Опаленка, в Воронові, Унґварської столиці.

Паралєлї: Отсей відривок належить до циклю оповідань, званих судами Соломоновими. Пор.: Др. Іван Франко, Апокріфи старозавітні. Ст. 285-288 [Памятки українсько-руської мови і лїт. Т. І. 1896]. - Пыпин, Памятники старинной русской литературы. Т. III. Ст. 56-57. - Найобширнїйший текст "Судів Соломонових" находять ся у Тихонравова: Памятн. отреченной русской литературы. Т. I. Ст. 259-272.

Source Colophon

Source witness: Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Етноґрафічні материяли з Угорської Руси. Том I. Лєґенди і новелї, Lviv, 1897, printed page 49. Internet Archive identifier: etnohr_03-1, https://archive.org/details/etnohr_03-1.

The source page was checked against the source-page image of IA PDF page 66. The source transcription is lightly normalized from OCR against the page image and is intended as a verification witness, not a full diplomatic edition.

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