The Cross-Surety

William Ralston Shedden-Ralston (1828-1889) was a British folklorist and writer who became famous as a translator from Russia. He was in Russia a number of times where he made friends with major Russian writers of those times such as Turgenev and Afanasyev.

This classical Russian fairy-tale that was collected and translated by William Ralston Shedden-Ralston. The story tells us about big friendship and honesty between two merchants. One of them was a Russian, the other a Tartar, both of them were rich. But after an accident that ruined all business of Russian merchant he was left as poor as a rat without any means of livelihood. In order to support his own friend Tartar borrowed him fifty thousand rubles. The guarantee of repay was a word of honor and a life-giving cross of the Russian merchant.