The Water-Fairies save a Child
Pedro was a trader in birds, and travelled long distances to buy and sell them, and as he often had some left he carried them home to keep until next market day. Pedro had six children, one of whom was a boy named Yakob, and the others were all girls. When Pedro was leaving the town one day for a trading journey to a very distant market, he said to his people: “There are some birds in that house, and if any one lets them out and loses them I will kill him.”
Soon after his father was gone Yakob thought he would like to look at the birds, so went and pushed open the door to peep in, and as he did so the birds flew out and escaped to the forest. Yakob went crying to his mother, and told her what he had done. His mother chided him for disobeying his father’s orders.
By and by Pedro returned from his journey, and, going to the house where he had left his birds, he found they were gone. He was very angry, and wanted to know who had let his birds out of the house, and on being told it was Yakob, he took the boy, killed him, and threw his body in the river. Some Water-fairies found the body and restored it to life, and nursed the boy, fed him, and kept him with them until he grew to be a young man.
One day the Water-fairies said to him: “Yakob, you had better go for a walk and see the country.” So he took his biti[[71]] and went walking and playing his instrument. He met his sisters, and began to sing: “That which the father had cut and thought he had killed, stand out of the way, girls, and let him pass.” But the sisters did not recognize him--they simply smiled at him for his song. He told them who he was, and they returned to their town and told their mother and father that they had seen and spoken with their brother, but their father said: “Oh, no, it was not your brother, it was only a passer by.”
Yakob went back to his fairy mothers, and told them that he had seen his sisters, and then he gathered his things together and asked permission to return to his own people. They gave him some fine cloths to wear, and various bells, which they tied on him, so that when he walked the bells tinkled and made a pleasant sound; then they gave him a cane, and said: “When you reach the stream you hit that place and the other place.” Yakob said: “I thank you with all my heart.” So, bidding them good-bye, he started for his town with only three servants.
When Yakob reached the stream he did as he was told, and on beating one place, out came a band of trumpeters with ivory and brass trumpets. He hit the other place, and out came a fine hammock and carriers. He got into the hammock and sent messengers to tell the chief that he was approaching.
The chief spread his carpet and sat in his chair amid the clapping of his people, and in a short time the sound of the trumpet was heard and the carriers trotted up with Yakob’s hammock, spread his carpet and arranged his chair, and then Yakob alighted from his hammock and sat down amid the shouting, drumming, and clapping of the people.
On taking his seat, Yakob said: "I am your son whom you killed. What you threw away the Water-fairies picked up, and they have nursed me and kept me until this day. There is a proverb which says: ‘If the Leopard gives birth to a palm-rat he does not eat it.’ You should have punished me for breaking your law, but you should not have killed me." The father was astonished, and went and kneeled crying before his son, and said: “My child, forgive me, for I have done wrong.”
Yakob’s mother was glad to see her son again; he dressed her in fine cloth, and built his own village close by his parents’.