XII
Asphurtzela[1]
There was, and there was not at all (of God’s best may it be!), there was once a woman. This woman’s husband had died young, and left her four little children: three boys and one girl.
When the children were grown up, their mother said: ‘Children, why do you not look after your patrimony? why do you leave it thus abandoned?’ The children did not know anything about this patrimony, and asked their mother where it was. The mother told them that it was in such and such a place, but the children would have to go a long way. They asked their mother: ‘Since it is so far, when we go to work, who will bring us our food and drink?’ The mother answered: ‘I shall send your sister with your food.’
The brothers were pleased with their mother’s proposal, and made ready to start. Their mother gave them onion and garlic with them, and said: ‘As you are going along, cut the skin off and drop it: when your sister brings your food she will see it, and know where to find you.’
The brothers went to work, and on the path they threw down the skins as their mother had suggested.
Near this path there lived a devi with a hundred heads. Once the devi’s mother saw the onion peelings strewed on the path; she collected them all, and put them on the road leading to her house. Three days passed, and the mother thought that her sons’ food must be nearly finished. She prepared some more for them, put it in a bag, gave it to her daughter, and sent her to her brothers. The girl set out and followed the onion peelings.
She went on and on and came to a house. In the house was seated an old woman. The girl cried out: ‘Mother, mother, canst thou tell me if my brothers are working here?’ ‘What dost thou want with thy brothers here?’ said the old woman. ‘This is the house of a devi with a hundred heads; he will soon be coming home, so I had better hide thee, for if he sees thee he will eat thee.’
The devi’s mother took the maiden and hid her. The devi appeared, no one knows whence. He carried dead game and firewood. He unbound them from his back, went in, and said: ‘Mother, I smell a man! Who has come hither?’ ‘Why dost thou ask?’ said the old woman; ‘for fear of thee bird cannot fly in heaven, nor can worm creep on earth.’ The devi insisted, and his mother at last gave way, and said: ‘I have here a maiden whom I wish thee to marry; if thou wilt not eat her, I will let thee see her.’ The son promised, and his mother brought the girl out. When the devi saw her, he liked her very much, and did not eat her.
The brothers waited and waited for their sister, and when she did not come they rose and went home. They reproached their mother, saying: ‘Why hast thou not sent us food?’ When their mother heard them say this, she began to weep, and said: ‘Near the road dwells a hundred-headed devi, and I fear that he—may he be cursed!—has eaten her.’ The brothers did not know of this devi, and when they heard about him they arose and went forth to deliver their sister.