[6] This obscure incident will be better understood by referring to p. 50 of Carnoy et Nicolaïdes (Traditions de l’Asie Mineure).
[7] Cf. Carnoy et Nicolaïdes, p. 77.
[8] Kvevri = a large wine-jar which is kept buried in the earth up to the neck.
[9] Cf. Carnoy et Nicolaïdes, p. 81.
[10] Cf. Carnoy et Nicolaïdes: Traditions de l’Asie Mineure, p. 43, ‘Le Fils du Laboureur,’ and p. 75, ‘Les trois Robes.’
XIII
The Shepherd and the Child of Fortune
There was and there was not at all, there was a man who had a wife. They possessed great wealth, but had no child. Once the woman said to her husband: ‘Come, let us place young bullocks in our churches, and at night let some one watch, perhaps God will look down upon us and give us a child.’ The husband approved of this idea, and placed bullocks in five churches.
Then they went into one of the churches, killed a bullock, gave it to their shepherd, and said: ‘Go, take this bullock’s flesh and give it to the poor; do thou remain in the church all night and watch. Listen very carefully.’ The shepherd went away and gave the bullock’s flesh to the poor; then he went into the church, and remained the whole night watching, but he heard not a word relating to his master’s childlessness.