The Witches and the Idiots.
Once upon a time there were two brothers, the one an idiot, and the other a fool. They had an old mother, old, old, very old. One morning early the elder arranges to go with his sheep to the mountain, and he leaves the fool at home with his old, old, mother, and said to him:
“I will give my mother some chocolate now, and you will give her a hot bath (afterwards), quite, quite, hot.”
He goes to the mountain with his sheep. The second son put the water on to boil, and said to his mother:
“My mother, the water is hot, what bath would you like?”[4]
She says to him:
“A bath with wood-ashes.”
And he carries it to the bed while it is boiling; and as she did not get up, he said to her:
“Would you like a little broth?” And she said “Yes.”