The other brother goes there, and perceives that their mother is
quite dead. He did not know what to do. They both go into the garden,
and there they make a great hole and bury her.
They then burn the house, go into the woods, see the witches, cure the
king's daughter, whom one of them marries, and they live happily. [66]
It is possible that this first part may be a narrative of fact. We knew
at Asté, near Bagnères de Bigorre, a brother, an idiot "crétin," who
deliberately began to chop up his sister (also an idiot and "crétin"),
who offered no resistance. He had chopped off several of her fingers,
when they were accidently interrupted. In spite of the blood and pain,
she was only laughing at it.
We have another tale of this kind, which may be also founded on fact,
so sad is often the condition of the crétins in the mountains. It is
of a mother and her imbecile son; he nearly kills himself by chopping
off the branch of the tree on which he was sitting. Then he believes
himself dead, and commits various other follies. His mother thinks a
wife might be able to take care of him, and tells him to cast sheeps'
eyes at the young girls coming out of church after mass. He takes
this literally, cuts out the eyes of all their flock, and so kills
their sheep, the only thing they had, and throws these at the girls,
who are disgusted, and quarrel with him. He goes home, and mother
and son end their lives together in wretchedness.