"I must go and charm this newly-born infant."
She takes up a stone under the hearth, and takes from under it a
saucepan, in which there was an ointment. She takes a brush, and well
rubs herself over her whole body, saying, [67]
"Under all the clouds and over all the hedges, half an hour on the
road, another half-hour there, and another to return."
As soon as she had said that, off she went. When the man saw that
she was gone, he comes out of his room. He had seen what she did. He
anoints himself like her, and says,
"Over the clouds, and under the hedges"--(he made a blunder there
[68])--"a quarter of an hour to go there, half an hour to stop,
and a quarter of an hour for the return."
He arrives at his house, but torn to pieces by the thorns, and
his clothes in strips, but that was all the same to him; he places
himself behind the door of his wife's bedroom with a big stick. There
comes a great white cat, "Miau, miau!" [69] When the man heard that,
he goes out of the place where he was hiding, and with his stick he
almost killed this cat, and set out directly afterwards for the inn,
but not easily, under all the hedges. In spite of that, he arrives at
the woman's house. He goes to bed quickly. The next day, when he gets
up, he sees only the daughter. He asks her where her mother is. "She
is ill, and you must pay me."
"No! I prefer to see your mother."
He goes to the mother, and finds her very ill. From this day he goes
no more to that inn. When he gets home, he tells his wife what had
happened, and how he had saved the child. But all was not ended
there. They had misfortune upon misfortune. All their cows died,
and all their other animals too. They were sinking into the deepest
misery. [70] They did not know what would become of them. This man
was brooding sadly in thought, when he met an old woman, who asked him
what was the matter with him. He told her all his troubles, how many
misfortunes they had had--all his cows lost. He had bought others,
and they too had died directly. He is charmed by witches.
"If you are like that you have only to put a consecrated taper under
the peck measure in the stable, and you will catch her."
He does as the old woman told him, and hides himself in the manger. At
midnight she comes under the form of a cat, and gets astride the
ox, saying:
"The others before were fine, but this is very much finer."
When our man heard that he comes out from where he was hiding, and
with his stick he leaves her quite dead; although when he had done
that our man was without any resources; (he had) neither bread,
nor maize, nor cows, nor pigs, and his wife and children were starving.
He goes off to see if he can do anything. There meets him a gentleman,
who says to him:
"What is the matter, man, that you are so sad?"
"It is this misery that I am in that torments me so."
"If you have only that, we will arrange all that if you like. I will
give you as much money as you wish, if at the end of the year you
can guess, and if you tell me with what the devil makes his chalice;
and if you do not guess it then your soul shall be for us."
When our man has got his money, he goes off home without thinking at
all of the future. He lived happily for some time with his wife and
child; but as the time approached he grew sad, and said nothing to his
wife. One day he had gone a long way, wishing and trying to find out
his secret, and the night overtakes him. He stops at a cross-roads, and
hides himself. (You know that the witches come to the cross-roads [71]
to meet together.) They come then, "hushta" from one side, "fushta"
from the other, dancing. When they had well amused themselves like
that, they begin to tell each other the news. One says:
"You do not know, then, such a man has sold his head to the devil;
certainly he will not guess with what the devil makes his chalice. I
do not know myself; tell it me."
"With the parings of the finger-nails which Christians cut on the
Sunday."
Our man with difficulty, with great difficulty, kept from showing
himself, through his joy and delight. As soon as the day appeared
all the witches went off to their homes, and our man too went off to
his. He was no more sad. He waited till the day arrived, and went to
the cross-roads. This gentleman was already there, come with a lot
of devils, thinking that he would be for hell. He asks him:
"You know what the devil makes his chalice of?"
"I do not know, but I will try. With the parings of the finger-nails
which Christians cut on Sundays?"
As soon as he heard that, the devil goes off with all the others
in fire and flame to the bottom of hell. Our man went off home, and
lived a long time with his wife and daughter. If they had lived well,
they would have died well too.