The young lady says to him, "Yes." One of the young men remains
then. He passes the evening in great delight, and when the hour comes
for going to bed, the young lady says to him:
"When you were small you were a choir-boy, and they used to powder you;
this smell displeases me in bed. Before coming there you must comb
yourself. Here is a comb, and when you have got all the powder out,
you may come to bed."
Our lad begins then to comb his hair, but never could he get all the
powder out, such quantities came out, and were still coming out of
his head; and he was still at it when the young lady rose. The lad
said to her:
"What! you are getting up before I come."
"And do you not see that it is day? I cannot stop there any
longer. People will come."
Our young man goes off home without saying a word more. He meets his
comrade who was to pass the night with this young lady. He says to him:
"You are satisfied? You amused yourself well?"
"Yes, certainly, very well. If the time flies as fast with you as it
did with me you will amuse yourself well."
He goes off then to this house. The young lady says to him, after he
had had a good supper:
"Before going to bed you must wash your feet. The water will be here in
this big copper; when you have them quite clean you may come to bed."
Accordingly he washes one, and when he has finished washing the other,
the first washed is still black and dirty. He washes it again, and
finds the foot that he has just well washed very dirty again. He kept
doing like that for such a long time. When the young lady gets up,
the gentleman says to her:
"What! You are getting up already, without me coming?"
"Why did you not then come before day? I cannot stay any longer in
bed. It is daylight, and the people will begin (to come)."
Our young man withdraws as the other had done. Now it is the turn of
her husband. She serves him still better than the others; nothing
was wanting at his supper. When the hour for going to bed arrives,
they go to the young lady's room; when they are ready to get into bed,
the young lady says to him:
"Put out the light."
He puts it out, and it lights again directly. He puts it out again,
and it lights again as soon as it is put out. He passes all the night
like that in his shirt, never being able to put out that light. When
daylight is come, the young lady says to him:
"You do not know me then? You do not remember how you left your wife
to go and fetch a priest?"
As soon as she had said that he strikes his head, and says to her:
"Only now I remember all that--up to this moment I was as if I had
never had a wife at all--how sorry I am; but indeed it is not my fault,
not at all. I never wished it like that, and it is my old aunt who
kissed me twice without my knowing it."
"It is all the same now. You are here now. You have done penance
enough; your friends have done it too. One passed the whole night
getting powder out of his head, and the other in washing his feet,
and they have not slept with me any more than you have. At present
you must go into your country, and you must get a priest. He shall
baptize me, and then we will go into your country."
The husband goes off and returns with the priest, and she is baptized,
and they set out for his country. When they have arrived there,
she touched the earth with her stick, and says to it:
"Let there be a beautiful palace, with everything that is needed
inside it, and a beautiful garden before the house."
As soon as it is said, it is done. They lived there very rich and
very happy with the old mother of the lad, and as they lived well
they died well too.
Laurentine Kopena.