Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/221

noticed that one of the creatures had escaped destruction by clinging with its feet to the wicker- work. “Well,” she considered, “I did ask for one. I will make a pet of this beetle, which, after all, is my child.” So she took the insect home and made a pet of it. It grew bigger and bigger, and in time, to the mother’s joy, developed into a dark maiden whom she named Khûneyfseh.^[1] The creature, however, was a ghûleh, one of the most dreadful enemies of the human race; and she was rapidly growing big and strong. At length, upon a day, her mother bade her take four loaves of bread and a plate of leben to her supposed father who was ploughing. The monster ate up the bread and the leben on her way, and when she came up to the ploughman she swallowed him and his yoke of oxen. Then she returned, and said to her mother, “I have devoured the four loaves and the leben, as well as the ploughman and his oxen, shall I also swallow you and the dough which you are kneading?” “Do so,” replied her mother, who thought her precious child was only jesting. The ghûleh at once gobbled up her mother, the dough, and the kneading trough. She went next to her grandmother who was spinning, and said, “Grandmother, I have eaten the four loaves and the leben, the ploughman with his yoke of oxen, the troughful of the dough with its kneader. Shall I eat you?” “Do so, my child, if you like,” said the old woman, and was instantly devoured together with her spinning wheel. Then Khûneyfseh went out of