Translation:Collection of Slavic Folk Tales/IV

THE WICKED WOMAN

(RUSSIAN TALE)

There was once a wicked woman; she lived badly with her husband; she listened to him in nothing. If he told her to get up earlier, she stayed three days in a row in bed. If he asked her to cook pancakes, she shouted at him:

"You fool! You don't deserve pancakes."

"Then don't make any, since I don't deserve them."

Immediately she made two whole buckets of batter and stuffed her husband with it.

"Eat, wretch, eat! Everything must be eaten."

He did nothing but argue with her. One day, tired, he went into the woods to look for strawberries: he arrived near a currant bush, under this currant bush, he saw a bottomless pit; he looked and reflected.

"What's the point of living with a wicked woman and spending my whole life arguing? Since I can't educate her, let's send her into that hole."

He returns home.

"Don't go, my wife, looking for strawberries in the forest."

"I'll go right away."

"I found a currant bush; don't pick any currants."

"I'll pick everything. I won't leave a single berry for you."

The husband goes into the woods; his wife follows him; they arrive at the currant bush, the wife runs to it and shouts at her husband:

"Don't come near, thief, I'll kill you!"

She advances… Crash! There she goes, fallen into the bottomless abyss.

The husband returned home; he spent three days without his wife; on the fourth, he came to see what had become of her; he took a long rope, let it fall into the hole, and pulled it back. What does he see? A little devil that had clung to the rope. He was afraid; he would have liked to throw the little devil back into the hole.

But the impure spirit cried out in a pitiful voice:

"Good man! Don't throw me back into the hole: let me reach the earth. We had a visit from a wicked woman; she bites us, she pinches us. It's enough to make you sick of life. I'll pay you well."

The peasant took pity on him and pulled him out.

"Peasant," said the little devil, "come with me to the city of Vologda. I'll make people sick, and you, you'll heal them."

And the little devil began to torment the wives and daughters of the merchants; they became mad and sick. The peasant passed himself off as a doctor. Wherever he was called, as soon as he set foot on the threshold, the impure spirit fled: the sick were healed; sorrow turned into universal joy. The peasant was at the height of happiness; they gave him money, they fed him little pies.

One day the little devil said:

"I've had enough of you, peasant; I'm going to the daughter of a rich man: be careful not to heal her, I'll swallow you."

The young girl fell, indeed, ill; she was seized with such madness that no one could even approach her. Her servants threw themselves on the peasant, grabbed him, and forced him into the house.

"Heal her," they shouted; "otherwise we'll make you die."

What to do? The peasant resolved to resort to cunning.

He ordered all the coachmen, the grooms, to run through the street, in front of the house, cracking their whips and shouting with all their might:

"The wicked woman has arrived! The wicked woman has arrived!"

And he went up into the house.

As soon as he saw him, the little devil flew into a rage, and cried out:

"What do you want, fool? Wait a bit, I'll get you."

"What's that?" replied the peasant. "I came to warn you that the wicked woman has returned."

The devil jumps to the window; he wipes his eyes; he pricks up his ears. In the street, they shout at the top of their voices:

"The wicked woman has come! The wicked woman has come!"

"My good friend, where can I hide?"

"Go back to your hole. She won't show up there anymore."

The devil rushes into it: no one heard from him again. As for the young girl, she recovered, went off to dance and sing songs. Her father, in reward, gave the peasant half his wealth. And the wicked woman? She is still in the hole.