Translation:Collection of Slavic Folk Tales/XXVI

XXVI

LAZINESS PUNISHED

(BULGARIAN TALE)

In the days when people were good, they had command over all living and even inanimate things. It is said that everything changed when people became wicked.

For example, a man who cut wood and stacked it only needed to touch it with a stick, and the wood would move in the direction he indicated.

But one day, a woman who had cut wood and was driving it along in this way grew tired of walking beside the bundle. She sat on it, and the wood refused to move. The woman grew angry and began striking it left and right, but in vain; the wood stubbornly refused to budge. At that moment, a voice rose and said:

“Woman, since you have been lazy and wicked, instead of being carried by this bundle, you will carry it.”

And the woman was forced to untie her belt and strap the wood to her back.