A young widower had decided to seek his happiness in marriage for a second time but when he went awooing he must have been half-blind for he brought home a very spiteful damsel.

The young daughter of his first wife, who at the tender age of two had remained motherless, had to withstand a life that was worse than that of their dog. Time passed, and with the new wife having given birth to her own daughter the life of the stepdaughter grew worse still. The motherless one mustered all her strength and bore all the hardship and bitterness with fortitude. She never complained of her misery and only the Almighty in heaven could witness her bitter tears that now and then clouded her eyes.

The cruel cunning stepmother knew how to conceal her spite from people's eyes. She even did a thing or two to make people believe that she took much greater care of her stepdaughter than of her own child. She decked her stepdaughter with everything best whenever the girls went together to church or to some other place where people could set their eyes on them.

In the neighbourhood there lived a wise old woman who could stop babies crying or make them cry at her will. She perceived at once the treatment the stepdaughter had to withstand at home when there were no strangers watching. Whenever the old woman happened to drop in at the neighbours' she would secretly stroke the girl's head and say, "Have patience and don't lose hope! There are better days ahead for you."

However, year after year lapsed and brought no relief, and the motherless one thought that the warm-hearted old woman had only tried to console her with her kind words.

The two little girls had already become fine maidens when one morning a young man crossed the threshold of their house to woo a wife. But to the great distress of the stepmother the suitor had come to woo the motherless one. The stepmother gathered her wits and said, "The girls are still too young to be married off. They will not stand the duties of the married lot and I have no heart to force them to."

But the young man was so anxious to marry the girl and at last it was decided that the wedding bells would ring in half a year. In her heart the stepmother planned to arrange everything so that it would be her daughter who was taken in marriage.

And when in half a year the suitor returned, the stepmother exchanged the girls' dresses and seated them at their spinning wheels in such a way that only their backs could be seen from the threshold. The suitor was met with due tradition and the stepmother said in a treacly voice, "Well, my dear young man, if we are to believe the old saying, your heart should prompt you which of the spinners there is your dear one."

The young man stood up, went straight to the stepdaughter and said, "Though the outfit is false, the inside is true and this one I will claim for my own."

So the stepmother, her heart rent with fury, had nothing to do but to smile at the suitor and give her blessing to the young couple. But as soon as the door had closed on the suitor, she attacked her stepdaughter with furious accusations saying that the girl had secretly made a sign that allowed the young man to recognize her.

On the morning of the wedding day the mother decked her daughter out in fine clothes and swathed her head in silk kerchiefs so that only the tip of the nose could be seen. No wonder that the bridegroom and the wedding guests failed to notice the deception. The mother had also made a straw dummy, dressed it in her daughter's clothes and seated it at the hearth so that everyone who saw it might think that the maiden was to stay behind and do the cooking while her stepsister would be wed at church. The unhappy stepdaughter was sitting under an old overturned barrel in the threshing-barn. A lot of old junk had been piled upon the barrel so that the trap would close firmly upon its poor victim.

The wedding procession had not got far when the neighbouring old woman came to the girl's rescue. She freed the girl from under the barrel and told her to run to church as fast as she could lest she might miss the words of blessing.

The sledge runners under the bride and groom sang all the way to church:

Your own is trapped in the barrel,

Your dear is drooping in trouble.

You're taking a stranger instead

An impostor to enjoy the ride.

The bridegroom asked, "Why are the runners sighing so strangely?" His future mother-in-law was clever enough to reply,

"The runners run to wedding dances,

The shaft-boy sings a wedding song."

The girl, after escaping from under the barrel, ran as fast as her legs could carry her but she could not outrun the horses. When she reached the church at last, the rings had been exchanged. What could she do? All her hopes had vanished into thin air. Crying bitterly the deceived and forsaken girl left the church and sat down at the roadside along which the wedding procession was to return home. And when the horses and sledges dashed past her, she sang,

"Do not hurry, bridegroom dear.

Stop and have a look.

You have but a stranger near.

You have lost your duck."

The bridegroom asked the meaning of the strange song and again his mother-in-law replied, "That's an unbidden guest singing in jest."

But the bridegroom could see no joke in it. He reined in his horse and wanted to go and find out what it was all about. His best man said reproachfully, "You will turn yourself into a laughing-stock for people. Who has ever paid any heed to the barking of a wayward dog when one goes wooing or brings home his wedded wife. You have your bride beside you. So make haste and try to get home before the wedding dishes get cold."

But the forsaken maiden had jumped onto the runners of a sledge in the wedding procession and had a good ride towards her home. When the procession was stopped by some well-wishers and the groomsmen went to meet them with beer tankards, the girl slipped down from the runners, took cover under a juniper bush and sang out again,

"Do not hurry, bridegroom dear.

Stop and have a look.

There's a she-wolf in your sledge,

Under a juniper hides your duck."

The bridegroom felt his heart fill with anger. He wanted to go and see what it was all about but he was kept back by his mother-in-law and his best man. They said, "Have no ear for the wicked jokes of uninvited guests if you don't want people to jeer at you!" Their words did not sound convincing enough to the bridegroom but he did not want to go against his elders.

Upon reaching home, the bride was lifted from the sledge and carried in. She was seated at the table but as the kerchiefs covered her head and face the bridegroom could not discover the deception. When the guests were partaking of the wedding dishes, the forsaken maiden sang out from behind the door,

"Bridegroom, bridegroom, you've been deceived.

You've taken a stranger as your own."

Leaving her meal the furious mother-in-law jumped up and shouted, "Take a cudgel and drive those impudent intruders away."

But the stepdaughter climbed into the loft to wait till the time came for the newly-weds to retire into their chamber. The bridegroom had lost his appetite, the strange songs he had heard made him wary.

The young wife differed from other women as she had no breasts whatsoever. To conceal it her mother had filled her shirt bosom with tow. The newly-weds and wedding guests had barely gone to bed when the familiar voice could again be heard singing behind the window,

"Bridegroom young and lacking wisdom,

Tow is making young wife buxom.

Tow will never feed a baby,

Never please a husband either."

The young husband did not know what he should do. Dreadful fears froze his heart. When his wife had fallen asleep, he hastened to explore whether the song had told the truth or was it a bad lie. But it was true! Her shirt bosom was filled with tow. The young husband could see the whole deception now. He did not say a word to anyone but in his thoughts he was brewing a revenge.

The next day when the bride and groom were on their way home, the young man stopped his horse at an ice-hole in the river. He made a feint of watering the horse but then he grabbed the young wife by the hair, dragged her to the ice-hole and pushed her into the water head first. "I'd rather live without a wife than embrace some tow," he thought to himself and continued his journey home.

To his great surprise he found a young wife waiting for him in the chamber. This was the stepdaughter who had been taken there by the wise old woman. The young man was happy to have his real bride with him and told nobody of what had happened. And the young couple lived in peace and happiness.

A little more than a year later, when the young wife was rocking her first-born in the cradle, the cruel stepmother set out to pay a visit to the young couple. The stepmother could not suspect any exchange and she believed her own daughter to be the happy wife.

She thought it natural that her stepdaughter was not to be seen after the wedding party. She thought, "The girl must be afraid to face me and she should know but too well that there are rods in pickle for her."

On her way to the young couple the stepmother came to the river in which her son-in-law had drowned her daughter. The stepmother saw a beautiful yellow water-lily dancing on the waves. The old woman wanted to pluck the flower and take it to her grandchild to play with. But when the woman stretched out her hand she heard a tiny voice singing. She could not grasp whether the voice came from the water or was borne by the wind:

Don't you pluck the bud,

Don't you pick the water-lily.

It has risen from your daughter,

Sprouted from her slender shoulders,

Grown from her heart of hearts.

The revelation made the old woman speechless. She could but rush in search of a sorcerer whose magic could rescue her dear daughter from the bonds of her flower shape. The sorcerer changed the water-lily back into a girl, who now returned home to her mother.

At home the two women began to plot how they could take their revenge on the hateful son-in-law who had drowned the beloved child in the river. When their long deliberations had proved useless, the mother went to the sorcerer again for help.

The sorcerer said that he would transform the daughter into a cat and take her to the son-in-law's farm. There at night the cat was to scratch the throat of the baby so that it might never wake up.

But the neighbouring old woman who could go a big way with babies was also a clever witch. She ran to the son-in-law's farm before the cat could get there and instructed the young wife,

"When in the evening a stray cat comes in, give her some milk to lap, pat her until she lets you pick her up. Then take some hot ashes and scorch her paws and claws and throw her out."

The young wife did as the old woman had told her. For some time she could hear the desperate caterwauling of the scorched cat in the yard. On the next day the villagers learned that the stepmother's daughter had been taken into bed seriously ill. Her hands and feet were all bandaged but no one could say what the matter was with her. And neither the mother nor the daughter were eager to offer any explanation for the girl's sudden illness.

The mother could not forget the lot that had befallen her and her daughter. Day and night she hatched plans of revenge. She thought, "If the sorcerer turned me into some animal, it would be easier for me to carry out my plans and avenge my daughter's scorched hands and feet upon them."

The sorcerer did as she had wished. She was transformed into a dog. The sorcerer had secretly killed the son-in-law's dog, skinned it, and pulled the hide on the woman. Thus the son-in-law and his people would take the dog for their own.

But the neighbouring old woman again ran to the son-in-law's farm to say,

"Your watch-dog seems to have gone mad. He is running about attempting to bite people and animals. You had better catch him as soon as he gets home, knock out all his teeth and cut off his ears. Then he cannot be dangerous to anybody."

The young man did as he was told. He broke all the teeth in the dog's mouth, cropped his ears and drove him out. For some time the terrible howling of the dog could be heard from the yard.

On the next morning the mother-in-law was found lying in bed, her mouth bleeding and swollen, her ears in bandages. Neither the mother nor the daughter had any wish for a third try but they still secretly made plans how they could get even with the son-in-law or with the stepsister some day.

Some time later they promised the sorcerer a good pay, gave a third of it as an earnest and begged him to see to the chastisement. The sorcerer tried his magic power and put his knowledge to good test but the neighbouring old woman could always bring all his attempts to nothing so that in the end the old man thanked his lucky stars for having escaped unhurt.

The stepdaughter and her husband lived happily to the end of their days. God had given them five children who all had got on their feet when the time came for their parents to leave this world. As to the stepmother and her own daughter nothing more could be heard of their fate.

Jason Ladock

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