Favorite Folktales From Around the World

by Jane Yolen

  The boyar sent for the peasant, the famous “doctor.” He came to the boyar’s beautiful house and told him to have all the townspeople and all the carriages and coachmen gather in the street in front of the house; he gave orders that all the coachmen should crack their whips and cry aloud, “The bad wife has come, the bad wife has come!” Then he went into the sick maiden’s room. When he came in, the imp was enraged at him and said, “Why have you come here, Russian man? Now I will eat you!”

  He said, “What do you mean? I have not come to drive you out, but to warn you that the bad wife is here!”

  The imp jumped on the windowsill, stared fixedly, and listened intently. He heard all the crowd in the street cry in one voice, “The bad wife has come!”

  “Peasant,” said the imp, “where shall I hide?”

  “Return to the pit. She won’t go there again!”

  The imp went there and joined the bad wife. The boyar rewarded the peasant by giving him half his possessions and his daughter in marriage; but the bad wife to this day sits in the pit in nether darkness.

  KATCHA AND THE DEVIL

  Czechoslovakia

  There was once a woman named Katcha who lived in a village where she owned her own cottage and garden. She had money besides, but little good it did her, because she was such an ill-tempered vixen that nobody, not even the poorest laborer, would marry her. Nobody would even work for her, no matter what she paid, for she couldn’t open her mouth without scolding, and whenever she scolded she raised her shrill voice until you could hear it a mile away. The older she grew the worse she became, until by the time she was forty she was as sour as vinegar.

  Now as it always happens in a village, every Sunday afternoon there was a dance either at the burgomaster’s or at the tavern. As soon as the bagpipes sounded, the boys all crowded into the room and the girls gathered outside and looked in the windows. Katcha was always the first at the window. The music would strike up and the boys would beckon the girls to come in and dance, but no one ever beckoned Katcha. Even when she paid the piper no one ever asked her to dance. Yet she came Sunday after Sunday just the same.

  One Sunday afternoon as she was hurrying to the tavern she thought to herself, “Here I am getting old and yet I’ve never once danced with a boy! Plague take it, today I’d dance with the Devil if he asked me!”

  She was in a fine rage by the time she reached the tavern, where she sat down near the stove and looked around to see what girls the boys had invited to dance.

  Suddenly a stranger in hunter’s green came in. He sat down at a table near Katcha and ordered drink. When the servingmaid brought the beer, he reached over to Katcha and asked her to drink with him. At first she was much taken aback at this attention, then she pursed her lips coyly and pretended to refuse, but finally she accepted.

  When they had finished drinking, he pulled a ducat from his pocket, tossed it to the piper, and called out:

  “Clear the floor, boys! This is for Katcha and me alone!”

  The boys snickered and the girls giggled, hiding behind each other and stuffing their aprons into their mouths so that Katcha wouldn’t hear them laughing. But Katcha wasn’t noticing them at all. Katcha was dancing with a fine young man! If the whole world had been laughing at her, Katcha wouldn’t have cared.

  The stranger danced with Katcha all afternoon and all evening. Not once did he dance with anyone else. He brought her marzipan and sweet drinks and, when the hour came to go home, he escorted her through the village.

  “Ah,” sighed Katcha when they reached her cottage and it was time to part, “I wish I could dance with you forever!”

  “Very well,” said the stranger. “Come with me.”

  “Where do you live?”

  “Put your arm around my neck and I’ll tell you.”

  Katcha put both arms about his neck, and instantly the man changed into a devil and flew straight down to Hell.

  At the gates of Hell he stopped and knocked.

  His comrades came and opened the gates and when they saw that he was exhausted, they tried to take Katcha off his neck. But Katcha held on tight and nothing they could do or say would make her budge.

  The devil finally had to appear before the Prince of Darkness himself with Katcha still glued to his neck.

  “What’s that thing you’ve got around your neck?” the Prince asked.

  So the devil told how as he was walking about on earth he had heard Katcha say she would dance with the Devil himself if he asked her. “So I asked her to dance with me,” the devil said. “Afterwards just to frighten her a little I brought her down to Hell. And now she won’t let go of me!”

  “Serve you right, you dunce!” the Prince said. “How often have I told you to use common sense when you go wandering around earth! You might have known Katcha would never let go of a man once she had him!”

  “I beg Your Majesty to make her let go!” the poor devil implored.

  “I will not!” said the Prince. “You’ll have to carry her back to earth yourself and get rid of her as best you can. Perhaps this will be a lesson to you.”

  So the devil, very tired and very cross, shambled back to earth with Katcha still clinging to his neck. He tried every way to get her off. He promised her wooded hills and rich meadows if she but let him go. He cajoled her, he cursed her, but all to no avail: Katcha still held on.

  Breathless and discouraged, he came at last to a meadow where a shepherd, wrapped in a great shaggy sheepskin coat, was tending his flocks. The devil transformed himself into an ordinary-looking man so that the shepherd didn’t recognize him.

  “Hi, there,” the shepherd said, “what’s that you’re carrying?”

  “Don’t ask me,” the devil said with a sigh. “I’m so worn out I’m nearly dead. I was walking yonder not thinking of anything at all when along comes a woman and jumps on my back and won’t let go. I’m trying to carry her to the nearest village to get rid of her there, but I don’t believe I’m able. My legs are giving out.”

  The shepherd, who was a good-natured chap, said, “I tell you what: I’ll help you. I can’t leave my sheep long, but I’ll carry her halfway.”

  “Oh,” said the devil, “I’d be very grateful if you did!”

  So the shepherd yelled at Katcha, “Hi, there, you! Catch hold of me!”

  When Katcha saw that the shepherd was a handsome youth, she let go of the devil and leaped upon the shepherd’s back, catching hold of the collar of his sheepskin coat.

  Now the young shepherd soon found that the long shaggy coat and Katcha made a pretty heavy load for walking. In a few moments he was sick of his bargain and began casting about for some way of getting rid of Katcha.

  Presently he came to a pond and he thought to himself that he’d like to throw her in. He wondered how he could do it. Perhaps he could manage it by throwing in his greatcoat with her. The coat was so loose that he thought he could slip out of it without Katcha’s discovering what he was doing. Very cautiously he slipped out one arm. Katcha didn’t move. He slipped out the other arm. Still Katcha didn’t move. He unlooped the first button. Katcha noticed nothing. He unlooped the second button. Still Katcha noticed nothing. He unlooped the third button and kerplunk! he had pitched coat and Katcha and all into the middle of the pond!

  When he got back to his sheep, the devil looked at him in amazement.

  “Where’s Katcha?” he gasped.

  “Oh,” the shepherd said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, “I decided to leave her up yonder in a pond.”

  “My dear friend,” the devil cried, “I thank you! You have done me a great favor. If it hadn’t been for you I might be carrying Katcha till doomsday. I’ll never forget you and sometime I’ll reward you. As you don’t know who it is you’ve helped, I must tell you I’m a devil.”

  With these words the devil vanished.

  For a moment the shepherd was dazed. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Well, if they’re all as stupid as he is, we ought to be a
ble for them!”

  The country where the shepherd lived was ruled over by a dissolute young duke who passed his days in riotous living and his nights in carousing. He gave over the affairs of state to two governors who were as bad as he. With extortionate taxes and unjust fines they robbed the people until the whole land was crying out against them.

  Now one day for amusement the duke summoned an astrologer to court and ordered him to read in the planets the fate of himself and his two governors. When the astrologer had cast a horoscope for each of the three reprobates, he was greatly disturbed and tried to dissuade the duke from questioning him further.

  “Such danger,” he said, “threatens your life and the lives of your two governors that I fear to speak.”

  “Whatever it is,” said the duke, “speak. But I warn you to speak the truth, for if what you say does not come to pass you will forfeit your life.”

  The astrologer bowed and said: “Hear then, oh Duke, what the planets foretell: Before the second quarter of the moon, on such and such a day, at such and such an hour, a devil will come and carry off the two governors. At the full of the moon on such and such a day, at such and such an hour, the same devil will come for Your Highness and carry you off to Hell.”

  The duke pretended to be unconcerned, but in his heart he was deeply shaken. The voice of the astrologer sounded to him like the voice of judgment, and for the first time conscience began to trouble him.

  As for the governors, they couldn’t eat a bite of food and were carried from the palace half dead with fright. They piled their illgotten wealth into wagons and rode away to their castles, where they barred all the doors and windows in order to keep the devil out.

  The duke reformed. He gave up his evil ways and corrected the abuses of state in the hope of averting if possible his cruel fate.

  The poor shepherd had no inkling of any of these things. He tended his flocks from day to day and never bothered his head about the happenings in the great world.

  Suddenly one day the devil appeared before him and said, “I have come, my friend, to repay you for your kindness. When the moon is in its first quarter, I was to carry off the former governors of this land because they robbed the poor and gave the duke evil counsel. However, they’re behaving themselves now, so they’re to be given another chance. But they don’t know this. Now on such and such a day do you go to the first castle where a crowd of people will be assembled. When a cry goes up and the gates open and I come dragging out the governor, do you step up to me and say, ‘What do you mean by this? Get out of here or there’ll be trouble!’ I’ll pretend to be greatly frightened and make off. Then ask the governor to pay you two bags of gold, and if he haggles just threaten to call me back. After that, go on to the castle of the second governor and do the same thing and demand the same pay. I warn you, though, be prudent with the money and use it only for good. When the moon is full, I’m to carry off the duke himself, for he was so wicked that he’s to have no second chance. So don’t try to save him, for if you do you’ll pay for it with your own skin. Don’t forget!”

  The shepherd remembered carefully everything the devil told him. When the moon was in its first quarter he went to the first castle. A great crowd of people was gathered outside waiting to see the devil carry away the governor.

  Suddenly there was a loud cry of despair, the gates of the castle opened, and there was the devil, as black as night, dragging out the governor. He, poor man, was half dead with fright.

  The shepherd elbowed his way through the crowd, took the governor by the hand, and pushed the devil roughly aside.

  “What do you mean by this?” he shouted. “Get out of here or there’ll be trouble!”

  Instantly the devil fled, and the governor fell on his knees before the shepherd and kissed his hands and begged him to state what he wanted in reward. When the shepherd asked for two bags of gold, the governor ordered that they be given him without delay.

  Then the shepherd went to the castle of the second governor and went through exactly the same performance.

  It goes without saying that the duke soon heard of the shepherd, for he had been anxiously awaiting the fate of the two governors. At once he sent a wagon with four horses to fetch the shepherd to the palace, and when the shepherd arrived he begged him piteously to rescue him likewise from the devil’s clutches.

  “Master, “The shepherd answered, “I cannot promise you anything. I have to consider my own safety. You have been a great sinner, but if you really want to reform, if you really want to rule your people justly and kindly and wisely as becomes a true ruler, then indeed I will help you even if I have to suffer hellfire in your place.”

  The duke declared that with God’s help he would mend his ways, and the shepherd promised to come back on the fatal day.

  With grief and dread the whole country awaited the coming of the full moon. In the first place the people had greeted the astrologer’s prophecy with joy, but since the duke had reformed, their feelings for him had changed.

  Time sped fast as time does whether joy be coming or sorrow, and all too soon the fatal day arrived.

  Dressed in black and pale with fright, the duke sat expecting the arrival of the devil.

  Suddenly the door flew open and the devil, black as night, stood before him. He paused a moment and then he said, politely:

  “Your time has come, Lord Duke, and I am here to get you!”

  Without a word the duke arose and followed the devil to the courtyard, which was filled with a great multitude of people.

  At that moment the shepherd, all out of breath, came pushing his way through the crowd, and ran straight at the devil, shouting out:

  “What do you mean by this? Get out of here or there’ll be trouble!”

  “What do you mean?” whispered the devil. “Don’t you remember what I told you?”

  “Hush!” the shepherd whispered back. “I don’t care anything about the duke. This is to warn you! You know Katcha? She’s alive and she’s looking for you!”

  The instant the devil heard the name of Katcha he turned and fled.

  All the people cheered the shepherd, while the shepherd himself laughed in his sleeve to think that he had taken in the devil so easily.

  As for the duke, he was so grateful to the shepherd that he made him his chief counselor and loved him as a brother. And well he might, for the shepherd was a sensible man and always gave him sound advice.

  THE LAWYER AND THE DEVIL

  Ireland

  There was this man in it one time and he had three sons and he wanted to make something of them but hadn’t the money. So he sells himself to the Divil to raise money to school the three boys, and he did. He made one a priest, the other a doctor, and the third one was a lawyer. The Divil give him the money to pay for their education.

  But anyway, at the end of seven years the Divil showed up to claim the old man and his soul and take him and it down to Hell. He had his three sons there, or one at a time in with him. So when the Divil come the priest began to pray and beg and appeal for sparings for his father, and in the heel of the hunt he got a few years more off the Divil for his father.

  When that was up and the Divil come again the doctor was there and he appealed for sparings for his father and got them. And when the Divil come a third time to claim the old fellow the lawyer was there. The lawyer says to the Divil:

  “You’ve given sparings to my father twice already and I know you can’t be expected to do it again. But,” says he, “as a last request, will you give him sparings while that butt of a candle is there?”

  The candle was burning on the table.

  The divil said he would; it was only a butt of a candle and wouldn’t be long in it.

  At that the lawyer picks up the butt of a candle and blows it out and puts it in his pocket. And that was that! The Divil had to keep to his bargain and go without the old man, for the lawyer held on to the butt of a candle. Trust the lawyer to beat the Divil.

  COALS ON
THE DEVIL’S HEARTH

  Ireland

  This man, he was very poor, and he was getting it very tight to live, with a wife and family.

  And he sold himself to the Devil.

  But the bargain was, that he’d have to go with him at the end of a number of years.

  But anyway, he got very rich.

  And he got his family reared.

  And the way it was: when him and the Devil made the bargain, the Devil gave him a drum, and a pair of drumsticks.

  And he told him that every time that he’d want money, for to go out and give a roll on the drum, when he wanted anything done, and he’d do it for him.

  So anyway, he went be the orders of the Devil. But in the long run, he joined to get very nervous and got afraid of the journey that he had to go.

  So he joined to fret terribly.

  And the wife remarked him terribly failed, and in bad form.

  He never let on to her how they came to have the money or anything like that. And she knew nothing about this bargain that he had made off the Devil.

  So anyway, he wouldn’t tell her what the cause of it was. But she still was at him for to tell her what was troubling him.

  So in the long run he told her.

  So, she says. “There’s a plan to get rid of him.”

  “Well, what is it?” says the man. And he got terrible excited.

  “Well,” she says, “you told me there that you had a drum, that you notified him when you wanted anything.”

  “Aye, I have it,” he says.

  “Well,” says she, “take out the drum now, and give a roll on it, and when he comes, tell him that you want churches and chapels built. At once!” So he went out and gave a roll on the drum and the Devil came along.

  Your man says to him, “Well,” he says, “I want you to do a thing, but whether you’ll do it or not, I don’t know. Would you put up churches and chapels here and there through the country?”