Kotharian Lightning

From the folklore of the Slavs

An old gypsy went to serve the devil; and the devil said, “I will give you what you wish, provided you always bring me fuel and water, and make up the fire under the kettle.”

“Agreed!”

The devil gave him a vessel and said, “Go to the spring and fetch water.”

Off went our gypsy to fetch water in the vessel, and drew up the bucket; but being old and not strong enough to draw it out, he was obliged to pour out some of the water, so that he might not drop the bucket into the well. How could he return home now? Just see! Our gypsy took a pole from a ferry-boat, and poked about all round the well with it, as though he was digging. The devil waited and waited, but no water and no gypsy came home; at last he goes himself and finds the gypsy.

“What has amused you so vastly that you haven’t yet brought the water home?” asked the Devil.

“What do you mean?” replied the gypsy. “I wanted to dig up the whole spring and bring it home to you.”

“And you took all that trouble to carry out such an idea? Why, with that pole of yours, you would never have brought it before all the firewood had burnt itself out.”

So saying, he drew the water himself, and took it home. “Oh! If only I had known, I could have brought it for you long ago.”

The devil sent him once to the wood for fuel. Away went our gypsy; but in the wood rain fell and soaked him through and through. The old fellow shivered, and could not now stoop for the fuel. What was to be done”? He goes and tears off strips of bast, makes a bundle of them, and goes round the wood tying one tree to another with them. The devil waits and waits: but of the gypsy not a sign.

At last, he goes himself and exclaims in astonishment, “What on earth are you about, you unaccountable creature?”

“What am I about?” replied the gypsy. “Why, I want to bring you home the wood, and have tied all the trees up in a bundle that my labour may not be all in vain.”

The devil perceived that he could do nothing with the gypsy, collected the wood himself, and went home.

Having put his house in order, he went for advice to an older devil. “I have hired a gypsy, but he is a miserable fellow. I am pretty shrewd, but he is shrewder and abler than we are; it were best to put him out of the way.”

“Good; when he sleeps, kill him; then he won’t be robbing our stables, either.”

Home went the devil; all were asleep; but the gypsy had, perhaps, seen something to arouse his suspicions, for his greatcoat lay on the bench he always slept on, and he himself had crept into the corner underneath it. When he entered, the devil imagined that the gypsy was fast asleep, took his iron club, and whacked the greatcoat, so that you could hear him all over the place. Then the devil lay down to sleep himself, thinking, “I’ve pretty well done for the gypsy, this time.”

But the gypsy moans, “Oh!” and scratches himself in the corner.

“What the deuce is up with you now?” asked the devil.

“Oh! A nasty little flea has bitten me.”

The young devil again goes to the old devil for advice. “How the mischief is one to kill the wretch? I whacked him with my club and he merely scratched himself, and exclaimed, ‘A little flea has bitten me.’ ”

“Pay him his wages,” says the old devil, “whatever it may amount to, and let him go and seek his luck among other people.”

The gypsy took a wallet full of money, and went his way. The devil now regretted the money he had given him, and again goes for advice to the old devil.

The old devil said, “Catch up the gypsy, and say that the one of you who thumps so loud upon a stone as to be heard three miles off shall have the money.”

The devil overtakes the gypsy and says, “Stop, gypsy! I have something to say to you.”

“What do you want, son of perdition?” replies the gypsy.

“Oh! Stop; we will stamp, and who makes the greatest noise in stamping on a stone shall have the money.”

“Well, then, stamp,” says the gypsy.

The devil stamps once – twice – the noise was quite deafening; but the gypsy, meantime, had poured water into his high boots.

“Oh! That’s nothing, you rascal!” the gypsy says, “When I stamp on a dry stone, water spurts out.” So saying, he stamps about, and the water splashed from the stone all over the place.

Again the young devil goes to the old devil for advice; and the old devil says, “Overtake him and propose the test of who can throw a cudgel the highest.”

The gypsy had now traveled several miles, when he looked round and saw the devil behind him.

“Stop, stop, gypsy!” the devil said.

“What now, son of perdition,” the gypsy replied.

“Who throws his cudgel highest shall have the money.”

“Well, we’ll have a fling; for I have two brothers in heaven, both blacksmiths, and it will come in handy for them as a hammer or tongs.”

The devil flung his cudgel. It whizzed through the air and flew almost out of sight. But the gypsy took the cudgel by one end, scarcely raised it, and exclaimed:

“Hold out your hands, brothers mine up aloft!”

And the devil seized him by the hand, saying:

“Oh, stop! Don’t throw. ‘Twere a pity to lose it.”

The elder devil again advised him, saying, “Catch up the gypsy, and say the test shall be who can run about, here and there, the fastest. The devil overtook him, and the gypsy said:

“I tell you flatly that I won’t run races with you, for you are quite unworthy of my prowess. But I have a dear little son, Hare by name, only three days old; if you can beat him, you shall measure yourself against me.” The gypsy espied a hare in the bushed. “Look there! It is Hare, my little son! Hi, away! Scamper, Hare!”

Out popped the hare, ran hither and thither over the hillside, and he passed like a shadow over the fields.

“Bah!” says the devil, “but he doesn’t run straight.”

“Oh! In our family, none of us run straight,” replied the gypsy. “We run where anything strikes our fancy.”

The elder devil advised a wrestling test to see who was the strongest.

“What!” says the gypsy, “you expect me to wrestle with you? No, no; but I have a father to do that; for the last seven years he has had one foot in the pit; if you can beat him in wrestling, you shall try your strength with me.”

But the gypsy knew of a bear, and led the devil to its pit.

“This is where he lodges,” says the gypsy; “so come and have a fling.”

The devil entered and said: “Up with you! Old greybeard, and have a bout with me.”

Oh! how the bear grappled him, towzled him, whacked him, scratched him, and finally flung him out of the pit!

The elder devil advised whistling to see who could be heard three miles off. The devil whistled till the whole air rang and buzzed again.

But the gypsy said: “I tell you, if I whistle, I shall blind and deafen you; so bandage your eyes and ears.”

The devil bandaged them. Then the gypsy took a mallet, such as is used for splitting wood, and battered him about the ears.

The devil shrieked. “Oh! Ee,oh! Ee, stop! Don’t whistle! You are battering me to death with it! Go! And a murrain take you, you and the money-bags! Off to perdition with you!”

And that is all.

Source:

Russian and Bulgarian Folk-Lore Stories, A.W. Strickland, 1907