From Slavic Folklore
Here is a strange occurrence that happened to a certain goodwife. She went into the field to reap, or rather to get hemp, and then put the dinner on the cooking-stove, when something or somebody emerged from the fiery stove and ate up everything. She thought and thought, what could it all mean? But could make nothing of it. She draws nearer – the doors being closed – and finds in the cottage nothing but a little child, perhaps about six months old, in a cradle. So she hurried off to an enchantress, and begged and coaxed her to the best of her powers; and so she went. Much surprised, it is said, the enchantress snuggled about. All at once she listened somewhat uncertain.
“Go,” the enchantress says, “into the field, and I will hide myself in the cottage and observe what it is all about.”
The woman went into the field, and the enchantress hid herself by the cradle and watched it; when all at once, the child jumped out of the cradle, and lo and behold! It was no longer a child, but an old man! A short, stumpy old man, with a long, long beard. And in a jiffy, hie! Away to the victuals, pulls them off the fire, gives a shrill cry, and begins to gulp them down. When he had swallowed everything, he was again a child, but he did not creep into his cradle, but only lay down and made a hue and cry in the whole cottage. Then the enchantress went to him, took hold of the child, and began to cut all around the soles of its feet. It squealed, she cut; it squealed, she cut. At last, perceiving that it was in good hands, it turned into an old man, and said:
“This is not the first nor the second time that I have transformed myself, my good woman. First I was a fish, then a bird, then an ant, and finally a quadruped. And oh! Dear me, now I’m to try what it’s like being a human being. There is nothing jollier than life among the ants; and, among human beings – nothing sorrier.”
Source:
Russian and Bulgarian Folk-Lore Stories, A.W. Strickland, 1907
Kotharian Lightning 