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ABOUT A LOUSE (told by Ramo Bejtula)

One day a Haždrano – a maneater – came there and said: “I know what kind of skin this is.” The rich man asked him to guess. He said: “This skin belongs to the louse that clung to your throat.” The rich man said: “Here, take my daughter.” The Haždrano took his daughter, and they went to the karst rock under which he lived. The inside was full of human flesh which the Haždrano used for food. He said to his wife: “Bake this meat, because I want to eat.” The girl did it. She cut off a piece of meat and threw it under the door. The Haždrano came and said to her: “Are you coming to dinner?” She answered: “I cannot eat any more; I have eaten already.” He said: “I will ask the meat. If you have not eaten, you will suffer the consequences.” As he ate, he asked the meat: “Where are you, meat?” The meat answered: “I am under the door.” He said: “All right.” The night came, and they fell asleep. While the girl was asleep, he laid his head on her breast and sucked her blood. She was dead in the morning. He put on other clothes and went to her father, the rich man. Her father said again: “ I shall give my second daughter to one who tells me whose skin this is.” The Haždrano said: “ “The skin belongs to the louse that clung to your throat.” The rich man gave him his second daughter. He brought her home under the karst rock. There was human flesh everywhere. He told his wife to bake the meat, and she obeyed. She took the meat, baked it, cut off a piece and threw it in the ashes. He came home and grabbed her, so she would eat the meat with him. She said: “I cannot eat any more, I have eaten already.” He threatened her: “If you have not eaten, you will end up like your sister.” She said: “I have eaten.” He ate the meat and called out: “Where are you, meat?” The meat replied: “I am in the ashes.” The night came, and they went to sleep. Once the girl was asleep, he laid his head on her breast and sucked all her blood. In the morning he put on other clothes and went to the rich man again. Once more the rich man nailed the skin to the door. He said: “I shall give my youngest daughter to one who tells me whose skin this is.” The Hadzrano also took her with him under the rock.

The rich gathered and talked to one another. One of them had a louse clinging to his neck. Another rich man wanted to remove it, but it fell down to the ground. His friends told him that he had had a louse on the back of his neck. He said: “It couldn´t be.” He sent out soldiers to search for the louse, but they couldn't find it. Some days later, they found it while rumagging in the garbage. The louse had grown the size of a water ox. The rich man slaughtered it, skinned it, took the skin and nailed it to the door. He asked: “Who knows what this is? I shall give one of my daughters to one who tells me whose skin this is.” Nobody guessed correctly whose skin it was.

When they arrived home, he said: “Wife, bake the meat; I will come to eat then.” She baked it and cut off a piece. A bitch passed by. Quickly she laid the piece of meat before her. The bitch ate the meat. The Haždrano came home and asked her: “Are you going to eat with me?” She answered: “I cannot eat; I have eaten already.” He threatened her: “I will ask the meat. If you have not eaten, you will suffer your sisters´ fate”. While he ate, he asked the meat: “Meat, where are you?” The meat replied: “I am in a warm stomach.” The Haždrano said: “You are my wife now.” But he didn't know that the meat was in the warm stomach of the bitch. He was sure that the meat was in the stomach of the girl. In the morning the girl washed her face. She could communicate with nightingales. She couldn't find paper and used leaves instead. She cut her finger and wrote a message in blood to her father: “If you don´t rescue me, I am going to die. My two sisters have been murdered.” The girl said to a nightingale: “By the time my father has washed his face, you will have given him this leaf.” The bird put the leaf in the beak and delivered it to the rich man. He read it and sent out many soldiers to fight against the Haždrano. They fought against him, but he killed them all.

Some days later, a poor, old woman came and begged for flour from the rich man. He asked the old woman: “Do you have any sons?” She said: “I have seven sons.” He asked her: “Are they alive?” She said: “Yes!” He said: “Old lady, go and ask your sons what talents they have!” She said: “Well, if I get ten meters of rope, I will ask my sons.” The rich man gave her the rope, and she went home. She started sewing a shirt. The oldest son came and asked her: “For whom are you sewing this shirt?” The mother answered: “For you, hold your horses!” She asked him: “What talent have you got?” He: “I strike once with a fist, and a ten storey tower appears.” She said: “I am sewing the shirt for you.” The second son came. She asked him what he could do. He answered: “I put my ear to the ground, and I know what is going on in the world.” The third came, and he said: “I can shoot an arrow from the highest height and kill a snake; it is the evil ones I kill; I never kill the good ones.” The fourth could stretch his hands out from the highest height and catch a human. The fifth said: “I run so fast I can travel the whole world in two minutes.” The sixth said:

“I know how to steal from people; I open doors and nobody notices.” The seventh said: “I know how to do the following: If somebody is devouring a human, I can pull them out of their mouth again, and they don´t notice.” The old woman and her sons went to the rich man. He said: “Go and save my daughter from the Haždrano. I shall give you as much gold as I weigh.” The youngest said: “We cannot get her out now, because he is our Parnavo, our blood brother. In a few days we will get her out.” And they left.

Then they hit the road, and the eldest said to one of the brothers: “Put your ear to the ground.” The brother replied: “Let us run fast, because the Haždrano is laying down his head on her breast to suck her blood. In his sleep, while he is dreaming, he is unconscious.” As they came near the rock, the eldest asked: “Where is he who opens the door without anyone noticing?” He opened the door. When they went in, other brother pulled the girl out of the mouth of the Haždrano and stuck a barrel in his mouth, so the Haždrano drank water while the others escaped. The Haždrano woke up and chased them. The one who could hear well put his ear to the ground and said: “He is coming closer!” Other brother struck with his fist; a tower appeared, and they went in. The Hažrano arrived, but he wasn't able to tear it down because it was made of solid mud. If it had been made of stone, he would have knocked it over. The Haždrano shouted from outside: “Parnavo, blood-brother, make a small hole, as small as the eye of a needle, so that I can see the girl once again.” One brother opened the door a little. The Haždrano took the girl and they went high up in the sky. The one who could shoot an arrow didn´t want to shoot. One of them said to him: “Now shoot!” He aimed. The Haždrano fell down, and one of the brothers caught the girl with his hand.

The brothers went to the rich man and brought the daughter back to him. The father asked her: “Which one will you have, daughter?” She said: “I will have the one who caught me with his hand.” She chose him; they went and had a big wedding

http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/literature/oral-literature/texts-of-oral-literature

© 2010 all rights - Cech, Petra / Fennesz-Juhasz, Christiane (2001) Märchen, Erzählungen und Lieder der Lovara, in: Cech, P. / Fennesz-Juhasz, Ch. / Halwachs, D. W et al. [eds.] Fern von uns im Traum ... / Te na dikhas sunende ... Märchen, Erzählungen und Lieder der Lovara. Lovarenge paramiči, tertenetura taj gjila, pp. 397-425.

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