Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/204

 196 neither of us says a word, lest we should have to shut the door. Then the thief tied our things up in a bundle, and carried it out, and put it down outside. Then he came back and rubbed his hand on the bottom of the griddle, and came and rubbed it over the faces of both of us, man and wife, and made both our faces black, and then went out and walked off with our things. But we did not say a word. In the morning, when it was day, my wife called out: "Man, your face is black!" and I called out: "Well done, wife! Now you get up and shut the door." This is the story of my foolishness.

THE SECOND FOOL'S STORY.

Then the next one said: My foolishness is as follows! I had two wives. One day one of my wives, who was searching my head for vermin, noticed a white hair in my head, and she pulled out that white hair. Then my other wife said: "I saw that white hair, that you have pulled out, every day; now, what have you pulled it out for?" Then I said: "Wife, don't quarrel; you pull out a black hair." So she pulled out a black hair. On this the first wife said: "I only pulled out a white one, why have you gone and pulled out a black one?" I said: "Don't quarrel; you pull out a black one, too." So she also pulled out a black one. Then the second said: I have only pulled out one, and she has pulled out two!" I said to her: "You can pull out another." Then the first wife complained, saying: "Hers are both black, but mine are one black and one white." I said: "Don't be vexed; pull out another black one." So they went on quarrelling till they pulled out all my hair, and my beard, and my love-locks; they rooted out everything. This was my foolishness, that I would not vex my wives, and have lost all my hair, and am left quite bald.

THE THIRD FOOL'S STORY.

Then the third said: My foolishness is as follows. I had a herd of cattle, and one day I was grazing my herd,