Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/184

158 and when the accursed returned, he called out: "Bone, bone, where are you?" "In the ashes," said the bone. So he gave the girl a kick, and made her into a broom.

The devil then went off to the girl's house and persuaded the second sister to come on service. As before, he took her to the cave—"Ach Karakiz"—gave her the rotten bone, and left her to eat it. She hid it under the matting. On returning, he called out: "Bone, bone, where are you?" "Under the matting." So he gave the girl a kick, and turned her into a water-jug.

The next day he went for the third, and told her her sisters wanted to see her. He gave her the bone, and told her if she did not eat it she would be like her sisters, whom he had made into a broom and a water-pitcher. She had brought a kitten with her, and cut the meat up into little bits, and made the kitten finish it. In the evening when the accursed one came home and called: "Bone, bone, where are you?" "In the stomach," said the bone: and he was in such a rage he never thought of asking whose stomach, but at once he burst asunder. Then she went and kicked the broom and water-pitcher; and they turned into her sisters again. The three set off to explore the cave, which had a great many rooms, and there were countless men hung up in punishment. These they freed, after learning their sins. In the darkest room they found three young men, and asked them the reason of their punishment. It was fornication.

When they had set them free, the three youths asked the three girls to marry them; and the girls consented. The two eldest couples were married at once; but the youngest pallikari desired to be betrothed only, and to go home with his bride, and celebrate the wedding at his own home. "But," said the youngest girl, "when you see your mother you will say, 'O, mother,' and forget all about me." He assured her he would not, and they started for his home. As they approached the town, he saw his mother a long