Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/83

 Rh I may see how prettily you dance in the oven!" The children replied to the witch as the good fay had instructed them: "Sit you here, little granny, that we may first see you dance in the oven." As the hag's intention was to bake the children, she sat on the peel first, so as to coax them to do the same after her; but the very moment the children saw her on the peel they thrust the peel into the oven with the witch upon it. The old hag gave a great start, and was burnt to a cinder immediately after. The children took possession of the shed and all it contained.

Another version:—There was once three brothers who went along a certain road. When night overtook them they saw a light at a distance, and so they walked on towards it until they came to it. The light proceeded from a spot where an old woman was frying some cakes. The brothers said one to another, "Let us get upon the roof." They made a very long hook-stick, and got upon the roof. As the old hag fried her cakes she placed them upon a dish by her. Her cat, meanwhile, sat by her side. The boys with their long hook, from the top of the roof, fished up the warm cakes one after the other, as the old hag placed them on the dish. As the cat was by her side, and every time she placed a cake on the dish she found the other gone, she kept repeating and exclaiming:—"Shoo, you naughty thief of a pussy, how can you manage to eat so many cakes?" These brothers were consecrated to St. Peter, and when they heard what the old hag said, they began to laugh, unable to suppress their merriment. The old hag, looking up towards the roof, startled, saw the boys, and told them to come down. The boys feared to do so, and refused to descend; but the old witch so managed to threaten, and then to cajole them, that she at last induced them to come down from the roof. When she saw them down she addressed them:—"Look here, my children, stand on this baker's peel for an instant." The boys replied, "No, no, old lady, you get upon it first, and one can then easily