Prevod

Once there was a girl who had a stepmother, and the stepmother had brought a daughter of her own into the household. She hated her stepdaughter, beat and scolded her at every turn, and kept her hungry and in rags, hoping somehow to be rid of her for good; but the worse she treated the girl, the healthier and more beautiful she grew. When the stepmother saw that she could not wear her down this way, she drove her from the house while her father was away on a journey. The girl walked on without knowing where she was going, until at last she lost her way in a forest. She wandered here and there, looking for a way out, until she caught sight of a fire shining in the distance and set off toward it. When she reached it, she found a little hut, all unswept, with the fire scattered over the hearth and nearly burnt out. She took a broom and swept the hut clean, gathered the embers together, brought in more wood, and built up a good fire. Then she sat down to wait and see who would come. That evening, good heavens! A mighty wind began to blow, and the trees cracked as though they would all be torn up by the roots. She hid behind the hut, trembling with fright, and along came an ala. As soon as the ala entered the hut, she began to sniff and said, “There is a blessed soul here. Come out, blessed soul! I will do you no harm.” The girl came out, and the ala asked her, “Was it you who swept my hut and built up my fire?” “Yes,” she answered. “Good,” said the ala. “Now pick the lice from my head a little.” The girl sat down, and the ala laid her head in her lap. But when the girl began to look through her hair, she found her head full of maggots, and it stank like a stinkbug. “Does my head smell, girl?” asked the ala. “It does not stink, Mother,” she answered. “It smells as sweet as immortelle.” Early the next morning, as the ala was leaving, she told the girl to feed her creatures and cook supper. The girl began calling the creatures to their food, and, good heavens! Harriers, great owls, crows, wolves, foxes, badgers, polecats—every creature in God’s world came flocking to be fed. The girl fed them all kindly, and they went their ways. When the ala returned that evening, she asked whether the girl had fed her creatures. “Yes,” she said. After the girl had stayed with the ala for some time, the ala said to her, “You may go home if you wish. Since you have served me well, take whichever of those chests you like and carry it home.” The girl chose the lightest chest, and the ala asked why she had taken that one. “I know it has the least in it,” she said, “and I have earned no more in these few days.” So she went away, and when she reached home and opened the chest, she found it full of gold ducats! When the stepmother saw this, she at once sent her own daughter away to fetch a chest of ducats. Her daughter came upon the very same hut, but she would neither tend the fire nor tidy the place. That evening the ala arrived with the wind, just as before, and asked her, “Blessed soul! Why have you not tended my fire and swept my hut?” “I never swept at home, either,” she answered. “Very well, very well,” said the ala. “Then pick the lice from my head a little.” The girl had scarcely looked into her hair when she began to spit. “Ugh! What a dreadful stink! I certainly cannot pick through that.” “Very well, very well,” said the ala again. The next morning the ala went out once more and told her to feed the creatures. But when the girl saw what sort of creatures they were, she took a club and struck them, breaking a leg on one, a head on another, a wing on a third, until she had driven them all away. When the ala returned that evening, she asked whether the creatures had been fed. “Oh, yes, indeed! What sort of devilish creatures do you keep? I fed them as they deserved—with a club.” “Very well, very well,” said the ala. The next morning she told the girl to go home. “You have served me long enough,” she said. “Take whichever of those chests you like and carry it home.” The girl chose the heaviest and took it away. When she brought it home, she and her mother hurried to open it, eager to see the great treasure in so heavy a chest. But as they leaned over it, two vipers sprang out, one at the mother’s eyes and the other at the daughter’s, and sucked their eyes out. As they had done, so they fared.