Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/181

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Folklore Firstfruits from Lesbos.
155

howling. People asked them who did it? "Self!" said they, and got laughed at for their pains.

[I give this story, because the motive is like that of the story where Odysseus blinds the Cyclops, and says his name is "No-man."]


(3.) The Forty Thieves.

Once upon a time there was a poor man who had three daughters. He made his living by gathering sticks, but it was wretched work, and his life was in the sun. One day he saw a donkey and thought what a help it would be to him, and how many more sticks he could bring from the hill if he had it. When he got home, he told his daughters and they said: "Sell us and buy it." But he said: "Better to suffer anything than to sell my daughters." Next day, coming back with his load of sticks, he sat down to rest, and at his feet he saw three dollars, and he went straight off and bought the donkey with this. On the morrow he started off in great glee with the donkey to gather sticks, and on the road he heard a noise like thunder, which seemed to come nearer and nearer to him. He was in great fear and hid himself, and from his hiding place saw 40 ogres with skulls on their backs. They stopped before a wall (ράκτος); and one said: "Ach Karakiz," and immediately the wall opened and they all went in. He waited to see what would happen; and after a little, they came out, and the last said: "Kapla Karakiz," and the wall shut. The old man went up to the rock and called: "Ach Karakiz." At once the rock opened, and going in, he found himself in a cave with 40 heaps of gold, and pearls, and diamonds. Taking a little from each heap he loaded the donkey with as much as it could bear, and once outside said: "Kapla Karakiz," and went home with his load and told his daughters all about his good luck.

Next day he came back, and when the ogres had gone,