Well, the imp went to where there were merchant's wives and merchant's daughters; and when they were possessed by him, they fell ill and went crazy. Then the peasant would go to a house where there was illness of this kind, and, as soon as he entered, out would go the enemy; then there would be blessing in the house, and everyone would suppose that the peasant was a doctor indeed, and would give him money, and treat him to pies. And so the peasant gained an incalculable sum of money. At last the demon said: "You've plenty now, peasant; arn't you content? I'm going now to enter into the Boyar's daughter. Mind you don't go curing her. If you do, I shall eat you." The Boyar's daughter fell ill, and went so crazy that she wanted to eat people. The Boyar ordered his people to find out the peasant--(that is to say) to look for such and such a physician. The peasant came, entered the house, and told Boyar to make all the townspeople, and the carriages with coachmen, stand in the street outside. Moreover, he gave orders that all the coachmen should crack their whips and cry at the top of their voices: "The Bad Wife has come! the Bad Wife has come!" and then he went into the inner room. As soon as he entered it, the demon rushed at him crying, "What do you mean, Russian? what have you come here for? I'll eat you!" "What do _you_ mean?" said the peasant, "why I didn't come here to turn you out. I came, out of pity to you, to say that the Bad Wife has come here." The Demon rushed to the window, stared with all his eyes, and heard everyone shouting at the top of his voice the words, "The Bad Wife!" "Peasant," cries the Demon, "wherever can I take refuge?" "Run back into the pit. She won't go there any more." The Demon went back to the pit--and to the Bad Wife too. In return for his services, the Boyar conferred a rich guerdon on the peasant, giving him his daughter to wife, and presenting him with half his property. But the Bad Wife sits to this day in the pit--in Tartarus.[54] Our final illustration of the Skazkas which satirize women is the story of the _Golovikha_. It is all the more valuable, inasmuch as it is one of the few folk-tales which throw any light on the working of Russian communal institutions. The word _Golovikha_ means, in its strict sense, the wife of a _Golova_, or elected chief [_Golova_ = head] of a _Volost_, or association of village communities; but here it is used for a "female _Golova_," a species of "mayoress." THE GOLOVIKHA.[55] A certain woman was very bumptious. Her husband came from a village council one day, and she asked him: "What have you been deciding over there?" "What have we been deciding? why choosing a Golova." "Whom have you chosen?" "No one as yet." "Choose me," says the woman.