Meanwhile the servant, whose name was Lung Woman, led him into a little
shed, and chained him up to a ring in the wall. But food was given him
every hour, and at the end of two days he was as fat and big as a
Christmas turkey, and could hardly move his head from one side to the
other.
“He will do now,” said the Bad One, who came constantly to see how he
was getting on. “I shall go and tell the water-demons that we expect
them to dinner to-night. Put the kettle on the fire, but be sure on no
account to taste the broth.”
Lung-Woman lost no time in obeying her orders. She built up the fire,
which had got very low, filled the kettle with water, and passing a
rope which hung from the ceiling through the handle, swung it over the
flames. Then she brought in Ball-Carrier, who, seeing all these
preparations, wished that as long as he was in the kettle the water
might not really boil, though it would hiss and bubble, and also, that
the spirits would turn the water into fat.
The kettle soon began to sing and bubble, and Ball Carrier was lifted
in. Very soon the fat which was to make the sauce rose to the surface,
and Ball-Carrier, who was bobbing about from one side to the other,
called out that Lung-Woman had better taste the broth, as he though
that some salt should be added to it. The servant knew quite well that
her master had forbidden her to do any thing of the kind, but when once
the idea was put into her head, she found the smell from the kettle so
delicious that she unhooked a long ladle from the wall and plunged it
into the kettle.
“You will spill it all, if you stand so far off,” said the boy; “why
don’t you come a little nearer?” And as she did so he cried to the
spirits to give him back his usual size and strength and to make the
water scalding hot Then he gave the kettle a kick, which upset all the
boiling water upon her, and jumping over her body he seized once more
the gold and the bridge, picked up his club and bow and arrows, and
after setting fire to the Bad One’s hut, ran down to the river, which
he crossed safely by the help of the bridge.
The hut, which was made of wood, was burned to the ground before the
Bad One came back with a large crowd of water-demons. There was not a
sign of anyone or anything, so he started for the river, where he saw
Ball Carrier sitting quietly on the other side. Then the Bad One knew
what had happened, and after telling the water demons that there would
be no feast after all, he called to Ball-Carrier, who was eating an
apple.
“I know your name now,” he said, “and as you have ruined me, and I am
not rich any more, will you take me as your servant?”
“Yes, I will, though you have tried to kill me,” answered Ball-Carrier,
throwing the bridge across the water as he spoke. But when the Bad One
was in the midst of the stream, the boy wished it to become small; and
the Bad One fell into the water and was drowned, and the world was rid
of him.
[U.S.. Bureau of Ethnology.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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