Folktales of Vice
Traditional tales of wickedness from around the world
Compiled & Edited by
Praveen Dabré
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Praveen Dabré on Smashwords
Folktales of Vice
Copyright © 2010 by Praveen Dabré
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a compilation of traditional folklore from across the world. By definition these are in the public domain and free of copyright. However, the author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of those tales that are so copyrighted and have inadvertently been included in this collection.
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Other Books in the Series
As a special offer to you, my reader, I would like to gift you a copy of any three of the above titles. Mail me at praveendabre@gmail.com indicating three titles of your choice and the format you’d like them in, and I will promptly send across gift coupons that will enable you to access your free copies from Smashwords.
* * * * *
Folktales of Vice
Tradition of wickedness from around the world
* * * * *
The Fussy Fiancé
ONCE THERE was a man who left his fiancée after she happened to fart.
Later, when he passed by her house, he saw her outside searching through a pile of garbage. He asked her what she was looking for.
“I’m looking for a pin,” she answered. “You’ll never be able to find it,” he said.
“Well, I’m as likely to find a pin in a pile of garbage as you are to find a wife who never farts.”
He considered this, and took her back.
– Sweden
The Despised Rake
ONCE A servant girl who had gone away to service came home to visit. Looking very handsome and acting in a high and mighty manner, she stepped into the small, low-ceilinged cottage just as her mother was in the midst of baking and raking coals out of the oven.
Of course the mother was happy to see her, and they chatted on and on, and that’s when the mother noticed that the maid had started talking fancy. After her mother had finished raking out the oven and placed the rake, head down, beside the oven, the girl went up to the rake and acted as if she didn’t even know what an odd thing like that was called.
As she stood there speculating and wondering and pretending to have forgotten all about it, she accidentally stepped on the head of the rake so that the shaft flew up and struck her, and then she yelled, “Ouch, the devil of a rake shaft attacked me!” When she got mad, she had no trouble remembering its name!
– Sweden
The Hidden Key
ONCE THERE was a farm family who had an only daughter. One day there came calling a young man, who the mother believed had come to propose to her daughter. When she learned this for sure, she wanted to show how clever her daughter was, and she pointed to the spinning wheel, which stood ready with a full head of flax.
“My daughter spins three of those a day,” she said.
The suitor thought that that was fine, but he still wanted to see for himself how skilful she was. When he was alone in the room for a moment, he took a key from a chest and hid it at the bottom of the head of flax.
After three weeks he visited again. This time he was told that after his last visit they’d lost the key to the chest and hadn’t been able to find it anywhere. Now he knew just how clever the spinner, who the mother had said could spin three heads a day, really was, and he made sure not to propose to that girl!
– Sweden
The Woman in the Hole
A VERY long time ago a farmer pushed his mean old wife into a pit in a big swamp near their farm, and she never came back up again.
The farmer started to miss her, and spent about three years braiding a rope, which he then lowered into the hole to help her up. Instead of the woman, the Evil One came crawling up the rope.
“Did you happen to see an old woman down there?” asked the farmer.
“I sure did!” answered the Evil One. “About three years ago an old woman came tumbling down, but she was so mean that I couldn’t stand being with her. I had to get out of the house, so I grabbed the rope you dropped down and started climbing up. The old woman climbed after me, of course, but I cut the rope behind me, and she tumbled back down again. Whatever you do, don’t make another rope; if she comes up, neither you nor I will have another happy day.”
And so the farmer gave up the idea of rescuing the old woman.
– Sweden
Small Birds Can Kill Too!
ONCE THERE was a farmer who was so stingy that he wouldn’t even let a small bird eat its fill. The bird got angry and flew away, but one day when the farmer was ploughing his field, it came back and alighted on the horn of one of the farmer’s oxen. It started to peck at the ox, saying, “I’ll peck a hole in it, I’ll peck a hole in it!”
The farmer picked up a rock and threw it at the bird, but killed his ox instead. Then the bird alighted on the horn of the other ox and started calling out and pecking in the same way. The farmer got even angrier, and threw another rock at the bird. Now he’d killed his other ox!
When he got home, he wanted to wash away his anger with a glass of beer, but the bird was sitting before him on the beer barrel. The farmer asked his wife to go fetch him a sledgehammer, and with it he smashed not the bird but the barrel, and all the beer ran out.
Later, when the farmer was about to eat dinner, there sat the bird on the edge of the butter pitcher, covered with butter. The farmer grabbed the rascal and was about to kill it, but first he wanted to lick off the butter. The bird slipped right into the farmer’s stomach, and that was the end of that cheapskate of a farmer.
– Sweden
The Bad Stepmother
ONCE THE father of a girl whose mother had died remarried, and so she got a stepmother. The stepmother also had a daughter, whose name was Malena. But the stepmother wanted to get rid of her stepdaughter, so one day she put a lot of good things into a heavy chest and told her, “This is all for you, if you get in with it.”
When the girl got in, the stepmother dropped the lid of the chest and squeezed the girl to death. Afterward, she cooked the girl and gave her to her father to eat. Malena collected all the bones and carried them outside.
A few days passed. One day, when the father was walking home from the forest, he saw a bird sitting on the roof, singing. The bird sang as people speak. It sang:
“My mother set a trap for me, My father ate me up,
My sister Malena collected my bones
And put them in a silk scarf
And carried them under the juniper bush.”
Then the bird threw a gold bell down to the father and flew away.
When the stepsister went outside, the bird sang the same song, and it threw down a gold chain for her.
When the stepmother saw the fine presents, she too went outside, but this time the bird threw down a rock and killed her.
– Sweden
The Crocodile, the Brahman, and the Fox
A CROCODILE beseeched a Brahman to carry it to Benares, so it could live in the Ganges. Touched with compassion, the Brahman put the crocodile into his bag and carried it to the holy river.
However, just as he was about to release the crocodile into the water, the latter seized him, and was about to kill him. The Brahman accused his captor of ingratitude, who in turn replied that virtue and custom allowed one to eat the person who had sustained him.
The Brahman insisted that three impartial judges should decide the case, and declared himself willing to abide by their decision.
They turned first to a mango tree, whom the Brahman asked if it were permitted to repay a good deed with evil. The mango tree replied that such was the treatment he and his kind always received from humans. “They partake of our fruits and of our shade, and then uproot us,” it said.
Next they turned to an old cow. She too said that humans had abandoned her after she was of no more use to them. Any moment she expected to fall prey to a wild animal.
They still needed a third judgment, and for this they turned to a fox. He too seemed inclined against the Brahman, but before finalizing his decision, he wanted to see how the two had journeyed together. To demonstrate, the unsuspecting crocodile crept back into the Brahman’s bag. Acting on a cue from the fox, the Braham struck the now helpless crocodile dead with a stone, and the fox ate it up.
– India