Dirty Lips, Lucky Wife

I thought my father was a disembodied spirit, but the old man said, “I never died. There were nineteen of us drowned in the river, all of whom were eaten by the fish-goblins except myself."




It further appeared that my family was under fox influence, many strange things of this kind having happened before. Once, the mouth of a mule closed itself tightly, with a bulge visible from afar; and it was only when I cut it open with a knife that I saw my father curled up in it like a dog. I then helped him out, and asked him how he managed to get in; but this he was unable to say.




It is customary in my village, when any one is sick, for the womenfolk to engage an old sorceress or medium, who strums on a tambourine and performs certain mysterious antics. She stretches forth her neck and bounds several feet into the air, saying, “The spirits have come to eat” and immediately all the candles are blown out and everything is in total darkness.





Should there be any unbelievers among the party, the spirits are at once aware of their presence. “Disrespectful mocker! Where are your trousers?” upon which the mocker alluded to looks down, and lo her trousers are gone—gone to the top of a tree in the court-yard.

And should any daring fellow try to peep in while the séance is going on, out of the window darts the spear, transfixes his hat, and draws it off his head into the room, while women and girls, young and old, hop round one after the other like geese, on one leg, without seeming to get the least fatigued.




In the middle of their fun, up came a stranger with a face about three feet long and a very tall hat; whereupon the others were much alarmed, and cried out, “The hill spirit! the hill spirit!” running away in all directions as fast as they could go.

That night, I dreamed that the judge of Purgatory appeared, and, reproaching me with his base ingratitude, bade the devil-lictors seize me and scald my feet in a cauldron of boiling oil.



I then woke up with a start, and found that my feet were very sore and painful; and in a short time they swelled up, and my toes dropped off. Fever set in, and in agony I shrieked out, “Ungrateful wretch that I was indeed,” and fell back and expired.




A woodsman returned to the village, and when he arrived there in the dusk of the evening, he found several men holding lights to the ground as if looking for something. On asking what was the matter, they told him that while sitting together a man’s head had fallen from the sky into their midst; that they had noticed the hair and beard were all draggled, but in a moment the head had vanished.

Subsequently, another man was carrying a basket when someone saw a man’s head in it, and called out to him; whereupon he dropped the basket in a fright, and the head rolled away and disappeared. Such is the story of my head.