- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- bee and soul, sleep, hollow willow, dream of money, concealed discovery
The story
Two young women went for a walk on a summer day. One grew very sleepy, asked her friend to stay beside her, lay down near a bush and fell asleep.
The friend who stayed awake saw a little bee fly from the sleeper’s lips. It went towards the nearby road and entered a hollow willow. After a while it flew out and returned straight into the sleeping woman’s mouth.
She woke immediately and told her friend her dream. She had gone into that hollow tree and found a leather bag of money. She suggested they look together.
Her companion told her not to believe in magic, reassured her and led her home. Later the companion returned to the willow alone. There she really did find the bag of money.
Reading the story
The bee’s journey matches the sleeper’s dream. This is an image of a living person’s soul travelling during sleep, rather than the returning soul of someone dead. The companion’s final actions also introduce concealed knowledge and self-interest.
The edition gives Alytus county as the place of collection and the archive reference LTR 260(412). Its note supplies no narrator, collector or date.
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 447, p. 486: „Bitelė iš burnos“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.