- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- wager, drying barn, nine poles, false expectation
The story
A farmer’s drying barn was haunted at night. A farmhand teased the herd girl: however brave she was, she would never dare enter it and bring out a pole. She accepted, and they made a wager.
Around midnight, before the roosters crowed, she went inside. The barn was full of devils. Ignoring them, she approached the poles and muttered about how long it would take to carry all nine out, one at a time.
A devil was about to seize her, then decided to wait. The girl would surely return for the other poles. She took one and left.
She put it down at home and never returned to the barn. One pole was all she needed. The devils waited, while the girl won her bet.
Reading the story
She does not change her agreement with the farmhand. She only makes the devils think the task is larger. Their mistaken expectation gives the story its neat ending.
Told by Kostas Linka in Bajorai, Tauragnai district; recorded by A. Linka in 1935, LTR 545(89).
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 486, p. 513–514: „Gudri piemenė“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.