- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- Braškakoja, bird’s feet, shuttle, gift of skill
The story
A weaver was called Braškakoja because her legs creaked when she walked. One evening, as she finished a piece of linen in the fading light, two laumės entered. One had hen’s feet and wore a sheet around her; the other had rooster’s feet and was draped in straw.
The visitors asked Braškakoja to hand them her shuttle. She did. The hen-footed laumė blew into it and passed it to the rooster-footed one, who did the same. Returning it, they told the woman that she would weave still better and never tire at her work.
Their promise came true. Braškakoja’s weaving improved, she no longer grew weary, and no one in the district could equal her skill.
The same laumės visited another young woman, described in the tale as lazy. She too sat at a loom, but refused to give them her shuttle. They told her that from then on she would be a poor weaver and left. Her work indeed went badly: she only spoiled the thread.
Reading the story
The laumės in this version have bird’s feet and unusual clothing. Skill at a craft is connected with how the women receive the visitors and whether they entrust them with a tool.
Told by Pranė Genienė in Klabiniai, Alunta district; recorded by A. Urbonas in 1938. LTR 1722(161).
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 545, p. 549: „Laumės ir audėjos“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.