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Lithuanian mythological tales

The Peacock’s Feathers

Editorial retelling and context

The devil decides to paint a peacock and a peahen. He finishes the male’s splendid plumage, but never gets to paint the female.

A general illustration for the folklore library, not a documentary depiction of this story’s setting or characters.
Original AI-generated collection illustration; not a historical document or an image of this particular story.
Genre
Etiological legend
Source status
folkloric
Motifs
painting feathers, rooster’s crow, interrupted work

The story

Long ago the devil caught a peacock and a peahen. He decided to decorate them both.

He began with the peacock, painting and patterning its feathers until it was wonderfully handsome. When he finished, he was just about to start on the peahen.

At that moment a rooster crowed. The devil dropped his work and fled, leaving the peahen unpainted. That is why the two birds still look so different.

Reading the story

The ending depends on interrupted work, not on anything the peahen does. The rooster’s call stops the devil and explains the difference in plumage.

Told by Ona Kliokmanienė, aged 75, in Padvarininkai; recorded by A. Valantinas in 1958. LTR 3178(100).

Source and retelling

Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 361, p. 437: „Povo plunksnos“; PDF p. 436. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.

The Peacock’s Feathers sources