- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- flying beehive, pea blossom, cut moon, revealed secret
The story
On the eve of Epiphany, two young women went outside to cool down after dancing. No one suspected them of witchcraft. A youth in the entrance heard them discuss riding out to cut the moon and visit a place where green peas grew. They chose a beehive nearby as their mount. He secretly climbed inside it.
The women sat on the hive and rose into the air. One found the flight unusually heavy and suspected a human passenger; the other dismissed the idea. At the pea field they left the hive with the youth inside. One said she would pick flowers that could make a person’s body contract, while the other planned to gather peas that could kill. The youth picked some blossoms too.
The women returned, saying there was still time to cut the moon. They went and did so. Again one suspected someone inside the hive, and again the other denied it. Back home they left the hive where it had stood.
On Epiphany the youth took a blossom to church. With it he could see that half the congregation were witches. He slipped the flower behind the priest’s surplice. The priest could no longer preach and withdrew from the pulpit.
The youth showed him the blossom and explained the journey. The priest trampled the flower and warned him never to tell anyone: the witches would kill him. The youth promised silence.
That evening people discussed the cut moon. Unable to resist boasting, he said that he had been there himself, and had also visited a place where peas could be picked. When he stepped outside, the two women attacked and killed him.
Reading the story
Peas flowering in winter, a flying hive and the cutting of the moon belong to the legend’s supernatural world. The flower grants dangerous sight, while the broken promise of silence brings the ending.
Recorded by J. Elisonas near Palėvenė, Kupiškis district, in 1910. LMD I 661(23). The edition’s note does not name the narrator.
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 405, p. 460–461: „Raganų žirniai“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.