- Genre
- Cumulative tale
- Source status
- variant tradition
- Motifs
- needle, refusal to help, reverse chain
The tale: an editorial retelling
A seamstress was sewing an apron when a needle stuck in her hand. She asked an axe to pull it out. The axe had no time. She asked a stone to strike the disobedient axe, but the stone had only just been dug out and wanted to dry.
She asked fire to burn the stone. The fire had only just been lit and needed to blaze up. She asked a stream to flood the fire; the stream wanted to deepen its channel. She asked a willow thicket to overgrow the stream, but the thicket wanted to fill the place where it already stood.
“Goat, eat the willows!” she pleaded. The goat first wanted to finish the willow it was chewing. The dog would not leave its bone to eat the goat. The spider could not bind the dog before finishing its web. The mouse would not tear the web because it needed to build a nest for its young.
The unhappy seamstress approached a cat, which was finishing a rat. “Eat the mouse that will not tear the spider’s web!” The cat needed no further invitation and sprang after the mouse.
To save itself, the mouse tore at the web. The spider began binding the dog, the dog went after the goat, and the goat chewed the willows. The willows grew into the stream; the stream flooded the fire; the fire burned the stone; the stone struck the axe. The axe immediately pulled the needle from the seamstress’s hand.
About this version
A. Mušinskas recorded the tale around 1931 from eighty-two-year-old Steponavičienė in Stirbaičiai, Plateliai district. Its archive reference is LTR 217(117). All the refusals, their reasons and the reverse chain of actions are preserved.
Objects behave like people and an axe removes a needle: these are conventions of the tale. Threats and animal predation belong to the recorded plot; no additional graphic detail has been added.
Telling and discussing the tale
List the participants from the axe to the cat, then follow the list backwards during the ending. Discuss the difference between helping willingly and acting through fear. A story can depict the latter without asking its listeners to approve of it.