{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/hoe/hoe2-77.htm","path":"neu/hoe/hoe2-77.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/hoe/hoe2-77.htm","text":"ONCE upon a time a traveller came to a village and asked for a night\u2019s lodging. He was handsomely dressed, but he had coarse bast shoes on his feet. A friendly farmer received the stranger hospitably, and offered him accommodation. At night the man asked his host, \u201cFarmer, where shall I put my bast shoes?\u201d The farmer showed him the place, but he added, \u201cNo, my shoes must spend the night among the feathered people, for that is what they are used to. So I would rather hang them on the perch in the hen-house.\u201d The farmer laughed at the joke, and permitted him to do so.\nAs soon as all were in their first sleep, the owner of the bast shoes rose from his bed, slipped into the hen-house, tore the shoes to pieces, and scattered the coarse plaits among the fowls. Next morning he went to the master of the house and complained, \u201cFarmer, my property was badly damaged last night.\u201d Said the farmer, \u201cWell, let whoever has done the mischief make it good.\u201d This was just p. 279 what the stranger wanted, and he immediately caught the dappled cock, and put him into his knapsack, \u201cfor,\u201d said he, \u201che\u2019s the culprit; last night he pecked at my shoes till he spoiled them.\u201d Then he proceeded on his journey with the cock.\nOn the evening of the same day he arrived at a neighbouring village, and asked again for accommodation. At night he put the cock in the farmer\u2019s sheep-pen, and excused himself by saying, \u201cMy cock has not been used to anything else since he was a chicken.\u201d But at night he strangled the bird, and then complained, \u201cThe sheep have killed my cock.\u201d He indemnified himself by taking a fat ram from the flock, for he held by the farmer\u2019s adage, \u201cHe who has done the mischief must pay for it.\u201d\nBy a similar stratagem he exchanged the ram at the third village for an ox, and at last the ox for a horse. He soon contrived to get a sledge too, and drove merrily over hill and dale, till the stones flew behind him, while he contrived new schemes and stratagems. On the way, he encountered Master Reynard, who persuaded him by entreaties and cajoleries to take him into his sledge. After a while, the wolf and bear joined them, and likewise found a place in the sledge; but this made the load p. 280 too heavy, and when they came to a curve in the road, the side-poles of the sledge gave way. Then the man sent his companions to fetch wood to make a new pole. But none of the three brought a proper one back. The fox and wolf brought thin sticks in their mouths, and the bear brought a whole pine-tree, roots and all. Then the man went himself, and soon found the wood which he wanted. Meantime, the wild beasts availed themselves of the opportunity, and sprang upon the horse and devoured it. But they stuffed the skin nicely with straw, and set it carefully up, so that it stood again on its four legs as if it was alive.\nWhen the man came back with the pole, he mended the sledge and harnessed the horse again. \u201cOho! now we\u2019ll drive on.\u201d But alas! the horse would not move. Then the man looked at the red scamp, the grey rascal, and the brown villain, and said angrily, \u201cGive me my horse back.\u201d But the wild beasts answered, \u201cYou killed it yourself, while we were running about looking for wood by your orders.\u201d\nThus they stood quarrelling and disputing, till Reynard considered how he could best put an end to the dispute and save his own skin. He knew p. 281 of a pit in the neighbourhood which the hunter had dug for a wolf-trap, and covered loosely with thin twigs. \u201cThe matter won\u2019t be settled by quarrelsome and angry words,\u201d cried he; \u201cbut come, let the four of us go to the wolf-pit; we will all tread on it at once, and whoever falls in shall be adjudged guilty.\u201d The rest agreed, and when they stood on the twigs, they broke under their weight, and precipitated them into the pit, and even Reynard was unable to escape. He had trusted too much to the lightness of his tread, and had trodden on the twigs without consideration. Now they were all in the trap together, and none of them could hope to escape. The time seemed long to them, and their hunger soon became too great to bear.\nFirst of all, the wild beasts attacked the man of the bast shoes and devoured him, and then Reynard had to resign his life. Last of all the bear throttled the wolf. Then came the hunter and gave the bear his quietus. Thus all the four rascals experienced the truth of the proverb, \u201cAs the deed, so the reward.\u201d","title":"THE MAN WITH THE BAST SHOES.","type":"page"}