The Brown Fairy Book, part 19 · page 21 2101So they were married and very happy, when in came cross old Kabo.102“Is this Pivi?” said he.checked by a teacher103“Yes, it is—no, it isn’t.104It is not the same Pivi—but there is a kind of likeness.105Tell me, are you Pivi?”106“Oh, yes!” said Pivi.107“But I am much better looking, and there are my two wives, are they not beautiful?”108“You are mocking me, Pivi!109Your wives?110How?111Where did you get them?112You, with wives!”113Then Pivi told Kabo about the kind woman, and all the wonderful things that had happened to him.114“Well, well!” said Kabo, “but I want to be handsome too, and to have pretty young wives.”115“But how can we manage that?” asked Pivi.116“Oh, we shall do all the same things over again—play at slinging, and, this time, you shall break my leg, Pivi!”117“With all the pleasure in life,” said Pivi, who was always ready to oblige.118So they went slinging, and Pivi broke Kabo’s leg, and Kabo fell into the river, and floated into the bamboo, and the woman blew him out, just as before.119Then she picked up Kabo, and put him in the shed, and told him what to do when the Black Ant came, and what to do when the Red Ant came.120But he didn’t!121When the Black Ant came, he shook himself, and behold, he had a twisted leg, and a hump back, and was as black as the ant.122Then he ran to the woman.123“Look, what a figure I am!” he said; but she only told him to climb the tree, as she had told Pivi.124But Kabo climbed with both hands and feet, and he threw down the nuts, instead of carrying them down, and he put them in the hut.125And when he went back for them there he found two horrid old black hags, wrangling, and scolding, and scratching!126So back he went to Pivi with his two beautiful wives, and Pivi was very sorry, but what could he do?127Nothing, but sit and cry.128So, one day, Kabo came and asked Pivi to sail in his canoe to a place where he knew of a great big shell-fish, enough to feed on for a week.129Pivi went, and deep in the clear water they saw a monstrous shell-fish, like an oyster, as big as a rock, with the shell wide open.130“We shall catch it, and dry it, and kipper it,” said Pivi, “and give a dinner to all our friends!”131“I shall dive for it, and break it off the rock,” said Kabo, “and then you must help me to drag it up into the canoe.”132There the shell-fish lay and gaped, but Kabo, though he dived in, kept well out of the way of the beast.133Up he came, puffing and blowing: “Oh, Pivi,” he cried, “I cannot move it.134Jump in and try yourself!”135Pivi dived, with his spear, and the shell-fish opened its shell wider yet, and sucked, and Pivi disappeared into its mouth, and the shell shut up with a snap!136Kabo laughed like a fiend, and then went home.137“Where is Pivi?” asked the two pretty girls.138Kabo pretended to cry, and told how Pivi had been swallowed.139“But dry your tears, my darlings,” said Kabo, “I will be your husband, and my wives shall be your slaves.140Everything is for the best, in the best of all possible worlds.”141“No, no!” cried the girls, “we love Pivi.142We do not love anyone else.143We shall stay at home, and weep for Pivi!”144“Wretched idiots!” cried Kabo; “Pivi was a scoundrel who broke my leg, and knocked me into the river.”145Then a little cough was heard at the door, and Kabo trembled, for he knew it was the cough of Pivi!146“Ah, dear Pivi!” cried Kabo, rushing to the door.147“What joy!148I was trying to console your dear wives.”149Pivi said not one word.150He waved his hand, and five and twenty of his friends came trooping down the hill.151They cut up Kabo into little pieces.152Pivi turned round, and there was the good woman of the river.153“Pivi,” she said, “how did you get out of the living tomb into which Kabo sent you?”154“I had my spear with me,” said Pivi.155“It was quite dry inside the shell, and I worked away at the fish with my spear, till he saw reason to open his shell, and out I came.”156Then the good woman laughed; and Pivi and his two wives lived happy ever afterwards.157[Moncelon.158Bulletin de la Societe d’Anthropologie.159Series iii. vol. ix., pp.160613-365.]161The Elf Maiden162Once upon a time two young men living in a small village fell in love with the same girl.163During the winter, it was all night except for an hour or so about noon, when the darkness seemed a little less dark, and then they used to see which of them could tempt her out for a sleigh ride with the Northern Lights flashing above them, or which could persuade her to come to a dance in some neighbouring barn.164But when the spring began, and the light grew longer, the hearts of the villagers leapt at the sight of the sun, and a day was fixed for the boats to be brought out, and the great nets to be spread in the bays of some islands that lay a few miles to the north.165Everybody went on this expedition, and the two young men and the girl went with them.1 2← previousThe Brown Fairy Book, part 18next →The Brown Fairy Book, part 20↑ back to The Brown Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/19/page/2/