K56a2b. Buy lizards and beetles. .27.28.31.32.

A supernatural character asks a girl to buy (feed) his (her) children. They are snakes, beetles, or wild animals. The girl performs everything and is awarded.

Romanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Gagauz people, Russians (Arkhangelsk, Karelia), Karelians, Finns, Latvians, Komi.

The Balkans. Romanians [stepmother tells her husband to drive her stepdaughter out; the stove asks her to melt and peel, the pear to cut off the wormy fruits, the vine to weed, the well to clean; the girl does everything; comes to the forester; she tells me to cook bran, feed snakes, lizards, bats; offers to choose a gift; the girl takes an inadequate chest; on the way back, the pear gives her ripe fruit, the well - clean water, etc.; in a treasure chest; stepmother sends her own daughter; she does not respond to requests; scalded snakes and lizards with hot bran; chose the largest chest; there are snakes in it, they bit her; stepdaughter married happily]: Mirener 1958:112-118; Romanians (Bukovina) [stepmother forces her husband to drive her stepdaughter out of the house; on the way she left the sick dog, cleaned the pear from the caterpillars, cleaned the pear, cleaned the pear a well, covered with clay in a wreck stove; comes to the forest house, washes the children of an old Holy Friday woman - snakes and other creatures; chooses the ugliest chest as a gift; on the way back, the oven is full of pies, the well is pure water, the pear is pears, the dog gives a necklace of gold coins; horses, cows, sheep come out of the chest; the stepmother's daughter does not help her meet, rude children to Holy Friday, scalds her children, chooses a large chest; the oven does not give pies, a water well, a pear of fruit, a dog bites; snakes that crawled out of the chest ate the old woman and her daughter; the old man passed off his daughter as a good man]: Staufe 1853:42-50, 469-472 (=Kremnitz 1882, No. 19:228-237; also in Moldavian tales 1968:113-118; only here the old woman is called Holy Friday); Serbs [stepmother drove her stepdaughter into the forest; she came to the hut, all cleaned it up; the dragon came and told him to look for his smelly head; the girl replies that his head was fragrant; told him to feed his pets when he left; they were wolves, foxes, badgers and other forest animals; they were satisfied; the dragon offered to choose a box as a reward; the girl took the lightest one; opened it at home - ducats in it; the stepmother sent her daughter to her daughter; she turns her nose from the dragon, beats and maims animals, chooses the heaviest box; two snakes crawled out of it, which sucked the eyes of her stepmother and her daughter]: Karadzich 1854, No. 36:212-216 (=Dmitriev, Volkonsky 1956:78-81); Bulgarians [(very many records); the father takes his daughter {from the first wife} into the forest, leaves it there; she goes to an old woman (sorceress, self-divine), takes care of her animals (snakes, lizards), carries out her errands; chooses as a gift a simple, dilapidated chest with wealth; on the advice of an old woman, she washes in a yellow river on her way home, makes gold herself or pulls a chest of gold out of the water; the stepmother sends her own daughter, she does everything bad, the old woman tells her to wash herself in black water, she turns black like an arapka; chooses a painted chest with snakes and lizards in it (they eat her and her mother)]: Daskalova-Perkovska et al. 1994, no.*480 ₃: 170-171; Gagauz people [the old man's daughter is hardworking, the old woman's daughter is lazy; the old woman drives the old man's daughter away; she walks, unwinding a ball of thread; fruit trees ask to be cleaned of caterpillars; the well is from silt; the oven asks to cover her with pies, promises to feed her later; remove worms from the half-crushed puppy; the girl does everything, comes to Jumaa b√°b (makes sure that no one spits on Friday); that asks to keep an eye on her children, these are animals and birds; she does everything well; J. orders to catch any of the chests floating on the river as a reward; the girl takes the smallest; the dog with the gold necklace meets neck, asks to take a necklace; the oven gives pies, the well gives water, the trees are fed fruit; when the chest is opened at home, there are dresses, shoes; the old woman sends her daughter; she does not fulfill requests, scalds "children" with boiling water, takes a large chest, an oncoming dog bites her, the stove burns her, a snake jumps out of the well, the trees do not produce fruit; in the chest there are 12-headed snakes, swallowed the old woman and her daughter and disappeared; the old man passed off his daughter as a good guy]: Syrf 2013:158-163.

Central Europe. Russians (Arkhangelskaya village, village. Soyana on the tributary of the Kuloy river. Soyans, 1921) [stepdaughter dropped a skein of thread into the ice-hole, stepmother sent to get it, stepdaughter went down for him; cows, horses, goats, sheep ask them to plow and rake them, she does everything; comes to the hut on chicken legs about one window; asks about her ball, grandmother tells me to take it; asks you to heat the bathhouse, carry water with a sieve and wash the kids; bird: cover the sieve with clay; children - mice, moles, rats; after the bath, they tell the grandmother that she has never washed them so well; she gave the girl a basket of gold; the girl again fulfills the requests of the cows, etc.; the stepmother sends her own daughter Masha; she does not comply with the requests of the cows etc.; scolds the bird; washes the children, tearing off their arms and legs; the grandmother gives them a basket of hot coals; Masha returns to her mother, pours coal on the straw, she lights up, they burn]: Ozarovskaya 2009, No. 38: 324-326; Russians (Karelian Pomorie, The Sniffer) [stepmother sent her stepdaughter to spin to the ice-hole; the spindle fell into the ice-hole; the stepdaughter asked for the pike, she did not answer; she went down herself; horse, cow and sheep shepherds in the service of Raven Voronovich, Grokhot Grokhotovich ask to plow and rake; the girl does everything; asks the hut on chicken legs to turn her eyes to the forest, her gates; baba yaga, bone leg, tits spring through the bed, rows coal with his nose, plows the stove with his tongue, asks seven children to heat the bath and wash it; carry water with a sieve, the bird teaches how to smear it with clay; each Baba Yaga's son praises the girl how well she washed it; Baba Yaga took a bag with her, the shepherds brought a mare with a foal, a cow with a calf, a sheep with a lamb; the father came to the ice-hole, with a spindle swimming in it, he pulled the rope, pulled out his daughter; the stepmother sent his own daughter; she is rude to the shepherds, she does not wash Baba Yaga's children well; there are bricks and rot in the bag, the shepherds beat the girl; the stepmother pulled the spindle, pulled out a bag of rot; the old man divorced his wife]: Razumova, Senkina 1974, No. 69:320-325.

Baltoscandia. Karely (Ukhta, 1947) [one sister Lenivitsa, the other is a Needlewoman; R. rinsed her clothes, dropped her valek into the ice-hole, jumped after him, came to the old woman's hut; she asks to take care of the cows (R. them washed), buy her children (these are lizards and frogs, R. washed them gently in the bath), they are happy, the old woman gives two chests, gold in the other, silk in the other; L. specially throws the roller, pours over the cows with cold water, breaks the horn, tears off the udder; the same with lizards and frogs (tore off her leg, gouged out her eye), they complain; opens the chests received in Riga, in one fire, in the other resin, the rig caught fire, L . turned black with smoke, and remained so]: Concca 1959, No. 8:47-50 (=Onegina 2010, No. 29:283-285); Finns [the mother of a beautiful and kind girl died, the man remarried, the stepmother also gave birth to a daughter, she rude and ugly; the stepmother planted both spins at the edge of the ice-hole, gave her own daughter little yarn, her stepdaughter a lot; if the spindle falls into the ice-hole, let her pull it out; the stepdaughter's spindle fell, she dived into the water, I found myself on the road, came to the big house; the old woman tells me to clean the barn; the cows praise the mistress's maid; she asks the lizards to be washed, they also say that they have never been washed so well; the old woman gives the girl two boxes, she returns home; the dog barks: the girl brought boxes of gold and silver; the stepmother plants a spin at the ice-hole of her own daughter, she also drops the spindle, the mother pushes her into the water; she is bad cleans the barn, hits the cows, they complain to the owner; the lizards complain that the maid cut off their tails, was rude; the dog barks: the girl carries boxes of fire and resin; when she and her mother open them, the fire blazed in their face, both burned down; the girl stayed with her father]: Goldberg 1953:91-100 (=Klein 1946:79-83); Latvians (Livonia) [to get rid of her stepdaughter, her stepmother pushed her into a well; when she hit to another world, a girl fulfills the wishes of oncoming animals and objects: she gives water to horses, milks cows, shears sheep, bakes bread; the old man asks to heat the bath, wash it and others; these are snakes; they tell the girl not to be afraid, she splashes warm water on them; the old man gives them a box and a wand, tells them to open when the girl returns home; a lock jumps out of the box, a church appears when hit with a stick; the stepmother pushes her own daughter into the well; she does not fulfill the wishes of the people she meets, pours hot water on the snakes, hits them with a truncheon; when she opened the box given by the old man at home, a fire blazed out of it, burned everyone present]: Brivzemniax 1887, No. 128:264-267.

Volga - Perm. Komi: Doronin 2004 [stepmother throws her stepdaughter into the well; she meets horses, cleans them, they say that you should take a red basket in Yoma's hut; Y. asks her lizards to be washed and evaporated, frogs, beetles, the girl did everything; chose a red basket, the father picked it up from the well, in the basket of dresses, money; the stepmother leaves her own daughter, she hits the horses, they advise you to take a blue basket; she hits, and Y. does not wash the children, takes a blue basket; when mother and daughter opened it, the fire blazed, burned them]: 41-43; Plesovsky 1975 [stepmother sends stepdaughter to rinse the yarn, the skein drowned in the river, the stepmother tells jump after him; stepdaughter finds herself in the meadow; combed and braided the manes of horses; the mare teaches you to go to Yoma's hut, complete all tasks, choose a red basket; milks cows, the cow tells you not to try honey from honey river, sour cream from a stream of sour cream, step on a needle in Yoma's hut; stepdaughter tells the spinning hut to stop, stepped on a needle, came in; Y. tells me to chop firewood so that the knock cannot be heard heat the sauna so that there is no smoke; wash children - frogs, lizards and beetles; stepdaughter does everything; Yoma gives yarn, stepdaughter chooses a red basket; Y. tells me not to open it on the way; stepdaughter opens houses, a hut appears with kindness; stepdaughter gets married; stepmother sends her own daughter; she scolds the horses, they tell them to take blue; she eats honey, sticks to her scythe, eats sour cream, sticks to her sundress, I had to cut off the braid and hem; firewood was chopping loudly, heating the bathhouse smokily, hitting frogs, etc., chooses a blue basket, a fire came out of it at home, burned down the hut; the father went to live with his daughter]: 34-37.