L125B. He eats dead. .14.17.23.27.-.29.31.

After following his wife (husband), the husband (wife) discovers that at night she or he goes to devour the dead.

Berbers of Morocco (Rif), South Yemen, Santals, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Russians (Voronezh), Slovaks, Crimean Tatars, Latvians, Estonians.

North Africa. The Berbers of Morocco (Reef; recorded in Orleansville) [the king does not give his son the key to the garden; the prince told the maid to steal the key; he almost fell asleep in the garden; Mes'aouda, the daughter of good spirit and guli, appeared; exchanged rings with the prince; they began to meet; one day the dove brought a letter from her: she agrees to marry the prince if he builds a palace of gold and silver bricks, with ivory doors bones, with a glass roof; and will give it one hundred thousand dinars and one hundred thousand rams; the king did everything for his son, the king of good spirits appeared and they signed a contract; soon the king died and the prince himself became king; M. mixed her husband with sleeping pills, at night she became a ghoul and ate corpses; her mother came to her and they ate carrion together; one day the king's sister came to visit; M. put her to sleep with her mother strangled her and they ate her; after that, M. constantly asked her husband to invite relatives and friends, and no one else saw them; the fortuneteller advised the king to slowly pour out what his wife would be in the evening offer a drink; the king watched and heard that the Guli were going to eat him the next night, because the rest were all eaten; the fortuneteller advises ordering him to dig a hole, make a fire in it, and cover it with a carpet ; let someone tell M. that her husband is dying; she will throw herself and fall into a hole; so it happened; after all, the king of good spirits gave the king his other daughter, good and beautiful]: Desparmet 1910:374-394.

Western Asia. South Yemen [disappointed in the girls, the merchant decided to marry someone he would raise himself; his aunt just had a daughter, he began to watch her; after the wedding, he notices one night that There is no wife; he watches her and sees an old woman eating a dead man in the cemetery; in the morning the wife has no appetite; the merchant said he saw, his wife turned him into a donkey, sold him; once a beggar bought a donkey, touched her wand, turning the donkey back into a man; the merchant decided to take revenge, but his wife noticed that he climbed under the bed in the evening, turned him into a crow; the same beggar regained his human appearance ; drew three circles and told him to erase them - now the witch is powerless; she gave the merchant her wand; he turned his wife into a donkey and tortured her with the hardest work]: Canova 2002:135-138 (=Juhaiman 1999:126-131, where the text is called Arabian, but this collection also contains many other non-Saudi tales).

South Asia. Santals [6 brothers are married, the youngest seventh sees their wives climbing a banyan tree in the absence of their husbands, flying away on it to devour people and commit atrocities; when they return, witches they notice a young man, pierce two needles into his feet, turning him into a dog; the king's three daughters reject the suitors; he allows them to choose their own husbands; each ties a thread to her husband (the eldest is white, the middle one is white, the middle one is red, the youngest is blue); flies with white and red threads sit on men, and blue flies sit on the dog; the younger princess agrees to marry the dog, notices needles, pulls it out, the dog turns into a young man; young brothers push witch wives into a well, cover them with earth]: Bompas 1909, No. 43:281-284.

The Balkans. Hungarians [Ibronka is prettier than everyone, but without a boyfriend; "God give me a lover - at least hell"; now a guy is with her at the party; she accidentally bent down and felt like he has hooves; asks advice from an elderly woman; she suggests attaching a ball to the guy; on an unwound thread she comes to church, then to the churchyard; I. sees through a keyhole how her boyfriend took out a skull dead man, cut it in half and eats his brain; I. home, locked the door, the guy behind her: what did you see? - Nothing. - Your sister will die. - If you die, we'll bury you. It's the same with your father, it's the same with your mother. - You're going to die Woman: When you are buried, you should not dismantle the wall through a door or window; carry the coffin not along the road, but straight; dig the grave not in the cemetery, but in a ditch; hell asks the door, the window is those they answer that I.'s body was not carried through them; the devil puts on iron shoes, takes an iron staff: when he wears out, then I. will find; a rose has grown on the grave; the prince tells the servant to tear it off, she is not given; the prince himself easily tore it off, brought it to his room; someone eats the food left in the evening; the servant followed; the next night the prince grabbed I.; she agrees to live with him, but on condition not to take her to church; two the boys have grown up, everyone wonders why they come to church without a mother; I. has to go; hell sees her, promises to come; asks again what I. saw through the keyhole; I. in detail tells the whole story; and ends up like this: I tell the dead, not the living; the devil falls screaming terribly and dies; I.'s mother, father and sister come to life]: Dégh 1965, No. 4:46-57; Bulgarians [ the husband sees his wife eating the dead at night in the cemetery; she turns him into a dog; the dog lives with a peasant, shows extraordinary abilities (recognizes counterfeit money, etc.); another the sorceress restores the dog's human appearance; with her help, the husband turns his wife into a mare (donkey)]: Daskalova-Perkovska et al. 1994, No. 449A: 155.

Central Europe. Russians (Voronezh) [An elderly woman works as a cook and takes care of a child. Before his death, she gives her son a portrait, orders him to find a wife who would look like her. The son finds a "cleaning lady in the hotel" who looks like his mother and marries her, despite the fact that she is older. The husband notices that she cooks food for him, but does not eat herself, and leaves at night. He watches her and sees her tearing up graves and eating dead people. He tells her what he saw (during breakfast she refuses to eat with him, "cooked"), she whips him and turns him into a dog. He meets a shepherd, who feeds him and keeps his sheep to herd. The shepherd trusts the clever dog with a herd and boasts of his assistant. A shopkeeper suffering from theft asks a shepherd to borrow his dog for the night. The dog sees the theft, watches the thieves, and the next day brings the owner to the place where the stolen goods are hidden. The king loses two children, he is afraid that the last one to be given birth to the queen will be stolen, asks the shepherd for a dog. The dog sees the Serpent carry the baby, sit on his back and gnaw on it, he drops the baby. The dog saves the child, the king comes to his cries and praises the dog. At christening, the dog is put in a place of honor, and vodka is poured. All the guests are surprised that she is drinking like a human being, the dog is crying. The guest advises the king to steam the dog well in the bath. He performs and the dog becomes human again. The king wants to keep him as his second son, but he goes to take revenge on his wife. It turns him into a sparrow. The sparrow flies into the possession of the Snake Wizard, it is caught by the king's stolen children, they want to tear its head off, but the sparrow promises to be useful, it is hit on the floor, and he becomes human. Children hide the guy in a conic. The serpent feels the spirit, the children will assure: "He flew across Russia..". The snake falls asleep, the guy finds a "sleeping book" in the closets, reads and the Serpent falls asleep. The guy calls the children for a walk and takes them to the royal garden. The grateful king again invites the boy to remain his "senior ruler", but he returns to his wife with a book. He is ahead of her spell, is the first to quilt her and turn her into a mare, harnesses her into a plow and makes her plow six acres. She ties her tail to a horse and drives her "over the stumps" until she breaks her bones. The Tsar Marries a Boy]: Baryshnikova 2007, No. 63:215-220; Slovaks [Janko the nobleman notices that his wife eats only with a small spoon; watches her, sees how she is in the cemetery with some the monster digs up and eats the dead; tells her about it, she splashes water on him, turns him into a dog, hits him, drives him away; the dog lives with the baker, is smart, the baker gets rich; the lady brings her to her daughter, so splashes water on the dog, the dog turns into me again; the girl says that she studied witchcraft with his wife; gives a bottle of water to splash on his wife; I turn my wife into a mare takes him to the stable]: Bogatyrev 1955:102-109 (Gorbov 1949:104-111).

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Crimean Tatars (Karasubazar) [a junk man married a girl with five children; his wife never eats with her husband; he saw how she smeared her head with a drug at night, each hair became like a tree goes to the child's fresh grave and eats his heart; when he returns, he becomes the same woman; the next day he said he saw; she hit him, he woke up on an unfamiliar street, where he did not know anyone; regretted what he did]: Zherdeva 2020, No. 56.

Baltoscandia. Latvians: Aris, Medne 1977, No. 363.1 [husband spies on his wife eating corpses; he hits her with a rowan truncheon, his wife turns into a cow; to save his wife, the pastor tells her husband to go to church, circle around him, survive horrors], 449.3 [The husband finds out that his wife is a witch, spies on her eating dead at night. His wife turns him into a dog. The dog grazes cattle, saves the king's child, returns to his wife with a reward. A witch turns a dog into a sparrow. The shepherds catch it and are going to fry it. An old man saves a sparrow, restores its human appearance, and turns his wife and mother into mares]: 280, 287; Estonians (Kose) [a man wants to find a beautiful bride; a witch doctor tells at the crossroads of three roads to ask for a devil; a man brought a beautiful woman from the forest, married him; she calls him to go to relatives; on the way he goes to chapels three times, supposedly to look at the graves of relatives; the husband follows , sees his wife devouring a fresh corpse; her husband hits her with a rowan stick, she has become a black cow; the husband went to the priest; he tells the night before the roosters to read the Bible in church; the devils rushed at him, but sang cock; the next night the devils didn't show up; the man married a hard-working girl]: Järv et al. 2015:101-102.