Arys-Pole

An old man had a beautiful daughter, and the two lived quietly and peacefully until he married another woman, who was an evil witch. She took a dislike to her…

An old man had a beautiful daughter, and the two lived quietly and peacefully until he married another woman, who was an evil witch. She took a dislike to her stepdaughter and kept after the old man: “Drive her out of the house, so I never have to set eyes on her!” The old man married his daughter to a good man. She lived happily with her husband and gave birth to a boy. But the witch grew angrier still; envy gave her no peace. When she found her chance, she turned her stepdaughter into a beast called Arys-Pole and drove her into the dense forest. Then she dressed her own daughter in the young wife’s clothes and put her in the real wife’s place. She did it all so cunningly that neither the husband nor anyone else noticed the deception. Only the old nurse understood, but she was afraid to speak. From that day on, whenever the baby grew hungry, the nurse would carry him to the forest and sing:

Arys-Pole! The child is crying,

The child is crying, hungry and thirsty.

Arys-Pole would come running, slip off her animal skin and leave it under a log, then take the boy and feed him. Afterward, she would put the skin on again and go back into the forest.

“Where does the nurse go with the baby?” the father wondered.

He began watching her. He saw Arys-Pole come running, take off her skin, and start feeding the little one. He crept out from behind the bushes, snatched the skin, and burned it.

“Oh, I smell smoke! Surely my skin is burning!” said Arys-Pole.

“No,” the nurse answered. “The woodcutters must have set the forest on fire.”

The skin burned away, and Arys-Pole regained her former appearance and told her husband everything. People gathered at once, seized the witch, and burned her together with her daughter.