In a farm, a strange man was born with horns and a tail like a cow. He was called Masang. He found a very dark-skinned friend and servant named Iddar, son of the forest. Further on, they were joined by a man with green skin, son of grass, and another with white skin, son of the rushes in a marsh. They reached an empty hut and stayed there. One would stay to cook while three went hunting. Iddar stayed the first day and a little old woman came begging for food. But when he had fed her, he found it was all finished. He lied to the others that soldiers had come and eaten up everything. The same happened with the green and the white man. But Masang outwitted the old woman, who was a witch, and thrashed her till she fled. He told his companions that they must catch her.
The Ungrateful Companions
They found her dead in a deep pit full of gold, jewels and armour. Masang suggested they should draw up the treasure and then go forward. The others asked him to go down. “We will pull you up,” they said. But as soon as they got the treasure, the three ungrateful fellows fled with it, leaving Masang to die. But Masang chanted some magical words that made a tree grow in the pit. He climbed out and found his way to heaven. There he was given the task of destroying the Chief Witch, who was injured by an arrow. Posing as a physician who had come to cure her, he killed the witch in a fierce battle. But before she was killed, she had hit Masang and he was injured so badly that he broke up to become seven stars in the sky!
