The Man and His Hind

An old man always went everywhere leading a hind tied with a rope. When he was asked why he took her everywhere, he said she was his wife! He explained that they had no children, so he had adopted the son of a slave as his son and looked after his mother too. When his son was ten years old, the man had to go away for more than a year. His wife learnt magic and changed his son into a calf and its mother into a cow. She handed over both of them. When the man returned, she told him that the mother had died and the son had vanished a few months ago. The man hoped his son would return, but for months there was no sign of him. The man grieved always for his lost son and felt great pity for the dead slave.

The Deception Discovered

Some months later, a feast was to be held. The man told his steward to sacrifice one of the cows. Unfortunately, it was the slave who was sacrificed, but she was found to be so thin that the man called for a fat calf instead. To his wife’s delight, it was his son who was brought. But when the calf fell at the man’s feet and wept, he refused to kill it! The steward told the man, “My daughter knows magic, sir. She says the calf is actually your son!” The man asked the girl if she could turn the calf back into his son and she agreed, on condition that she married his son and punished his wife as she had harmed him. The man consented and, as soon as the calf became his son, he married the steward’s daughter. She turned his wife into a hind and he led her on a rope!

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