K65e1. The Toad's Midwife. .15.-.17.27.28.31.
A woman delivers a baby (baptizes the child) from a creature that in the human world has the appearance of a toad or a frog.
Ladins, Irish, Palestinians, Emirates, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Russians (Tersky Coast), Ukrainians (Kiev, Yekaterinoslav), Belarusians (Polesie), Slovaks, Norwegians, Latvians.
Southern Europe. Ladins [a maid sees a pregnant toad and mutters to herself: I'll see you give birth yet; the master arrives, orders her to help with his wife's birth, takes her away; the master has goat's hooves; the birth lasts 7 years; then the devil pays her generously and orders her to leave without turning around; meowing and various cries are heard behind her, but she does not turn around; the owner of the castle asks if she took a note from the devil that she is free; she goes to the bishop, who gives her a rod, orders her to return to hell and demand the note; and if he does not give it to her, then beat the devil; after shouting, the devil gives her the note, the woman returns safely]: Decurtins, Brunold-Bigler 2002, no. 62: 167-169.
Western Europe. The Irish (County Galway, 1942) [girls were tending cattle, saw a large frog; one of the girls told it not to give birth without her; three nights later, the girl went to fetch water; saw a rider on a white horse; he reminded her of her words and said that the frog was Fionnbharr's wife, who could not give birth until the girl came to her; the man took the girl to a cliff; they went inside, there were many people there; a red-haired woman was wailing in one of the rooms; seeing the girl coming, she gave birth; gave the girl a silk belt, told her not to wear it until she returned home; the rider took the girl back; on the way he stopped, told her to wrap the belt around an oak tree; when the girl did this, the oak fell to the ground; the horseman explained: if she had worn this belt at home in front of her parents, she would have been torn in two]: Almqvist 1991b, #ML 5070A; Irish [girl kicks pregnant frog: may you not give birth until I come to you as midwife; soon the girl was taken to a lake, where she had to midwife at the birth; it was the same frog, but in the form of a woman; she gave a red shawl; on the way home the girl hung the shawl on a tree to admire; the tree caught fire; if the girl had worn the shawl to the Sunday service, the whole church would have burned down]: Hartland 1891: 53.
Western Asia. Palestinians [having seen a pregnant frog, a woman wished that it would not be delivered of its burden until she herself was called to be its midwife; she woke up in a cave at night; a jinn said that underground people, when they came out, took the form of different creatures; the woman had to be a midwife for his wife, fortunately, a boy was born; the jinn ordered to put paint on the boy’s eyelids; the woman managed to smear one of her own eyelids; they poured onion peel into her sleeve, sent her home, where the peel turned to gold; one day the woman saw the jinn’s wife at the market, she was stealing things; she stopped her, kissed her child; people decided that she was kissing the air; the female jinn gouged out her eye that sees jinn with her finger]: Hanauer 2009: 191-193; Emirates [fairy in the form of a frog]: El-Shamy 2004, No. 156B*: 63.
The Balkans. Hungarians [a midwife was returning home, a frog was in the way; "Get out, you nasty creature; are you looking for a midwife?"; and she stepped on it, and the frog squealed shrilly; that same night, two men came for the midwife: thin legs, big heads; one says that the midwife promised to come to his wife; the midwife began to say that she did not meet anyone on the way home, but had to agree to go; they arrived at a mountain, the mountain opened up, there was a woman in labor, her head was also big; midwife: don't worry, God will help; the woman in labor: don't say "God", say "devil" (gyivák; a type of devil); after giving birth, the woman said that she was that frog; she ordered gold to be poured into her apron; when the midwife was brought home, the gold had disappeared]: Dégh 1965, no. 71: 296-299; Bulgarians [the midwife is called to deliver the baby from a toad (snake; a woman who has become the snake's wife); she receives gold as a reward, but looks at it before reaching the house; the gold turns into onion peel or coals]: Daskalova-Perkovska et al. 1994, no. 476*: 167.
Central Europe. Russians (Tersky Coast) [the old woman never had to babysit; she came across a fat frog and jokingly said: when you give birth, take me to babysit; they came for her, she delivered the baby, they went to the bathhouse, but they didn’t let her wash; she tore off a piece of her sarafan, recognizing it as her daughter-in-law’s sarafan, and wet one eye; she fell asleep on a feather bed and woke up in a tree by the river; the fishermen took her home; the sarafan was the same; in a store she sees a man stealing, tells the saleswoman, but she doesn’t see anyone; the devil asks: with which eye do you see? – With your right one. The devil gouged it out]: Balashov 1965, no. 15: 72-73; Belarusians (Polesie: the village of Chervona Voloka, Luginsky district, Zhitomir region, Ukraine) [the midwife gave birth to a toad; she gave her a block of percale (i.e. a roll of thin linen) and ordered her not to unroll it completely; the woman did not listen and unrolled it; the roll turned into a single piece of birch bark]: Vinogradova, Levkievskaya 2010, No. 92: 463; Ukrainians (Kievskaya, Kanevsky u., Malaya Shenderovka) [the midwife returned home, and the house was unheated; she went into the forest to collect deadwood; she sees a fat toad crawling, it cannot get over the stick, the woman put the stick away; she returned to the house, heated the stove; a carriage arrives; the woman decided that she was being called to deliver a baby for the lords; everything is in gold and silver; the devil tells her to go to bed - if necessary, I will wake her up; does not sleep and hears how the devil says to someone: take our child and replace it with the one that the woman delivered yesterday; the woman was woken up, she recognized the human child delivered yesterday; the woman put a piece of a needle under the baby's nail, and he screams; the devils decided that they did not need such a screamer; the devil gave her a piece of linen: do not unroll it (to the end), then there will be enough for the grandchildren; and take not money, but coals; when the woman returned, she went to the people whose birth she had delivered the day before, took the needle out of the child and he calmed down; the coals became gold; the woman made shirts from the linen; she could not resist and unrolled it: there are dead souls in it; and the linen was lost]: Chubinsky 1876, No. 97: 359-362; Ukrainians (Ekaterinoslavskaya, Aleksandrovsky district) [a midwife was going to deliver a baby and came across a pregnant toad; she sympathized with her and carried her across the road; soon a carriage arrived for the midwife and brought her to the devil-young woman; this was the toad; she was told to deliver the child, but not to baptize him, but to bathe him in kvass prepared on Wednesday; she received linen as a reward: enough for a lifetime; returning home, she discovered that it was her who had taken the kvass; she began to sew shirts from that linen - both for herself and her daughters, and for sale; one day she decided to unroll the roll and found the devil's leg at the end; all the shirts instantly disappeared - both those at home and those sold]: Dragomanov 1876, No. 15: 49; Slovaks[a toad asks a woman to be her midwife; someone tall brought her to the underwater world; there are many pots there; the woman opened one and a soul flew out; before letting the woman go, the toad advised her to untie the belt of her apron; when someone tried to hold the woman back, all he had left in his hand was the apron]: Gašparíková 1993, no. 259: 185.
Baltoscandia. Norwegians [a poor woman was weaving baskets; she went to fetch water, a toad was sitting on the road; the woman said to the toad: "If you leave the road, I will help you with the birth"; after some time a man came: my wife is about to give birth, you promised to help, I will pay a lot of money, but it cannot be given as alms and cannot be talked about; the woman realized that it was the king of Mount Ekeberg; the man came again: the wife is giving birth; they entered the mountain, it was luxuriously furnished; the king's wife could not give birth while her husband was sitting and hugging his knees; they asked him to come out, but he refused; then they said: "Oh, the child is born!"; the king jumped up, and at that moment the queen was able to give birth; she said to the woman: "My husband has nothing against you, but he will have to shoot you when you start to leave: quickly hide behind the door"; a woman was sent to the kitchen to bring ointment to lubricate the child's eyes; there she was surprised to see her maid and quietly cut off a piece of her dress; when the king fired, the woman jumped back behind the door, the bullet missed her; returning home, the woman saw the maid sleeping; "Where were you last night?" The maid kept complaining of back pain; she replied that she had not been anywhere, she was sleeping; the woman showed her the cut off piece of cloth; it turns out that you also work for the king at night; she taught the maid to read a prayer so that this would not happen again; after that night, the woman found silver coins behind the door every morning, she became rich; but one day a poor woman asked her for money, she gave it to her, all the money disappeared; and the king of Ekeberg often went "to women" in the city, and freaks were born from him; they also exchanged human babies for their own deformed ones, and stole wet nurses along with the children; one wet nurse managed to escape after a year; while she was still living in the mountain, she had to apply ointment to the eyes of a human child every day; one day she tried to apply the ointment to her right eye; six months after returning to people, she saw the troll queen stealing something in the market; she greeted her and asked about the health of the child; troll: can you see me? - Yes. - With which eye? - The right one. The troll woman spat in her right eye, and that eye went blind; when the war began in 1814, it became so noisy on the mountain that the king of Ekeberg moved with his entire house and cows to his brother in Kongsberg, where it was quieter]: Asbjíørsen 1870: 11-17; Latvians : Arijs, Medne 1977, No. 156B* [A woman helps a snake give birth, the snake brings money], *554F* [a girl jokingly offers herself as a godparent to a toad; in the evening the toad comes for her and takes her into the water; turns into a woman and shows the child who needs to be baptized; then throws a feast; the girl receives gifts]: 260, 301.