L4B. Blood cannot be washed away. .15.16.27.-.31.35.

The character learns that a ban on entering a certain room has been violated because evidence of this has been preserved on the heroine's (hero's) body or on an object in her (his) hands (often this is blood on a key or an apple).

Portuguese, Spanish, Aragonese, Catalans, Corsicans, Italians (Veneto, Piedmont, Tyrol), Ladins, French (Upper Brittany, Nevers, Poitou, Vendée, Gascony, Pyrenees), Scots, Bretons, Germans (Hanover, East Prussia, Swabia), Slovenes, Serbs, Moldovans, Greeks, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians (Podolia, Cherkasy, Kherson), Turks, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Karelians (Finns?), Swedes, Northern Khanty.

Southern Europe. Portuguese [a robber marries the eldest sister, or the father is forced to promise to give him the one who comes out first at home to meet him, this is the eldest daughter; then the robber successively marries the other daughters; forbids the wife to enter a certain room, giving her an object that will testify to the violation; the wife opens the door, the bodies of the previous victims are there, the object is broken or covered in blood, the husband kills his wife and throws her into that room; the youngest manages to remain undetected (she does not bring the object into the room); she revives or heals the sisters or the wounded prince; exposed, she sends a signal to her brothers, they quickly appear; or the wife puts the sisters in a sack, orders it to be taken to their parents, without looking inside; she stands at the window, he sees her, looking back; then she puts a doll at the window, gets into the sack herself, or runs away with the prince, hiding in a cart under the straw; the robber hides in the married couple's room; wife asks that a lion be left under the bed (or a soldier at the door); the lion kills the robber]: Cardigos 2005, no. 312: 67; Portuguese [drops the key, a blood stain remains on it]: Cardigos, Correia 2015(2), no. 312: 144-145; Spanish (Burgos) [Bluebeard killed his wives and hung them in one of the rooms; he gave his next wife the key to it, but forbade her to open the door; she opened it, was horrified, dropped the key, the blood could not be washed off; Bluebeard demanded the key, saw the blood, cut off his wife's head, and hung the body with the others]: Marcos et al. 2002, no. 197: 296; Aragon [a woodcutter successively gives his daughters to a nobleman (he is a demon, a cannibal), who pays money for each one; in his castle he forbids entry to a certain room; the girls violate the ban, they are given away by a key or a ring, which are stained with blood; the youngest finds the bodies, revives her sisters and, having deceived the ogre, frees them]: González Sanz 1996, no. 311: 75; Catalans [a merchant has three daughters; when leaving, he promises to bring them a ring, a dress, a rose; he forgets about the rose and picks it in someone's garden; the giant demands that she give up her daughter; the eldest agrees; the giant forbids opening one of the rooms, and if she opens it, a stain will appear on the apple he has given her; she violates the ban, in the room there are girls with a slit throat; she drops the apple, the giant cuts the girl's throat and leaves it in that room; the same with the middle sister; the youngest wraps the apple in a handkerchief and, although she drops it, it is unharmed; the girl cuts the giant's throat while he is sleeping; he says where is the ointment to cure him; she anoints the giant's wound, but places the head backwards; the giant begins to fight and kills himself; with the help of the same ointment the girl resurrects her sisters and the other slaughtered, everyone returns home]: Oriol, Pujol 2008, no. 311: 68-69; Corsicans[a mother has three daughters; the eldest goes off to look for a better life, comes to a rich house, the owner takes her on as a worker; when leaving, he allows her to enter all the rooms except one; gives her a golden ball; she opens the door, there are screams, she bends down, sees that this is hell, which means the owner is the devil; the ball falls out and falls; when the owner returns, he demands the ball; throws the girl into the abyss in that room; the same with the middle sister; the youngest leaves the ball in the closet, shows it to the returning owner; after two or three years, the youngest asks the devil to take the gift to her mother; pulls out the middle sister by the hand, puts her in a box; if the devil wants to open it on the way, you must say: I see everything! after another two or three years, the youngest transported her older sister home in the same way; in order to transport herself, the youngest made a doll and left it in plain sight; realizing the deception, the devil came to the sisters' house, but they put crosses around it and sprinkled everything with holy water; but the devil blew, the facade of the house collapsed, and it was never repaired]: Massignon 1984, no. 19: 40-43; Italians (South Tyrol) [when the king lost his throne, his son went on a journey; got a job as a servant in a house; the owner orders the horse to be fed meat, and the bear - hay; when leaving, he leaves the keys, but does not order one room to be unlocked; the prince unlocked, behind the door there is a lake; the prince went to the mare and she said: you have been behind that door, now your hair is golden; you must run; take with you a comb, scissors, a mirror; they galloped, the owner pursues; the horse orders them to throw away the comb (high hedge), scissors (thorny forest), mirror (lake; the pursuer gave up the chase); in the city, the prince hid his hair under his cap; hired himself out as a gardener; every day he must prepare bouquets for three princesses; fell in love with the youngest; the bouquet is better for her than the others, and she noticed it; one day the hat fell off and the princess saw golden hair from the balcony; she went to the prince; he took off his hat, but asked not to give it away; the king: the winner of the tournament will get the youngest princess; on the first day, the prince on a horse in his true form in white clothes; on the second day in blue; on the third in purple; he wins every time; each time the horse jumps over the fence, and no one knows where the winner disappeared to; the king orders all the men to gather; let the daughter throw a golden apple at the chosen one; on the first two days she did not throw it at anyone, and on the third - at the young gardener; the king is angry, but keeps his word; fell ill; the dragon's blood will cure him; all three sons-in-law went to the forest inhabited by dangerous creatures; the prince killed the dragon and brought a vessel with his blood; gave it to the elder sons-in-law, receiving in return the golden balls that the elder princesses threw to them; the king recovered; at the feast the prince told how it had happened and showed the balls; took off his cap, revealing golden hair; everyone recognized the winner of the tournament; the mare ordered her head to be cut off; after this she turned into a beautiful princess; returned to her father; the prince inherited his father-in-law's throne]: Schneller 1861, No. 20: 42-47; Italians(Veneto) [=Widter et al. 1866, no. 11: 148-151; the devil decided to marry, turned into a handsome man, created a rich house, wooed a girl; allows her to go everywhere, but not to unlock one room; the wife opened it, there was a fiery abyss, the fire scorched the flowers on the woman's chest; seeing them, the husband threw her into hell; the same with the middle sister; the youngest first removed the flowers, pulled out the sisters; seeing the flowers unscorched, the husband believes that his wife is obedient; she asks her parents to take three chests, not to look into them on the way; sends one, then the second sister home; when the devil is about to sit down, the one sitting in the chest says that she sees everything; when the youngest sister sits down herself, she first puts a doll in her clothes on the balcony; returning, the devil finds the doll and an empty jewelry box; runs to the wives' parents; [his wives laugh at him from the balcony, the devil leaves]: Crane 1885, no. 16: 78-81; Calvino 1980, no. 8 (Piedmont) [a widow washerwoman has three daughters who are exhausted by work; the eldest is ready to hire herself out even to the devil; a gentleman with a silver nose arrives; the mother is in doubt, but the eldest daughter is ready to go with him; in his house he gives the keys to all the rooms, forbids entering one of them; at night he quietly sticks a rose into the girl's hair; when she unlocks the forbidden door, hell is behind it, the flames scorch the rose; returning, Silver Nose pushes the girl into hell; the same with the middle sister (Silver Nose explained that one servant could not cope with all the work; he stuck a carnation in her hair); the youngest Lucia noticed jasmine in her hair, put it in water, it remained unsinged; before Silver Nose arrived, she stuck it in her hair again; asked her to take a bag of laundry to her mother for washing; warned her that she could see far - let Silver Nose not sit down to rest along the way; instead of laundry, L. put her eldest sister in the bag; when Silver Nose intended to look into the bag, the sister said "I see, I see" instead of L.; L. ferried the middle sister along the same path; then she made a doll in her own image, said that she was sick, sat in the bag herself, also taking money; when all the sisters returned, they put a cross in front of the house and the devil did not come anymore]: 26-30; Ladins: Decurtins, Brunold-Bigler 2002, #86 [the master married the miller's eldest daughter; gave her an egg and a key, told her to look in all the rooms except one; the girl unlocked it too, there was human flesh on hooks; she dropped the egg, the blood could not be washed off it, her husband killed her; the same with the middle sister; the youngest hid the egg in a drawer; her husband praised her for her obedience; when he fell asleep, she cut off his head with a sword and returned to her parents]: 231-232; Uffer 1973, #40 [the peasant has daughters Greta and Cilgia; in the spring, G. is the first to volunteer to go herding the cows; her father warns her not to turn left along the path, there she will fall into the hands of a wild man; G. {apparently, having turned left} meets a little man in a pointed cap; he forces her to go with him, opens the door in the rock; there the workers greet him, calling him "Gian Pitschen (GP) with the pointed cap"; he has many treasures; he gives G. a needle with a gold tip, forbids her to unlock one of the rooms; G. must make coffee every day; one day she opened the door, there are the remains of women, she dropped the needle, cannot wash off the blood stains; GP pushes her into the same room, locks the door; Cilgia goes to look for her sister; the old man tells her to greet the little man with the same words as his workers; in the GP's monastery S. does not cry, but pretends to be happy, GP is pleased with her; she first hides the needle, then opens the door, feeds her sister; pretends to be afraid for her parents - they are starving; GP tells her to pack a sack of provisions, promises to take it; S. puts her sister in the sack, teaches her to say, "I see!" as soon as GP wants to open the sack; she tells him that she will watch him from the balcony; if he throws the bag, she will jump into the water; S. hung her red dress on a pole so that GP could see it and think that she was watching him; when GP got completely tired and threw the bag, he saw the red dress in the water {his reflection?}, rushed to grab it, slid into the water, S. and the GP workers killed him with stones; the old man: since thanks to S. everyone got rid of GP, then she should get his treasures; the sisters and their parents moved to live in GP's palace {the informant apparently forgot that this dwelling was inside a rock}]: 179-187.

Western Europe. The French (Vendee, 1950) [Bluebeard had already killed 6 wives and taken a seventh; when he left, he left behind the keys; the smallest one was for a room the wife was not supposed to enter; she unlocked the door to this room; behind it were the wives, hanged in their wedding dresses, their throats cut, and there was blood on the floor; she dropped the key, the blood could not be washed off; in the room at the top of the tower she found an old man imprisoned there, Father Jacques; the other wives had not gone up to this tower; J. says that before the murders, SB did things that made the wives laugh; the wife sent a little dog to her brothers, tying a letter to it; SB returned, saw blood on the key and told his wife to put on her wedding dress; the little dog ran like the wind, and the wife kept answering that she was not dressed yet; SB sharpens a knife; the wife asks J. from time to time what he sees; he sees her brothers, who gallop like the wind; when they arrived at the gallop, the wife answered SB that she was ready; the brothers stabbed SB, freed J.; began to live in SB's castle]: Delarue 1957, #312A: 186-187; the French (Niverne, 1888) [in the forest a monster approaches a woodcutter: he will eat him unless he gives up one of his three daughters; the two eldest refuse, the youngest agrees; in his castle the monster turns into a prince; when leaving, he forbids them to enter one room; the sisters meet the youngest in the forest, she shows them the lock, they insist that she unlock the forbidden room; the key immediately fell and became covered in rust; in this room the husband kept the monster's skin; he says that now he will remain in this form for another 7 years and must wander all the time, and let his wife stay in the castle; but she went with him; they reached the castle of the prince's parents; the prince allowed his wife to go there for a quarter of an hour; his parents gave her a peach pit; the same at the castle of his grandparents (they gave her an almond); at the castle of his godparents; they gave her a nut, but this time the wife was late and, when she went out, did not find her husband; 7 years passed; the wife heard about the wedding and realized that they were talking about her husband; in the church she opened the peach pit, it contained a cart with two horses; she agreed to give it to the bride for a night with her groom; she gave the prince a sleeping potion; the next day the wife opened the almond, it contained a beautiful dress (the same); on the third day - a nut (gold and diamond jewelry); this time the servant told the prince about the girl who came to him at night; he poured out the sleeping potion; in the morning he drove away the new bride, took the wonderful objects his wife had given her and returned with his wife to his castle]: Drouillet 1973: 97-102; French(Gascony) [Bluebeard is married seven times, his wives disappear; he kidnaps a girl; the shepherdess says that if necessary, she will send her talking jay to call the brothers of his new wife for help; when leaving, SB gives his wife the keys, tells her not to unlock the closet; she opens it, and there are seven female corpses hanging on seven hooks; the key is covered in blood, it cannot be washed off; the key says that the owner will return in seven days; the shepherdess sends the jay; while SB sharpens his knife, the shepherdess tells from the tower about the approach of the woman's brothers; the brothers kill SB and his three terrible Great Danes; the younger brother marries the shepherdess, receives SB's castle]: Lopyreva 1959, No. 41: 177-181; French (Upper Brittany, Poitou, Gascony, Pyrenees), Bretons [publications containing episode IIC4 of the ATU 312A plot]: Delarue 1957: 191-195; Scots [a widow has three daughters; a horse comes into their garden to eat; the eldest daughter goes to spin, pokes the horse with her spindle, it sticks, and her hand sticks to the spindle; the horse, leading the girl, comes to a hill and tells it to open for the prince; {apparently, then he is in the form of a man, although it is not directly stated}; gives the girl the keys to all the rooms, but forbids her to unlock one; leaves; she unlocks it, there are women's bodies and blood up to her knees; she cannot wash the blood off her leg; a cat: give me some milk, I will clean my leg; but the girl chased her away; the owner came, saw the blood on her leg, chopped off the girl's head with an axe; lured the middle sister in the same way, the same thing happened to her; the youngest gave the cat milk to drink and it licked the blood; teaches: take three chests, revive the sisters with a magic wand, put each in her own chest and then sit down herself, taking the gold; tell them not to open the chests - supposedly, I am sitting in a tree and see everything; let her bring the chests to your mother; when she comes running again and breaks into the door, cut off her head; the monster will turn into a prince; and so it happened; wedding]: Campbell 1860 (2), No. 41: 265-270; Germans(Hanover) [a poor man has 11 sons; when a daughter is born, no one wants to be a godfather; the father goes into the forest, sees a woman, she promises to be godmother; a year later she takes the girl to her home, the parents do not object; the girl grows up; the godmother gives her the keys, forbidding her to unlock the room that has a golden key; on the third day she unlocks it; there is a mirror in which a beautiful girl in royal attire and a golden crown; she does not recognize herself, because there is no crown; she entered, knocks over a vessel with blood, gets dirty, the blood cannot be washed off; the woman kicks her out of the castle, but gives her a box: if you knock on it three times, it will do what you want; the king's hunters come across her, bring her to the castle; she is all covered in dust and ashes, so they call her Cinderella (Ashenpöling), send her to the kitchen; the king is young, throws a ball, they are looking for a bride; Cinderella knocked on the box, asked for a princess dress, the king danced only with her; by morning she had disappeared somewhere; the same thing the next evening; on the third he put his ring on her; he surrounded the castle with soldiers, but Cinderella simply changed her appearance and returned to the kitchen; on the third day she threw the gifted ring into a bowl of soup intended for the king; he married Cinderella; and when she looked at herself in the mirror, she recognized the reflection]: Colshorn, Colshorn 1854, No. 44: 143-147; Germans (East Prussia) [when a daughter was born to parents with many children, the father took her into the forest; the Mother of God took the girl, named her Mary and raised her to heaven; she grew up; BM forbade entering the ninth room; M. went in; an angel was washing her feet there; M. stuck his finger in the water and it turned gold; cannot be washed off; did not admit; then BM gave her golden hair and a golden comb and threw her to the ground; she fell on a haystack next to the royal castle; the king decided to marry her off to his son; M. gave birth while the prince was away at war; the boy had golden hair, a golden apple in each hand; BM came down and asked if M. had been in the ninth room; she again denied everything; then BM took the child away; the maids smeared M.'s lips with chicken blood; they said that she had eaten the baby herself; after the third time, Maria was put in a dark cellar before being burned; BM appeared again; this time M. confessed, BM returned the children; the maids were burned at the stake]: Lemke 1887, no. 36: 180-182; Germans (Swabia) [=Meier 1852a, no. 63: 224-230; a strange hunter comes to a miller, takes one of his daughters as his wife; gives his wife a key and an egg, tells her not to open the cellar door, because there are bears and wolves behind it; she opens it – there are skulls and blood, she drops the egg, cannot show it to her husband, he cuts off her head, throws it into the cellar; the same with the second sister; with the third – but the egg does not break; she and her husband visit their parents, leaves a chest with gifts, which also contains the heads of the older sisters; returns to her husband’s castle, and then runs away; asks the coachman to hide her; only the third agrees; the husband and his robbers search the coachman, but do not open the last sack and leave; the girl returns to her parents]: Hubrich-Messow 1988, no. 4: 13-14.

Balkans. Slovenes [the devil appeared as a count, received the eldest daughter; gave his wife a golden apple, told her not to go into the 12th room; she went in, the apple rolled into hell, the Devil pushed his wife there too; received the middle daughter (ditto); the youngest tied the apple in her apron before opening the door; one day she brought one sister from hell in a basket, told the Devil to take the gift to her parents, not to open it, otherwise she would end up behind her, screaming, I see! The Devil brought the basket to the house of the girls' parents; the same with the second sister; the third time the Devil's wife made her own effigy out of straw, sat in the basket herself, screaming along the way what she sees; upon returning, the Devil found the effigy]: Arkhipova 1962: 218-220; Serbs [a married couple has three daughters; the devil wooed the eldest; told her not to go into the 12th room; the girl opened it, there was hell, she dropped the golden apple given to her, it rolled away; the devil pushed her into hell; he came for the second sister - his wife was bored; the same thing happened to her; the younger one tied the apple in her apron, showed it to the devil intact; the older sister hid it in a basket, asked the devil to take the gift home; when the devil wanted to look into the basket, the girl sitting in it said, "I see, I see!"; the devil believed that it was his wife watching from afar; the devil left the basket with the girls' parents; the same thing happened to the second sister; the younger one made a scarecrow, put her clothes on it; the devil took her too; when he returned, he pushed the scarecrow, realized that he had been tricked]: Teshich 2017: 22-25; Moldovans [Laur-Balaur turns into an old woman, gives the eldest princess an apple, it rolls, the princess runs after it, trying to grab it; refuses to give a bird a drink at the well, comes to the black kingdom; LB forbids entering one room; she enters, frees the chained prisoners; LB sees an apple dipped in blood, chops the princess into pieces; the same with the middle princess; taking the youngest as a wife, LB pretends to be a fine fellow; drives past the well, she orders to stop, gives a drink to the bird; she orders to ask her husband for a golden apple; the wife finds the corpses of the sisters, does not let the apple dip in blood; sees where the jug of living water is when LB reattaches his severed fingers; revives the sisters; orders LB to take a bag of gifts to their parents, puts the eldest, then the middle sister in there, makes LB promise not to look inside; when LB wants to open the bag, the princess from the chest says in the voice of his wife that she sees how he keeps his promise; for the third time he leaves a wax doll in his place, LB himself takes his wife to her parents; LB runs in, they kill him, throw him into the sea]: Botezatu 1982: 257-265; Greeks: Dawkins 1916 [a woman has three daughters, they see a cat, the eldest runs after him, ends up in a place with six houses; the cat forbids them to open the sixth; she opens it, there is blood on her finger, {the owner kills her}; the same with the second sister; the youngest opens it, puts the sisters' heads to the body, the sisters come to life; the girl promises the cat to marry him, but first asks him to take a chest of gifts to her parents, puts the eldest sister in the chest; then the middle one; each time the cat wants to open the chest, the girl from the chest does not allow it; the cat believes that it is the youngest sister who sees everything from afar; the third time the youngest sits in the chest herself; disguised as a herb seller, the cat came to that house and got inside through the chimney; the sisters poured peas, the one who got in fell, one sister hit him with an axe, but his head clung to her hand; the doctor had to cut off the arm]: 391-395

Central Europe. Slovaks [a beggar asks to spend the night; when he leaves, a golden apple rolls after him; the eldest daughter follows, ends up in his castle, the beggar becomes a man; orders a human head to be boiled, 12 rooms to be sweeped, and not to enter the 13th; she does not give three pigeons water, enters a room, there are corpses on the walls and two barrels, she sticks her finger in one, it falls off; her husband returns and hangs her in the same room; the same with the middle sister; the youngest gives the pigeons water, they explain what to do; the girl revives her sisters with living water, locks them in caskets, and they fly away to the girls' mother; she baked a doll in her own image; the husband came, ate it; the girl took some grass, and flew home; the devil came again, she touched him with that grass, he melted into resin]: Bogatyrev 1955: 153-159; Poles [two sisters in succession come to a monster who forbids them to enter a certain room; gives them an apple, an egg, an ornament, etc., and when the girls violate the ban, the monster learns the truth by the appearance of these objects and kills the violators; the third younger sister also enters the forbidden room, but does not take the object with her; the monster takes her as his wife; she finds and revives the sisters; asks her husband to take a chest with gifts to her parents, puts the sisters in it; next time she sits down herself, and keeps the doll for herself]: Krzyżanowski 1962, no. 311: 93-94; Ukrainians (Podolia) [a robber dressed up as a rich lord, asked the tsar for his eldest daughter, ordered not to take the servant with him; live for several months; leaving for robbery, the robber orders not to enter one room and to always carry a golden egg with you; the wife enters, the room is knee-deep in blood and corpses; the egg fell; the princess went out, tried to wipe off the blood - no way; the robber returned, looked at the egg, took his wife to that room and cut off her head; the robber introduced himself as the brother of that robber, took the middle princess; the same with her; then he introduced himself as the younger brother, took the youngest; she insisted on taking a servant with him; the servant suggested putting the egg under the pillow, and then looking into the forbidden room; the robber believed her; the wife wrote a letter on behalf of her father, as if they were being invited to visit; she takes various junk with her and hides the bodies of her sisters in it; while the king was entertaining his son-in-law, the princess told her mother everything, and she then told the king; the robber was impaled; [they took his wealth and buried his dead]: Levchenko 1928, No. 574: 510; Ukrainians(Cherkasskaya, Chigirinsky district) [a rich peasant has three sons, the youngest pretends to be a fool; the brothers went to plow; the youngest asks to let him go sow; an old man comes towards him: when you return home, send him out to mow; and indeed: the sown wheat ripened that same day; the father married his sons; the youngest son, 7 years old, lies in a carriage; the old woman tells the boy's father to find a powerful oak tree in the forest, tie a board to a branch, a pillow on the board, leave the child there, and leave without looking back; after 7 days the boy became a hero named Sverkhduba; he finds a house in the forest; in it the mother of two snakes first hides him from them, then shows him, for they decided to make him their younger brother; when leaving, they give him the keys to the farm, but tell him not to look into one stable; S. found the keys, unlocked it: there one horse eats wheat, and the other gold; S. poured gold for the first one with his hands - his hands turned golden; grabbed his head - and his head turned golden; confesses to the mother of snakes; she tells him to mount her horse and gallop away; gives him a brush, a comb, a scarf; horse: climb into my right ear, come out of the left, you will become a beauty; when they gallop, the horse asks: can you see behind? S.: a crow flies beyond nine lands; horse: throw me a comb! (dense forest); the snake hired sawyers, they made a road; next time - a brush (a mountain up to the sky; the snake hired diggers); S. waved his scarf - the sea; the snake began to drink and burst; the horse tells him to feed him: burn oak trees, give him coals; S. strained the coals through a sieve; S., wearing mittens and a winter hat to hide the gilding, hired himself out as a pig-breeder to the master; he orders not to go further than the border, beyond it the land is a snake, he will eat; S. braided and tarred a giant whip with a 25-pood weight on the end; he drove away the snake with it, pulled three heroes out of a hole under a stone, fed them; they gave him a ring, he attached it to the whip, the master's daughter saw it, wanted the ring, agreed to marry S. for this reason; wedding; the snake demands the master's youngest daughter (i.e. S.'s wife); to be eaten; the master gives a horse; S. fed it to magpies-crows; he called his own: the earth trembled, fire burst from his nostrils; the horse brought heroic clothes and weapons; fell asleep on his wife's lap; woke up from a dripping tear; fights with the snake, asks his wife to release the horse, he killed the snake; wedding]: Grinchenko 1897, No. 248: 343-352 (= Pankeev 1992: 202-216); Ukrainians(Kherson) [an old couple has three daughters; the grandfather asks her to bring him lunch in the field, promises to whittle a stick and throw the shavings on the way; the snake found out, put the shavings on the path to his house; the snake tells her to have dinner, the meat is salted - human flesh; in the morning the snake gave her the keys, forbade her to enter one room; she entered, there were dead people and vessels with blood; she dropped the apple given to her by the snake, the blood could not be washed off it; the snake cut off her head, threw it into that room; the next time the youngest daughter, the father sprinkles ashes - the same thing; the middle daughter, the father sprinkles potatoes; she did not drop the apple, the snake believed that she had not looked into the forbidden rooms; she caught a crow, made it bring living and dead water, revived her sisters, put them in a chest, told the snake to take the gift home; a few years later she gave birth to a half-snake, half-man; ordered the snake to take the gold home; chopped up the child, threw him into the forbidden room, and sat in the chest herself; the snake returned – no wife]: Yastrebov 1894, No. 15: 145-148.

Caucasus – Asia Minor. Turks [not the main variant, there are others; an indelible drop of blood appears on a key; or a girl’s finger turns gold; the girl sees the corpses of her sisters, brings them back to life with a blow of a whip; having put the sisters in a sack or chest, she asks the old man to take the gift home; after this she herself gets into the sack, and the old man takes her too; or the girl is freed by her brother, husband, prince; or she herself kills the old man when he has fallen asleep; or a sorcerer (der Böse) comes to the house of the girl who has run away from him in the form of a horse or a ram, in the form of a midwife; he puts everyone to sleep, but is still thrown into the oven and burns; sometimes the sorcerer kills two of the girl’s children]: Eberhard, Boratav 1953, no. 157: 170-173.

Baltoscandia. Lithuanians [35 variants; an old man came into the forest, a wolf wants to kill him, he promises him a daughter; the wolf gives her a golden apple and a silk scarf, forbids her to enter one of the rooms; she enters, the apple and the scarf fall, stained with blood; the wolf took her into the closet and stabbed her; received a second daughter from the old man (same); a third; she did not drop the apple and scarf, the sisters came to life; the third sister asks the wolf to take the gift to their father, puts the first sister in a chest, the wolf takes her; next time - the second; then she asked for time off for the christening, made a stuffed animal, put her clothes on it and hung it up; she herself sat in the chest, again asking to take it to her father; the wolf decided that his wife had hanged herself, began to beat her; the stuffed animal stuffed with sand fell and killed the wolf]: Kerbelyte 2014, no. 104: 254-257; Latvians [a devil in the form of a hare (cat), (a sorcerer, a bear) carries off (marries, lures) three sisters. They must keep an egg (apple, key) and not enter a forbidden room. Two daughters violate the prohibition, the devil cuts off their heads. The third hides the egg well, finds the dead sisters, revives them, puts them in a box and tells the devil to take them to their parents. Then she climbs into the box herself, and in her place puts a doll on the bed (roof). As soon as the devil stops and wants to see what is in the box, the daughter, supposedly from home, shouts to him to hurry up. So the devil takes all the daughters home]: Arijs, Medne 1977, No. 311: 273-274; Estonians: Järv et al. 2009, No. 28 (Haljala) [there are three daughters in the house; one went to the barn, there was a golden egg, she picked it up, a handsome man came out of the egg, told her to go with him; he brought her to a castle in the forest; gave her the keys, forbade her to unlock one room; a mouse persuades her to unlock it; there are decapitated bodies, blood; the girl dropped the key; when the husband returned, he found traces of blood on it, beheaded his wife, threw her into the same room; the same with the middle sister; the youngest did not drop the key; asked for time off to visit her parents; the father made a strong box; when the husband came, he became an egg, they locked him in the box, threw him into a forge; he asks to be released, teaches her to wash the bodies of his sisters with seven herbs; they finish him off, the box is thrown into the sea; the sisters are resurrected, the rest of the killed (they would have been resurrected only from nine herbs) are buried; sisters and their parents began to live in the castle]: 121-123; Mälk et al. 1967, no. 49 (Sangaste; mainly in eastern Estonia) [when leaving for church, the landowner tells her three daughters to prepare food; the eldest is digging potatoes, sees a golden cat, runs after it, it turns into a German (saks), takes it to her place; tells them not to open the last room; the wife opens it, there is a chopping block, an axe, severed heads, decapitated bodies; she drops the key, the blood cannot be washed off it, her husband beheads her; the same with the second sister; the third hides the key in her pocket, does not drop it; the husband believes that she did not enter the room; he replies that it is easy to kill with an axe, and to revive - by placing the head on the body and dripping blood from the little finger; wife brings sisters back to life, hides in bag of money which husband takes to her father as bride price, keeps straw effigy for herself; food is not ready when husband returns, he chops off effigy's head]: 111-113 (=Põder, Tanner 2000: 31-35); Järv et al. 2009, no. 26 (Otepää) [eldest daughter goes to take lunch to her father in the forest, loses her way, comes to an old man, he marries her, tells her not to look into a large barrel; she looks, there is blood, she sticks her finger in it, cannot clean it out, the old man kills her; same with the middle sister; the youngest sticks a splinter in; finds sisters' bodies; sends them home disguised as gifts, watches from the roof herself, tells her not to look into the bag; then leaves a mortar on the roof in her place, climbs into the bag herself; the old man calls his wife, she does not answer, he drags her away in a rage, the mortar falls on his head, kills him; the killed sisters immediately come to life]: 116-118; Karelians(northern) Onegina 2010, No. 15 (Kalevala district) [the father went into the forest, tells his wife to send their daughter to bring dinner; the old woman forgot to tell them to take the right road, where the mitten was hung; the girl went by the left road, came to a bear, and he killed her; the same with the second sister; with the third, but the bear took her as his bride; he told her to go into two barns (there was food and goods there) but not to go into the third; she went in, and the bodies of her sisters were hanging there, blood was dripping into a barrel, a ring was spinning in the barrel, but she couldn’t grab it; her finger was stained with blood and couldn’t be washed off; she tied it up, told the bear that she had cut herself; asks him to take the treat to her father; she revived her older sister, put her in a birch bark purse; when the bear approached, the dogs began to bark, he dropped the purse and ran away; the same with the middle sister; the third time the girl put the mortar on the roof of the hut, dressed it in women's clothing, with a spinning wheel nearby; she filled the chest with clothes and jewelry, and sat in it herself; on the way, the bear thinks of opening the chest and eating half of it; the girl, as if from the roof of the hut, shouts "I see, I see!"; the bear ran home, hit the mortar, it rolled, he followed, crashed and died]: 168-171; Virtaranta 1971 in Kippar 2002 [the youngest ninth son of a rich peasant is cheerful and hardworking; his brothers do not like him, after his father's death they send him to live in the forest; he fishes, hunts, brings skins to the merchant, who gives him good money, the merchant's orphan foster daughter marries the young man; they have two daughters and a younger son; the husband prepares a distant field for burning; warns his wife at the fork in the road to turn right; she broke her leg, cannot take food to her husband, sends her eldest daughter; at the fork in the left path she sees an amazing bird; it seems to be hit, but does not give in, leads the girl further and further; there is the giant forest master Osmo; he tells the girl to be a servant, otherwise he will cook; let her clean eight rooms, do not go into the ninth, otherwise she will end up in the cellar with snakes, mice and toads; O. cooks for dinner and eats a whole elk; when she falls asleep, the girl enters the ninth room, there is a boiling cauldron of resin, in it is a gold ring; she tries in vain to pick it up; O. sees resin on her fingers, locks the girl in the cellar; with the youngest daughter the same (instead of a bird, a fox lures her; she tries to pick up the ring with her toe; O. looks first at her hands, then at her feet); the mother sends her son; he sees an elk on the left path, jumps on its back, the elk brings him to O.; he pulled the ring out with a stick, hung it around his neck; O. is pleased, promises to pay generously, but that the boy should not cross himself or turn to God; the boy asks to return the sisters; O. says that he will eat them tomorrow - the anniversary of the time Judas gave him the gold ring; the boy asks to show it; O. leads him into a room, the ring is not there; the boy says that he has poor eyesight, tells him to bend down, crosses himself and turns to God; O. falls into the cauldron, disappears; the boy frees the sisters, takes as much gold as he can carry, sends the sisters home, himself brings food to his father; says that there is still a lot of money in O.'s house; the father says,that it is no longer possible to go there: instead of the dead O. a new one appears, it is born from the mother forest; now it is necessary to escape from the forest, in the native village there remains a rocky cape that the brothers do not need, on it a house can be built; a house such that the king himself visited; a feast for everyone, only the brothers were not invited]: 37-50;Karelians {but maybe Finns} [the peasant bent down to the lake and drank some water; the water spirit grabbed him by the beard: give him back his eldest daughter; the peasant sends his daughter to the shore, as if he forgot his collar; the water spirit carried her away; forbids her to go into the far barn; she went in, there was a tub of blood; a gold ring; she picked it up, put it on her finger, it was covered in blood, couldn't be washed off; the water spirit orders them to look in his head; when the girl touched him with her bloody finger, it burned him; he killed her, threw her into the bloody barn; the water spirit grabbed the peasant's boat, orders him to give back his second daughter; the father sends for the supposedly forgotten axe; the same thing happened to her; the father put on someone's bast shoes, they dragged him to the shore: give back the youngest daughter; the father asks to go for the bast shoes; The youngest found a vessel with living and dead water, revived her sisters; sends gifts to her father with the water spirit (the eldest, then the middle sister); when the girl from the chest does not tell them to look into the chest, the water spirit believes that they are talking to him from the roof; then the youngest dresses up the mortar in her clothes, the water spirit takes her to her parents; the water spirit accidentally drank dead water and died]: Konkka 1991: 208-215; Swedes [a girl ends up in the house of a demonic creature; there she is either ordered to eat human flesh (a human leg), or forbidden to enter a certain room; human flesh answers from the belly of a cat; blood from a dropped key cannot be washed off; the owner kills the girl; the same with the middle sister; the youngest is helped by a cat; she finds an ointment to revive her sisters; sends them home in a chest as a gift and saves herself in the same way; sometimes she flies away in a dress of feathers, leaving a doll in the bed]: Liungman 1961, no. 311: 56-57.

Western Siberia. Northern Khanty (Synya river) [A board cutter is walking home, someone grabbed him and lifted him up; he had to promise to give up his eldest daughter; at home he sent her to bring supposedly forgotten mittens, the man took her away; he forbids entering one of the barns; she entered, there was a barrel of human fat and women were hanging from a pole by their braids; she stuck her hand in the barrel, the skin came off; the husband saw, broke his wife’s back, poured the blood into the barrel of blood, and hung the body by her braid; the same with the middle daughter; the youngest does not violate the ban; she visits her father with her husband; then they leave, MMM cries, falls to the ground, falls into the water]: Steinitz 2014, no. 18: 127-130 (cf. motif K56A).