M114i1. Throws out the killed, brings in the unkilled. 15.16.28.31.

The man answers that his father (brother, etc.) hunts: he kills (throws away) those that are noticed, and leaves (brings with him) those that are not noticed (not killed). We are talking about lice or fleas.

Catalans, Maltese, French (Dauphiné, Picardy), Poles, Eastern Sami (Inari), Finns, Estonians.

Southern Europe. Catalans (including Mallorca and Ibiza) [the king asks a peasant's son where his father is; - Uproots people from their houses (uproots tree stumps). - And the mother? - Weeps over last year's happiness (went to the funeral of her daughter, who died a year after the wedding). - Brother? - Hunts; leaves all the dead, and brings back what is not killed (crushes his lice). The king admires the youth]: Oriol, Pujol 2008, no. 921: 183; Maltese [the king asks a peasant's son what his father is doing; - Drilling a hole to plug another (borrows to repay a debt); the mother? - Kneading dough for the bread eaten last week (making bread to pay for borrowed flour); the elder brother? - Hunts, leaves the dead, and brings back the living (crushes lice); how much does the father earn a day? – Three pence and he lends everything at interest (there are three children in the family)]: Mifsud-Chrcop 1978, No. 921-921A: 357-359.

Western Europe. French (Picardy: Calais) [a landowner sent a steward to collect money from the tenants; he entered the yard, only a boy was there. – Where is the mother? – She went hunting, left what she killed, and what she didn’t she’ll bring back with her. (He fights lice in the head of his youngest son.) – The father? – He’s digging a hole to bury the other two. (He borrowed money from a neighbor to pay back two creditors.) – The elder sister? – He’s mourning past joys. (He went to the cemetery to mourn the murdered fiancé.) – The younger sister? – She’s cooking those who come and go. (Peas.) The quartermaster tells the boy to tell his parents that their debt is forgiven.]: Orain 1901: 23; French (Dauphiné; also Somme and probably other areas) [a gentleman came to the farm to collect rent from the owner, but found only a boy. – What are you doing? – I look at those coming and going. – Where is father? – He went to make two devils out of one. – Mother? – She went to return the bread she ate. – Brother? – He kills whom he can kill, and returns whom he can’t. – Sister? – She cries over last year’s laughter. Then the boy explains to his father in the presence of the guest: I watched the beans as they cooked; father went to borrow money to pay you. Mother went to return the already eaten bread she had borrowed. Brother was squashing lice. Sister is expecting an illegitimate child]: Tenèze, Bru 2000, no. 921: 119-120.

Central Europe. Poles [The king asks a series of questions to a supposedly stupid country boy and receives cryptic answers which he cannot understand. aa) What do you see? - A man and a half and a horse's head (himself, half of the king, whose horse has stuck its head in the door; (a1) Are you alone at home? - No, because I see half of two quadrupeds (the king's legs and the horse's front legs). (b) What are you doing? - Cooking what goes down and up (peas boiling in a boiling pot). (c) What does your father do? - Good and evil, or greater harm (he cuts off young shoots, sometimes destroying the good ones and leaving the bad ones, or blocks a trodden path in the field, although at the same time he treads a new one nearby); (d) What does your mother do? - At dawn she baked the bread eaten a week ago (to give back for the borrowed flour), in the morning she cuts off the head of a healthy person to feed a sick one (she cuts a chicken), at noon she beats the hungry, but makes the well-fed eat (she drives away the chickens, but feeds the goose by force); (e) What does your brother do? - Hunts, throwing on the ground what he catches, and carrying on himself what he cannot catch (catches lice); (f) What does the sister do? - Mourns last year's joy (walks with a child)]: Krzyżanowski 1962, no. 921: 277-278.

Baltoscandia. Eastern Sami (Inari) [the king notices a roadside cottage and goes in; there is a boy there, the king asks what the others are doing; the father patches the ground with trees (makes a wattle fence); the mother gets much from little (sows turnips); the brother hunts: kills the hemlocks he sees, and brings them alive the ones he doesn't see (kills fleas); the sister pays for last year's pleasure in the bathhouse (gives birth); the king summons the parents: he will take their son as an apprentice; he becomes a courtier]: Koskimies, Itkonen 2019: 57-58; Finns [in the forest the king knocked on the door of a house, no one answered; the youth inside answered mysteriously and rudely; Where is father? - He has gone from a little to do a lot (when the king later summoned him to the palace, the youth explained that his father had gone to sow turnips); Where is mother? – Bakes last year's bread (last year they borrowed bread, and now the mother bakes bread to return it); Brother? – While hunting, leaves the birds she meets in the forest, and brings home the ones she doesn't meet (i.e. kills lice); Sister? – Mourns last year's laughter (gave birth to an illegitimate child); having learned the answers, the king wants to punish the guy for his insolence; asks what is brighter - light or milk? – Light. King: if milk is spilled on the floor and light falls, then the milk is lighter; the king put the guy in prison; he put a bowl of milk on the threshold; in the morning the king entered, stepped into the bowl in the dark and fell on his back; the guy: the light is still brighter; the king let the guy go, but ordered him to come the next day, neither during the day, nor at night, neither by road, nor off-road, neither on horseback nor on foot, neither naked nor clothed, neither to enter inside, nor to remain outside; the lad covered himself with a goat skin, walked along the edge of a roadside ditch, attached a sieve to one leg and a brush to the other, and crawled into the yard at dawn; seeing strange tracks, the king went out into the entryway; there the lad put one leg over the threshold but not the other; the king told the lad to come again the next day, intending to set the dogs on him; the gatekeeper warned him; he released a hare hidden under his clothes, the dogs rushed at him, and the lad left]: Salmelainen 1947: 85-87 (variant from Salmelainen's collection in Konkka 1991: 268-272); Estonians [in the forest a gentleman came across a poor house; asks if anyone is there; boy: half a horse and half a man; where is your father? he went hunting, what he gets he will leave, what he doesn't get, he will bring; mother: laughs at past tears; a brother makes the best of a good thing; sister shows her ass to the wind; the master got angry and told the boy to come to the manor tomorrow; there the boy explained: he and the foal are at home; the father is beating lice; the sister is married, last year her child died, and the new one is healthy, the mother is happy; the brother is fencing off a plot of good oats so that they don’t get poisoned; the sister is reaping rye, bending over; the master gave the boy 25 rubles]: Järv 2020: 134-135.