GEORGIAN FOLK TALES

ONCE upon a time there was a poor peasant who had one son. And it came to pass that his wife said to him: ''He should learn some trade, for when he is separated from thee, what will he do if he is left ignorant like thee?'' The wife importuned him; she gave him no rest. So the peasant took his child, and went to seek a master for him. On the way they were thirsty. He saw a rivulet, drank eagerly till his thirst was quenched, and when he lifted up his head he cried out: ''Ah! how good thou art!''1 On saying this, there came forth from the water a devil in the form of a man, and said to the peasant: ''What dost thou want, O man! I am Vakhraca; what troubles thee?'' The peasant told him all his story. The devil, when he learnt this, said: ''Give me this son of thine: I will teach him for one year, then come hither; if thou knowest him, it is well, he will go with thee; if not, he is mine and mine alone, he shall be lost to thee.''

PART I GEORGIAN FOLK TALES


I Master and Pupil
II The Three Sisters and their Stepmother
III The Good-for-nothing
IV The Frog''s Skin
V Fate
VI Ghvthisavari (I am of God)
VII The Serpent and the Peasant
VIII Gulambara and Sulambara
IX The Two Brother