Lithuanian folktale-"Twigs"

 "Lithuanian Mythological Tales"

Compiled by Norbertas Vėlius Translated by Birutė Kiškytė Twigs Once a midwife and a mother, who had just given birth to a son were lighting a fire in the bathhouse, when they heard a voice exclaim, "until the twigs are burnt up!" The mother understood what this meant. She put out the fire and put the twigs in her wooden chest right away. The son grew up. His mother died and left him her chest. He soon married. One time, his wife's mother came to visit. Mother and daughter opened the chest to rummage through the clothes and they found the twigs underneath at the very bottom. "What use are these?" They thought and put them in the fire. As the fire was dying, the man came home. They asked him, "Why were those twigs in the chest?" He told them and died. (Recorded in 1898)