Knjigice
Fairy tale · Classic fairy tales
Baba Yaga
A Russian folk tale about a girl who was kind to everything she met
Also in: Baba Jaga (Slovenian) · Baba Jaga (Slovak)
A girl called Vasilisa lived with her father and her stepmother. Whenever her father was away travelling, the stepmother turned unkind. One morning she said: "Go to my sister in the forest and borrow a needle and thread." Vasilisa knew that her stepmother's sister was no ordinary woman. But she tied on her kerchief and went.
1
On the way she stopped at her own dear aunt's house. "Child," said her aunt, "your stepmother's sister is Baba Yaga. Don't be afraid of her — just be kind to everything you meet." She knotted a little jug of oil, a piece of meat, a red ribbon and a small loaf into a cloth. "What you give comes back to you," she said, and kissed her forehead.
2
The forest grew darker and darker. In the middle of a clearing stood a fence of carved wooden posts, and on every post a little lantern was burning. Behind the fence crouched a hut on two enormous yellow hen's legs. Vasilisa took a deep breath and whispered: "Hut, hut, turn round to me." And the hut turned.
3
Inside the hut sat Baba Yaga: an enormous bony old woman with a huge nose and a red kerchief. When she smiled, her iron teeth clacked together. "A needle, is it? Very well. First weave me this cloth, and fill the tub with water by evening." Then she called to her servants: "Watch her!" — and off she went.
4
Vasilisa sat down at the loom and cried. Out of the shadows crept a thin grey cat with green eyes. The girl gave him her little loaf. The cat purred: "Take this comb and this towel and run. When she chases you, throw the comb behind you first, and then the towel. I shall rattle the loom so she thinks you are still here."
5
Vasilisa slipped out of the door. A white birch tree swung its branches straight at her — quick as anything, the girl tied the red ribbon round its trunk, and the birch grew still. Round the corner a thin grey dog growled. She threw him the piece of meat. The dog wagged his tail. "Nobody has ever been so good to me," he said, and let her by.
6
Only the gate in the fence was left. It squeaked loudly enough for the whole forest to hear. Vasilisa took her jug and oiled the hinges. "Thank you," the gate creaked, very softly now, and swung wide open. The girl ran off between the trees as fast as her legs would carry her, holding the comb and the towel tight.
7
Baba Yaga came back and found the loom empty. "Why did you not stop her?!" she shrieked. "Because you never gave me so much as a crust," said the cat. "Because you never once patted me," barked the dog. The old woman leapt into a great wooden mortar, drove it along with her pestle and went thundering after the girl.
8
Vasilisa heard the mortar booming behind her. She threw the comb over her shoulder — and where it fell, a thick forest sprang up out of the ground. The trunks stood so close together that not even the wind could get through. Baba Yaga bit and broke her way branch by branch until she was through. But the girl was already far away.
9
The mortar came booming close again. Vasilisa threw the towel behind her — and out poured a wide river, calm and deep from bank to bank. Baba Yaga stopped at the water's edge and gnashed her iron teeth. She could not cross. She turned the mortar round and went racing back into her forest.
10
At home Vasilisa told her father everything: about the needle, about the hut on hen's legs, and about the cat who saved her. Her father was quiet for a long time. Then he bundled the stepmother's things into a cloth and put it in her hands. "Go," he said. "There is no room in this house for cruelty." She left that very evening and never came back.
11
From then on father and daughter lived in peace. Vasilisa hung a red ribbon at the window, just like the one she gave the birch, so she would never forget: whoever is kind is never alone. And whenever the door creaked in the evening, she only smiled — because she knew it just needed a little oil.
12The End
