Hulu baobei

In a village at the foot of a mountain, there lived a lonely woman. Husband died, childless. It was very painful to see her bleak future in her later years.

As the days passed, she had to clean the house, fetch water from the river, collect firewood in the Woods and cook by herself. She has a large piece of land by the river, grows some vegetables and banana trees, and spends almost all the rest of her time weeding and digging. How she wishes to have children to help! Whenever she is exhausted, some women in the village come to dig at her. They treated her badly, saying that she was a bad woman, and even God called her childless.

At that time, there was a magical god on the top of the mountain. No matter early in the morning or late at night, people should pray to that mountain top. This lonely woman is like this every day, begging for a helper. Finally, the great god appeared.

One day, the woman planted some gourd seeds in the field by the river. As soon as the seedlings are unearthed, they grow strong and fast. Every morning, she is surprised to find that the gourd seedlings have grown much taller. In this way, the gourd seedlings will soon blossom and bear fruit. She carefully hoed the weeds under each gourd, thinking that she would soon pick the gourd, dry it, split it and sell it in the market. Villagers nearby use these things to make bowls, spoons and pots.

One day, while she was hoeing the ground, a stranger suddenly appeared on the edge of the ground. She was surprised and wondered how he came to the farm. Because she neither saw nor heard the man coming from the path. The bearer is tall and burly, handsome, and wearing the ornaments of the leader. He smiled and said to the woman, "I am the messenger of the Great God, and I have been ordered to inform you that your prayer has been heard by the Great God. Cultivate these gourds well and God will make you happy. "

Say that finish, this person just like when I came, suddenly disappeared without a trace.

Although the woman was surprised, she was sure that what she saw and heard was not a dream, but true. She works harder in the field, thinking about what kind of happiness the gourd will bring to herself.

After more than a week, the gourd is ripe and can be picked. The woman picked them carefully and took them home. She took off the inner bag of the gourd and hung it on the beam. When they were dry, they could be made into bowls, spoons and other utensils. One of the gourds is so clever that a woman puts it next to the fire ring where water is boiled and rice is cooked at home, hoping to make it dry faster so that she can use it earlier.

The next morning, the woman went to the banana field to weed. When she was not at home, the angel of the Great God came to her hut. He stretched out his hand and touched the gourd beside the fire fence, turned it into a boy, and then touched the gourd hanging on the beam, and they all became children one by one. When the messenger left, the children's cries rang through the room.

"If, if the eldest brother! Help us down! "

The children by the fire stood up and helped the other children climb down the beam. No one in the village knows all this.

The children ran out of the house laughing. Some hold brooms to sweep the floor; Some people weed around the house; Some feed chickens; Two men carried water from the river and filled the big water tank by the door. Some small ones ran into the Woods and came back with big bundles of firewood. Only Katie has no job. The great god didn't want him to be as smart as other children, so he just sat by the fire giggling and listened to his friends talking and laughing while working.

When all the work was finished, the children shouted again:

"Katie, Katie, help us get back to the beam!"

So the older children lifted them one by one to the beams. There, they immediately became gourds. And Kittett went back to the fire fence and immediately became a gourd.

At this time, the woman was trudging home with a big bundle of thatch on her back, which she cut to repair the roof. When she came in, she was surprised to find that everything in the house was in good order. She looked inside and outside the house, but when no one was found, she asked her neighbors.

"When I was working in the fields, someone helped me finish the housework," she said. "Do you know who has been here?"

"Today we saw many children running in and out of your house," everyone said. "We thought it was your relative, so we didn't ask."

Women are confused. When she went home to cook dinner, she was still thinking about what happened when no one was at home.

Suddenly, she remembered what the messenger of the Great God had said by the river. Didn't he say that as long as she planted a good gourd, the great god would give her happiness? Is this what he called happiness? The next day, it was the same situation. The children greeted Katie, who helped them climb down the beam, and they helped the woman with the housework. Several people repaired the leak in the roof with the grass cut by the woman the day before.

Neighbors heard the child's voice and quietly came outside the hospital to observe. They saw the children working, then they all went into the hut, and then they were quiet.

When a woman came home and saw what her invisible helper was doing, she went outside, looked up at the distant mountain, prayed to the great God and thanked him for his kindness and compassion. But she still couldn't understand what was happening in front of her, because she couldn't see that gourd could become a child.

But the neighbors are getting more and more curious. On the third day, as soon as they saw the woman leave home, they sneaked to the door of the hut and peeped in.

They saw the gourd turn into a child by the fire, and then the child cried from the beam:

"Katie, Katie's brother, help us down."

I was surprised and scared to see the children climbing down the beams one by one. The children hurried out of the yard before they left home to start work.

When the woman came back that night, the villagers were eager to tell her what they had seen. Hearing this, the woman didn't want to secretly accept the gift from the Great God, but wanted to see these children with her own eyes. Alas, she is so stupid.

The next morning, she pretended to lie on the ground, turned back quickly on the way, quietly touched the outside of the house, just peeked at everything. The children squeezed out of the door alive and kicking, found the woman still outside the door, stared at them in surprise, and froze.

"It was you children who helped me with my work!" She said, "Thank you very much."

The children did not move or speak, but stood for a while and began to work as usual. Only Katie sat still. When the children finished their work and asked Kitty to help them get back to the beam, the woman stopped them.

"No," she cried, "you are my children now, and I don't want you to become gourds again. I'll cook for you. After dinner, you lie by the fire and sleep. Children in other people's homes are like this. "

So the woman took the children in, and the children helped her with her work at home and in the field.

Soon, women became rich, vegetable fields expanded, banana trees increased, and cattle and sheep flocked.

Only Katie does nothing. He is a silly boy, sitting by the fire every day, burning the fire with firewood brought back by his sister in law.

The children are getting bigger and taller. The woman thanked God for sending these children to her. But the richer she is, the less she likes that stupid cat and often scolds him for not working.

One afternoon, the children were doing their own work outside, and the woman came in to prepare dinner. Because the light difference between inside and outside is too big, she just came in and didn't see Kitty lying by the fire. She tripped over the jar, which broke into pieces and the soup spilled all over the floor. The woman stood up angrily, wiped the leftovers on her face and shouted, "You useless guy!" " How many times have I told you not to lie near the door! What hope can a child like you have? At best, it is just a worthless gourd! "

At this time, other children are coming back from the field, and when they hear their voices, the woman cries even louder:

"Moreover, they are all the same, gourd, gourd! That's weird. Why should I cook for you? Find this kind of trouble! "

However, as soon as her voice fell, she let out a scream, because she looked down and found that Kitty had become a gourd. Moreover, the children entered the house one by one and immediately fell to the ground, becoming gourds.

The woman exclaimed even more.

"Oh, what a fool I am!" She woke up and broke her hand in pain, crying and saying, "I called the child a gourd, which violated the Oracle and angered the great god, but I will never have children again."

Yes, the children never showed up again.

Women still live alone in the hut, getting poorer and poorer until they die.