Once a man and his wife went haymaking early in the morning. When it was a time for dinner the wife said to her husband, “Go to the river and see if you can catch a crawfish or any other fish to go with our bread."The man, though sore weary with work, did not dare to cross her, as it sometimes happens, it was the wife who wore the breeches in their household.

He stepped into the river and upon thrusting his hand under very first stone he pulled forth a mitten-sized crawfish. "Goodness gracious!" the man thought to himself. "What a lucky find! Never in my life I have set eyes on such an enormous crawfish!" But the next moment he was to experience an even bigger surprise:

the crawfish began to entreat him in a clear human voice.

“Let me go, dear friend! I must have fallen asleep in the heat of the day and not have heard you approach, ere your fingers had got hold of my claws. I don’t think you would relish my flesh that in the course a hundred years has become tough and leathery. What would you gain by my death?

And what's more, I'm not really a crawfish at all, I'm a human being like you. An evil spell has turned me into a crawfish. "

The perplexed man said,

"Dear brother crawfish, don't take it amiss if I cannot grant your Wish. As for me, I'd let you go immediately, but I've got a nagging wife at home who would squeeze hell out of me if I were to go home empty-handed and tell her what an opportunity I let slip."

"Well," the crawfish replied, ”you needn't tell her about it, need you?

The man scratched his head and said hesitantly,

”Oh, brother, if you knew how cunning my wife is and how she can get everything out of me, you'd not say that."

What she cannot squeeze out of me by her smooth tongue she wrests from me by her vicious threats. I can't keep anything from her.”To this the crawfish smilingly replied, “As I can see, dear stranger, you are one of those men who dance to their wives' piping, and I can but pity you with all my heart. But pity will be no use to you. If you let me go, I'll generously provide you with things that will help you to appease your nagging wife. Although I am small compared with you I am much more powerful than you are."

Well, if it were possible for you to avoid a quarrel with my wife about letting you go, I'd free you at once."

The crawfish asked, "What kind of fish is your wife most fond of?" The man answered, ”I wouldn't know but I don't think it matters what kind they are. The main thing is that I shouldn't be going home empty-handed."

The crawfish told him to put his hat down on the river bank and then called out, "Hat, get filled with fish!" And the poor man couldn't believe his eyes: the hat was heaped with fish.

"Maybe this little magic trick will help you see what power I wield, the crawfish remarked. "From now on you can get the hat filled with fish every day if you want to. Should you have any other wishes, you'll have to call me to your aid. Call out to me like this:

'Out of burrow, Brother Crawfish!

Out of bulrush, creature black!’

And I'll be there. But mind, if you want to be smart don't tell your wife about today's happening. You'd only be asking for trouble."

The man promised to keep the secret as long as possible, thanked the crawfish for the good fish and the generous promise, let it crawl back into the river, and then went home happily. His wife's face lit up with pleasure when she caught sight of such a plentiful catch. She cleaned the fish, and started cooking them. The man could not remember when he had been showered with so many words of thanks and praise.

"See how lucky you are whenever you do things my way," she said when they were eating their dinner.

In this manner they lived in peace and happiness for a whole week."

The husband caught a hatful of fish from the river every day and they took great delight in their meals.

But on Sunday, when they were again having fish for dinner, the wife sniffed at the fish and said,

"A nice state of affairs this is! I' m sick and tired of the wretched fish. The mere thought of them makes my stomach turn. Can't you afford to feed me better than that?" When the husband asked her what she would want to have instead of fish the answer came promptly, "A bowl of broth and some ham would be just the thing."

The man promised she would have her wish the next day, but when he began to think about it, he grew rather sad and wondered whether the good crawfish would be able to gratify that whim of hers.

At sunrise he went to the river bank, and called out timidly,

"Out of burrow, Brother Crawfish!

Out of bulrush, creature black!"

In an instant the crawfish was out of water, and lay sprawling on the river bank. He asked the man, "My friend, what is it that you want?" The man replied, "I have no wishes whatsoever, but it is my

wife who yearns for another sort of food as she is tired of eating fish."

The crawfish smiled, and asked what food the wife was craving for.

When he learned about her desire, he taught the husband,

”Go home, and every morning give three taps on the table with your

little finger and say, 'A bowl of broth and some ham for dinner!’ and your

wish will be fulfilled. But I warn you not to give in to your wife's desires

or you will bitterly regret it later on."

The following day the man carried out the crawfish's instructions and

there, on the table stood a bowl of hot broth and a chunk of delicious

ham. And again the couple lived in peace and happiness. The wife was as gentle as a dove and tried as best she could to anticipate his wishes and humour him in every possible way.

The week was hardly over when at dinner she again twitched her nose and said, “A sumptuous dinner indeed! Broth and ham day in day out! I can't bear the sight of them." The humble husband asked meekly, “Pray tell me your heart’s desire." And she snapped, "Roast goose and some fancy cakes!"

With his heart in his boots, the poor husband set out to the river again. He was sore afraid of troubling the crawfish so often, but,

on the other hand, he had to yield to his wife’s demand or she would have kicked up a mighty row. He took some time pacing up and down along the bank, until at last he mustered enough courage to call out in a timid voice,

”Out of burrow, Brother Crawfish!

Out of bulrush, creature black!”

In a flash the crawfish shot out his black claws above the water and asked,"What is your wish now, my friend?" The man replied, “I do not want anything, but my wife has taken a dislike to broth and ham, and wants something else for a change.”

Now the crawfish asked after the wife’s wish, and when he had heard the husband out, he said to him,

"Go home, my friend, and don't worry about it. Your wife's wish will be granted."

On the next day when it was about time for dinner, the poor man kept casting anxious glances towards the table. He was not quite sure whether the crawfish would keep his promise. And the higher the sun climbed in the sky the lower the man's spirits fell, for there was still no trace of the promised fare. But exactly at dinner-time a roast goose and fancy cakes stood on the table!

This made the wife happy once more. Her tongue was sweet as honey, she was just gentle and affectionate towards her husband as if they had been wedded only the day before. When they went to bed in the evening she wheedled her husband into telling her his secret about the crawfish. "Our life will be one great joy," she said, "now that you've got such a powerful helper. It's time we started living a better life.

I've been hating those peasant clothes all along, now I want to have beautiful dresses suitable for a lady. Go and ask for them.”

The poor servile husband attempted to dissuade the woman from the

undertaking and told her that he couldn't be sure that the crawfish was able to gratify that wish of hers. But she insisted on having her way, and nagged at the man until she got him to go to the crawfish again. And thus one fine morning the miserable man set out towards the river, and on his way he thought to himself, "If the crawfish is not able to fulfil her wish,'I will drown myself in the river." Hesitant and wavering, he paced along the river bank for quite some time before he plucked up his courage to call out timidly,

"Out of burrow, Brother Crawfish!

Out of bulrush, creature black!"

At once the crawfish shot out his claws above the water and inquired,"What do you want now, my friend?“ The man said in reply, "I've got no wishes at all, but my wife is so greedy there seems to be no end to her whims although every day she gets roast goose and fancy cakes for dinner."

”What does she want now?" the crawfish asked. The man said, "Now she wants to have beautiful dresses fit for a lady."

The crawfish smiled and said, ”Go home and you may rest assured, that her wish will be granted."

The man heartily thanked his helper for the kind promise and started