Conkiajgharuna, the Little Rag Girl
There was a peasant man who had a wife and a daughter.
They were so poor that the daughter’s name was Conkiajgharuna (Littler
Rag Girl). One day the man’s wife died and he became very unhappy.
He decided to take another wife. His new wife had a daughter of her
own. The new wife hated Conkiajgharuna.
She used to send her every day with bad bread
to watch the cow. One day the cow gave her some honey and butter.
Soon this made Conkiajgharuna plump. This angered her stepmother
so she sent Conkiajgharuna out every day with a basket of wool. This
was to be spun before she got home. The stepmother hoped this would
tire out the girls so she would get thin and ugly.
One day the Little Rag Girl was watching the
cow and it ran up on a roof. She followed the cow and when she got
on the roof she dropped the spindle. She asked the old women inside
to get it for her but she was not able to retrieve it. The old women
asked Conkiajgharuna to come in and get it.
The old women said to the Little Rag Girl
come in and look at my head. Her head was full of worms. Conkiajgharuna
cleaned all the worms out. The woman was greatful and sent her to
a river that would turn her hair and hands gold. When she got home
this made her stepmother angry; so she sent her daughter to watch the cow.
Maybe her daughter could get gold hair and hands.
Again the cow ran on the roof and the girl
dropped the spindle. She was very rude to the women when she asked
for the spindle. The woman told her to come in and get it.
The old woman asked her to look her head. When the girl did she was
horrified and call the women disgusting. She told the girl to go
the black river. This river turned the girl black and gave her a
horn. When the girl returned home her mother blamed the cow and wanted
it killed.
Before it was killed the cow told Conkiajgharuna
to bury the bones in the earth. And told the little girl when she
needed it to ask him for a steed and royal robes.
One holiday the stepmother and her daughter
went to church. He told the Little Rag Girl to fill the trough up
with tears and pick out all the millets. Conkiajgharuna began to
cry when her neighbor came out with her chickens to help pick out the millets.
She then filled the trough up with water and a salt cube in place of the
tears. Now the Little Rag Girl could go have fun. She went
to the cow and asked her for a steed and robes.
Her beauty amazed all. She left the church early so no
one would find out how she was. While she was running a way she lost
her golden slipper in the river. The king found the slipper and said
he would marry the girl who fit the slipper.
Conkiajgharuna’s stepmother heard this, and dresses up her daughter.
She put Conkiajgharuna under a basket. When the prince got to her
home he sat on the basket. Conkiajgharuna poked him with a pin.
The prince lifted up the basket and the Little Rag Girl said that the slipper
was hers’. She tried it on and then she became the prince’s wife.
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