Illness of a stepmother

Once upon a time, once there being hungry, once their being fed up, a coyote lived like king and a fox being his guard. In ancient times there lived a sister and a brother with their father. Their father married a childless widow woman who hated children
One of the days the stepmother pretended to be ill and kept to bed. Her husband showed and consulted all doctors, but she would not recover from sickness. At last the old man asked:
– What should I do to have you recovered?
– If you slay your son and cook me his flesh I’ll recover, the stepmother said. The old man was at a loss not knowing what to do; finally he decided to do what his wife had said.
– Son, let’s go and pick some dry dung for wood, said the father to his son. The son said “yes” and got ready. The father and the son left for a field to pick the dry dung. The father had taken an ax too. Seeing the ax the boy asked:
– Daddy, what will you do with the ax?
– “If there is wood I shall cut the wood, and you will pick the dry dung”, answered the father.
Thus, both kept walking and walking. When they reached an open field the father waited for his son to bend for picking dry dung. While the son was bending and picking the dungs the father came up behind him and chopped him with the ax, put his flesh in the sack, brought it home and cooked it in the pot. Seeing all this, his sister wept and wept. There lived an old woman in the their neighborhood.
– My poor daughter, she said, – there is no use crying over the spilt milk. If your stepmother asks you “to eat the meat”, don’t eat, but pick up each bone of the meat and wrap them up in a blue cloth.
The spouses kept cooking and eating the boy’s flesh.
– Come on, said the father to the girl, offering her to the table. She said “no” and sat crying and weeping in the corner of the room. Having eaten the meat the spouses threw the bones away. The girl picked each bone and wrapped them in a blue cloth and hung it on a willow tree’s tiny bush.
When the girl was sitting and knitting an embroidery under the same willow tree the bones turned into a blue sparrow and flew away. Seeing it the girl was shocked and cried out.
But the blue sparrow flew and flew and landed on the the wall of a house, and began to speak aloud:

Filling my eyes with tear,
My own father slew me.
Breaking my bones,
My stepmother ate me.

My sister as charming as the moon,
Picked each bone of mine
Wrapped my bones up,
Hang it on the willow up.

Seeing the bird the owner of the house said aloud: it is a good song bird, the poor one. The little bird flew out from there and sat on the roof of another house. There it sang the same song. Singing the same song the bird flew from house to house. At last it came to its house and sitting on the same willow bush it started singing:

Filling my eyes with tear,
My own father slew me.
Breaking my bones,
My stepmothers ate me.

My sister as charming as the moon,
Picked each bone of mine
Wrapped my bones up,
Hang it on the willow up.

At that time the stepmother was surprised at a little bird singing in the house.
– Mother, open your mouth said the bird.
Being surprised the mother opened her mouth wide. The bird flew up and threw a big needle into her mouth. The needle fell in and came out of her stomack making a hole. She fell dead at once. Then the bird flew up to his father.
– My dear father, open your mouth, said the little bird.
When he opend his mouth, the bird threw a big needle holder into it. The needle holder got stuck in his lung, he fell dead at once too.
Finally the bird came up to his sister.
-My dear sister, open your mouth, it said.
When she opened her mouth, it flew and sat on her lips, then flying again it landed on the ground. And jumping up and down it turned into her brother.
The sister and the brother greeted embracing each other. They led a long, peaceful, happy life till the end of their lives.

The End