The Girl Who Plaited The Devil's Beard

This tale has been adapted from the original for readability:

One time the devil sat down by the roadside, and anyone who travelled that way, he ate them. One day a young woman said, “Today I’m going to kill that devil.” When she reached the road, she found him asleep by the verge, with a long beard. Quiet as anything, she crept up, took hold of it, and plaited it tight, then she dragged him towards the town. She hauled and hauled, and as she pulled him along the people heard her coming, and they also heard the devil singing, “Sister’s pulling my beard, sister’s pulling my beard.” When the townsfolk heard that, they ran out to help, dragged him onto the main road, and killed him there.

Afterwards they wanted to cut him open, but they had nothing sharp enough. Then a small bird called out from the bush, “Use that little sharp thorn in the bush, and you can split him.” The people threw the bird away, but it flew straight back and said the same thing. They threw it again, and again it came back, still insisting. The third time they said, “Let’s see if what the bird says is true. If it works, we’ll give it a fine gift.” So they took the thorn, and the moment they touched the devil’s body with it, he split open.

And when he split, people came spilling out, alive. They had not died at all. They had been living inside the devil, making farms, burning fields, building houses, cooking food, and eating. Out they came, man after man, woman after woman, a whole crowd.

But then one old grandmother stepped forward and said, “I’ve left my little pot, and my child, and my medicine.” The people begged her, “Don’t go back inside that devil.” She said, “I have to.” She went back in, and at once the thing shut up.

By then the bird had flown off, and the people gave it money and fine gifts. They tried to split the devil open again, the way they had the first time, but they couldn’t, because it was the bird that had made it open in the first place. They tried every sharp thing they could find, but nothing worked. In the end they buried the devil as he was.

And that is why a stubborn head is no good. If someone tells you not to do something, do not do it.