From Cuentos Populares en Chile (Chilean Folktales) – by Ramón A. Laval
Part 2 – Myths, Traditions, Things (Mitos, Tradiciones, Casos)
044. Otra Version (Another Version)
(From the young student D. Francisco Vásquez, 15 years old, from Santiago.)
In Chimba, Santiago there lived, very long ago, a witch who was married to a shoemaker, to whom she would give liquor every night to get him to sleep. As soon as the shoemaker began to snore, the witch would smear an ointment on her little children, who would get transformed into foxes, and then she would smear it on herself and get transformed into a goat, after which she would leave the house to roam about.
One day the shoemaker had to leave [the house] and did not return until very late at night. He was very surprised to find neither his wife nor his children [at home]; but in a corner [of the house] he saw five little foxes. –What is this? said the shoemaker. And one of the little foxes replied –My mommy left, but before that she smeared us with ointments that are in those boxes and turned us into foxes, and then she smeared herself with the same ointments and turned into a goat, then she left.
The shoemaker took the ointment and smeared it on the little foxes, who were turned into children once more. Then he removed the ointment from the boxes and threw it into the ditch, which had a lot of water, and threw into the street the boxes with some ointment still attached to them.
At dawn the goat came back and could only find the empty boxes, together with a little ointment remaining in them; she took it out and put in on her face, but it was not enough [for the rest of her body]. That is why she still walks around at night in the shape of a goat with the face and hands of a human.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Roncar – (to breathe heavily while asleep) to snore; (to be domineering) (Chile) to be bossy
Unto – (lotion) ointment; (oily substance) animal fat, grease; (corrupt money) bribe, pay-off; (blacking) (Chile) shoe polish
Merodear – to prowl
Ausentarse – (to be gone) to be absent, to be away
Ausentar – (to vanish) to leave out, to make disappear
Acequia – (agriculture) irrigation ditch, irrigation channel; (body of water) (Andes) stream
Pegado – (adhered) glued, stuck; (surprised) stunned; (injured or killed with electricity) fried, electrocuted; (medicine) plaster, band-aid
Alcanzar – (to get to) to reach, to catch, to catch up with; (to rise to) to reach; (to accomplish) to achieve; (to be sufficient) to be enough