One day the devil met a farmwife and said to her:
"I know you have a fine kitchen garden, so why don't we plant something there together and divide whatever it is we succeed in growing between us."
"Very well!" said the farmwife. "Let's plant some potatoes."
The devil brought some potato seeds, and he and the farmwife planted them together. The potatoes that grew out of them were very large and when the time came to dig them up, the farmwife asked the devil whether he wanted the tops or the roots.
"The tops!" the devil said.
"Very well, you can have them!" said the farmwife. "I'll take the roots, then."
She dug up the potatoes and took them for herself, and she left the tops for the devil. And the devil lifted them onto his back and went off to sell them, but, seeing that no one wanted them, said to himself:
"A plague on the woman! She's tricked me. Well, she had better look out, for I'll trick her next time!"
A year passed, and he came to see the farmwife again.
"Let's plant something together!" he said.
"Very well! Let's make it poppies this time."
To this the devil agreed, he and the farmwife planted some poppies, and he brought water and watered them every morning and evening. The poppies bloomed and had great, heavy heads, and when the time came to cut them the farmwife asked the devil whether it was the tops he wanted or the parts that were in the ground.
"I want the parts that are in the ground," the devil said.
"Very well, I'll take the tops, then," the farmwife said.
The devil was pleased.
"I tricked her this time!" said he to himself.
The farmwife cut off the poppy-heads, and left the stalks and the roots for the devil, who tied them together, hoisted them onto his back and went from hut to hut, trying to sell them. But no one wanted them, and when he had carried them for so long that his shoulders sagged under the weight, he said:
"A plague on the woman! She's tricked me again."
But in a few days he went to see her again.
"Let's you and me sing some songs and see which of us can sing longer than the other," he offered. "Here's the way we'll do it. First I'll get on your back, and you'll carry me till I've sung all the songs I know, and then you'll get on my back and I'll carry you till you've sung all the songs you know."
"I only know one little song," said the farmwife.
I'll get the better ot her this time!" the devil thought. She knows only one song, and I know many!"
He got on the farmwife's back and as she carried him round and round sang every song he could think of one after another. In two days' time he had gone through all of them.
"It's my turn now!" said the farmwife.
She climbed on the devil's back, bridled him and began to sing.
"Dum-dee-dum, dum-dee-dum, dum-dee-dum!" she sang.
And she never stopped but made him carry her while she kept singing the same thing over and over again.
The devil listened to her till his patience gave out.
"How much longer are you going to sing your song?" he asked.
"I haven't yet come to the third part," she said.
He had been carrying her for five days by then, and, seeing that the song was likely to go on and on, began running over swamps and growths of rushes in order to try to throw the farmwife off his back. But the cursed woman clung to him for dear life, and he could do nothing. He then made for some blackthorn bushes, hoping that she would at least get scratched. But before he could get in among them she jumped off his back and said:
"You silly devil! As though you couldn't carry me a little longer! I only had a bit of my song left to sing."
And home she ran.
And so that's the story of how a farmwife outwitted the devil.
