The Golden Reed Pipe Once upon a time there lived in the mountains a woman and her daughter. The daughter liked to dress in red. Hence her name, Little Red. One day they were plowing and sowing in the fields. All of a sudden, a gale blew up and in the sky there appeared an evil dragon who stretched down his claws, caught Little Red in a tight grip and flew off with her towards the west. Her mother vaguely heard daughters words carried on the wind: Oh mother, oh mother, as dear as can be! My brother, my brother will rescue me! Wiping away her tears, her mother gazed into the sky and said, But I only have a daughter. Who can this brother be? She staggered home and had got halfway there when her white hair was caught up in the branches of a bayberry tree growing by the roadside. While she was disentangling her hair, she spotted a red, red berry dangling from a twig. She picked it and swallowed it without thinking. When she arrived home, the woman gave birth to a boy with a round head and red cheeks. She named the boy Little Bayberry. Bayberry grew up very quickly and in a few days he was a young lad of fourteen or fifteen. His mother wanted to ask Bayberry to rescue his sister but couldnt bring herself to inflict such a dangerous task on him. All she could do was weep to herself in secret. |