The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch

Did You Know?

• The tale is classified as type 327K§ by Hasan M. El-Shamy.
• D. L. Ashliman listed two Arab variants collected by Inea Bushnaq.
• El-Shamy also classified the tale as type ATU 898, "The Daughter of the Sun".

Synopsis

A man left his seven daughters at home with provisions for three years, instructing them not to leave. In the third year, the oldest daughter proposed they go out; the youngest objected and was attacked by her sisters. When they returned, they left the door open, allowing a witch to enter and eat all but the youngest, who fled. She hid in an ogre's castle.

The ogre persuaded her to come out and took her as his daughter, giving her six keys but keeping the seventh. She stole the seventh key and opened a door to find an ox drawing water for a garden. The ox warned that the ogre was fattening her to eat her. She cried, and the ogre told her what to say to the ox; she repeated it, causing the ox to fall for seven days.

The prince whose garden it was found it withered, and the ox begged for mercy, revealing the girl's presence. The prince hid, saw her, and asked the ogre for her hand. The ogre agreed but forbade her to speak to the prince unless he swore "by the head of Buk Ettemsuch." Annoyed by her silence, the prince took another bride.

The girl performed kitchen magic: her fingers became fried fish in boiling oil, and she jumped into fire to become a fresh loaf. The new bride tried to imitate her, jumped into the fire, and died. The prince took a third bride. The girl sat on a stake to spin; the bride ordered her off, tried the same, and impaled herself.

The prince spied on the girl as she fetched water with a pitcher and a water jug. The water jug broke the pitcher, and the pitcher asked her to beat it; the water jug begged her not to "by the head of Buk Ettemsuch." She lamented that if only her husband had said that, she could speak. He jumped up and said it, and they lived happily.