Once upon a time, across seventeen countries, there was an old maid. It was even wilder than a country road. She was an old woman, and an old woman, and an ugly one, with a mouth so big that it reached her ears, and a nose so long that it drooped to the ground.
No wonder then that his poor head remained in the party, though he was terribly rich, with so much gold and silver that it almost overflowed from the chest. Twelve thieves took notice of the old maid's wealth; they did not care for her ugliness, but agreed to come to her one night, not to marry her, but to empty her chest.
Well, one evening the twelve giraffes go into the old maid's garden, and from there they send one forward to see if she is asleep. The maiden had just been lying down, and when the servant looked in at the window, she yawned so loudly that the window cracked.
The girl said to herself, but in a way that the bully could hear her:
- Here's the first one!
The thief thought she meant him, but the girl meant him to yawn, and ran back to the others in a great fright. She said to them:
- You can't go in yet, he's not asleep! The girl seems to have a thousand devils, she noticed that I was here, because when I looked in the window she said, "Here's the first one!"
The second thug goes over to see if the first is right. But just as he was looking through the window, the second yawn came to the old maid, and she said:
- Here's the second one!
The second thug runs back and says to the others:
- This girl has a devil indeed, lying in her bed, not looking out of the window, and yet she has noticed that I am there.
But now all twelve of them were indeed testing to see if it was really as the first and second thugs had said. One by one they all crept to the window, and then the girl always yawned. She said one after another:
- Here's the third, here's the fourth.
When he said, "Here is the twelfth," the goons were very surprised, and began to whisper, wondering what to do. As they were whispering, the spinster said in a loud voice:
- Just keep sneezing, because I'm about to bite you.
But already the goons were terrified. They thought he was talking to them, but it happened that the old maid was cooking a pot of beef, and she sneezed while she was cooking, and said, "Keep sneezing, because I'm going to eat you.
And the giraffes had the courage to go back into the garden, and there they hid themselves among the great leaves of the laboda, and waited for the old maid to fall asleep, and then they could take her money-box.
Meanwhile, the old maid gets up, eats her boiled calves, and wants to go to bed again, but then she notices that her dear dog, Laboda, who used to sleep in her bed, is not in the room. He goes out into the atrium and whistles loudly.
- Hey, Laboda, hey, come here, get under my dunna!
After all, the hoodlums didn't need more. They thought they would not be afraid, but would be mocked by the old maid: uccu! They ran as if their eyes had been plucked out, leaped over the fence without a thought, and dared not look back at the old maid's house. If you don't believe me, go and find out.
(Elek Benedek: Hungarian tale- and mythology Volume 3)
