You may recall that once there was, and once there was not, a little Russian girl named Devushka who was trapped by and escaped from Baba Yaga. Well, you probably don’t know this, but in English, the name of Devushka means, “The Bold One”, and can be translated into English as “Ava”. Ava had a big brother named Lakai (which means “The Thinking One”), who was very protective of his adventurous little sister. The day after Ava escaped from the hut with chicken feet, Lakai noticed that she was unusually quiet as she was going about her chores. Concerned, he took her aside, and after some time got her to tell him the whole story of her escape from Baba Yaga and the hut with chicken feet. He was alarmed for her, but also for his whole family and the entire village, as now Baba Yaga might hold a grudge and come after Ava, her family, or her town.
Lakai was a strong and kind boy, but also very smart, so he decided that he would need to get rid of Baba Yaga. But FIRST, he would learn all he could before he made the attempt. He made Ava promise to stay away from the forest and got Ava to tell him where exactly she found the hut with chicken feet.
Over the next week, he made his plans. After his chores were done on Saturday, he gathered and brought a load of kindling and firewood to the village’s old wise man. The wise man lived alone and was lame, which made it hard to gather wood for himself. While Lakai was laying the old man’s fire, and stacking the wood, he asked him about witches, and how to be rid of them. The old man thought, sipped his tea, and said,
“Well, when I was a lad, growing up far away in Moscow, the bad witch Belladonna caused all sorts of trouble. It was said that the only thing that could bind a witch was the web of an orb weaver spider.”
Lakai thanked the old man and went off on his next errand.
The next day, after he milked the cow, hoed the garden, and fed and brushed the horse, Lakai asked his mother if he could take a loaf of bread to the wharf to trade for fish. She gave him a great crusty loaf and Lakai made his way to the sea wall. There he offered his labor to one of the sea Captains to help pull in and mend the nets and clean the fishing boat and he gave the sea Captain the loaf in exchange for three red snapper. He chose the roughest looking Captain, the one with a short, black, carefully trimmed beard, whose dark skin showed many scars and calluses. He smoked a big fragrant pipe. Lakai could tell he’d had lots of life lessons. While Lakai worked, he asked the sea Captain if in his travels around the watery world, he had ever had to deal with witches.
“Oh, yes,” he chuckled, “Turrible ones they be on the sea. When I were a wee cabin boy, on the ship C Ghost, we was once becalmed and the witch Parthenope rose out of the sea! Tall as an oak, she was, and as big around. Green, she was, with seaweed for hair, and the gimlet eyes of a shark! Smelled like dead fish. None of us ever would have seen land again, except the ship’s first mate always carried a bottle of lake water around his neck in a flask. He threw the water on her and she melted! Just sizzled away back into the sea! See, saltwater creatures of that kidney can’t abide fresh water.”
Lakai thanked the Captain and took his fish home for dinner.
On Monday, he went to school, and stayed after to ask the school mistress about witches, as she had read many books, and might know.
“Miss Roundpatch, do you know how to get rid of witches?”
“Well,” she replied, “It is well known that evil witches cannot survive the laughter of happy children.”
Armed with this advice, Lakai went into the barn, and stood under the web of the massive orb weaver spider that lived there.
“Oh spider,” he called, “May I have some silk to bind a witch?”
The spider looked at him with its eight eyes, wiggled its eight legs, and let down a long stream of web silk from its bottom. Lakai wound it carefully around a stick and offered the spider two flies he had caught off the compost pile.
Then Lakai took a flask to the lake, and filled it with fresh, clear cold water. He was almost ready. But how would he ever get the laughter of children? Surely, he would be frightened when he saw Baba Yaga (no matter how brave he was) and he knew he could not laugh happily at her. For several days, he was stumped.
Ava noticed that Lakai seemed preoccupied. She pestered him until he confessed his plan to get rid of Baba Yaga, and his inability to figure out how to subject Baba Yaga to children’s happy laughter. Ava smiled and jumped for joy.
“I know the answer,” she crowed, “But you must take me with you when you go to the hut with chicken feet.”
Lakai agreed.
Ava took Lakai to a small grotto that featured a waterfall with a cave behind it. She led Lakai behind the waterfall where he saw a small fairy, seated on the rocks.
“Here,” she said, “Here you will find Echo.”
Sure enough, her voice came back to them:
“Echo…echo…”
“Lakai, meet Echo.”
Echo smiled, and when she spoke, her silvery voice repeated their words. They explained about the fearsome Baba Yaga, and their plan, and Echo told the brother and sister in signs to cease worrying and go and play in the water. They did, and their laughter rang through the grotto. Once they got out and dried off, Echo approached with a large acorn, and handed it to Lakai.
“Lift the cap,” she signed urgently.
He did, and the echo of their giggles poured out of the empty shell. He put the cap of the acorn back on and the voices stopped.
“Whenever you lift the cap, your mirth will pour out,” Echo signed.
Now, they were ready. As soon as dawn broke on Saturday, they rose and went to the forest with the web wound around the stick, the flask of lake water, and the acorn.
As they entered the clearing, the hut with chicken feet turned to face them, and the cat called from a sunny place on the thatched roof:
“It is the little bold girl! And she has brought a friend!”
Fortunately, Baba Yaga was off in her mortar, steering with her pestle, flying in pursuit of her evil deeds far away.
The cat ran to greet them, the gate swung back and forth excitedly, the bramble bush rustled happily and the crows cawed joyfully. They all remembered Ava’s kindness to them and were glad to see her. Ava introduced Lakai and explained that they wished to rid the world of Baba Yaga. The witch’s servants were happy to help.
“Baba Yaga will return tonight-she will likely be drunk, and that will be a good time to get rid of her,” said the cat. “At nightfall, you must hide under her bed until I tell you.”
The day passed quickly, with the children, the cat, the hut, the gate, the bramble bush and the crows getting to know one another. The cat told how they were magically bound to the witch and could not leave until she released them or was got rid of. The hut with chicken feet clucked sadly.
“The hut is especially sad, because she will soon lay an egg, and any chick born to her will also have to be a servant to Baba Yaga.”
Dusk came, and the children hid among the dust balls under the bed, next to Baba Yaga’s discarded dirty socks. Yuck!
Soon a witchy, slurring voice could be heard in the sky, getting nearer and nearer.
“OOOOH! It’s only me, from over the sea, I’m Barnacle Bill the Sailor”, sang Baba Yaga drunkenly.
Lakai and Ava looked at each other with wide eyes as the witch’s mortar landed on the hut’s porch with a thump. They heard the warning rustle of the bramble bush, the nervous squeak of the gate, and the sound of Baba Yaga’s boots on the stairs of the hut. The children hardly dared to breathe. The witch continued her inebriated singing, hiccupping now and then:
“I’ll sail the sea until I croak,
Drink my whiskey, swear, and smoke,
But I can’t swim a bloody stroke,
Cried Barnacle Bill the Sailor!”
Then she flopped onto the bed and began snoring loudly.
“Now!” cried the cat.
Quick as a flash, Lakai jumped out and he and Ava spooled out the orb weaver’s web and wrapped it around Baba Yaga’s body, lashing her arms to her sides.
“Wha…Wha…What are you doing, you miserable little brats!”
Baba Yaga struggled and swore, and at first the web was holding, but then the witch closed her eyes and began to recite a fearsome spell:
“Fire burn and wind blow, take these bonds from off me now, so that I may cook and eat my foe!”
The web silk turned red as fire and began to melt! Baba Yaga had one arm free and was reaching for her pestle! Ava pulled the flask out of her pocket with trembling fingers, uncorked it, and threw the contents at Baba Yaga!
“Eeeeek!” The witch shrieked!
But Ava’s aim was off, on account of her fear, and although half of the lakewater landed on Baba Yaga, half fell on the floor. Baba Yaga’s lap and legs were sizzling, but she still had one arm free and grabbed the pestle.
“Now you will pay, you horrible runts! Nobody messes with…”
But that was all Baba Yaga had time to say before Lakai opened the acorn cap and innocent, joyous childhood laughter filled the room.
“Arrrrrghhh!” shouted the witch, “That awful din, stop it! Stop it I saaayyyyy….” Her voice started furious and loud, then faded to a gravelly whisper as she turned into a pile of ash on the bed.
The sudden silence was broken by the meowing of the cat and the cawing of the crows, the gleeful rustling of the bramble bush and the enthusiastic clanging of the gate!
“We are free!” said the cat, “How can we thank you?”
“What will all of you do now?” asked Lakai.
“Well,” croaked the queen of the crows, “We servants, I mean FORMER servants of Baba Yaga are all friends. I think we will continue to live here together, guarded by the hut with chicken feet, free from fear of our terrible departed mistress. And you can come visit whenever you like.”
Just then, the hut with chicken feet squatted to the ground and gave a squawk. When it rose, an egg about as big as a football, surrounded by branches and thatch, lay on the ground. The hut clucked, and the cat translated:
“The hut wants you to take her egg and care for it, and when it hatches it will be your hut, grow as you do, and someday be your home. Please bring her to visit us from time to time.”
So, the children carried the egg home and kept it warm in their cottage. On the next full moon, it hatched into a miniature hut with chicken feet, and Ava and Lakai’s parents, and indeed the whole village were amazed to see the tiny hut with chicken feet scampering after them wherever they went.
Lakai and Ava kept their word, and visited the hut, the cat, the bramble bush, the gate and the crows. These friends taught them many enchantments that they had learned from living with Baba Yaga. The village wise man told everyone how the children had saved the village from a bad witch. The sea Captain taught them to sail and fish, and the school mistress helped them learn to speak Spanish and French, and many other useful things besides. They remained brave, smart, and kind, and grew to be good and powerful witches in their own right.
THE END
Paula Lyons, MD
1/12/2024