The woman with huge feet

Once a man married a woman who had enormous feet. Her feet were so long that they were the size of three normal feet, and her husband did not earn enough to have stockings and shoes made for her. One day, although he was not actually displeased with her, he decided to leave and to go wherever his own normal-sized feet took him. On his journey he complained and complained about his fate. It happened that a god heard his complaint, and knowing the young man to be virtuous decided to help him. Changing into the shape of an old traveler, he met the young man and asked him about his troubles.

“I have a wife with feet three times normal size,” he answered, “and I cannot earn enough to have stocking and shoes made for her.”

“There I can help you,” said the god. “I can give you a potion that will help. Take these pouches of medicine and use them carefully. Mix them with the water of a clear mountain spring and have your wife wash her feet with them, one at a time. The first one will reduce the size of her feet to twice normal size. The second will bring them to normal size, and the third will make them even smaller than normal. You must be careful, however, to dispose of the water she has washed with in a place where there are no human dwellings.”

The young man thanked the god and rushed home to tell his wife. “I’ve found a potion that will make you feet small,” said the young man to his wife, who was overjoyed at the thought of having small feet. The man had clear springwater brought to the house and began to wash his wife’s feet. The first pouch of the potion reduced her feet to twice normal size, the second to normal size, and the third to half normal size. The wife was overjoyed at having such tiny feet.

The young man was so happy to see his wife and her reaction that he forgot to mention the god’s warning. While cleaning the house, the wife took the water to the wall and threw it over, and as luck would have it, it splattered onto the head of a passerby.

There are times when bad fortune happens to a good person for no reason, and this was one of those times. The passerby suddenly had a head no bigger than a button, and he could not understand his misfortune. As he wandered around looking for someone to tell him what he looked like, he heard talking in a hut and poked his tiny head through a small hole in the wall.