The Fifth Daughter and the Caterpillar

6.The Fifth Daughter and the Caterpillar

Now,there was only the fifth daughter living with Abutie.He asked her to weave at home every day for fear of any misfortune that might befall her.

The girl wove at home during the day,but a handsome young man jumped into her room from the window and played with her at night.The two loved each other deeply.

One day when the girl was weaving,she saw a very large caterpillar crawling on the loom and looking up at her constantly.She was annoyed to see the caterpillar and slapped it on the ground.

At that night,the young man came to her room as usual,holding his waist and complaining of pain.The girl asked,“What's wrong with you?Did you fall down?”

“No,I was beaten by someone!”

“Who beat you then?”

“It's you!”

The young man held his waist and looked at the girl.The girl was not happy to hear that and said,“When did I beat you?”

“Didn't you slap down a caterpillar in the daytime?That's me!”Hearing this,the girl sighed and said,“Please go!Go away quickly!I don't like to stay with a caterpillar!”

The young man took the girl by the hand and said,“Good girl,good girl!Don't be afraid of me.Henceforth,I will never turn into a caterpillar.Will you marry me?”

The girl looked at him and said,“If you never change into a caterpillar any more,I will marry you.”The guy agreed and they got married soon and moved into a forest with dense trees.The young man tied many ropes around the tree trunk,and made the soft flowers and weeds as their bed,and the densely packed leaves as their mosquito net.The young man said to the fifth daughter,“Good girl!Don't look up late at night.If you look up,something bad will happen!”

It was very late one night.The young man did not return home yet.The girl slept alone in bed,but she could not sleep.She thought to herself:Why can't I look up?How nice to have a look at the stars!As she thought,her eyes opened involuntarily.Oh,it's so scary!The leaves were full of thousands of large and small caterpillars.

The girl cried out in horror.Hearing the cry,many caterpillars fell down.The more she screamed,the more they fell down.In a while,the caterpillars covered the girl and scared her to death.

When Abutie heard that his fifth daughter was scared by caterpillars to death,he was heartbroken and became very angry.He ran into the forest,growling and cursing,“You bad caterpillars,you are not worthy to be human beings,and you will never transfer into humans!You can only eat leaves and birds!”

From then on,caterpillars can never transfer into humans any more.The fifth daughter had no offspring,so there was no caterpillar clan.