The Blind Basa Jaun

This is the story of the blind Basa Jaun.

Blind Basa Jaun

The Blind Basa Jaun

Two soldiers from the same district, having obtained their leave, were returning home together. While crossing a large forest, the night surprised them. But at dusk they had seen a smoke in a certain direction, they went that way and found a bad cabin. They knocked at the door; we asked in it:
- " Who is here ? »
- " Two friends ".
- " What do you want ? »
– “An accommodation for this night. »

The door opened; they were let in, and the door closed. The soldiers, no matter how brave, were frightened to find themselves in the presence of a Basa Jaun: all the likeness of a man, but covered in hair and with a single eye in the middle of his forehead. The Basa Jaun fed them. After their supper, he weighed them and said to the heaviest:
– “You for tonight, the other for tomorrow”

And immediately he pierced the fattest one right through with a large brooch, without even taking off his clothes; he tied the limbs to the spit, roasted it over a high fire, and ate it. The other remained terrified, not knowing what to do to preserve his life. The Basa Jaun, well sated, fell asleep. Immediately, the soldier took the spit that had been used to roast his comrade, made it redden in the fire, stuck it in the eye and blinded him. The Basa Jaun, howling, ran everywhere to find the stranger; but the soldier immediately hid in the stable, in the middle of the herd of Basa Jaun sheep, unable to get out because the door was closed.

The next morning, the Basa Jaun opened the stable door and, wanting to seize the soldier, made the sheep that came out pass between his legs one by one; but it occurred to the soldier that he should skin a sheep and put on its skin, lest the blind man catch it. As he touched all the sheep, the skin of one of them remained in his hands, and he thought that the man had passed under. The soldier escaped but the Basa Jaun, who was running after him as best he could, shouted at him:
– “Here, take this ring, so that when you are at home you can tell what wonder you have done! And he threw the ring to her.

The soldier picked it up and put it on his finger; but the ring began to speak and say:
- " I am here ! I am here ! »

The soldier ran, the blind man ran; it was like one and the same room. The soldier, exhausted, fearing that the Basa Jaun would catch him, thought, when he arrived near a river, of throwing the ring into it, but he could not get it out of his finger. So he cut off his finger and threw it and the ring into the river. The ring, from the bottom of the water, continued to cry:
- " I am here ! I am here ! »

The Basa Jaun, hearing this call, entered the water and drowned there. The soldier then crossed the river on a bridge and escaped happily to his house.