Once she was sitting sadly in the field, and began to weep bitterly. The cow listened, and then opened its mouth, and said: 'Why art thou weeping? what troubles thee?' The girl told her sad tale. The cow said: 'In one of my horns is honey, and in the other is butter, which thou canst take if thou wilt, so why be unhappy?' The girl took the butter and the honey, and in a short time she grew plump. When the stepmother noticed this she did not know what to do for rage. She rose, and after that every day she gave her a basket of wool with her; this wool was to be spun and brought home in the evening finished. The stepmother wished to tire the girl out with toil, so that she should grow thin and ugly.
Once when Conkiajgharuna was tending the cow, it ran away on to a roof. [9] The girl pursued it, and wished to drive it back to the road, but she dropped her spindle on the roof. Looking inside she saw an old woman seated, and said to her: 'Good mother, wilt thou give me my spindle?' The old dame replied: 'I am not able, my child, come and take it thyself.' This old woman was a devi.
The girl went in and was lifting up her spindle, when the old dame called out: 'Daughter, daughter, come and look at my head a moment, I am almost eaten up.'
The girl came and looked at her head. She was filled with horror; all the worms in the earth seemed to be crawling there. The little girl stroked her head and removed some, and then said: 'Thou hast a clean head, why should I look at it?' This conduct pleased the old woman very much, and she said: 'When thou goest hence, go along such and such a road, and in a certain place thou wilt see three springs--one white, one black, and one yellow. Pass by the white and black, and put thy head in the yellow and lave it with thy hands.'
The girl did this. She went on her way, and came to the three springs. She passed by the white and black, and bathed her head with her hands in the yellow fountain. When she looked up she saw that her hair was quite golden, and her hands, too, shone like gold. In the evening, when she went home, her stepmother was filled with fury. After this she sent her own daughter with the cow. Perhaps the same good fortune would visit her!