VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
KIM: Seven Bones - as told by Ruth Ann Music, in The Telltale Lilac Bush
A LONG TIME ago in Czechoslovakia, a young girl, whose mother was dead and whose lover had gone to war, went to an elderly fortuneteller to find out whether her lover was dead or alive. The old lady told her to get seven bones from seven different graves and boil them in a pot of water until midnight for seven nights. She said that at midnight on the seventh night her lover would come to her. If he were alive, he would be on foot, but if he were dead, he would be riding a horse. If he were a good spirit, the horse would be black, but if he were an evil spirit, the horse would be white.
SHILOH: About this time there was an epidemic in the country. So many people had to be buried that all old, unidentified graves were opened and the bones thrown out to make room for the newly dead. The girl did as she was told. She took seven bones from seven different graves and put them in a pot to boil each night. As the bones boiled, they said, “Putce, putce, putce,” meaning, “Come, come, come.”
A FIRESIDE CHAT
KIM: On the seventh night the bones boiled harder and harder, and as the time neared midnight, they said louder and louder, “Putce, putce, putce,” and suddenly the girl heard someone coming. She knew that it was her lover and that he was riding a horse. As she looked in the direction from which he was coming, she saw that the horse was white.
SHILOH: The old woman had told her to prepare seven bundles of cloth to take along and to take her rosary with her if she left home—so she did. When her lover asked her to get on the horse behind him, so they could ride away to be married, she did as she was told. As they galloped along, he said,
“How the moon brightly shines,
How the horse swiftly runs!”
KIM: And as they went farther and farther from home, he repeated the words, somewhat changed,
“How the moon brightly shines,
How the ghosts swiftly glide!”
SHILOH: Finally they came to a church and a cemetary, and the girl realized this was probably her lover’s burial place. When he asked her to get down, she suggested that he get down first so that he could help her, which he did. But she threw the seven bundles in different directions, and the spirit-lover tore each of them apart before he tried to pursue her. The girl got down on the opposite side of the horse, ran to a nearby cottage as fast as she could, went in, bolted the door, and hung her rosary over the door knob.
KIM: In one corner of the cottage were some chickens, and on a bench, stretched out, was a dead man. The lover had reached the door by this time, and when he found it was bolted, he asked the dead man to unbolt it for him. The dead man replied that he, too, was an evil spirit and could not open the door because a rosary hung over the knob. The ghost-lover then went to one side of the cabin and started to try to scratch out the sides with clawlike hands.
SHILOH: The girl turned to the chickens and begged the rooster to crow, so that the spirits would have to vanish, but the rooster said, “No, I won’t crow for you. When you fed the chickens, you always chased the rooster away, so why should I help you?”
KIM: In the meantime the ghost-lover had called upon the dead man to help him claw out the side of the cabin, and he did. Again, the girl turned to the chickens and begged the rooster to crow, promising him, if he would, she would never again chase the rooster away when she fed the chickens.
SHILOH: So the rooster crowed,
KIM: the ghost-lover vanished outside,
SHILOH: the dead man lay back on his bench,
KIM: and the girl was saved.
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