At the beginning of the world God made three men; he sent them to live on earth, and they dwelt in three different places. One man became a hunter, the second was a traveler, and the third settled on good land and began a farm.
After a time God summoned the three men to him, and said he would grant each of them one gift. He asked them what they wanted.
The hunter said he wished to have a dog to help him hunt. The traveler wanted a horse. The farmer said he was lonely living by himself, and asked for a woman to keep his company and help him with his work. God granted these three gifts and the men returned to their homes.
The traveler rode his horse to many distant places and was quite often happy; and yet he felt his life was not complete. The hunter lived in the forest and hunted with his dog, and he also knew a measure of happiness — but he wondered why he sometimes felt sad and discontented. Both of these men decided to visit the farmer, who lived with his women in a fertile place.
The hunter went with his dog, and the traveler rode his horse. They found the farmer at his home, living contentedly with his wife and two baby children who were his greatest treasures.
The two visitors saw that the woman brought water, cut wood, cooked food and cared for the home and was always good and gentle; they realized too that with his family at his side the farmer was never lonely, and sadness was a stranger to his house.
They admired the farmer’s woman and small children, and knew they would also have to have such things if their lives were to be rich and filled with joy.
The hunter and the traveler went to God, and asked him to take the dog and the horse and give them women instead. God changed the two beasts into woman, so that the two men each had a wife.
The farmer’s wife was a peaceful woman of good heart and with a will to work; she was the mother of all such women in the world.
The woman who came from the horse was greedy, willful, and could not be trusted; and she was the mother of all such women in the world today.
The woman who came from the dog was spiteful, noisy and always making palaver; and she let strange men follow her about. She was the mother of all such women in the world today.