[1] Long ago when the lions, the elephants, the tigers, and all this kind of vermin, lived on the banks of the Grand Lac, there was a woman who lived with her daughter on the banks of Bayou Tèche.

Her daughter had a lover who came to see her every day, but the mother did not wish any one to come to see her daughter, because she was afraid that some one would marry her and take her very far away where she would not be able to see her any more.

One day the neighbors would tell the old woman: "We have seen your daughter with a lion in the wood behind the house," or, another day they would tell her: "How is it that your daughter walks about with a tiger without the tiger eating her?"

Other persons would say: "But your daughter is not one of God's creatures (an insane girl), and I saw her in the wood with a wild cat."

The mother, at last, asked her daughter if it was the truth that was being said. The daughter, naturally, said that it was a lie, but the mother began to watch her and she saw that it was the truth, that her daughter was in the habit of associating with the wild beasts, without their doing her any harm. Then she said to herself: "They must be tame beasts, for my daughter feeds them without their doing her any harm, and she does not want to tell me so because she is afraid that I will prevent her from seeing them."

The mother was glad to see the kind heart of her daughter, and, as she had some supper remaining, she went out to feed the beasts. She went to a lion which ran after her, and which would have eaten her up, if she had not closed her gate. After that the old woman could not put her foot out of her house without a beast coming to run after her.

The poor old woman was half crazy, she was so much afraid, and she did not know what to do. One day she saw a little bird which told her that the animals would continue to be good to her daughter and bad to her, if she did not let her daughter marry the young man whom she loved. You may imagine that in order to make the wild beasts go away, she said yes, and there was a grand wedding, where I danced a great deal, although I was only two years old, and now I am more than one hundred years old.

But how angry the mother was when she heard it was her son-in-law who changed himself into good beasts for her daughter and into bad beasts for her. But she was so much afraid of him that she did not dare to say anything. Fortunately that man is now dead, and he was the last zombi (wizard) around here.