The Flying Dutchman and Other Folktales from the Netherlands

Copyright © 2008 by Theo Meder

There once was a soldier standing guard, carrying a rifle. The devil was passing by.

"Boy," the devil said, "what a beautiful tobacco pipe you have there."

"Thanks," the soldier said, "would you like to have a drag?"

"Oh boy, I sure would," the devil said.

Then the soldier put the barrel of the rifle in the devil's mouth and pulled the trigger.

"Ugh! That's awfully strong tobacco," the devil said, and he spat out the bullet.

This version of ATU 1157, The Ogre and the Gun, was told in Dokkum (Friesland) by farmhand PieterTjeerds van der Galien on September 8, 1971, and was recorded by collector A. A. Jaarsma (unpublished; Jaarsma Collection, report 881, tale no. 1; archive and Dutch Folktale Database, Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam).