“Do you know why they tell the villagers not to come near the swamp? The ground is treacherous there, for sure, but it’s not the main danger. Let me tell you a story of a girl who once lived in this village. What a pretty girl she was! Slender as a withy and graceful as a swan, with a voice as sweet as honey and hair as golden as the bright morning sun. Every man, every lad, every boy was charmed by her heavenly beauty. They gave her flowers, jewelry and begged for her hand in marriage. However, not every villager was pleased by this turn of events.

Women became extremely jealous of her goodliness and stood against their husbands, sons and brothers being bewitched by this unnatural force of attraction. They held a private meeting and decided to get rid of her once and for all, to exile her out of her home to the wild swamplands where she would certainly perish. If not the bottomless marsh, then the poisonous snakes would surely end her.

Jealousy, vengeance and violence filled their hearts as they stormed her house, torches alight, chanting “Witch! Witch! Witch!”. The poor girl begged for mercy, insisting on her innocence. But the crowd was relentless. With her house now on fire, she had nothing left to do but to flee towards the deadly swamps. “You will regret it, I promise you! I will enchant every one of your men until all of them are dead, and you are left alone to rot away”. No one saw this girl ever again, but the merchants travelling through the swamps started whispering that an eerie female laughter could be heard there at night.

Some of them would even say that they saw a large snake dragging workers, farmers and even soldiers away, drowning them in the abysmal bog. The others mentioned that the body of the most splendid girl could sometimes be seen in the waters, singing a beautiful song, calling for their help. Is any of it true? I don’t really know. Was she actually a witch from the very beginning or did she become one when the crowd turned against her? No one can tell for sure.

One thing is certain – each year almost a hundred men go into the swamps and never come back, leaving their wives penniless widows”.

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