Whenever cows grew scarce in their milk – people believed, verily, that the sundry ‘milk-eaters’* had been sucking the cows dry.
If the folk wished for their cows to flow plenty again and if they attempted to protect their cattle from the ‘milk-eaters’, then it was upon the Grass Night* they did as follows – just like old mother Dārta used to do in her household.
While everyone was off to līgot*, those were only the housemaster’s daughter and old mother Dārta who stayed at home.
The girl was playing with the cat, at the time, when old mother Dārta walked out of the other chamber at the far end of the dwellings.
Dārta picked up the bread peel and then she uttered, ‘It is time.’
Right there, on the threshold, old mother Dārta mounted the bread peel – as if to ride it; and she whispered some charms quietly by herself.
Then – just like a young girl, old mother Dārta leaped and bounced – while ‘riding’ the bread peel – toward the cattle-shed.
That way, old mother Dārta galloped criss-cross through the cattle-shed as well as the living chambers.
At last, the old woman jumped in the kitchen and from there – in the dairy pantry where Dārta recited some more of her spells and placed the bread peel neatly between the milk pails.
From the dairy pantry – old mother Dārta then rushed to the end of the chambers where the thistle grew; and she plucked the thistle out of the ground, pinning it by the cattle-shed gate that had been left half-open; and upon such deed old mother Dārta was heard uttering, ‘The cows shall rest peacefully now and unbothered by any ‘milk-eaters’.’
When the rite had been accomplished, old mother Dārta vanished off, and nobody knew where she went.
Ever since that time, the ‘milk-eaters’ never once visited the cattle-shed, nor they crept into the dairy pantry.
***
*Milk-Eaters – folkloric creatures related to witchcraft or, indeed, the embodiment of the witches themselves who would suck the cows dry of their milk.
*Grass Night – the preparation before the Summer Solstice celebration when grasses, flowers and herbs are picked to decorate the household, the livestock and the people as well as to perform protective magicks or divination. These herbs are later dried out to be used for their medicinal properties over the rest of the year. (It is believed that the herbs are ‘the strongest’ during the Grass Night and that all the vigour and healing powers of the herbs have reached their peak at that time.)
*’Līgot’, v, – to celebrate the summer solstice in general. However, this particular verb often refers to the singing practices during the celebration. The songs were sung while walking from one household to another or called out loudly from one master’s lands to the others; also – as a protective measure.
Latvian Folk Tales 