here were twenty sisters who went down to the river in the heat of the day, took off their clothes, and played in the water.  A man came by who had eyes in his feet.  He sat down on the dress of one of them and watched them at play.  He said,"If she who owns this dress wants it back, she must bring me thorns."   The woman whose dress it was brought him thorns.  He took them from her and stuck them in her flesh.  Then he lifted her and flung her in the air.  When she came down she was a thorn tree rooted in the earth.

er sisters, seeing what happened to her, fled, and no matter how desperately she called to them they would not come back.  Then one day Heiseb, the God who walks amoung people, came to the place and heard the tree calling.  He commanded the woman to come forth from the tree-and she came.  He asked her where her nineteen sisters were, and she did not know, for they had fled from her.

eiseb saw a bull approaching and told the young woman ti grasp the horns of the bull to discern where her sisters had gone.  She was afraid but followed his suggestion and grasped the bull by the horns.  Istantly she knew where she would find her sisters.

eiseb asked her whether she would be all right to go alone in search of them, but she asked that he accompany her, for she was still afraid.  So Heiseb and the woman came at last th where her sisters dwelt, and Heiseb asked where the man was who had changed their sister into a tree.  They did not know and asked him, who knew all things, to tell them where he was. Heiseb suggested that one of them should take off her dress and lay it down while he and the others kept watch.

ure enough, the man approached and sat down on the dress.  When he demanded thorns for the release of the dress, Heiseb showed himself.

horns we have none, good friend, but here is that which is sharper than thorns.

nd he drove his spear through the man's heart.

Story by: E.W.Thomas
from the "Myths of the Sacred Tree"book.