This story based on on a story told in Sir Laurens van der Post’s book “The Heart of the Hunter”
Once upon a time… on the edge of the dry Kalahari desert, there farmed a bushman farmer. He had crops and a few cows and, though he was relatively content, he did so wish that he would one day have a wife to share his life. One morning when he went out to milk his cows, he saw that they had already been milked. He couldn’t imagine who had done this. The next morning when he came out he found again that the cows had already been milked.
The next night he decided to hide near the cattle kraal and discover exactly what was happening. As midnight came he saw a remarkable sight. Climbing down from the sky on a ladder that extended between the stars and the earth was a multitude of Star Maidens. They each carried a bucket and as they touched down onto his land, they began to milk the cows. This went on all night long and as the dawn approached they began their trip back to the stars, ascending the ladder one by one. Just as the last Star Maiden approached the ladder, the farmer ran out from his hiding place and grabbed her and told her that she would become his wife. The Star Maiden was very open to the idea of marrying the farmer. When they returned to the farmhouse, she told him: “I shall be very happy to marry you and I promise you that your farm will prosper. I have only one condition that I must set. I have here a basket. You must promise me never to open this basket. If you do open it, then I promise you that I will leave.” The farmer promised that he would do as she wished. The Star Maiden put her basket down in a corner of the room and so their life together began.
As his new wife promised, the farmer’s farm and crops prospered and he became one of the most successful farmers in the whole area. His wife went out into the fields to work every day and everything that she touched seemed blessed by the gods. He was a very happy man and, as the years passed, he became happier yet with his good fortune for he loved and appreciated the Star Maiden.
One afternoon when his wife was out in the fields and he was at home looking for something, he found the basket she had put away many years before. Though he what his wife said, he didn’t take it seriously so he picked up the basket, put it on the table, and opened it up. To his surprise he found it was empty. He found this very amusing and had a good laugh over the fact that it was empty. He remembered well the seriousness with which she had warned him about not opening her treasure.
A short time later the Star Maiden returned from the field. As she entered the room she knew immediately what had happened. She spoke to her husband with the following words: “A long time ago I warned you never to open up this basket because it was very special to me. I told you also that I would have to leave if you did open it. Well, you violated your oath and this evening I am going to be leaving you. I want you to understand the reason for this. I am not leaving you because you opened up this basket without my permission. That would have been all right after all these years. I am leaving you because when you opened the basket you found nothing in it. That is why I can no longer be with you.”
And so it was that as night came the Star Maiden, with great sadness, climbed the ladder back to her home in the sky, not because he had broken his vow, but because he had looked into her most precious possession and could see nothing there.
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