Myths and Tales form Greece and Romania May 2012 | Page 115

Back in the forest, Dănilă decides to build his own monastery on the spot.
While selecting trees to chop down, he runs into a devil.
After engaging the man in conversation, the creature is terrified by his
prospects, but fails to convince him that Hell owns both the pond and the
forest surrounding it. He runs back to SATAN (Romanian alternative
Scaraoschi), who decides to let Dănilă have a barrel-full of coins in
exchange for leaving the place. While he thinks of how to get the barrel
home, Satan's envoy challenges him to a contest of powers. The junior
devil proves his own by circling the pond with the mare on his back.
Dănilă then tricks him by riding the horse around the same perimeter,
and claiming to have been the one carrying it with the inside of his
thighs. Prepeleac refuses to take part in the devil's next challenge, which
involves a sprint, claiming that it is too much beneath his abilities.
Instead, he invites him to race his "youngest child", in reality a rabbit
resting in the forest, and then watches as the devil fails to keep up with
the animal.