The Spinning-Woman by the Spring or The Kind and the Unkind Girls is a widespread, traditional folk tale, known throughout Europe and in certain regions of Asia, including Indonesia. The tale is cataloged as AT 480 in the international Folktale catalog. Synopsis Two stepsisters are, one after another, sent out to serve in the house of a witch where they are assigned what appear to be difficult or impossible tasks. For instance, they are tasked to carry water with a sieve. The kind girl, however, obeys requests from grateful animals and learns from the birds' song that she must line the sieve with clay to complete her task. Other chores they are assigned include washing black wool white, and gathering flowers at midwinter. As payment for her household work she can choose one of three caskets, an attractive red, a common yellow or an ugly blue casket. Again, she receives advice from the animals and makes the modest choice and becomes richly rewarded. Even though the unkind girl is also able to understand animal language, she refuses to follow the advice given by the birds and the help offered by other animals. Analysis In many variants, the witch-like character that presents the girls with the choice of casket is replaced by personifications of the twelve months of the year, as it happens, for instance, in Greek variants. It has been argued that the donor in these stories shows some connection to an underworld realm, or has an otherworldly description. According to scholar Andreas Johns, "in many European and East Slavic versions", the girl drops a spindle into a well, which is the entry point to the otherworld. Godwin and Groenewald mentioned that in African stories, the calabash is the instrument to draw water, while in the European versions, it is a bucket. However, according to Marie Campbell, Warren Roberts's study on the tale type indicated that the motif of the bucket in the well is "typically German". International distribution The tale type is recorded all over the world: a great number of versions were registered from Scandinavia and Russia, but tales also exist from Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, North and South America, India, China and Japan. Europe At least 700 versions have been collected from all over Europe. Slovak professor suggested that the tale type AaTh 480 is "relatively recent" and originated in Europe, in a Romance-speaking region. Professor