In a small village, a father once lived all alone with his two children. His mother had died at an early age and so the father had to look after Zahi and Zahia all by himself. Every morning he left the house to go to work. He said to the children: "Here you have enough food for the whole day. Be good and don't leave the house".
This went on day after day. Once Zahi said to his sister: "If father leaves the house, I want to too. Let's go for a walk in the forest."
"But father has forbidden it," said Zahia.
But Zahi wouldn't listen to his sister and was already out the door. Zahia quickly took a handful of ashes and went after him, but she left a trail through the forest with every step.
They walked through the forest for a long time. They saw birds, ate blackberries and marveled at the colors as the sun set. Before it got dark, they followed the trail that Zahia had left and returned home.
That evening they were very tired, but they didn't tell their father about their adventure.
The next day, Zahi said: "Come on, let's go back into the forest. Take this bread instead of ashes. The crumbs will show us the way."
So the two of them went into the forest, leaving a few crumbs here and a few there, without realizing that the birds were picking them up right behind them.
When they wanted to go home again, the crumbs had disappeared. There was no sign of them and when it got dark, they had lost their way completely. So they wandered through the forest and suddenly saw a light. As they got closer, they saw a small house. They knocked on the door and an old woman opened it. "Come in," she said. She gave them food and drink and spoke kindly to them, so that they did not realize that she was actually an ogre.
But the very next day, the wicked old woman locked the boy in the cellar and gave him extra food while Zahia had to clean for her.
At one point, Zahia heard the old woman say: "Tomorrow I will roast the boy and eat him!"
Zahia trembled with fear and thought about how she could save her brother. The next morning, the ogre woman called out: "Zahia, light the fire in the tannour!"
Zahia took the largest pieces of wood and when the fire in the oven was burning hot, she called the old woman and asked: "Is it burning enough yet?"
As soon as the wicked old woman bent down to look into the oven, Zahia grabbed the ogre and pushed her into the oven until all that was left was a pile of ashes. Zahia quickly rushed to her brother to free him, but where was the key to the cage? Then Zahia remembered: The old ogre woman had carried it in her apron. She quickly searched in the ashes and there was the key. She freed Zahi and together they searched for the way home.
They walked through the forest for two days until they finally found their home. The father was standing in front of the house, almost blind because he had cried so many tears for his children. Now he recognized them and called out: "Zahi! Zahia! You're back!"
They embraced each other and lived happily and contentedly together for many more years.

Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: N. Zoghaib, La Fille aux cendres. Contes du Liban, Paris 2010, englische Fassung Lysander Jaenike © Mutabor Märchenstiftung