Amal Biso

Amal Biso is a Sri Lankan folktale about a girl abandoned by her human parents in the fields, when a pair of birds (cranes or storks) fly down to rescue her. She is raised by the birds and, later, goes to borrow some fire source from a demon neighbour that trails after the girl, intent to devour her, but, failing that, the demon neighbour plants a fingernail on the door to the girl's house. The fingernail prickles her skin and she falls into a swoon. Variants of the tale are known in Sri Lanka and in India.