In time immemorial, a beauty appeared among living beings who had not yet known a man; the girl’s name was Amao, and some called her Kamanao.
One evening Amao came out to the river bank and sat down on the ground. She sat and sat and suddenly saw: a school of fish with bright, sparkling scales was swimming past. Amao liked the salmler fish so much that she put her hand in the water and caught one. She grabbed it, and the salmler in her hands began to grow and grow and became big and strong, took possession of the girl, and then rushed into the water and disappeared.
Since then, Amao's belly began to grow, and when the time came, she gave birth to a baby boy. And then one day - the child was two months old at the time - Amao went up the river to fish, and left her son on a rock.
Amao returned at noon and then saw that the boy had died. She carried the child's body to her home and cried over it all night. And at dawn I heard his voice:
- Look, mom, how the animals and birds laugh at us. They were the ones who scared me to death. To prevent them from mocking you, fumigate them with tree resin, and they will turn into stone.
The boy didn't say anything else.
During the day, Amao buried her son, and by midnight all the animals turned to stone.
They say that by morning the toad, the kuzhubin bird, and the otter were petrified. Only the snake, stingray fish, forest pig and tapir escaped the common fate, because they went hunting to the source of the river.
But Amao went up to the upper reaches and found a tapir and a pig sleeping under a large stone. She killed the animals, and then tore them into pieces and threw them into the river; She left only the tapir's thigh and the pig's thigh, laid them on a large stone, and soon they too turned to stone.
The snake and the stingray were hunting in the depths of the river, which is why Amao set up the nets. And at night he hears: someone is fighting in the nets. She went to the shore and saw that the stingray and the snake were caught in a trap.
Amao threw a piece of resin at them, and they immediately turned to stone.
Then Amao returned to her people to teach them all sorts of crafts. She sat down by the fire and began to show how to bake cakes, make flour and much, much more.
Having taught everything, Amao disappeared, and no one knew where she went.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru