In one village there lived a sage who loved to sit for hours on the bank of an aryk, thinking about the fragility and variability of everything earthly.
And then one day he sat like that, immersed in thoughts, and a sparrow flew over him, pursued by a falcon. The sparrow held an ant in its beak and, flying over the ditch, released the ant from its beak. The ant fell at the very feet of the sage, who picked it up and, feeling sorry for it, carried it home. Here it must be said that the sage was also a wizard, in any case, he knew spells with the help of which one can transform one living creature into another. Having brought the ant home, he laid it on the floor, and turning his face to the east, uttered the necessary words, which is why the ant began to grow, change its appearance and turned into a beautiful little girl.
The sage took her hand and took her to his friend, who already had several children and for whom it was not difficult to raise another child.
Years passed, and the girl turned into a slender, beautiful girl.
Then the sage called her adoptive father to him, and they began to discuss what to do next.
“I think,” said the friend, “that the time has come to find someone with whom she can move forward in life.” There are many strong and handsome men in our village. Let's ask her.
But the girl, when she appeared before them (and she was really smart and beautiful), answered:
- O you, whose words I must and am ready to obey. Don't you think that the men you are talking about are inferior to me in merit? And you taught me so many times that only equality unites hearts.
“You’re right,” the sage answered after thinking. - But who in this world is more worthy and impeccable than everyone else? The strongest. And who is the strongest? The sun—it conquers even darkness.
“Okay, let there be sun,” the girl agreed.
And early in the morning, as soon as the sun rose over the peaks of the Hindu Kush, the sage shouted:
- Oh luminary! This girl deserves the most powerful friend. Won't you take her as your companion?
“She is beautiful,” answered the sun, “and I would be glad if she always shone next to me.” But alas, I am not the strongest and most powerful, but a cloud. Even a small cloud easily covers me.
Then the sage and the girl went to the cloud. They found her at the foot of a high mountain.
“What should I do,” the cloud answered them, “and I would be glad to have you as a friend, but my power is limited: the wind drives me wherever it wants.”
They turned to the wind.
- Is this strength and power what I have! - exclaimed the wind. “Only weak clouds and flexible trees are inferior to me.” Look at the mountain - how indestructible it is, how firmly rooted in the ground. In my opinion, there is nothing more powerful than it.
The sage turned to the mountain.
“I’ll tell you in fairness, if anyone has power and real strength, it’s ants,” the mountain answered him. “It’s true that I’m not giving in to the wind yet, but the ants have already dug into my entire body and widened all the cracks. Soon the end will come for me, and I can’t do anything with them - neither drive them away, nor get away from them.
- Wait for me! - the sage said to the girl, went up to the mountain, chose one among thousands of ants, took it on his finger and returned to where the beauty stood.
“You heard everything,” he told her. - Is he right for you?
“Of course,” the girl answered, “after all, he is equal in merit to me, and he is truly the strongest.”
And then the sage, turning his face to the east, uttered the words he knew, the spell worked, the girl’s body began to shrink, change shape, and she again turned into an ant.
Two ants took each other's hands and disappeared into a mountain cleft...
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru