In ancient times, a flood flooded the earth. Only one person named Are escaped from him. And he escaped like this: when everything was already flooded and only the tops of tall palm trees were visible above the water, Are swam to one of these tops and grabbed onto a branch, but the branch was dry and broke off; then Are swam further, holding on to a branch that served him as something like a boat or a shuttle, swam to the top of another palm tree, grabbed a green branch, climbed up it and positioned himself on the branches. There he spent many days eating palm fruits. One day a sarakura bird sat on a palm tree branch and said to Are:
- The earth is close; why don't you come down to earth?
– I can’t: I’m too weak; If I get off the palm tree, I will die.
Then Sarakura said:
- I will look for land.
The Sarakurs began to fly, holding baskets of earth in their beaks, and scattering earth across the water; the earth fell into the water, and the water subsided. So the water dried up, and Are came down from the palm tree. But he lived alone among the animals and ate only fruits and roots.
One day Sarakura told him:
- Why don’t you find yourself a girlfriend? There are bridges on the lake bay; make yourself a raft, and I will order the ducks to take you to where other people live.
The next day, early in the morning, the ducks took Are's raft in tow and took it to where the people lived.
Many girls were swimming near the shore of the lake; The girls saw the raft and rushed to the shore in fear. But one of them rushed into the water and swam to the raft; Are grabbed her in his arms, and the ducks took the raft to his home. Other girls told people about what had happened, and they set off in pursuit of the fugitives, but could not catch up with them. Are married this girl and they had many children.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru