This happened in the year when there was a great famine. Neither the maize, nor the beans, nor anything that was planted grew. There was absolutely nothing to eat.
People had to collect maize grains that came out with animal excrement. They were collected, washed and then eaten because there was nothing else. That is why that time was called the Black Famine.
One woman had several sons. But while the elders had long lived separately with their families, the youngest was unmarried and still lived with his mother. They also had nothing.
And the eldest of her sons was lucky enough to collect some maize and beans from animal feces. Therefore, the woman’s youngest son advised her to ask him for a little food.
But he was very greedy and, although he had cobs of maize hidden in the barn for a rainy day, the son did not give anything to his old mother, bent over from many years of overwork. So the poor old woman trudged away, crying and praying at the same time. It was very sad to see her cry.
Seeing that his mother had already left, the man decided that now they would eat in peace and no one would bother them. But from the pot where the food was hidden, the head of a snake suddenly poked out. It was a huge snake made up of everything that was in the pot. The disgruntled son began to scold his mother, believing that she was to blame for what had happened. He even wanted to go looking for her so he could beat her up or even kill her.
...Suddenly everything came to life... Mais began to move, began to worry. He received life and moved inside the barn, slowly, like something very heavy. The cobs that were on top were lighter than those below, and the barn also seemed to move slowly, but little by little it gained more strength, so that the structure broke and the cobs came out. A strong wind blew, seeming like a whirlwind, which almost toppled the house where the man and woman were. They could no longer distinguish anything, and then the dust began to rise; light debris was flying everywhere. Everything looked terrible.
But they were able to see something flying out of the barn: it was maize, which turned into locusts and flew out gradually until there was nothing left. The structure remained empty, clean, as if a stream of water had passed through and washed away all the dust that maize leaves behind when it is stored for so long in the same place. Everything remained clean. All the leaves turned into the outer covering of the locust, the hairs of the maize became whiskers, the partitions and awns of the cob became the joints and spines of the locust, and every grain of the maize turned into a locust. And so everything flew away. You could just see how everything was moving away, carried away by the wind. It flew away... and flew very easily until it arrived at a place in the mountain where, as everyone knew, there was a cave. The maize rushed there, turning into locusts. And at the entrance to the cave a bow grew, which seemed to make sure that nothing was left outside; the bow continued to stand while the locusts hesitated to enter.
Everything was like that, that’s what they told us, to teach us to respect our parents and to warn us against such mistakes. Because, they said, it was a terrible and sad sight. The wind gradually calmed down, and the man never knew why all this happened to him. But others know this. And we tell about this so that others can pass on our story. These are the lessons of our grandfathers.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru