There lived in a fishing village an orphan with an old grandmother.
Residents of this village killed whales, walruses and seals.
The boy did not go anywhere because he had no clothes, he sat at home all winter. The grandmother sewed and tanned skins, and for this she received a piece of meat or fat. In the summer, the orphan asked the fishermen, like all orphans and widows, and - according to Eskimo law - he was not refused, he received his own - a piece of meat or fish. One day an orphan received a large piece of meat. He told his grandmother:
“I’ll bury the meat in the ground, and in the winter, when we don’t have food, it will be useful to us.”
He went to the tundra and buried the meat. In winter, when the whole village was starving, the grandmother said to her grandson:
– I can’t take it anymore! Go and dig up some meat. The boy put on his grandmother's clothes and went into the tundra. So he broke off a piece of meat and began to pull it out of the hole.
Then mice ran out from under the meat - they gnawed almost the entire piece. The boy sat down and cried. A big mouse, the mother of mice, came out, looked at the boy and said:
– Don’t touch the meat, leave it to my children!
– What will grandma and I eat? - asks the boy.
- I will make you strong and fleet-footed. The boy buried a hole, and the big mouse began to lick his hands - and his big strong hands grew. The mouse began to lick his shoulders - and grandmother’s clothes began to crackle. The kid quickly took off his coat and pants, and the mouse began to lick his sides and licked him all over, and he became a hero.
His old clothes were no longer suitable for him...
So the hero boy went home naked.
Comes home, grandma asks:
- Well, where is the meat?
“I couldn’t dig it up today.” I'll go tomorrow! The grandmother hears something very heavy steps from her grandson, looked at him and said:
- Oh, how big you have grown, and I didn’t even notice.
Somehow screams were heard in the village. The boy-hero grabbed his hammer and ran there in response to the scream. He saw two polar bears being chased by hunters. He overtook the younger brother of the owner of the camp, who was good at throwing a spear, and asked him:
- Whose bear?
- Yours! - said the owner's brother with mockery. The hero boy overtook the owner's middle brother, who was a good runner, and asked him:
- Whose bear?
- Yours! – the middle brother answered with mockery.
The boy-hero overtook the owner of the camp, who ran fast and threw a spear well, and asked him:
- Whose bear?
- Yours! - said the owner.
The boy caught up with the first bear and caught it by the back leg. The bear turned around, the boy hit him on the head with a hammer, and the bear fell down. And he caught the other one by the leg. The bear turned around, the boy hit him on the forehead with a hammer and killed him. The boy threw one bear over one shoulder and the other over the other, sang a song and went back.
He brought the bears to his dugout, threw them on the floor and said to his grandmother:
- Butcher the bears and distribute the meat among the poor.
The grandmother got scared and ordered the bears to be taken to the owner.
– I didn’t steal, I killed bears! - says the grandson. Grandmother said:
- You're lying, according to Eskimo law, the owner gives the hunter a piece of meat, and takes the rest for himself!
- I asked! The owner said that the animals are mine!
The boy fed the entire village with meat. And in the morning the owner sent a worker to have the boy bring the bears to him.
The boy said:
- My bears, and they are no longer there, they were eaten by the hungry! The second worker came and said that the owner ordered them to go out and fight him. Grandma groaned. And the boy said:
- I have no clothes!
They gave him fur pants, and the boy walked out into the circle. He grabbed the owner and tore off his head, and said to his brothers:
– If you love your brother, then come out to fight! But the brothers got scared and refused.
- Now you will be with us instead of a brother! - they said, seeing his strength and agility.
The boy-hero took the wife of the owner of the camp and began to live in his dugout, and shared the food equally with everyone so that no one would go hungry anymore.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru