The jackal walked along the river, walked and kept looking at the sky. As he walked, he tripped over the turf that lay on the bank.
- Hello, girlfriend! - said the jackal.
- Oh-oh! - the sod answered, which meant: “Hello!”
The jackal looked at the turf and said:
- Let's go take a swim in the river!
The turf is silent - it obviously agrees. They went down to the river and saw that the rope was lying there. The jackal says:
- Let's tie ourselves together, it will be more fun.
They tied themselves with a rope and - they fell into the water! They jumped, dived, emerged, dived again, emerged, dived again... They floundered for a long time, and little by little the turf fell apart in the water - only blades of grass floated along the river. The jackal climbed onto the shore, shook himself off, looked around: there was no girlfriend anywhere... Then the jackal shouted angrily:
- Hey, river! Why did you take my girlfriend? Give it back now, or else give me your best fish!
The water in the river began to boil and began to bubble. A huge fish jumped out onto the shore. The jackal grabbed the fish and ran into the forest. There he found a large stump. The jackal put the fish on a stump to dry, and ran off to take a walk in the forest, to see if there was anything edible somewhere. After a short time the jackal returned and saw: there was no fish on the stump. I started looking, I started sniffing around - there was no fish, and that’s all! The jackal screamed at the top of his lungs:
-Who took my fish? Give me back my fish, or else chop it to pieces!
“Kr-r-rak, cr-rak!” – the stump split. Chips flew in all directions. The jackal picked up a full bundle of wood chips and walked out of the forest. In the evening he came to the village and settled down for the night near the house where there lived an old woman who baked cakes for the whole village. He put the knitting at the door and fell asleep. Just then it was time for the old woman to light the fire in the hearth and bake the cakes. She left the house, saw a bundle of wood chips and said:
- That's good! Some kind person took care of me!
The old woman took some wood chips, lit a fire and began making her cakes. Meanwhile, the jackal woke up, saw that his fagot was missing, and went straight to the old woman’s house:
“Why did you,” the old woman shouts, “burn my wood chips?” Now give me some flatbreads, and the crispiest ones!
The old woman got scared and threw a dozen of the richest cakes to the jackal, and that was all he needed. He grabbed the cakes and ran on. He ran to the house of the village rich man, hid the cakes in the barn where the goats lived, and he hid behind a pile of straw and waited. In the morning, the rich man’s daughters came to clean the barn and rake out the goat droppings; they just smelled something tasty in the barn. They searched and searched, found cakes, and ate them all. And the jackal is right there:
- Who ate my cakes? Now give me the kid for this, and the fattest one!
The rich man’s daughters felt sorry for the kid, but they had to give it away. The jackal put a rope around the kid goat's neck and dragged it along with him. He walked further and saw: there was a decorated canopy standing in the middle of the village square. This meant that someone was going to celebrate a wedding. The jackal tied his kid goat to a post, and he hid and waited for what would happen. Guests came to the wedding, saw the kid goat and thought: “This is probably someone who brought a gift to the bride and groom.” They untied the kid, slaughtered it, and fried it. and they served it to the table. It was then that our jackal jumped out.
“Who,” he says, “took my little goat?”
“We took it,” the peasants answer.
- A-ah, you took it! Well, then give me your bride now!
What could the peasants do here?.. They gave the bride to the jackal. The jackal grabbed the girl by the hand and dragged her into his den. He brought him in, sat him down on a bench, and stood in the middle of the den and started dancing. He dances and still sings:
Oh yes I am! Oh yes I am! What a great guy! Well done! I took a fish for my girlfriend! I got some wood chips for that fish! And I got some flatbread for chips! For the cakes, he took the kid! I got a bride for a kid! Well done! Well done!..
The girl listened, listened, and the jackal hit her forehead with a wooden pestle. The jackal fell dead, and the girl ran home.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru