There lived an old man in a village. He once went into the forest and found an old red cap there. The old man was delighted with the find: although the cap was old, he didn’t even have one like that.
“Is he in time for me?” - thought the old man and put the cap on his head. So what? I heard - before that only the chirping and - the cries of birds, and then suddenly the whole forest was filled with disputes and conversations. Where the mother calls for the children, where the husband and wife argue, and where tender loving speeches are heard.
The old man even jumped to the side in fright! A branch knocked the cap off his head, and the speeches immediately died down, only the chirping of birds began to ring again. The old man picked up his cap from the ground, put it on his head, and again conversations were heard both above, on the branches, and below, in the bushes. I took off the cap - again the incomprehensible chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves. Put on the cap - again reasonable speeches.
- That's it! - the old man guessed. “I found not a simple thing, but a treasure, a cap of “sensitive ears.” Whoever puts it on will begin to understand the language of all living things on earth: birds, animals and plants. I had heard about him before, but I just didn’t believe that there was such a thing!
The old man went further into the forest, sat down to rest under a large tree and dozed off. He woke up from the crow's cawing.
“What am I, I fell asleep, it seems,” the old man perked up. He raised his head and saw: a raven had flown in from somewhere and landed on the branch of the very tree under which he was sleeping. Soon another raven flew in from the other direction and sat on a branch next to the first one.
The old man quickly put on his red cap and began to listen.
Two ravens spoke above him in strange, hoarse voices.
“We haven’t met for a long time, brother,” said one raven. -Where are you heading from?
“I was on the seashore, but the fish disappeared there, there was nothing to feed on, so I flew here,” answered another raven. - Where did you fly, brother?
— I flew from Arami; right, it’s not easier there either. It's the same everywhere! Better yet, tell me, what is new and unprecedented in the world?
— There is no special news. Although, wait, I’ll tell you what happened in my direction, on the seashore. In one village about six years ago a rich man was building a storeroom. They began to make a roof over it from shingles. And it so happened that at that time a snake crawled onto the roof, and they nailed it. The snake lies there, languishing, half-dead, and all these years its faithful friend has been bringing it food. They are tormented by severe grief, their resentment towards people accumulates year after year. And she struck the rich man’s daughter with an incurable disease. If no one guesses to lift the board and free the snake, then both the snake and the girl will die. Many times I flew over the roof and croaked about it at the top of my lungs, but people don’t know compassion! Nobody listened to my words.
Another raven answered him:
- It's true, people are stupid! No matter how loudly you croak, they are unaware of everything.
The crows spoke and flew away: one to the west, the other to the east.
The old man heard this and thought:
“It’s good that I was wearing a wonderful cap! We must quickly go to the rich man to save the girl and the snake. But first I’ll dress up in a weirder way, so they can see that I’m not an ordinary person.”
The old man found an abandoned old beehive on the outskirts of the village, covered it with paper and put it on his head.
According to Japanese folk belief, grief and insults can cause serious illness to the offender even without the will and knowledge of the offended person.
In this outfit, an old man comes to the rich man’s house and shouts at the gate:
- The fortuneteller has come, the fortuneteller!
The rich man was just sitting there, racking his brain: how could he cure his sick daughter? He called the old man:
- Hey, fortune teller, don’t stand at the gate, come to my house and tell your fortune!
An old man came into the house and asked:
—What do you need to tell fortunes about?
“My daughter has been sick for many years and is about to die.
Guess why the disease attacked her and how to cure it.
“Take me to the patient,” says the old man.
He sat down at the head of the sick girl and muttered incomprehensible spells:
Creeping kudzu stalks are crawling across the mountains, look, they are spreading for twenty ri!
He muttered like this, and then told everything that he heard from the raven.
“The fortuneteller speaks the truth,” exclaimed the rich man. “Just six years ago I was building a storage room. Then, apparently, this happened. We need to free the snake quickly.
They immediately called the carpenter who lived next door and told him to lift the shingles. In fact, there was a snake underneath, all dried out, transparent white, barely alive.
- This is the cause of the disease! - said the old man. They carefully put the snake in a basket, carried it down from the roof, placed the basket on the bank of a stream and began to water and feed the snake. And when she recovered, they released her.
And the girl’s illness began to gradually go away. Soon she completely recovered.
The rich man, overwhelmed with happiness, gave the old man three hundred re.
The old man returned home, put on new clothes and went on a journey to rejoice.
One day he sat down to rest under a spreading tree near the road. Lo and behold, two ravens arrive again - one from the west, the other from the east. They sat down on a tree and started talking among themselves.
“It’s boring to live in the same city, you hear little new,” complains the first raven, “you inevitably fly to new lands.”
“That’s true,” answers the second raven, “but in the city where I lived, something unprecedented happened.” One rich man fell seriously ill and will die today or tomorrow. Why is that all? About six years ago he added state chambers to his house and, in order to clear a place for them, he ordered the old camphor tree to be cut down. The stump of this tree remained guarded, and rainwater from the roof flowed onto it. The roots of the tree did not die, and as long as life remained in them, they gave out new shoots. Yes, but they are immediately cut off. The tree does not live and does not die. It thinks bitter thoughts, and from these thoughts a serious illness fell on the rich man. Every night many trees come from the mountain forests to visit their unfortunate friend. The camphor tree complains to them, but what can they do! They should have let him live in freedom or dug him up so that he would dry up immediately and not suffer anymore!
The old man heard the raven's story and went to the rich man. He came and shouted at the gate:
- The fortuneteller has come, the fortuneteller! People ran out of the rich man’s chambers:
- Fortune teller, come here, the owner invites you. They brought the old man into such rich chambers as he had never seen in his life. The old man looked around and asked:
-What should I tell you fortune about?
“The owner of this house has been sick for many years,” they answer him. “No matter how much we call on doctors and Spellcasters, they are of no use!”
- Don't worry! - the old man tells them in an important voice. “I will find out the cause of the disease and cure your master.”
The old man muttered his incantations:
Creeping kudzu stalks
They're crawling through the mountains, look
They creep for twenty ri!
And then he began to say:
— About six years ago, you built state rooms near the house...
- Oh, soothsayer, how do you know that we built such chambers six years ago? - his family asks.
- This was revealed to me by my fortune telling. Place me in those chambers, and in three days and three nights I will discover the cause of your master’s illness and drive it out.
They took the old man to the very chambers where the camphor tree was suffering. First of all, he ordered:
- Don't come to me until I call you! Night came, but the old man did not go to bed, he put on his cap and listened to what would happen next.
At midnight something rustled, there was a rustling outside and a voice was heard:
- Hey, camphor tree, respond! How is your health today?
In response, a quiet, quiet voice was heard, as if from underground:
-Who is saying this? Isn't that the nagi tree from Mount Roccausi? You come to me every night from afar. How can I thank you for your concern? Now I only think about one thing, how I can die as quickly as possible, but death does not come to me, and there is no end to my torment.
The naked tree began to console its friend:
- What are you, what are you, you can’t lose heart! Hope! So they talked and parted. But not even an hour had passed when a rustling sound was heard again and someone’s voice asked:
- Hey, camphor tree, how are you today? The camphor tree answers in a barely audible voice:
- I can't be saved anymore. I don’t know how to thank you, friends, for visiting me every night! Who is this talking to me! Could it be the creeping pine from Mount Hayatine?
- She's the one.
- You came from afar!..
- Nothing! I was just going for a walk and came to see you on the way. Spring will come, and you will certainly get better! Hope! ‘
And again I heard: “shurkh-shurkh!” It was the creeping pine tree leaving.
The old man in his “sensitive ears” cap heard all their speeches and thought: “If only it would dawn soon!”
And as soon as morning came, the old man asked to be taken to the sick man. He sat down at his head and again muttered his incantations about the creeping shoots of kudzu. And then he talked about the grief of forest trees. After all, not only the camphor tree suffers - all the trees on the high mountains around are grieving for their friend.
“We must quickly dig up the stump of the camphor tree, then the patient will get better!” - said the old man.
They immediately dug up the stump of a camphor tree, placed it in the garden, and decorated it like a deity. And the illness of the owner of the house began to disappear. Soon he was completely healthy.
Everyone in the house did not know how to thank the old man. Again he received three hundred re and returned to his home. He decided that he had had enough and gave up fortune telling.
The old man planted a good garden, the likes of which no one else in the village had. Out of gratitude to the old man, the most beautiful trees from all over the area settled in it and bloomed with unprecedented color every spring. And all the animals and birds were also friends with the old man, because he understood and pitied them.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru