Nowadays there are no horses and cows. And there was a time - they were even considered relatives. Once in the summer two friends went to a green meadow.
— There’s thick Aktamyr grass. Please, cow, eat.
- No, uncle horse, let it be Aktamyr grass for you.
So they walked along the bright hills. Their sides darkened from the heat. Gadflies hover in swarms like bees. They wanted some shade. We descended into a cool valley.
“Mo-oh, uncle horse, mo-oh-oh...” the cow mooed. - What lies there?
The horse slowly moved his eyes: at the bottom of a dark ravine, the constellation Ulker' was calmly sleeping.
The horse raised his leg and shut the cow’s mouth with his hoof.
- Psh... Don't moo! While these stars are sleeping, let's press them to the ground with our hooves.
‘Ulker is the constellation of the Pleiades.
-Mo-o-o, I saw it first! I'll be the first to attack!
- Stop! Don't be stupid! Your hooves are smaller than mine, your muscles are weaker than mine. You can't hold it.
But the cow did not listen to her uncle’s horse and jumped with all four hooves onto the sleeping constellation.
The stars fluttered and hissed. The cow's hooves cracked in half, and through this gap the constellation Ulker soared from the bottom of the ravine to the bottom of the sky.
- E-ho-ho! - the horse neighed. - Now look at your legs. Like a pitchfork! We are no longer related.
Waving its silken tail widely, the horse galloped off without looking back.
From that time on, the cow began to have paired hooves.
And since then, the Ulker constellation cannot be found in the summer either in the sky or on earth. In the summer it hides from hoofed cattle in a shifting swamp.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru