That's what happened. There lived a poor woman on earth. She had four children. The children did not obey their mother. They ran and played in the snow from morning to evening.
They will return to their tent, they will drag whole drifts of snow on the trees, and take the mother away. The clothes will get wet, and the mother will get sushi.
It was difficult for the mother.
Once in the summer my mother was fishing on the river. It was hard for her, and her children did not help her.
From such a life, from hard work, my mother fell ill. She lies in the tent, calls the children, asks:
- Kids, give me some water. My throat is dry. Bring me some water.
The mother asked not once, not twice. Children don't go for water.
Senior says:
- I'm without pims. Another says:
- I'm without a hat. The third says:
- I'm without clothes.
And the fourth doesn’t answer at all. Then the mother said:
“There’s a river close to us, and you can go get water without clothes.” My mouth was dry. I'm thirsty!
The children laughed and ran out of the chum. They played for a long time and didn’t look at their mother in the tent. Finally the elder wanted to eat and looked into the tent.
He looks, and his mother stands in the middle of the tent. He stands and puts on his malitsa.
And suddenly the little girl became covered with feathers. The mother takes a board on which the skins are scraped, and that board becomes a bird's tail.
The iron thimble became her beak. Instead of arms, wings grew.
The mother turned into a bird and flew out of the tent. The eldest son shouted:
- Brothers, look, look, our mother is flying away like a bird!
Then the children ran after their mother and shouted to her:
- Mom, we brought you some water. The mother answers them:
- Ku-ku, ku-ku! Late, late. Now the lake waters are in front of me. I'm flying to free waters.
The children run after their mother, call her, and hand her a ladle of water.
The little son shouts:
- Mom, mom! Come home! Some water! Drink, mom!
The mother answers from a distance:
- Ku-ku, ku-ku, ku-ku! It's too late, son, I won't be back. So the children ran after their mother for many days and nights - over stones, through swamps, over hummocks.
They wounded their feet and bled. Wherever they run, there will be a red trail.
The mother cuckoo abandoned her children forever. And since then the cuckoo has not built its own nest, nor has it raised its own children.
And from that very time on, red moss has been spreading across the tundra.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru