In Aligdzher, immediately behind Uda, there is a high, almost vertical mountain. They call it "Fox Rock". Why she became the Fox is how they tell us.
...It was a long time ago. In the Wide Valley, in the forest, a bear and a fox met. The bear notices: the fox is standing calmly, smiling. “You are brave, however,” the bear thinks to himself and asks what she is most afraid of.
“I’m afraid of people, hunters,” the fox answers.
- Why be afraid of people? “I’m not afraid of them,” says the bear. - Another thing is hazel grouse. The hazel grouse is small, but takes off with a lot of noise, as if it were fired in one gulp from a gun. From
surprises and you get scared, you run, and then you calm down.
Lisa takes her word for it:
“If you’re not afraid of people, go and drag them in, fill this hole with them.” And I will catch hazel grouse and fill the second hole with them. Agree?
“I agree,” the bear answers without hesitation.
Well, the fox walked and walked, caught hazel grouse and filled the hole with them. She stands contented, joyful, waiting for the bear. And he’s still not there. Only in the evening the bear appears, breathing heavily and moaning.
- What happened, grandfather bear? - the fox asks sympathetically.
“Why ask, can’t you see that I’m wounded?” The hunters shot at me. It’s better to help, treat, do some shaman, or something.
“You can do shamanism, you just need to climb to the top of the rock, light a fire there, and then do shamanism.”
And so they did. We climbed a high rock and made a fire. The fire burns well. A sick bear lies down at the edge of a cliff. The fox begins to perform shamanism, reads prayers, and mutters. Suddenly she stops:
- Listen, grandfather bear, move away from the fire, otherwise you will burn...
The bear, groaning, moves a little further. The fox continues to shamanize, and then again turns to him with alarm:
“You’re burning, don’t you notice?!” Move further...
The fox saw: the bear was not burning at all. But he moved and fell down the cliff. The fox carefully approaches its edge and looks: the bear is still moving. The fox, looking at him, pretends to cry, and turning back, laughs.
The fox comes down from the mountain, approaches the bear, and he is already dead. The cunning lady is glad: now there will be enough meat for a long time. Lives here and eats bear meat.
At this time, seven wolves were ascending the river. When they saw the fox, they were very surprised:
- How did you manage to crush such a giant? If only we could get food like this...
“And it’s easy to do,” says the fox. - You go further, sit on the ice and howl. God will hear and bring you the same bear.
It was cold, the frost was getting stronger, the wind, as always happens in the Wide Valley, was whistling. The wolves went to Uda and sat on the ice. They began to howl with all their might. How much or how much time has passed, but the wolves’ tails are frozen: the poor things can’t get up.
Here, out of nowhere, a hunter rides on a sleigh and sees howling wolves. He drove up to them, took out an ax, knocked them down one by one with a blow of the butt, put the wolves on the sleigh and drove home.
And by this time the fox was again on the rock, lying calmly, looking and laughing. So the rock was nicknamed Fox.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru