Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife. Every day, as soon as dawn, the husband left the house. He wandered around somewhere all day, and his wife didn’t know why he didn’t come home during the day. She decided to find out where he goes.
One day, when her husband left home in the morning, she followed him. When she came close to him, she noticed that he was missing one eye. Seeing this, the woman decided to leave him.
She set off on her way. She walks and walks, and a giant meets her. He grabbed her, put her on his shoulders and carried her home. I reached the mountain, climbed to the very top, and there was an underground yurt. The giant threw the woman into the yurt.
The woman woke up. It's cold, she doesn't have any clothes on. She regretted leaving her husband just because he was one-eyed, and began to cry. Suddenly I heard:
- Stop crying! Here, above you, hang the skins of earthly birds. Take them and put them on!
The woman looked up and saw a basket woven from grass. In it she found a kukhlyanka made of crow skins. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t put it on. The Kukhlyanka was too small for her.
The woman cried again and again heard someone’s voice:
- Stop crying! There's a grass basket hanging above you. In it you will find the skins of earthly animals. Take them and put them on!
The woman looked up and saw a basket. There she found tanned fox skins. She took them and tried to wrap herself up. And she immediately felt warm.
Wrapped in skins, the woman ran away from the yurt. On the way she became thirsty. She reached the river and bent down to drink. And suddenly she saw that she had fox ears. She walked further, and it seemed to her that someone was following her. Looking back, she saw that a fox's tail was dragging behind her. The woman tried to free herself from him, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not. So with the fox's tail I moved on.
She reached the place where her father hunted. She went down to the seashore and began to watch her father catch seals. The old man saw the fox and moored to the shore where she was sitting. He wanted to take the fox, but she jumped away from him. Then he threw the seals to her, and he himself went to his village. And when the father left, the fox ran after him.
Evening came. The fox woman ran to her father's house. She tried to enter the house many times, but as soon as she tilted her head to enter, her head immediately jumped to the side.
The fox couldn’t enter her father’s house, she went into the field, and remained a fox forever.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru