Once upon a time there lived a young hunter. Everyone loved him very much for his kindness. He never shot at a deer if he saw it swimming across a stormy river. He did not touch the doe with its cub, did not attack the animal, tired of the chase. He always left a piece of deer meat for the animals and birds. "Hey, carnivores! This is for you!" - he will say. And he will certainly leave honey for the bear, and corn cobs from the field for the crow. The hunter threw the offal of the killed game into a lake or stream for fish and other living creatures.
Once upon a time, trouble happened to a hunter. He fell behind his comrades, and then the Indians of the hostile Cherokee tribe attacked him, dealt with him and scalped him.
When the enemies left, the first of the animals to smell human blood was the wolf. He approached, immediately recognized the good hunter and howled loudly to call other animals, and he himself began to lick his wound. Soon all the animals gathered around and began to mourn their dead friend.
The bear carefully felt the hunter’s body with its paws and said:
- There is still warmth in the chest!
The birds arrived here too. While the bear warmed the man with its paws, everyone began to advise: how to revive a good hunter? Only one voice was heard in opposition - the voice of a vulture:
- Let's better wait until it ripens and eat it!
But the animals decided to prepare a wonderful potion. The result was an extremely strong mixture, and there was so little of it that it all fit in a nut shell, and in appearance it resembled a drop of water.
And then the owl said:
- A living person needs a scalp. Who will go for the hunter's scalp?
A heated argument ensued. It turned out that not every animal is suitable for this. We thought and thought and finally decided that we needed a dexterous and intelligent bird. They say that first they wanted to choose an eagle. The Iroquois consider him a very noble bird, because they say he carries a bowl of dew on his back and on rainy days sheds it on the ground as mist.
Then they chose the hummingbird because it flies quickly and is almost invisible. But in the end they decided to choose the Great Raven, Gagagova.
The raven flew to the Cherokee village and soon saw the hunter's scalp. It was strung on a hoop and hung over the chimney of the wigwam. The raven rushed down like a stone and grabbed the scalp. The Cherokees noticed him and began to shoot with their bows, but the raven flew so high that the arrows did not harm him.
Raven brought the scalp to the council of animals, and everyone decided that the skin was too dry - a person could not wear it. Then the eagle shed a few drops of dew on her. The skin became soft and firmly adhered to the hunter's head.
Then they gave him a taste of a healing potion, and the hunter felt that life was returning to him. He lay with his eyes closed and suddenly felt that he understood the language of birds and animals. He heard a wonderful song, and it seemed that he immediately remembered it word for word. The animals asked the hunter to sing this song whenever he needed help.
The hunter asked how to prepare the drug, and the animals replied that someday they would reveal this important secret to him.
And so the bear brought the hunter to his feet. But when he opened his eyes, there was no one around: only many, many different animal tracks were visible.
The good hunter set off, returned to the tribe and told people about what happened to him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru