Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife. One day a husband says to his wife:
- Well, I’ll go on a baltz (journey)!
And he set out on a long journey.
He drives along the road and sees: fire is coming from all sides, and a snake is crawling towards him along the road. Without getting off his horse, he threw the snake aside with a whip into the grass.
The snake began to ask him: “Don’t throw me aside, save me, I’m afraid of this fire!”
He picked up the snake and hid it in his bosom.
They ride and ride, and the snake turns to him again:
- My soul is very afraid of this fire. Hide me deeper, otherwise my soul will leave me out of fear.
Where else can I hide you? he asks.
“Let me down your throat, and when we pass the fire, I’ll come back out.”
He let the snake down his throat. They rode and rode and passed the fire.
- Now get out! - he turns to the snake. And the snake answers:
- I have deceived many people like you. I'm fine here too. Go and feed me as long as you live.
The man’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest and he vomited. “In that case,” he thinks, “I need to find myself a good place to meet my death there.”
He rode up to a tree, took the saddle off his horse, placed it under the head of the horse, and lay down to sleep under the tree. The cat came up to him and asked:
- Why are you sleeping here?
He told her about his affairs, about the fact that the snake did not want to get out of his throat.
- Don't be afraid! - says the cat. - This is an easy matter. I'll make it come out of your throat.
The cat is gone. In the forest she met a nightingale and said to him:
“Over there, a snake won’t come out of a man’s throat.” You, nightingale, are skilled in the serpent's tongue. Let's go and together make her crawl out of there. You will sit on a tree branch above a person and speak in the language of a snake: “What wonderful flowers grow here and what incense they spread! It’s a pity for the one who sits in his hole in the dark in such good weather.”
Nightingale did just that. And the cat sat under the man’s chin and began to wait. At the singing and speech of the nightingale, the snake stuck its head out of the man’s throat. The cat grabbed the snake by the head and pulled it out.
The man was saved. He thanked the cat from the bottom of his heart and went on his way.
He drives and drives and stops by the house of his brother-in-law. His brother received him very well, and they had a conversation. At this time, a cat approached the guest and lay down on the floor of the long Circassian coat he was wearing.
The brothers talked for a long time, then the guest got up to go, but saw a sleeping cat in the field of his Circassian coat. Then he sat down and, in order not to wake the cat, cut off with a dagger that part of the skirt of his Circassian coat on which the cat was sleeping.
The brother-in-law was unusually surprised and asked his guest:
- Why did you do this?
The guest told his brother-in-law about how he got rid of the snake and left.
And from that time on, this man began to take pity on the cats, fed them exquisitely, and kept them well.
Until they arrive, may God keep you healthy! May you all live long!
The friendship between man and cat will last forever.
With these words my fairy tale ends.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru