This was back when animals understood human language. Then the tiger was related to the Udege people. Then the tiger was a welcome guest in the Bisanka family.
Bisanka lived in the upper reaches of the Copia River. There were a lot of them. When everyone was talking at once, you could hear it on Anyui.
One year there was a very good hunt. The hunters caught so many sables, otters, squirrels, ferrets, weasels, bears and foxes that they had never been able to catch before.
The merchants came to Bisanka, sold all their goods, but it seemed as if there was no decrease in furs.
The Bisankas gathered on the Amur to sell their furs. Twenty sledges were equipped. The best dogs in the camp were taken. They put on their best clothes. The braids were braided with a new red cord. They put hats made of musk deer skins with sable tails on their heads. They put white bogdos - bandages - on their heads. They put on white robes, embroidered with silk, and white trousers. They sat on the sled, waved the riding sticks, inserted them between the runners, and gave the dogs free rein.
- Tah-Tah! Sing-sing-sing!
The dogs ran. Only the snow flies to the sides and the runners creak.
The dogs are running and barking. Hearing that bark, all the animals run in different directions, hide behind trees, behind snowdrifts. The dogs rush like the wind.
Such good dogs that they fly nonstop and swallow yukola as they go...
Dogs crossed the mountain ridge; they don't care; mountains, rivers, valleys - rush straight ahead. We went to the upper reaches of the Anuya, then to the Khor, then to the Ussuri, then to the Amur. How long the Ude rode - who knows: we rode happily, we didn’t count the time!
And in Mullaki-on-Amur there is a lot of bargaining. A great multitude of people gathered from everywhere: Nanais from the Amur; Nivkhs, dressed in fish skin, from the island; non-Gidalians from Amguni on dogs; orochons from distant pastures, in sheepskin clothing; Ulchi in elk high boots; Orochis in reindeer torsos... Can you really count them all?
The bargain is big.
A lot of merchants came in large numbers: long-haired Manchus, shaved Nekas with long nails arrived; Merchants in wooden armor and with two-handed swords arrived from overseas islands.
Only with the merchants did the black disease arrive. What she was driving – who knows! Whether she came by boat, on reindeer, or on foot, I don’t know. I don’t know what she was wearing. Only at that big auction did she become the hostess.
Bisanka sat down to trade, and then - disaster!
A black disease attacked people. And they began to die. And the Nanais, and the Negidals, and the Orochons, and the Manchus, and the Orochs, and the Ulchis began to die, and the hunters and merchants began to die.
People see it’s a bad thing: death doesn’t bargain with anyone, it takes everyone in a row. People fled in different directions.
But Bisanque has no one to run! Of all the survivors, one guy named Konga remained alive. He came with his brother. And the Black Death took my brother. Kong buried his relatives. He thinks: How can I leave my brother on a foreign land? Let him come with me. Let him be buried according to our custom. Let him stand before the Master for all his relatives!
Kong made a large box and put his brother there.
Kong threw all the goods - there was no time for them here... He sat down on the last sled, shouted at the dogs - and quickly left the damned place, home!
Conga rides - he doesn’t look back, he runs away from illness.
And the disease lies in the box with my brother...
Who knows how long Konga traveled: first to Ussuri, then to Khor, then to Anyui, then through the mountains...
There were stone glades in those mountains. In those stone glades there is a tiger camp. Tigers lived in that camp. Many roads led to the camp: the roads were lined with bones and skulls.
Conga drove up to the tiger road.
There is a tiger standing on the road. He saw Konga, rolled over his back, became a man, said hello, asked how Konga was trading, what news he was bringing.
The guy told me what trouble had happened, what bad news he was bringing with him. The tiger man shook his head and said:
- Go! If you bury your brother, I’ll come and cry. Your brother was a good hunter... - He rolled over his back, became a tiger, and left.
Crossed Kong's path. From here it is not far to the camp.
A guy has arrived. He told his mother and relatives what happened to him. The mother opened the box to say goodbye to her son's body.
She opened the box and released the disease...
The black death began to walk around the camp.
All the people died.
Only Kongi's younger brother and sister remained alive. Yes, shaman Kanchuga.
Kanchuga was cowardly and greedy. Never helped anyone with anything. He saw that there were two children left besides him, and he thought:
“Until death leaves, I will feed myself alone. Why will I help the kids? Then it won’t be enough for me either.”
He closed the door in Kongi's yurt and pressed it with logs. Left the children in the yurt. He went into his yurt and locked himself. He sits and eats.
At first he did not leave the yurt. Then greed overwhelmed him.
“Why,” thinks Kanchuga, “will the food in the camp disappear! You cannot take from the dead - it is a great sin. Evil spirits guard the food of the dead,” Kanchuga says to himself. - Well, nothing! There are many of them - I am alone. They will attack me, they will collide with each other, they will fight among themselves, they will forget about me!”
Kanchuga went to collect food in the yurts.
He collected pickled lingonberries, seal fat, salted wild garlic, elk meat, sturgeon bellies, dried saran, and bird cherry cakes from all over the camp. Sits and eats.
And in the Kongi yurt, hungry children are crying.
A tiger came to the camp here. He rolled over his back and became a man. He looks: there is no smoke, no people walking, no tambourine rattling, no dogs heard - everyone is lying dead. I came to cry for my brother Kongi, but I couldn’t get enough tears: there were so many dead people in the camp.
The tiger man hears someone in Kongi’s yurt crying. The door opened. I saw children. He took it in his arms. I went around the camp to look for the living. No one answers his call...
A tiger man approached Kanchuga's yurt. I pulled the door and it didn’t open. And you can hear someone fiddling around.
I knocked.
Kanchuga heard a knock. I thought that Konga’s children had gotten out of their yurt and came asking for food. Kanchuga chews, chokes, stuffs his mouth full... Having barely chewed, he shouts:
- Go away, don’t ask: there’s nothing to eat yourself! Then the tiger man said:
- Uh, Kanchuga, you forgot the law of the forest people: help the weak, give to the hungry, shelter the orphan! This is how the Ude lived. This is how they will live. There is no place for you among ordinary people! Three times you will die of fear. Your body will become smaller and smaller, and your greed will become larger. This will happen to you until you disappear completely!
He rolled over his back and became a tiger. He put the children on his back and took them to the tiger camp. He says to his relatives:
- These are my uncle's children. There is no one to feed them... The tigers began to feed the children. The best pieces were given to the children. The children began to grow. The children were given a new name so that the Black Death with the old name would not come to the new place. The girl was named Inga, the boy - Egda.
Soon the children grew up.
Inga became a needlewoman. When I became a hunter...
The time has come, the old tiger crossed the tiger road with them, showed the path of ordinary people, the law told them how to live so that everything would be fine. And he went to his camp.
And Inga and Egda went to the people.
We passed by my father's camp. The paths to the camp are overgrown with grass. Sometimes I tied a bunch of dry grass over the path so that people would walk past without stopping. .
This is what happened to the children.
And this is what happened to Kanchuga. When the tiger man said a word, Kanchuga’s nose stretched out, fangs protruded from his mouth, stubble grew on his hump, and hooves on his arms and legs. Kan-chuga became a boar. He became shorter in stature, but his greed increased. He devoured everything that was in the yurt. I ran to the taiga. Digs roots, gnaws, gnaws young grass, looks for acorns, eats, chokes from greed - he can’t get enough of everything, crunches, gnaws, but still isn’t full. And in his sleep he slurps, sniffles, chews: he dreams of acorns, bird giblets and all sorts of other food. As soon as he wakes up, it’s time for food again, but his belly is all empty!
This is how Kanchuga Inga and Egda met in the taiga when they were leaving the tiger people.
Kanchuga saw his brother and sister and thought: If I eat them, I’ll finally be full! He rushed at Konga's relatives.
Whenever he waved his spear, the wild boar-Kanchuga died of fear. He rolled over his back and began to trot. He opened his mouth, bared his teeth, rushed at Egda, wanting to eat him...
Again Egda swung his spear - and the lynx-Kanchuga died of fear. He rolled over his back and became a rat. There is less growth, but more and more greed. He opened his red eyes, hit the ground with his bare tail, showed his sharp teeth, rushed at Egda, thinking: I’ll eat him and I’ll be full! Egda waved his hand at the rat. Kanchuga died of fear for the third time. He rolled over his back and became a wood-boring beetle. The kind of beetle that devours hundred-year-old pines, turning them into dust and rot. The beetle hummed, spread its wings, moved its mustache, and twisted its legs. He flew at Egda, sat on his forehead, opened his mouth, thinking of swallowing the guy alive.
The Ever-guy got angry here:
- If your anger does not decrease and your greed does not decrease, blame yourself, not me - I am not to blame for you!
He said so and slapped himself on the forehead.
Only a wet spot from the beetle remained.
The completely greedy Kanchuga disappeared, sparing food for the children. He died at their hands. And no one felt sorry for him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru