Easter was approaching. The Mari didn’t even have firewood to light the stove. The Mari wife got up in the morning and woke up her husband:
- Hey, hubby, the pancake dough has risen, and you don’t even have firewood.
The husband got up, took a large ax and went into the forest to get firewood. There stood a huge hollow linden tree. Approaching this linden tree, the Mari began to chop it down: crop-crop. Suddenly a human voice was heard from inside the linden tree:
- Hey, Mari, wait, don’t cut!
“I don’t have time to talk to you now,” the Mari man answers, “my pancake dough might go sour.”
- Don't cut it! Go home! You have ready-made firewood at home! - was heard from the linden tree.
Mariets retreated, took an ax and went home. He gets to the house and sees: right next to the house there is firewood, enough for about two or three fireboxes. His wife lit the stove and fed him pancakes.
We lived for three days, and again we ran out of wood. Mari takes a large stick and goes to the linden tree. Approaching her, he tapped: lat-lat.
- What do you need, Mari?
- What do you need? I need firewood again! We need firewood not in armfuls, but in whole fathoms,” the Mari man tells her.
“Go home, there will be firewood,” answers a voice from the linden tree.
The Mari man comes home: whole piles of firewood are stacked around the hut.
The Mariets slept one night, slept another night, then they said to his wife:
- Where is such a life good for?! There is no bread, no cattle, no buildings! I'll go to the linden tree!
And the Mari went to the big linden tree. He hit the linden tree with a large stick. Again the voice came from the linden tree:
- What do you need, Mari?
“You see,” he says, “what is needed!” There is no bread, no cattle, no farming. May I have buildings all around, full of cattle sheds, and may I have stacks of grain around the threshing floor!
“Go home, Mari,” the voice answers, “go to bed today, and tomorrow everything will be!”
The Mari came home. Evening came, he went to bed.
In the morning he wakes up and sees that there are large outbuildings all around, there are whole chests of money in the hut, and the barns are full of cattle. The Mari became a rich man.
Once upon a time there lived a Mari man who became lazy. He wanted to become a boss.
Taking a large stick, he went to the large linden tree. Lat-lat - tapped on the linden tree. A voice came from her:
- What do you need, Mari?
Mariets answers:
- I really want to become a boss! There is no point in us living in the old way!
- Well, what kind of boss do you want to become?
“I,” says the Mari, “want to become a headman!”
“Go home, go to bed, and tomorrow they will convene and you will be elected headman,” answers a voice from the hollow.
The Mari man came home. Evening came, I went to bed.
In the morning he wakes up and is invited to a village gathering.
- Let's go, uncle, to the gathering! - they shout.
A Mari man comes to the gathering and gives up a place at the table to the rich man. In the past, the rich always sat down at the table. They chose this Mari man as headman. Mariets became a rich elder.
Once again he got tired of it all. He went to the big linden tree. Lat-lat-lat - hit the linden tree. A voice was heard from the linden tree:
- What do you need, Mari?
- What do you need?! - he answered. - I'm tired of walking, I want to be a sergeant major!
- Go home, go to bed, and tomorrow they will gather a meeting and elect you as a foreman.
The Mari is going home. Evening has come, he goes to bed. In the morning he was still lying in bed when there was a knock on the window:
- Headman, get up! Let's go to the village meeting!
Mariets got up, had breakfast and went to the volost administration. He comes to the board, the rich elder is given the way. Sits down at the table. The meeting has begun, this Mari man is elected as foreman. Now the Mari does not walk on foot, he rides around the volost on horses with bells.
Once upon a time a Mari man lived and served for three years. Now the Mari wanted to become a big master - a police officer. Harnesses the horse and rides to the big linden tree. He drives up to the linden tree and knocks on it - lat-lat-lat. A voice was heard:
- What do you need, Mari?
“I want to be a guard, I want to sleep on a feather bed.”
- Go home, go to bed, and tomorrow everything will be! - answers the voice from the linden tree.
Comes home. Evening came, the sergeant major went to bed. In the morning I woke up: he was lying, cooling himself on a large iron bed, on a large feather bed, under a warm blanket.
Mariets was very happy. “Now I’m a big master,” he imagined.
He came out of a large bear's den in a large dense forest. He looked at himself: long gray fur had grown on him. He howled pitifully like a bear. So to this day he walks through the forest and howls.
The bear is a lordly breed, descended from the stanovoi, as the Mari used to say in the old days.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru