An old woman and an old man lived on a swamp hummock. The old man had a white raven. The earth is just a small island; Just put up the yurt, and there’s water all around. The earth did not stand still: the north wind would blow, driving it towards the southern sea, the wind would rise from the south, carrying the earth to the north.
The old man doesn’t leave his yurt; he doesn’t know what kind of land there is. One day he sends a white raven:
- Fly around the earth, I want to know how much it has grown.
The raven flew off and soon returned. During the time that he flew, it was possible to cook a cauldron of fish1*.
This is what the earth has become.
They lived and lived, and again the old man sent a raven to see how much the earth had grown. The raven flew all over the earth and returned three days later. This is what the earth has become.
Some more time passed. The old man says to the crow:
- Fly around the earth, I want to know how much more I have grown.
The raven flew away. We lived through the winter, and the second winter passed, the raven still did not return.
The old man stopped waiting:
— A raven died somewhere.
In the third year, the old man sees some black bird flying. This white raven flew in blackened.
- Well, where did you fly?
“I flew for three winters, three summers, and forcibly surrounded the earth. I didn’t miss a single river or lake.
— While I was flying, I did something; why did it turn black?
- What did you do? Some man died, I ate him. That's why he turned black.
- If you eat a person, go away. From now on, you yourself will be able to kill animals and catch fish. When a person kills an animal, you’ll start collecting blood, but you won’t find anything, you’ll go hungry.
The raven flew away. He still lives that way.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru