Once upon a time there lived one man. He planned to kill every last one of the arctic foxes and hares. Says to his son:
“I’ll pretend to be sick, you go and call the hare shaman and bring him all the other hares as sextons.”
The son went and saw a hare. I asked him:
– Where does your shaman live?
“Over there,” the hare pointed. The guy came to the shaman.
“My father is dying, he told me to call you, please help me,” he says.
The one who pretended to be sick at this time says to his old woman:
- When all the hares have gathered, press the door with a stone so that it does not open.
The hare shaman came and brought many hares with him as sextons. During the ritual, the old woman stood up and pressed the door.
The feigned patient asked for a wooden hook on which cauldrons are hung over the hearth. The old woman gave it. The patient jumped up and began to beat the hares with this hook. When he wanted to hit the shaman, he jumped out of the chimney, and the hook only touched the tops of his ears and stained him with soot. This is why hares have black tips to their ears.
After a while, the old man again pretended to be sick and forced his son to go after the arctic fox shaman. I was afraid to call other arctic foxes, I thought they would bite. “If you kill the shaman, they will have no protector, and it’s easy to catch them all,” the old man reasoned.
When the arctic fox shaman began to perform rituals, the old man hit him with a hook, but only managed to touch the tip of his tail and stain it with soot. This is why the arctic fox has a black tip of its tail.
After this, God met the old man and said to him:
-You have committed a great sin. As punishment, your act will remain a fairy tale for future generations, and you yourself, having turned into a jackdaw, will eat meat.
That is why the jackdaw feeds on bait from its mouth.
[The profit of the mouth is the bait in the trap.]
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru