In the distant past, Manggi Warrey Mule, a seagull, once flew over the western plains with a mussel in its beak. Van, the raven, saw her and, wanting to find out what she was carrying, chased after her. Then the seagull threw the mussel and quickly flew away.
Van stopped pursuing and went down to see what this strange thing was. He tilted his head to the side, looked at her intently, and then pecked her. He liked its taste and began to peck at it until he had eaten all the flesh from one shell. He did not notice that there was also pulp on the other side of the shell, and, considering it empty, he threw it into the river.
In the Manggi River, mussels flourished and multiplied, and all subsequent mussels were similar to the first - one mollusk hidden between two shell valves.
Unaware that he had thrown Manggi-mother into the river, Van decided to catch up with Manggi-warrey-mule and get more mussels. He flew in the direction in which she had disappeared, and saw her near a large reservoir, several miles up the river.
Before she noticed his approach, he rushed at her shouting:
“Give me some more of that meat in the two shells you brought!”
- I don’t have any more. Let me go.
“Then tell me where you found them so I can get them myself.”
- They are not from your country. They live far away - where I flew to get here from the large salt water. Let me go.
She tried to break free, crying pitifully in the strange, sad cry of her tribe, but the raven Van held her tightly.
“I will let you go if you promise to go straight to this country and bring me more of this food.” And when I'm done with it, you'll bring another batch so I'll always have them. Promise, or I will kill you.
- Let me go and I will do as you ask. I promise that my family will help me move the mussels to your river.
“Then go and bring them to me here, on the banks of the river,” and Van released the seagull towards the south.
The seagull flew away. Days and months passed, but she did not return. Van was angry that he did not kill her and allowed himself to be deceived like that.
One day Van came to the river to drink and, bending down, saw the same shell that he had thrown into the water. Thinking that it was the same shell, he did not pay attention to it, but, walking along the river, he noticed many of the same shells. Holding one of the shells in his beak, he hit it on the root of a tree and broke it. After eating the pulp and looking around, he saw that the coastal mud was full of shells.
Van did not know that there was a mussel left in the shell he had once thrown, and therefore he decided that Manggi-varrey-mule had returned unnoticed and had secretly flown away, fearing that he would harm her.
He later learned that things were different. One day he saw a flock of the Manggi Warrey Mule tribe flying above him. The seagulls descended further up the river, and Van noticed how some of them stuck the Manggi they had brought into the mud under the water. Having done this, they flew away a little and stuck Mangi again - and so on throughout the river. Having finished their work, they flew away towards the sea. After this, the Manggi came out of the water and, leaning out of the shells, began to plaintively and quietly ask the Manggi-varrey-mule to take them back to their country. But the seagulls were already far away, and no one paid attention to Manga’s pleas.
Moving along the river, the Manggi approached their relatives who were born in the river. There were more of them, they were larger, and soon they taught the newly brought Manggi to live as they did - only one half between two shells. Since then, Manggi has remained like this forever. From time to time, during rare visits to Beck Creek, gulls bring new Manggi, but they soon change, like these.
The Daen cook mussels in the hot ashes of their fires and eat them with pleasure, saying: “If it were not for Van, we would not have this good food - after all, it was he who forced the seagull Manggi-warrei-mul, who brought the mussels, to give them to us.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru