The Great Spirit endowed the coyote with great witchcraft. That's why the coyote is so agile and cunning. Time passed, and the coyote began to imagine that he was smarter than everyone, more cunning than everyone, and that he didn’t even care about the Great Spirit now. In fact, the coyote was not dumber, but not smarter than many, many animals. Judge for yourself. One day the coyote got into his head:
- I want to dance with a star! No sooner said than done. A star rose into the sky, and the coyote immediately shouted to it:
- Hey, star! Come down lower and wait for me! I want to dance with you!
The star obeyed and descended. The coyote grabbed it, and the star lifted him into the sky. The star is rushing across the sky, then it will rise up, then it will fall down - the coyote’s paws are tired, completely numb.
- Listen, star! what am I! I can do anything!
One night a coyote sits near his home and sees some unfamiliar star with a long shiny tail rising above the mountain. Coyote says:
- What a playful star! I wish I could dance with her! Hey, star with a long tail! Wait for me! Come down low and let's dance!
The star quickly plunged down, the coyote grabbed it, and the star rushed into the heavenly expanse.
And again the coyote was cruelly mistaken! From the ground, he could not even imagine how fast the star was rushing! The coyote was thrown from side to side, and eventually his paws came off, one by one. And then the coyote completely fell to the ground and crumbled into pieces.
But what is it? The pieces suddenly began to pull together, grow together, and now the coyote was alive again, healthy and unharmed. But this quickly takes its toll, in fact, before the coyote got to his feet, it turns out that a whole ten years passed, and the coyote’s right paw was gone - it was still spinning along with the star. Here the Great Spirit speaks;
- Friend coyote! I gave you four lives. You've already wasted two of them, now watch out!
- Have pity! - the coyote screamed. - Give me back my right paw!
“My friend, ask the star for this,” answered the Great Spirit. - Be patient, wait until the star rises over the mountain again. Then, perhaps, she will give you what you lost.
- When does it rise? - asked the coyote.
“Once in a hundred human lives,” answered the Great Spirit.
They say that the coyote is still waiting to meet the long-tailed star.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru