A long time ago, there lived an old man in a village. And this old man had a huge lump on his right cheek. It dangled to the side and always disturbed him.
One day an old man went into the forest to get firewood. Suddenly a terrible storm arose, lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain poured down in streams.
The old man wanted to return home, but where could he go in this weather? He began to think about what he should do next. Lo and behold, there is a tree with a huge hollow nearby. The old man climbed into the hollow and waited for the rain to subside. Meanwhile, night came. In the dense forest it’s pitch black, the wind howls terribly. The old man is scared. He sits in a hollow and trembles, he cannot close his eyes.
At midnight the rain subsided and the wind died down. And then the old man hears voices in the forest, as if a crowd of people were descending from a high mountain. The old man sat alone in the dark and became afraid, but then, when he heard voices, his soul immediately felt better.
“Here,” he thinks, “I found fellow travelers.” He leaned out of the hollow and was frozen with horror. Instead of people, some kind of monsters follow each other, or nothing less - devils! They are different in color and dressed variegatedly. They walk, make noise, and light the road with flashlights. And it seems as if dozens of cat eyes glow in the dark.
The old man's heart sank from fear. He huddled in a hollow, sits there neither alive nor dead, trembling - not touching tooth to tooth.
And the devils are getting closer and closer. They drew level with the tree in which the old man was sitting, made some noise, made some noise in their own way, and stopped.
“Well,” the old man thinks, “I’m lost!” And I got even more scared.
Meanwhile, one of the devils, probably the most important one, sat down right in front of the hollow, and the rest of the devils were located on the right and left sides of him. And what kind of horrors were there! And one-eyed, and with mouths up to their ears, and with flat, noseless faces, and all so disgusting and scary that it’s impossible to tell!
From somewhere the devils got wine and clay cups, and the feast began. The devils drank and got drunk, and most of all the main one: he sits, wide-eyed, cackling at the top of his lungs. Here one young devil jumped up, took a dish with some kind of food and respectfully presented it to the main devil. Then he started telling him something, but you couldn’t tell what. The main devil is sitting, holding a glass in his left hand, listening to the young man and laughing. You'll look, well, exactly like people's! And then the devils started singing a song in different voices. The young devil jumped forward and began to dance. And it started here!.. One after another, the devils came out in a circle to show who was good at what. There were also dexterous dancers here - everyone praised them. There were useless ones - these were seen off with loud laughter. The main devil has completely gone wild.
“We’ve never had such a fun party as today.” Well, who else wants to dance? Come out! - he shouted.
All this time the old man sat huddled in the hollow and thought with fear: I’m in trouble! But then curiosity took over. He began to look out of the hollow and did not notice how he forgot all his fears. He looks at the devils dancing, as if this is how it’s supposed to be, and even stamps his feet. Further - more: the old man was completely amused. And when I heard the words of the chief of the devils, I myself wanted to go out into the circle and dance. But then he came to his senses and thought:
“If I lean out of the hollow, the devils will grab me and devour me! No, I’ll be patient, I’d rather sit here.”
And the devils, as if on purpose, clap their hands even more cheerfully and sing along to the beat. The old man couldn't stand it:
- Eh, come what may, I’ll go! If they eat it, they’ll still die once!
He put the ax in his belt, pulled his hat down further and jumped out into the clearing right in front of the main devil’s nose.
– Now I’ll show you how to dance! Such a surprise made the devils more afraid than the old man himself. They jumped up from their seats and began to shout:
- What is it? Who is this? But, after all, this is no way an old man came to us!
But the old man no longer cared. He danced diligently, ran around in circles faster than a squirrel and, as if drunk, shouted: Eh! Eh!
And it was so funny that the devils soon came to their senses. They began to clap to the beat and encourage the old man in every possible way.
- Well done! Come on, come on! Show me how they dance! - they shouted loudly, forgetting about everything in the world.
And when the old man got tired and stopped, the main devil said in admiration:
- What a dancer you are! I've never seen anything like this. Come back tomorrow evening and dance for us again!
“Hehe, I’ll come even without your order,” the old man answered smugly. “Today I danced like this, without any preparation, but tomorrow I’ll get ready for the evening and dance even better.”
But then the devil who was sitting third to the left of the main devil stood up and said:
- No, that won’t do. What if the old man deceives and doesn’t come? Let's take something from him as collateral to keep his word.
“Yes, you’re probably right,” agreed the main devil.
The devils began to shout here and began to argue about what was better to take from the old man. One shouts - a hat, the other - an axe. The main devil stopped making noise.
“No,” he says, “it’s best to take the bump from his cheek.” The cone must bring happiness. And, probably, the old man values her more than anything in the world.
And the old man rejoices in his soul: Here, he thinks, lucky! But he doesn’t show it and deliberately, as if he was really scared, asks the devils:
- What are you, what are you! Is it possible! Yes, cut off my nose, take out my eyes, just the bump, please don’t touch me! After all, for how many years I have been keeping it as a treasure. If you take it away, I’ll be lost!
The chief devil heard these words and was delighted.
- Well, what did I tell you? The old man really values the cone. Take her as collateral. Hey, who's there?
The devils jumped up to the old man, and before he had time to come to his senses, they unscrewed his lump. The old man didn't even feel it.
At this time it began to dawn, the crows began to caw in the trees.
The devils got scared and jumped up.
- Well, old man, be sure to come tomorrow evening! Then you'll get your bump.
With these words the devils rushed in all directions and disappeared.
The old man ran his hand over his cheek - a smooth place. The huge bump is gone!
- Thank you for that. There are miracles in the world! And, unable to contain his joy, the old man ran home to quickly show himself to the old woman. The old woman saw that the old man had returned without a cone, she got scared and asked:
-Where did you put the cone?
The old man told her how the devils took his cone as collateral.
The old woman listens, gasps, and her eyes are completely round in surprise! And although the old man asked her not to tell others about this miracle, the old woman spread the news throughout the village that same day.
And next to them lived another old man with the same bump, only on his left cheek.
He found out that his neighbor got rid of his jewelry, and he became envious. He came to the old man and asked:
- Tell me, where did your bump go? Who is this skillful healer who managed to cut it off? How to find this person? I would also like to be cured.
- Not really! - our old man answers him. – I haven’t been to the doctor. Last night the devils took my cone from me in the forest.
- How did they take it? – the neighbor was amazed.
Then our old man told him everything in detail: how he danced and how the devils took his cone as collateral.
The neighbor listened to the old man’s story and said:
- That's the story! Perhaps I’ll go and dance the devils too. Just tell me how to find them?
“With pleasure,” the old man answers. And he told his neighbor how to get to the clearing with the big tree.
He was delighted and hurried into the forest. I found the treasured hollow there, climbed into it and began to wait with trepidation for the arrival of the devils.
And at midnight, a lot of devils really appeared. Gaily dressed, with bright lanterns in their hands, they came out of the forest, talking about something.
Soon the devils, like the previous night, sat down in front of the hollow and began to feast.
“For some reason our old man is missing,” the chief devil remarked.
- Why isn’t he there? - others made noise. - Hey, old man, come out quickly!
The old man heard their screams and thought: Well, now it’s time!
He timidly crawled out of the hollow and stopped. He was noticed immediately.
- Here he is, here he is! - the devils shouted. The chief devil was also happy:
- Finally! Come here! Dance us something funnier!
The old man looked around in fear, clumsily waved his hands and began to stomp around. The main devil winced:
- What's wrong with you today, old man? You dance so badly that it’s disgusting to even watch! That's enough, stop it. Go back where you came from. Hey, who's there? Give the old man yesterday's cone!
A young devil ran out, who had kept the cone since last evening.
- Here, take it! - he shouted and planted a second bump on the old man’s right cheek.
- This is not mine! Not mine! – the old man screamed, but it was already too late.
So he came running from the forest with bumps on both cheeks.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru