Long ago, they say, the earth was thirsty.
In those days there lived one old woman. She was planting yams. And her yams were so delicious that people from far and wide came to enjoy them. But no one returned home.
When a guest arrived, the old woman was baking yams over coals. The man ate a dry and hot tuber. Everything inside him was sticking together from thirst, but the old woman did not give him water. The man was dying. Then the old woman ran into the gorge, to the dam, behind which all the water in the country was shut off, took a full pot of water, boiled the murdered guest and ate it. So she killed many.
But Tyr-spider heard about this. He collected rainwater into an empty pumpkin, inserted a hollow stem into the pumpkin and hid everything in a bag, so that only the tip of the stem was visible. Tyr equipped himself and set off.
He came to the old woman's hut. He looks, and there are two paths from the hut - one is dry, the one along which he walked, and on the other the water has splashed. “Aha,” thought Tyr, “that’s where the old woman goes for water!” He entered the hut and said:
- Treat me to your sweet yams!
The old woman baked him a large tuber. Tyr ate it, quietly sucked water through the stem and sat there, waiting some more.
The old woman baked him larger yams. Tyr ate, sucked on water and asked for more.
(Yam is an edible plant whose tubers contain starch; eaten by many peoples of Africa.)
The old woman dug up the biggest tuber for him - it doesn’t happen anymore! I baked it over coals until it crumbled and served it on a banana leaf. Tyr ate everything and said:
- Oh, oh, I’m thirsty, everything inside is burning!
- Hee-hee-hee! — the old woman laughed. “People come here to eat yams, not to drink water.” There is no water here.
Tyr rolled his eyes, wheezed and fell as if he was dying.
- Hee-hee-hee! - the old woman laughed. - This one is ready for the cauldron!
She took a long knife and wanted to stab Tyr. But Tyr the Spider jumped to his feet and ran out of the hut. The old woman is behind him. Tyr immediately turned onto the wet path. An old woman runs after him and shouts:
-Where are you running, where? The path leads nowhere!
And Tyr runs faster.
- Don’t go along the untrodden path, there’s only a latrine there! - the old woman shouts.
And Tyr still pushes.
I reached the dam and immediately understood everything. Tyr punched a hole in the dam with his spear. The water flowed first in a trickle, then in a stream, then in a stream, then gushed out like a river, and the old woman choked in that stormy river.
And Tyr climbed out of the gorge and returned home along the tops of the mountains.
So Tyr-spider opened the water. Rivers overflowed all over the earth, and they still flow like that.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru