In one kingdom, on one land, there lived a hunter named Haribu. He was a wise hunter and had a pure heart. Haribu won’t eat a piece of bread alone, he’ll call his neighbors. Day and night the doors of his house are open. If you go in hungry, you'll leave full. If you come in with sadness and care, you will share it with Haribu and leave with a light heart.
And he was such a hunter that you couldn’t find a better one in the world. A bird in the sky cannot hide from Haribu’s arrow, an animal in the mountains cannot escape, and a snake cannot escape into a hole.
One day Haribu went hunting. He sees a beautiful snake running from stone to stone, hiding. Its scales shine and play like a rainbow. And he chases the snake with his mouth open. a huge lumpy snake. He's about to grab it with his teeth.
Haribu took his bow from his shoulder and shot his well-aimed arrow at the black lumpy snake. The snake crawled up to its savior:
- Thank you! You saved me from the black serpent without honor and family. Let's go to my father, the king of snakes, let him hear that the only thing left of the villain is a black name.
“Ask from me, Haribu, what you want,” the king of snakes said to the hunter. - What your eyes will see, what your hands will take.
“My eyes see a lot of good things in your house, may even more be added to you!” My hands can take a lot, but I won’t take anything. And I have a request - I am a hunter!
“I know where the mountain gazelle lives, but I don’t know what it tells its cub.” I know the name of every stone, every plant, but whether they have a language, I don’t know. But you, they say, know the language of everything living and dead. Teach me that language too.
“You, man, want a lot,” said the king of snakes. - This is a heavy burden, can you lift it? I give half of my strength, half of my wisdom to you. But look! Keep the secret tightly, and if you reveal it, you will become a stone.
And the king of snakes threw at the feet of Harib a small blue bead that he hid under his tongue. Haribu thanked the king and said goodbye to him.
He came home and saw his wife milking a buffalo, and the calf was trying to get to her, mooing pitifully. And the buffalo mooed, and Haribu understood everything:
- Don't be afraid, my son! They won't milk me all my milk. Even if I hide it in the horns, I’ll leave it for you.
Funny Haribu. A frog jumps around the yard, a cat comes towards it:
-Where are you going, frog?
And the frog pouted:
- Is this how you greet a guest? He would bow first, and then ask where.
Once Haribu walked through a grain field and rejoiced at the fattening ears of corn. - “There will be enough bread for everyone - both fathers and children,” he thinks... And suddenly he hears the sad rustling of ears of corn:
“We are growing, but we will not grow until the day of harvest.” The wind will scatter us, its fire will burn us.
With grief in his heart, Haribu returned home, and with grief he went hunting the next day.
He went far or not far from home - he saw a black rock. Half of it is in the river, half on the ground. Haribu entered the river and heard the river say to the rock:
- Hey, hey, black stone! You won't have to stay in my path for long. I have already washed away half the ground under you. Soon you will fall to my bottom, I will grind you into grains of sand, and my road will become wide.
- Oh, may the spring that gave birth to you, the river, dry up! I'm lying here for a reason. I am hiding a magical treasure from people. If people see gold, they will become greedy. So many tears will be shed - no matter how much water you have.
“My poor people are a new misfortune at the threshold of their home,” Haribu grieved. I didn’t sleep all night, I kept thinking about what to do. And in the morning he went hunting again. He goes where his feet lead. He found himself in a certain valley, and he looked... It was all covered with ants - you couldn’t see the ground! They are in a hurry to go somewhere, then they will go one way, then the other. Haribu was surprised, and then there was a crashing sound above his head.
The hunter looked up and saw. Goitered gazelles run herd after herd along the mountain. They push and cling with horns. As soon as the astonished Haribu took a step, black and white gophers fell on him from the mountain like a torrent. They knock you down, run, run.
“Hurry, hurry,” the little animals shout to each other. - Hear the earth humming under your feet. Soon mountains will collide with mountains, fire will come out of the earth! The trouble is who will stay in these places!
- Why am I standing here! - exclaimed the hunter. - Hurry Haribu! Cross the road to trouble. Turn your chest towards her! “Haribu ran home so that not even his horse could catch up with him.”
He called his fellow villagers: everyone, young and old, came to his house. They look - Haribu is standing at his threshold, standing as yellow as a candle. He lowered his eyes and went into heavy thought. Three piles of ash were piled in front of him.
“My brothers,” said Haribu, “I poured these three piles of ashes so that you would know that three troubles are about to fall on us.” The first problem is hunger... The grain in the field grows, but it will not grow. The hot wind will burn our bread. Reap it, reap it quickly. Even though it hasn’t yet received all the power of the sun, it will still be useful even if it’s not ripe.
The second problem is that the water washed away that black stone. Not today or tomorrow, a rock will collapse into the river, and a pit of gold will open. Gold will pull you towards it, but you don't come close. If you have a treasure more valuable than gold, then your friendship is yours. If you forget about it, so much of your blood will be shed that even a buffalo will drown in it.
The third misfortune is the third heap of ashes... Sprinkle it on my head if my word is not true... Not today or tomorrow the mountains will tremble, fire will come out of the ground, it will not leave your houses stone upon stone. Leave these places quickly. If three troubles pass, you will return again.
A white-bearded old man stepped forward.
“You may be telling the truth, Haribu, but how can you believe us?” Leaving your native land is like uprooting a plane tree, like driving a bird from its nest. Who told you what would happen?
“Oh, old father,” Haribu sighed. “It would be better if you didn’t ask me... My tongue is tied with an oath, and my life is in this oath.” But for the sake of all of you, I will answer...” Haribu took the blue bead from his neck and said:
- Everyone look at this bead! The king of snakes gave it to me. She opened my eyes and ears. I learned in the field that there would be famine—the wheat told me so.
And then Haribu became a stone up to his knees.
“I overheard a conversation between the river and the black rock and learned its secret. He said this to Harib and became petrified from the waist down. But he didn’t stop talking.
“You are sitting in your houses, and the goitered gazelles have left the gorges, the ants have left the valley, the gophers have left their holes. They told me about the trouble. And then Haribu became completely petrified... People, young and old, began to cry.
And then they collected as much wheat as they could, left their homes and set off along the road in a large caravan. They passed by the river and saw that a black stone had fallen and a magical treasure had been discovered. But the people remembered the words of Haribu. The women closed their eyes, the men lowered their heads and walked away.
But no one knows what happened in these parts. But they say that all the mountains are mixed up. The small mountains became big, the big ones went into the ground, and their place became a valley.
Many years passed before the people returned to their native land. And again people folded houses and sowed fields.
And they also say that where Kharibu became a stone, a spring came out of the ground, and a tall plane tree grew above it. She covered the Haribu spring with shadow.
May there always be coolness over him, and may his name always be in our hearts.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru