I swear by the baptism of my father and the birth of my mother that everything was so. One day, there were five or six of us, we went hunting with a saber and a cannon. Hadi was with us, Gudi was with us, Chati was also with us, Mati was also with us, finally, there was my father and, of course, there was me - everyone went hunting.
We walked straight through the mountains and through the valleys. We walked in silence, without uttering a word, whether it was difficult or easy for us along the way, we endured everything. We walked and walked until we reached a place where there were three lakes: two of them were dry, and the third had no water at all.
We looked at them and suddenly noticed that in that lake, in which there was no water at all, three ducks were swimming. Moreover, two of them are dead, and the third is not alive at all.
- Hadi, come on, shoot!
- I don't have a gun.
- Goody, come on, shoot!
“And I don’t have a gun.”
- Chati!... Mati!...
- And we are without guns.
- Well, what should we do now?
And my father had just such a long-short and thin-thick staff. He lifted it onto his shoulders, aimed it at the target and fired.
Bang-bang!!!
He shot and I fell. And then I fell like a duck and lay flat on the ground: each wing was about four meters long.
- Hadi, give me the knife!
- I don't have a knife.
- Hoot, knife!
- Neither do I.
- Chati!... Mati!...
- Neither do we.
- Well, what should we do now?
And my father had a knife, but without a blade. Well, we took this very knife, Khadi tried to cut, but it didn’t work. Goody tried to cut - and he couldn't. I tried chatty - there was no point. Mati tried - where there. Even my father failed. I was the only one who succeeded, to be honest.
This duck is lying on the ground. We look at it, and it’s not a duck at all, but a whole buffalo! Khadi tried to lift him up but couldn’t. Goody tried it, but it didn't work. And Chati didn’t raise it, and Mati didn’t succeed. Even my father didn't pick it up. And I grabbed it properly and threw it onto my shoulder. Well, we moved on.
We walked and walked until we reached a place where there were three villages at once. Moreover, two villages are not visible, and in the third there are no houses at all. We wandered around this deserted village and found three living old women there. Two of them were dead, and the third was not breathing at all.
“Old ladies,” we said. - Let's cook this duck with rice.
The old woman, the one who was not breathing, circled around here and there and brought half a bag of rice and three pots. Two of them were punched through, and the third had no bottom at all.
We filled the bottomless pot with water. We added rice, put in the duck and started cooking the soup. True, the fire was not lit.
The soup, then, kept boiling and boiling, the meat and rice boiled and evaporated - only water remained.
Feeling really hungry after the hunt, we pounced on food. They ate and ate, but they remained hungry.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru