One man had a shepherd, and for many years he served his master faithfully. One day he was tending sheep and heard some strange hissing in the forest. He wanted to know what was the matter, and he went in that direction. And suddenly he sees a forest burning, and a snake hisses in the flames of the fire. The shepherd stopped. The flame came closer and closer to the snake.
- Shepherd! For God's sake, save me from the fire! - the snake shouted.
The shepherd held out a stick, and the snake reached his hand along it, and from his hand to his neck, and wrapped himself around it. The shepherd got scared and said to the snake:
- Woe is me! I saved you, but I ruined myself!
“Don’t be afraid,” the snake answers, “take me to my father, the snake king.”
The shepherd does not go, he refuses.
“I can’t,” he says, “leave the sheep.”
“Don’t worry about the sheep, nothing will happen to them, just go quickly.”
The shepherd walked for a long time with a snake around his neck through the forest and finally reached a gate woven from live snakes. They approached the gate, the snake whistled, and the gate immediately unraveled. The serpent says to the shepherd:
“When we arrive at the palace, your father will offer you silver, gold, and precious stones.” But you refuse everything, and ask only that he give you the gift of understanding the language of animals. He won't agree right away, but he'll give in the end.
As soon as they entered the palace, the snake king began to cry and asked the snake:
- Where have you been, my son?
The snake told his father everything in order: how he was surrounded by flames and how the shepherd saved him. Then the snake king said to the shepherd:
- What should I reward you with?
“I don’t need anything, just give me the gift of understanding the language of animals,” answered the shepherd.
- No, such a gift will not bring you happiness. After all, if you receive it and tell anyone about it, you will die right there. Ask for something else,” said the snake king.
“If you want to thank me, make sure that I understand the language of animals, but if you don’t, then be healthy, I don’t need anything else.” “With these words the shepherd turned and walked away.
The king called out to him.
- Wait! Come here. Since you want it so much, open your mouth.
The shepherd obeyed, and the snake king spat in his mouth.
“Now spit in my mouth,” he said.
The shepherd spat, and then the king spat; and so on three times, and finally the snake king said:
- Well, you have received the gift of understanding the language of animals. Go in peace, but if you value life, don’t say a word to anyone. Whatever you say, this is where you die.
The shepherd left. He walks through the forest and hears and understands everything that birds, animals and other forest creatures say. He came to his sheep, counted them and, seeing that they were lying quietly, he himself lay down to rest. Before he had time to lie down, two ravens flew in, sat on a tree and began a conversation in their own language:
“If only the shepherd knew that where the black lamb lies, there is a cellar dug in the ground, and in the cellar there is gold and silver!”
The shepherd heard this, went to the owner and told him. He gave him a cart, and together they dug up the entrance to the cellar and took the treasure home. The owner was an honest man and gave the entire treasure to the shepherd.
“Take the whole treasure, son,” he said. - Build a house, get married and live happily.
The shepherd took the treasure, built a house, got married and lived in it. He soon became the richest man not only in his village, but in the entire district. Shepherds tended his sheep, cows and pigs, grooms looked after his horses.
One Christmas, he said to his wife:
“Prepare wine, brandy and snacks, we’ll take them to the shepherds tomorrow, let them have fun too.”
My wife prepared everything. In the morning they went to the farm, and in the evening the owner said to the shepherds:
“Eat, drink, be merry, and I will watch over the herd all night.”
At midnight the wolves howled and the dogs barked.
-Can we come and have some food? - asked the wolves. “We’ll give you some meat too!”
“Come, we wouldn’t mind eating too,” the dogs answered. Only one dog, so old that he had only two teeth left in his mouth, barked:
- You're lying in vain. As long as I have two more teeth in my mouth, I will not let my master do harm.
As soon as it was dawn, the owner ordered to kill all the dogs except the old dog. The shepherds began to say:
- God be with you, master! I feel sorry for them!
But the owner replied:
- Do as I ordered! - and went home with his wife.
They rode on horseback: the husband on a horse, and the wife on a mare. The horse galloped forward, but the mare fell behind. The horse neighed and said to the mare:
- Move! Why are you behind?
“Yes, it’s good for you,” the mare answers, “you are carrying one owner, and I am carrying three: the owner, the child in her, and the foal in me.”
When the husband heard this, he turned around and laughed, and the wife, seeing that he was laughing, brought the mare up, caught up with her husband and asked why he was laughing. The husband replied:
- Nothing, just like that.
But the wife didn’t believe it and kept pestering her husband to tell her.
- God be with you, wife! What are you? “I really don’t know why I was laughing,” says the husband.
But the more he refused, the more his wife pestered him. Finally the husband said:
“If I tell you, I’ll die right away.”
But she didn’t believe him and kept begging him - say and say! With that we came home. The husband immediately ordered a coffin and, when it was ready, placed it in front of the house.
“Now I’ll lie in the coffin,” he said to his wife, “I’ll tell you why I laughed, and I’ll die right away.”
So he lay down in the coffin and looked around for the last time. And at this time, an old faithful dog came running from the herd, sat down at the head of the owner and began to cry. The husband saw this and said to his wife:
— Bring a piece of bread and give it to the dog.
The wife brought and threw a piece of bread to the dog, but he didn’t even look at it. Then the rooster jumped up and started pecking at the bread. The dog says to the rooster:
- Damn glutton! You just have to eat, you don’t see that the owner is about to die.
“Well, let him die, there is no law for fools,” answers the rooster. “I have a hundred wives, and I can cope with them all.” But the owner completely blundered: he couldn’t cope with one.
The husband heard this, rose from the coffin, picked up a stick and called his wife into the house:
“Come on, I’ll tell you everything,” he said, and let’s woo her with a stick. - Here you go, here you go!
His wife became silent and never again asked why he was laughing.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru