One Turtle loved to work in her milpa, where she grew hot chili peppers. When the pepper grew, she began to eat it little by little with pleasure.
But one day the Turtle was surprised to discover that not only she, but also the Little Rabbit was eating her pepper. Indignant, she wanted to punish the thief, but he managed to very cleverly get out of the Turtle, promising to make her a turtle out of white wax.
True, no matter how much the Little Rabbit began to sculpt the turtle, he could not finish it: there was something about it that did not suit him. So the figure remained unfinished.
And then came the Lord of Milpa - the Great Mam (the name of the main divine ancestor of the Maya. Among the Yucatecan Maya of the colonial period, Mam was considered the deity of evil, who comes out of his underground shelter to the earth only in the last days of the year (the so-called days without a name, or “sinister days”), and then he is given special honors. Among the Maya-Keqchi people, Mam is considered the deity of mountains and valleys. According to their ideas, Mam helps people with work and getting food, and is also associated with rain.), and took everyone into his home. He was about to eat both the Turtle and the Little Rabbit, but the cunning Turtle asked to go to his godfather and tell him that the Great Mom himself was about to eat her...
...Meanwhile, Great Mom set out to grab the Rabbit to kill him.
But then the Little Rabbit spoke, he said:
- Don't rush to kill me. I’d rather dance for you, and you watch.
Then the Lady warned him:
- Just come up with a new dance!
And the Little Rabbit answers:
- Help me invent my dance while you watch.
“If you can’t, I will help you,” answered the Lady.
Then that impudent Rabbit said:
“I can’t come up with this dance myself.”
The Great Lady was speechless with surprise, then began to dance. She started jumping, made one jump - and the Rabbit repeated her jump. True, the Rabbit managed to jump much further. He jumped out and ran away. Then the Great Mom comes in, and his wife sits and cries.
- Why are you crying, Madam? - he asked her.
And she answers:
- I will definitely eat this runaway Rabbit.
True, she failed to do this that time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru