Whether it was a long time ago or recently, whether it was true or not - now no one knows about it.
Well, let’s tell you what grandfathers told their grandchildren, and grandchildren told their grandchildren.
Once upon a time people lived in one country in peace and harmony. There is a lot of land, spacious everywhere - they didn’t interfere with each other, and if trouble happened to anyone, they helped each other, they overcame trouble.
Yes, a terrible, terrible snake got into the habit of flying from somewhere to those parts. He began to fly, take people's goods, and carry them to his snake's lair.
Brought some good stuff - and there’s nowhere to put it! He then decided to build a mansion for himself. But he doesn’t know how to work and is lazy. The snake is not used to working. He began to catch people and carry them to his snake lair.
He catches people and forces them to build mansions, dig them in with deep ditches, cover them with high embankments, and surround them with thick fences. And he orders his servants - tiuns and haiduks - not to spare people, but to beat and punish them.
People work for the serpent, they work day and night, they grieve, they curse their bitter lot, they die before their time.
And the snakes are catching more and more people. With human labor he built so many choirs that he couldn’t count them, laid roads between them, built fences and palisades.
People are starving and dying like flies. And the further it goes, the worse: there is no salvation from the snake.
But now the snake has grown old, weakened and lies there, barely breathing, and can no longer grab people and carry their goods.
Meanwhile, the serpentine servants - tiuns and haiduks - became masters themselves and began to creep out of the serpentine choir and chase people. And people felt even more bitter from the lords than from that snake. You can’t hide from them anywhere: the whole kingdom is overrun.
And in order not to be like people, the lords came up with various new names and nicknames for themselves. Some called themselves Wolf, some called themselves Bear or another animal, some called themselves Kite, Crow, and some called themselves some kind of tree. Now they didn’t call ordinary people anything other than “cattle.”
People serve the snake, they serve their lords, they give away their last, but in hunger and cold they themselves see no light at work.
This is how they live. Some die, others are born, but there is no relief. And no one knows what to do to change life.
And then a boy was born in that land. He was so weak - he had been ill since childhood and could not get better. He turned out to be so frail that even the lords don’t touch him, they don’t drive him to lordship: no one needs him.
He has grown up, gotten old, and still plays with children like a little boy. And people called him Ivanka the Simpleton.
Ivanka the Simpleton sits on the stove in the winter, putting together toys from splinters, and in the summer pouring sand onto the pile.
One day, three elders walked into the village where Ivanka the Simpleton lived. Wherever they go, everything is empty, not a living soul: the lords have sent everyone to work.
The elders saw Ivanka on the rubble and went into his yard to rest.
They sat down, rested, and filled their pipes with tobacco. We rummaged in our pockets - no one had a knife to cut out the fire. The elders ask Ivanka for fire. Ivanka went into the hut, picked up coals from the fire and brought them to the elders.
The elders lit a pipe, thanked Ivanka and asked what he was doing at home.
“I’m pouring sand on the rubble,” Ivanka answers. “Whatever you do, everything goes to the lords.”
The Kalikas passing by listened to Ivanka, shook their heads, then took the lyres and began to play loudly.
The first time they played, they gave Ivanka great intelligence.
The second time they started playing - they gave me a gift for words and music.
The third time they started playing, the lords were filled with anger in their hearts.
The elders left, and Ivanka felt how light became clear in his head, how anger at the lords began to boil in his heart... He began to get down to business, getting ready for the road.
He made himself a merry pipe and played it so hard that not only people, but animals and birds listened.
Ivanka began to walk among people, play the magic pipe, and tell the truth about the snake and his servants.
People's eyes began to open. They saw that a great untruth lives on in the world: some are in panic, others are grieving, some do not know how much they have, while others are dying of hunger.
And wherever Ivanka goes, people go crazy about him, grab their scythes and axes.
The lords are thinking, wondering how to get Ivanka out of the world. They began to gather an army and look for Ivanka. They hear a voice in the east - go there. The sabers are ringing, the pikes are sticking out like a forest, the guns are thundering like thunder, but Ivanka is nowhere to be seen...
The gentlemen with the army stop, stand, listen. Suddenly they hear a voice in the west - Ivanka’s pipe is playing, teaching people, rousing them to a great battle. Only the tickle goes and walks from village to village, from edge to edge.
The gentlemen will rush to the west. The horses are flying like a whirlwind, the sabers are ringing, the cannons are firing, but they don’t know where Ivanka is.
And from that time on, there was no rest for the serpentine servants, day or night. As soon as they hear the pipe, a chill runs through the skin: troubles await, like an ox.
And the pipe whistles, the pipe plays, the tickle walks far around the world, gathering people. There is no way to catch him or shoot him with cannons. He makes his way everywhere, knows no barriers.
The pipe plays, plays, worries the lords, and when the time comes, he will destroy them all.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru