In those days, the lands did not yet belong to anyone, there were no fences or owner’s marks on them, the gauchos only lassoed animals - cattle, and no one even paid attention to deer and ostriches...
At that time there lived a landowner who had several leather bags filled with ounces and coins - old Portuguese coins; He had even more silver, but at the same time he was very stingy and very, very angry.
He did not allow anyone to spend the night, nor did he lend a horse to a passerby; in winter in his house it was useless to even ask for coal, and people were freezing from the cold and wind, but they knew that the doors of his house were closed to them; in the summer, in the shade of the umbu trees that belonged to him, only his calves and foals took refuge from the heat, and no one dared to drink water from his well.
But when it was time for field work, not a single person voluntarily came to his aid; the cheerful villagers were reluctant to deal with him: after all, he fed his workers only shurrasko from the meat of a skinny bull, wholemeal flour and bitter kauna grass, and did not give a pinch of tobacco... And he accompanied each piece with such pitiful lamentations and shook over it as if he were being skinned.
He looked straight into the eyes of only three beings: his son - that was a young guy, annoying as a fly; his bay horse with a black tail, black mane and black legs - his faithful friend, and his slave, a very good boy, black as coal, whom everyone called Little Negro.
He had no name, no godfather, no godmother. Therefore, Little Negro considered the Blessed Virgin to be his godmother - she is the godmother of all those who do not have one of their own. Every morning Little Negro took out the bay horse, then prepared mate, and in the evenings he suffered from the cruel amusements of the young owner, who tormented and mocked him.
One day, a landowner, who for a long time did not agree to take part in a race with one of his neighbors (the neighbor wanted the bet - a certain amount of money - to go to the benefit of the poor, but he - no way! - the money, they say, should be received by the owner of the winning horse), accepted the offer. They agreed as follows: the distance is thirty squares*, the rate is a thousand ounces of gold.
* Cuadra is a measure of length equal to 132 m.
On the appointed day, as many people gathered at the horse arena as gather for the feast of some great saint.
The gauchos, divided into two groups, did not know which of the two horses to give preference to, both horses were so good and fleet-footed. There was a reputation about the bay that he ran so fast that only the wind could catch him; he runs so hard that you can only hear the clatter of hooves, but you can’t see how they hit the ground... And everyone said about the gray one that the larger the list, the more stubbornly he strives for victory, and that he flies like an arrow...
They argued, unbuttoned their guaiacs; one set up harness, another herd, the third unbroken horses, the fourth a scarf.
- I bet on the bay!
- I bet on gray!
The riders did the first rides freely, then did the mandatory rides, and agreed on the last ride among themselves, exchanging signs.
They jumped on their horses, let go of the reins, the whips flew into the air, and the horses rushed forward like a hurricane...
- On an equal footing! On an equal footing! - shouted the spectators located along the lists, where the fleet-footed pair rushed at the same speed, as if they were harnessed to the same team.
- Most Holy Theotokos, my godmother, save me! - Little Negro moaned. – If I lose, the owner will kill me! But! But! But!
And he lowered the whip onto the brand burned into the bay’s skin.
– I wish I could win a windmill for the poor! - the second horseman repeated his words. - But! But! But! And he spurred the gray one. But the good horses rushed at the same speed, as if harnessed to the same team. When the last meters remained, the gray one rushed at a steady pace, and the bay one - at leaps... but all the time they walked level, all the time head to head.
There was quite a bit left to the last line when the bay suddenly reared up and made a sharp turn, and the gray rushed past and became the winner! The little Negro, who was riding without a saddle, was an excellent rider and stayed on his horse.
- Unfair game! - the landowner screamed.
- Unfair game! – his partners echoed him. The Gauchos disagreed, and more than one brave man grabbed the hilt of a dagger or pulled out a pistol... But the old judge, an eyewitness to the war waged by Sepe Tiaraju, the leader of the Guarani tribe, was an excellent judge who had seen the sights. He shook his gray head and pronounced the sentence so that everyone could hear:
– Everything was according to the rules! The bay lost, the gray won. The loser must pay. Personally, I lost a hundred mares; the one who won them, let him take them. Everything is according to the rules!
No proof was required. The frustrated, enraged landowner, in front of everyone, threw a thousand ounces of gold onto his opponent's poncho, which was lying on the ground.
The payment of the losses brought great joy to everyone: the winner ordered the distribution of cattle, dairy cows, horses, bolts of cloth and the remaining money to the poor. And the competition continued, but the horses were different.
The landowner returned home; all the way he was thoughtful and silent. His face was calm, but his heart was beating like a bird in a snare... the loss of a thousand ounces tore his soul.
As soon as he dismounted, he immediately ordered, on the same path, to tie the Little Negro by the hands to the posts to which the horses were tied, and to whip him with a whip.
The next morning they left the house together; when they arrived at the pasture, the landowner turned to Little Negro with the following words:
“Yesterday you had to travel thirty squares; you lost; for thirty days you will graze my herd here - there are thirty black horses in it... The bay is tied in a paddock, and you will be tied to a post!
The little black boy was crying, and the horses were grazing.
The sun rose, the wind rose, the rain began to pour, and night fell. The little black boy, tormented by hunger, became weak; he tied a rope to his hand and lay down, leaning against the termite nest.
The owls have arrived; they circled, hovered in the air and looked at Little Negro with their yellow eyes that burned in the darkness. One of them shouted, and the others shouted after her, as if laughing at the Little Negro; silently flapping their wings, they suddenly froze in the air.
The little black man trembled with fear, but, remembering the Blessed Virgin - his godmother, he calmed down and fell asleep. Fell asleep.
It was deep night, the stars lit up in the sky: the Southern Cross appeared, approached and disappeared, the Three Marys appeared and disappeared, the dawn star also rose... Then predatory red wolves came running, sniffed the Little Negro and gnawed the rope with which the bay was tied. Sensing freedom, he galloped away, and behind him, the whole herd rushed into the darkness, not making out the road.
The clatter of hooves woke up Little Negro; the wolves rushed away.
The roosters crowed, but neither the sky nor the light of the day was visible.
So Little Negro lost his herd. And he cried.
Seeing this, the owner's evil son told his father that the horses had disappeared. Then the landowner again ordered Negritok to be tied by the hands to a post and whipped with a whip. Then the moaning and crying Little Negro remembered the Blessed Virgin - his godmother, went to the home chapel, took the end of the candle that was burning in front of the image, and went into the field.
Wherever Little Negro walked - along the hills and valleys, along the shores of lakes, through meadows and forests - everywhere wax dripped from the blessed candle onto the ground, and in each drop a new light was born, and now there were so many of these lights that they illuminated everything around. The herd lay there, the bulls did not dig the ground with their hooves, and the wild herds did not run away... When, as the day before, the roosters crowed, the horses neighed in unison. The little black boy jumped on the bay horse and drove the whole herd forward to the pasture that the owner showed him.
This is how Little Negro found his herd. And he laughed.
Groaning and groaning, Little Negro lay down, leaning against the nest of termites, and at the same moment all the lights went out, and he fell asleep with the thought of his godmother. This time no ominous owls flew in, no evil wolves came running; as soon as it dawned, the one who was more terrible than all the predatory animals in the world came here - a young guy, the son of a landowner; he came and stole the horses, which ran away and scattered across the fields; they frolicked and rolled on the ground, and then disappeared from sight.
The clatter of hooves woke up Little Negro, and the owner’s angry son went to his father and said that there were no horses, that they had disappeared...
So Little Negro lost his herd again. And he cried.
And again the landowner ordered to tie the Negro Kid by the hands to a post and whip him with a whip... Whipping him until he was unable to cry or move, and his body was covered with scars and blood came out... The Negro Kid called out to his godmother, let out a sigh that sounded like music... it seemed that he had died.
And since it was already night and the landowner was afraid to break a shovel in the dark, he ordered not to dig a grave for Little Negro, but to throw him near the anthill, and let the ants, they say, devour his body and drink his blood... He teased the ants, and when the angry ants covered Negro Little’s body and began to bite him, the landowner walked away and didn’t even look back.
That night he dreamed of a thousand people, and all these people were himself; he had a thousand sons and a thousand little blacks, a thousand bay horses and a thousand thousand ounces of gold... And they all fit freely in a small anthill...
A gentle rain began to fall; he moistened the pastures, the wings of birds and the skins of fruits.
The Lord's night passed and a cloudy morning arrived. And for three days there was a thick fog, and for three nights the landowner had the same dream.
The day laborers walked all over the plain, but found no trace of the herd anywhere.
Then the owner went to the anthill: he wanted to look at the remains of his slave.
Great was his horror when, approaching the anthill, he saw that Little Negro, alive and well, was standing and shaking off the ants that were still covering his body! The little black boy was standing, and next to him was a bay horse, and right there was a herd of thirty heads... and the landowner also saw that the godmother of those who did not have her, the Blessed Virgin, was guarding the boy; she stood calmly on the ground, but showed that she lives in heaven... And, seeing all this, the landowner fell to his knees in front of his slave...
And Little Negro, emboldened and smiling, jumped onto the bay horse without a saddle and without reins, licked his lips and drove the herd into a gallop.
So for the last time Little Negro found the herd. He no longer cried or laughed.
News spread throughout the area about the hard life and terrible death of the Little Negro, who was devoured by ants.
Soon, however, news of this incident, which seemed like a new miracle, began to spread near and far, wherever the wind blew.
And so the local residents, random passers-by and those who slept in straw huts, and those who slept in huts woven from grass, and those who walked along the paths and along the main roads, cattle drivers, traveling traders and drivers - all unanimously testified that they saw a herd of black horses in the pasture, which were driven by the Little Negro, sitting bareback on a bay!..
Then people lit candles and prayed to God for the soul of the martyr. And from then on, it became customary that when a Christian lost something, Little Negro would look for that thing and find it at night, but he would give what he had found only to those who lit a candle, which he carried to the altar of his godmother, the Blessed Virgin - the one who healed and saved him and gave him a herd, which he drove and grazed so that no one saw it.
Every year Little Negro disappears for three days: he hides in a large anthill, visiting the ants, his friends, and his herd scatters in different directions; horses from this herd appear in the herds of different estates - one here, another there. But on the third day, when the sun rises, the bay neighs, calling for his master, and Little Negro sits on him and gathers his herd; That’s when the horses run away from the estates, and people search and search for them, but don’t find them.
From then to the present day, the brave and laughing Negro Kid has been tending his herd; he travels through fields, tramples weeds, pushes through thickets, makes his way through swamps, crosses streams, climbs hills and descends into valleys.
The little black boy is always looking for missing things and makes sure that the owners find them if they light a candle, the light of which he brings to the altar of the Blessed Virgin - the godmother of those who do not have one.
And if someone loses something, he does not lose hope: he lights a candle in the bushes or under a tree and asks Little Negro:
- Somewhere here I lost... Somewhere here I lost... Somewhere here I lost...
And if Little Negro doesn’t find her missing... that means no one will find her.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru