It is not known when, nor how, nor in any capacity..., but they say that one old man lived in his house in Tila along with nine sons. This old man had a strange habit. He slept during the day and was awake at night. When it got dark, he washed, dressed well and went outside. His sons knew nothing about the old man’s affairs, because even since they were kids, he forbade them to ask questions and be interested in his activities. He did not have a wife, and his sons knew nothing about her either. Only the elders told the younger ones that one day their mother suddenly disappeared, never to return.
The sons slept in a large room near the kitchen and often heard sounds and voices throughout the night. But none of them knew what was going on there in the kitchen, since they were forbidden to even be curious about what was happening in this place.
So days, months and years passed in that house. Until one of the sons got up at night to relieve himself. As he returned to his bed, he glanced towards the kitchen. At that moment the Moon rose and, by pure chance, completely illuminated the room. This son was very frightened because he saw many skeletons sitting at the table, enjoying food and drinks and talking in a language he did not understand. Immediately he woke up his brothers and told them what he had seen. From that night on, the sons decided not to listen to the old man anymore, because they wanted to know what was happening in their house. The next evening, when the old man began to dress, his sons went to bed and pretended to be asleep, but were actually awake, and eventually saw what the old man was doing: he left the house and went to the place that he swept every morning with a broom kept under his bed. This place was behind the house, under a very large tree. He stood there for a moment, motionless, then raised his hands and began to speak:
- Flesh, fall! Flesh, fall!
And then the flesh began to fall off his body. In just a quarter of an hour he was left without meat, only a skeleton. In the darkness he flew to the black mountains, where his sons had never been. That's how they realized that their father was a Shiba. Seeing this, the children could no longer sleep and remained waiting for the old man to return. At about one o'clock in the morning, footsteps and voices were heard near the house. They saw how many skeletons entered the kitchen and there they again began to feast as usual. There were various dishes on the table: fruits, herbs and meat... a lot of meat, and some pieces with human bones. The sons were very frightened, but continued to look at what was happening.
Shortly before dawn, the skeletons began to rise and one by one dispersed; the only skeleton that remained walked towards the place where the old man had left his flesh, stopped there and, as he again raised his hands, these words came from his jaws:
- Flesh, rise up! Flesh, rise up!
A quarter of an hour later, the old man was sweeping the place with his broom so that there would be no trace of what had happened.
The sons gathered and began to discuss what to do. They are already tired of hearing screams and strange voices at night.
The next night the sons prepared some lemon juice, salt, coriander and hot pepper. When the old man flew away, they sprinkled this mixture on the flesh he left behind, and did it very carefully: they rolled the meat in lemon juice, salt, coriander and hot pepper. This night passed like the previous ones; the old man's skeleton returned to its place where it had left the mound of flesh, and said what it always did:
- Flesh, rise up! Flesh, rise up!
But the flesh no longer rose as before.
- Flesh, rise up! Flesh, rise up!
The skeleton began to get a little nervous, he ordered with tension many times:
- Flesh, rise up! Flesh, rise up!
Trying so hard, he spent the time until dawn.
When the skeleton realized what had happened, he was already surrounded by people and did not know what to do. Then he flew away, no one knows where, and never returned.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru