One day the birds chose a peacock as a zaisan.
The peacock spread his shining tail wide and raised his head high in a green cap with golden tassels.
– Zaisan, a real zaisan! - the birds screamed.
- Get married, get married, get married. We need to marry him, marry him! - the magpie chirped.
Here they brought a gray partridge to the zaisan:
“She raises her children well, and she will be a good mother to your children.”
- No, I don’t want her. The partridge does not fly well.
- Well, take a tit. She is the first in the forest to sing a spring song.
- Don't want. She is short in stature.
I didn’t like the nutcracker – it’s pockmarked. The oriole did not come up - her voice was sad, the wagtail was shaking its tail.
Only the magpie pleased the peacock: she is wearing a fur coat with a white trim - you can’t stop looking at her. She chatters and chatters all day long – you won’t get bored with her.
After the wedding, the peacock plucked green feathers from his chest and placed them on the magpie's back and tail.
“This is a gift for you, beloved wife, from me.” The magpie rejoiced:
- Hey, birds-ts-ts-ts! Admire how beautiful the hare's wife is!
It flies, boasts of its new feathers, sits, fingering the green feathers with its beak.
She has no time to light a fire, she has no time to cook food. In the morning, the light will jump out of the nest and disappear until nightfall.
-Where are you flying, dear wife? - asks the peacock.
- I fly wherever I want, choo-choo!
By night he returns, and the peacock again:
– Where have you been, dear magpie?
“Where my soul wanted, I flew there.” The peacock got angry. It was still dark, while she was sleeping, he flew off the branch and hid behind an acacia bush.
In the morning, as soon as the edge of the sky turned white, the magpie jumped out of the nest, opened its black coat with a light trim and flew, sparkling with green feathers.
The peacock, hiding from her, followed. So he flew to the man’s home and saw that his elegant wife had landed on a garbage heap and began to peck at the garbage.
- Be ashamed! - the peacock shouted. – Is it proper for a zaisan’s wife to eat garbage? Fly home now!
But the magpie didn’t even turn around: it pecked and pecked. A peacock flew up to her and hit her on the head with its beak:
– You are no longer my wife!
Since then, the magpie, rummaging through the garbage, turns its head and teaches its children:
“Peck once, but look back five times, otherwise the peacock will fly in and hit you on the head.”
Magpie children remember this science well. They peck once and turn around, peck and look around - they are afraid of the peacock. However, they do not part with the green feathers that the peacock gave.
“We have this as a keepsake from the peacock.” We, magpies, after all, are still related to the peacock himself. We are not a simple family, we are a princely family!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru