A yaranga crow stood on the shore. He had eleven sons and one daughter. He himself was old, old and angry. And out of habit, he took prey from the weak, although he did not need it. The raven had a kind wife who often returned the spoils she had taken.
One day it was a nice day, the tundra smelled of flowers, sperm whales played on the sea waves, seals poked their heads out of the water. The old raven was knitting a net, his wife was cooking.
Not far from the raven lived a family of mice. That day, father and mother went into the tundra to hunt, leaving the little mice and the old grandmother at home.
- Grandma, give us something to eat! - the grandchildren ask.
“There’s not a piece of yukola at home,” says the grandmother, “go to the shore, maybe the sea has thrown something up, but you’ll always find algae!”
The little mice ran to the shore and began to play, tumble and squeak. We saw it washed up by the sea on the sand.
seal They climbed onto it, held hands, and began to dance and sing.
- Now we have a lot of meat, and even more fat! The old raven heard a song and listened. wife
she rattled the pots to drown out the cries of the mice, but the raven had already put the net aside and left the yaranga.
-Where are you going? - asked the wife. - Tell me what you need, I’ll bring it!
- No, I myself! - and left.
The little mice clung to the seal and dragged it home. They saw a raven, got scared, and buried the seal in the sand. The raven followed the trail, reached the little mice, and asked:
- What were you dragging?
- Um... we were carrying firewood.
- Where are they?
The crow dug the seal out of the sand and dragged it towards him.
The little mice ran to their grandmother and told her everything.
The grandmother took a tambourine and began to beat it. The grandmother sings that there is no good for those who take away food from small children. The raven's wife heard the ringing of a tambourine and the song of an old mouse, and guessed that her husband had taken the prey from the mice...
A raven comes running into the yaranga and says:
- Dance, I got a seal.
The wife took the tambourine and began to dance and sing:
- Where am I? Yaranga is not ours. Who is this? What is he telling me? He says the seal is not yours, you took it away from the little mice, it will not bring us happiness!
The raven got angry and went to cook the seal himself, under the canoe. He and the worker lit a fire, put the seal in the water, and began to cook it. They cooked and cooked, and both fell asleep.
The little mice were just waiting for it. They stole the meat and put an old dog in the cauldron. The muzzle with bared teeth was put out of the water, and the intestines were wrapped around the handles of the cauldron.
The raven woke up and shouted to the worker:
— Is the seal ready?
The worker ran up to the boiler and jumped back in fear.
- What are you doing? - asked the raven.
- There's a dog, master!
- Well, I’ll see for myself! — The raven became furious and rushed home. He runs into the yaranga and shouts:
- Come quickly, old woman, the biggest copper cauldron! - and ran to the mice.
He ran up to someone else’s yaranga and began hitting it with a crowbar, so that the yaranga crackled. The grandmother says to her granddaughter:
- Look, is that right the old raven? Tell him I prepared his favorite food for him.
The granddaughters called the raven.
- Oh, that's good! - and the raven entered the yaranga...
“Hello,” said the grandmother. “It’s good that you came, otherwise I wanted to send for you!” - and she pushed him a tray with meat seasoned with berries and fragrant herbs. “Where did you go with the cauldron?”
- I brought it as a gift to you.
“Thank you,” the old woman thanked.
The raven ate and fell asleep, and the little mice hung thin red algae over his eyes.
The raven woke up and got ready to go home. Came out into the light - and the earth was all red! He rushed to run and shouted:
- The earth is burning!
He grabbed his youngest son and slammed him to the ground, only the feathers flew.
My wife jumped out shouting: “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you see, the earth is burning, a sacrifice must be made!”
- Wait, what’s that in front of your eyes? — The wife took off the seaweed. The raven got angry; realized that the mice were playing a joke on him, he said:
“Give me a big copper cauldron, I’ll go and smash their yaranga!”
The wife brought the cauldron. A raven approaches someone else's yaranga and hits it with a cauldron, so that the yaranga almost collapses.
“Look,” the grandmother says to her granddaughter, “if it’s a raven, then tell him that you are his granddaughter.”
A mouse jumped out and said:
- Hello, grandfather, I am your granddaughter!
- Oh, that's good! Here's a gift for you! - says the raven and gives her the cauldron.
A raven and a mouse entered the yaranga, and the grandmother asked:
- Would you like to eat seal with berries?
The raven ate and ate and dozed off again, fell asleep soundly. And we-
The Shata painted it so that the raven looked like a woman.
The raven woke up and went home. He felt thirsty. He approaches the river, leans over the water and sees his reflection. He looked and looked, bowed his head - he saw a woman looking at him from the water. Raven was so surprised that he forgot to drink. “Who is she? What a beauty, why haven’t I seen her anywhere before! Well, I’ll take a sneak peek and see if he’s waiting?” - and carefully looked into the water again. He sees the woman from the water also stretching her neck and looking at him. “She seems to have fallen in love with me,” the old man thinks. “Well, it would be nice to marry her!”
The raven ran home and said:
- Old woman, I want to get married!
- On whom? How am I? What about the children? - the wife asks, and she laughs - she saw how the old fool’s little mice were decorated.
“I’m not really leaving, I’m just getting married, and she will help you with the housework.”
“Let him take a bath!” - the old woman thinks.
“Perhaps you could take a stone hammer and a round stone with you to break the bones, you don’t have teeth?” Maybe take a wooden tray - there will be a lot of guests at the wedding. Maybe you can take a small yaranga to live in for the first time after the wedding? You see how much I care about you!
“I see,” says the raven, “I see, thank you!” The worker's raven loaded him with wedding gifts, and
they went. The worker put everything on the shore. The raven said to him:
“Well, now I’m going to get married, and you go home, otherwise you’ll disturb me.”
“Is it about “ah?” - thought the raven and looked into the river, and the woman was right there, waiting.
- Do you want me? - The raven showed the hammer to his bride and asked: - Is this necessary? - And he threw a hammer into the river, followed by a round stone. Everything went to the bottom. “I took it!” - thought the raven. - Is this necessary? - And threw the wooden tray. The strut floated to the sea. “What, you didn’t accept it?” the raven was frightened. A woman looked at him from the water in fear. “I understand,” says the raven, “that means she’s rich, she has a lot of deer, she doesn’t need heaven.”
in a tray! - And he showed it to the yaranga. - Is this necessary? — He began to wrap himself in the yaranga. “I’ll bring the yaranga now!” The crow wrapped the yaranga around itself and rushed into the water...
The old woman waited and waited for her husband and went to the river. Suitable - no husband! Where could he have gone? Apparently the old man really got married.
The old woman went to the seashore to collect firewood. Suddenly he sees: thrown out by a wave, their yaranga is lying, all entangled in algae. The old woman took hold of it, and from inside came the old man’s voice:
- Who is stopping me from getting married?
The old woman was delighted, unfolded the yaranga, and the raven rubbed her eyes and asked her wife:
- Am I married or not?
- Let's go, let's go, hurry up, old fool, the children are waiting!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru