The little mice said:
- Well, let's go to the seashore.
They went to the seashore and suddenly saw a small motley seal washed up by a wave.
One mouse said:
- Oh! I found a little seal!
The older mouse says:
- Be quiet, otherwise grandpa will hear again and come and take the seal away.
And rightly so. At this time, Kukki sits in the yaranga and says to his wife:
- Mitya, I’ll go to the yard.
He went outside and suddenly heard someone making noise, like mice.
Kukki went to the seashore.
- There, there, grandpa is already coming! I told you that she would hear! - one mouse screamed.
They quietly dragged the mice aside and covered the seal with dry sea grass.
- Quiet, otherwise the seal will be taken away from us!
- What did you find? - asks Kukki.
- No, grandpa, nothing.
-What, however, was dragged along the shore? The trace remains.
- Yes, they pulled the rhizome ashore.
Kukki thought for a moment and suddenly said:
- Come on, comb my hair. Yesterday I ate raw brains and was fussing all over.
One of the smallest mice answers:
- Let me, grandpa, comb your hair and look for lice.
- Well, well, let's look for lice.
And the mouse sisters chuckle:
- Sister, what are you doing? Stop looking for lice in your shaggy head!
-What are they saying there? - Kukki was indignant.
“Yes, they say, it’s in vain that I’ll look for lice in my shaggy head.”
- Come on, hold on to the hair on my head, and you, the little one, hold on to the top of my head.
The mice grabbed the hair, Kukki shook his head, the little mice fell into the water, but the smallest one held on.
Sister cries:
- A-and, why did you throw your sisters into the water and shake your head?
“Then they go ashore, they swim.” Let's go to the hidden one. What did you find?
“We said that we found the rhizome.”
Kukki doesn’t believe it, he opened it littered with grass, and sure enough: the little seal was lying there.
- Why are you hiding it from grandpa? Come on, daughter, let's split it in half.
The mouse was stupid.
“Yes, let’s split it,” she agreed. They split it in half and left. He brought his burden to Kukki. And his son Auppali meets:
- Oh, what are you talking about, dad?
- Yes, here, a little seal. Tell your mother to sing a song of thanks.
Auppali ran forward:
— Dad found a little seal, sing a song of thanks.
- Oh, little seal? - asks Mitya.
- Yes, little one.
Kukki has arrived. Mitya sings and dances:
- Ku-u-kki killed a seal with one flipper, killed a seal with one kidney! - Mitya thanks the spirits.
- Enough, enough! - says Kukki. - Cook it and, without touching it, take it outside. Bring it out and say we're all full.
- Well, did you get the beast in vain? “Don’t eat it yourself,” Mitya was surprised.
They took the cauldron of seal meat outside, and in the meantime they fell asleep.
The little mice got out of the water and went home. Grandma Mouse meets them:
- Oh, here they come!
- Yes, grandfather took the seal and divided it in half.
“When she falls asleep, we’ll go get her,” the mouse grandmother reassured them.
And rightly so. All the mice went together and pulled everything out of the cauldron.
And Kukki sleeps with his mouth open. They pooped in his mouth and ran away.
Kukki woke up and said:
- Mitya, bring some seals, because there’s something in my mouth that smells like mouse feces.
The wife came in:
“There’s nothing there, there’s only one boiler left.”
Kukki got angry:
- Well, I’ll go to them, give me a small cauldron!
Go Kukki. The mouse yaranga began to shake.
Grandma Mouse says to the younger girl:
- Look, your sisters are dying, go tell your grandfather that you are scaring me, I am the daughter of Sikulylan, your son.
A little mouse came out:
“Grandfather, you’re scaring me, stop it, eat the palkumyat roots.”
Meanwhile, the mice soaked the palkumyat roots with urine.
- Go eat!
- No, why did you take the seal away?
- No, they didn’t take it away, we divided it together, so we’ll eat it together.
- No, I don’t believe you.
— Older sisters are dying. Don't shake!
- Well, let it be!
Kukki entered the mouse yaranga.
- Grandfather, listen to me!
Kukki came to his senses:
- Why am I scaring my son’s daughter? Bring the cauldron in!
I finally went into the yaranga, and it collapsed.
- Oh, what happened to the yaranga! - The mice got scared.
“Yes, a gust of wind blew it away,” and Kukki immediately corrected it.
- Eat palkumyat roots. Then the girls will scratch you and look for lice.
The girls scratched the crow. Nice. He fell asleep.
“Give him red eyelashes,” said the mouse grandmother.
Made eyelashes.
- Come on, wake up, grandpa! It's already getting dark.
- Oh, I was asleep! Well the girls scratched me. Well, I'll go.
“As soon as you approach the yaranga, lower your eyelashes,” the grandmother mouse said on the way.
He began to approach Kukki’s yaranga and lowered his eyelashes.
- Oh, it’s like the earth is on fire! - Kukki sees nothing. Became angry. - Mitya, Mitya! Put out the fire, the earth is burning!
Auppali's son came towards him and wanted to catch him, but his wife came up and tore off his eyelashes.
- How naughty! The mice glued your eyelashes on. The earth is not burning.
- Oh, okay! What did they do to me! I'll go again.
Kukki went to the mice again. He shook the yaranga of mice. “I won’t trust this girl now,” he decided.
The mouse grandmother says to her granddaughter:
- Say: grandpa, you're scaring me. I am Sikulylan's daughter.
- I don't believe you. Why are the eyelashes tangled?
“It’s not me, it’s the older sisters, I didn’t tangle my eyelashes.”
- No, I don’t believe it.
“Grandfather, listen, you’re scaring me.”
- Ah, you are my son’s daughter. Here, bring in a small cauldron.
Kukki came in again.
- Whoa, something happened again! Yaranga has fallen! - the mice screamed.
“It’s a gust of wind,” and the raven set up the yaranga.
- Eat some roots, grandpa.
I ate the roots of Kukka.
“Let the girls scratch you again,” said the mouse grandmother.
Kukki fell asleep.
- Paint his nose.
The mice painted his nose. His grandmother mouse wakes him up:
- Wake up, it’s already getting dark, we need to go home.
- Oh, I slept well. I completely forgot about myself.
“Come on, go have a drink,” the mouse grandmother tells him.
- Yes, that’s right, I want a drink after sleep and some roots.
Kukki went to the river and saw his reflection.
- Oh, what a beautiful woman with a painted nose!
Come on over! Oh, you don't want to. Wait, I'll go home. Wait!
I went home Kukki. He brought a white stone, a cutting board and a scraper, and grabbed a canopy with posts. Threw a stone into the water. He gurgled and drowned.
- Oh, I liked it, I accepted the gift.
Kukki threw a cutting board and a scraper, but they were wooden and immediately surfaced.
“I’m already on my way,” he wrapped himself in the canopy cover.
Kukki fell into the river and was carried out to sea.
Mitya is worried and says:
-Where did Kukki go? I'll go to the seashore.
I went to the seashore. He sees the canopy with the sticks thrown out by the wave. I untied the curtain, and there was Kukki.
“She came for me out of jealousy,” says Kukki.
- No, not out of jealousy, you were just in the canopy.
Kukki says:
- Let's go home, Mitya.
“Enough, the mice are mocking you,” says Mitya.
The crows have gone home. Finished. No more fairy tales.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru