A long time ago in the fall, when many leaves had already fallen from the trees, two brothers went to set a snare for the beast. First they swam up the river, then walked a little along the shore. Where the river turned, they lit a fire and drank tea. Then the elder brother went into the forest to see what tracks there were. Climbing the mountain, he saw the tracks of a large bear. He also saw a lot of traces of red wolves.
He quickly went down to the river and told his younger brother that trouble had come to the forest - red wolves were chasing the big bear, and he probably wouldn’t be able to escape.
“This has already happened,” said the elder brother. “One day, too, an innumerable number of red wolves fell on the big bear, so that he didn’t have to scream for long - only white bones remained. Let's sail from here.
They got into the boat and sailed on.
There, in the upper reaches of the river, in the tundra, they hunted wild deer. We returned to the shore, lit a fire again, ate meat, and drank tea. Then they made a bridge across the river from two trees and went to bed.
In their language, the Oroks called red wolves Dyarguli. But these are not the real wolves that every person knows. These are small animals, similar to weasels, thin and flexible, very predatory, greedy, gluttonous. When they appeared in the camp, they ate both food and things made from animal skins. Therefore, the Oroks left their homes across the river - they believed that the Dyarguli were afraid of water. That is why the brothers lay down near the water.
At night, the younger brother woke up and asked:
— There seems to be some kind of noise?
The elder replied:
— Gilyak dogs bark. Something is uneasy there.
We lay down and listened. The elder said:
- Let's sit in the middle of the bridge.
We sat down. It's already midnight. And then red wolves appeared on the shore. They began to crawl along the tree-bridge towards the brothers. And the brothers beat them with sticks.
One after another, the red wolves flew into the river. And more and more people crawled across the bridge.
The brothers beat and beat them. Until dawn. Dead red wolves floated all over the river like autumn leaves.
There's only one left. Leader. He ran away.
And the brothers became heroes.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru