Once there was a terrible drought, and all the animals were starving. But then very sweet fruits appeared on one tree, and all the animals went to him. Only the scorpion could not get there, because for this he had to swim across a very wide river. As the vulture flew over him, the scorpion said:
- Take me with you, vulture, I’m really hungry.
“Climb on my back,” answered the vulture. The scorpion climbed onto the vulture, and they flew in search of that tree. And when they found him, the vulture let the scorpion off his back, and as soon as he decided to eat, the scorpion shouted:
- No, no, vulture, this is my fruit, I marked it when we were flying.
The vulture moved to another branch and aimed its beak at another fruit, but the scorpion shouted again:
- No, no, vulture, I have my eye on this one too. As soon as the vulture sat down near some fruit, the scorpion repeated its words. Soon the vulture got tired of this, he flew away on an empty stomach and left the scorpion alone. When the scorpion had eaten well, it came down from the tree and headed home. But he couldn’t get across the river, and so he sat down on the bank and cried, cursing his bitter fate. The caiman saw him and said:
- Godfather Scorpio, come to me. You will spend the night with me, and in the morning my children will take you to the other side.
They arrived at the caiman late at night. Cayman told the children to make a bed for the scorpion because he was very tired. The caymans laid a bed for the scorpion right in the nest, on the caiman’s eggs. When the scorpion was settled for the night, he asked:
“Kum caiman, let your children take me home early tomorrow.”
And he started eating eggs. When he broke the first egg - fuck! - the children thought that the scorpion was snoring and shouted:
- Dad, our guest is snoring!
- Quiet, children, don’t disturb your godfather Scorpio’s sleep! The whole night passed like this.
As soon as the scorpion broke the egg - fuck! - the children shouted: “The guest is snoring!”, and the caiman ordered them to be silent and not disturb the scorpion. It was barely dawn when the scorpion, having eaten all the eggs during the night, shouted:
- Godfather, tell the children to take me home.
- This early, godfather!
- What can you do, I'm in a hurry. The scorpion did not lag behind, and the caiman ordered the children to take him to the other side. When the caiman saw that only shells remained in the nest, he howled with grief and ran to the shore. And his children with the scorpion were already far away. He shouted:
- Children, take the godfather of the scorpion back... The Caymanians said:
- Dad tells me to take you back.
“No, no,” answered the scorpion, “he’s telling you to row faster.”
And the caiman on the shore just starts:
- Children, take the godfather of the scorpion back...
The Caymans heard him perfectly well, but the scorpion said that their father was telling them to move quickly. As soon as the boat moored to the shore, the scorpion jumped to the ground and was gone.
He walked through the forest along the river and saw that the kibungo was catching a fish and throwing it behind his back. The scorpion approached him slowly and let's eat the fish. When the kibungo turned around, he did not see a single fish. And the kibungo said:
- Oh, it was you, the scorpion, who ate my fish! Well, give it all back to me this very minute!
- It’s not me, I didn’t eat your fish! So they argued, and a zhuruti, a scorpion, flew past and said:
- Oh, if I hadn’t made you such a beauty, you wouldn’t fly so merrily!
The kibungo heard this and asked:
- Do you know how to make animals beautiful?
- Of course I know.
- So make me beautiful too!
- Okay, come with me.
They walked and walked and came out into a clearing. Scorpio told the kibungo to find a stronger stick. Kibungo searched and searched, but in the end he found what he needed. Scorpio says:
- Now look for a thicker vine.
Kibungo went into the forest and, barely breathing, brought a whole armful of vines so thick that each of them could have tied an ox. Scorpio said:
“Lie down here, I’ll tie you up, otherwise you won’t be beautiful.”
The stupid kibungo lay down, and the scorpion began to wrap and tie him with vines so that soon he could not move.
“Come on, kibungo, try to move,” said the scorpion. Kibungo did this and that, but nothing worked out for him. I couldn’t even make a sound. Then the scorpion, grinning joyfully, took out a sharp knife and began to cut off the kibungo’s meat piece by piece and eat it. The poor guy screamed at the top of his lungs. But the scorpion didn’t bat an eye. I ate my fill and went away. The next day he came again and ate another piece of kibungo. And so it went day after day, until only bones remained of the kibungo.
The kibungo asked every animal that passed by to cut the vines, but no one agreed, but everyone said:
- No, no, I will free you, and you will eat my children... A termite ran past and prayed to the kibungo:
- Termite, oh termite, save me...
- Well, no, I’ll free you, and you’ll eat my children...
- Free me, termite, I won’t eat anyone else!
So he asked, so begged that the termite took pity on him, called his comrades, and in an instant they chewed through the vines.
As soon as the kibungo was free, he rushed to look for the scorpion, which had already gone far away.
After some time, a terrible drought began, and the animals all dug a pond together. Kibungo thought that this was where he would catch the scorpion. Every day he came to keep watch at the source, still waiting for the scorpion, who, like it or not, was supposed to come for water.
And the scorpion kept thinking about how he could get to the water, but without the kibungo recognizing him. Finally he decided to put on the skin of a deer, which was dry from thirst. He dressed himself up in the skin and went to the pond, although he barely made it: the skin was so heavy. Kibungo asked him:
- What's wrong with you, friend deer? Why are you so dry? And the scorpion answers from the skin, sighing heavily:
- Oh, friend kibungo... It was the damned scorpio that brought me down...
- What?! Scorpion? Oh, friend deer, if only you knew what he did to me...
And he told everything that happened to him, and at the end he added:
- But wait, I’ll get to him, I’ll show him! Scorpio went to the pond, drank, swam and went home. Having gone a fair distance, he threw off the deer skin, climbed a tree and shouted:
- Kibungo, ah kibungo! Look here! It's me! Kibungo went absolutely mad with rage, but could not catch the scorpion.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru