There lived an old man in the tundra with a deaf old woman and a deaf daughter. They had a fox who helped the old man herd the deer and helped the old woman and daughter with the housework.
One day an old man from the herd comes. The fox saw him from afar and ran to meet him.
- Well, how are the deer, fat? - asked the fox.
- Yeah! - answered the old man.
- Well, let's go and drink tea in the yaranga! - called the fox.
At night, the fox quietly came out of the canopy, took off the deer sausage, went outside and ate it. Then she returned and went to bed.
In the morning, the old man's daughter woke up the fox.
- Why did you sleep for so long? - the old man asked her.
— I got enough sleep to go to the herd.
The fox took the lasso and went into the herd. She came, drove the herd to the lake and killed all the deer.
Selects the fattest parts of the deer and cuts them off.
She saw that the old man was coming and rushed to meet him. She runs up, and the old man asks her:
- Why are you running so fast?
— I’m warming myself, I’m cold.
- Well, go home and tell the shepherd to be well fed.
“Okay,” the fox answered and ran away.
An old man approaches the lake. The whole herd lies down. “Well,” the owner thinks, “the herd is resting well!” I waited and waited. He came closer and saw that the entire herd had been killed.
He ran home and shouted:
- Kill the fox!
The old woman and daughter came out of the yaranga; they would not understand what the old man was shouting. And the fox tells them:
“He’s shouting at you to hurry up and feed the shepherd some fatty meat!”
The daughter waved her hand - okay, let’s feed her. And the old man understood: okay, we’ll kill him. We fed the fox fatty meat. The old woman says:
- I’ll go find out what he shouted...
The fox ran after the old woman. The old man saw her and shouted again:
- Kill the fox, she killed the whole herd!
The old woman began to catch the fox. An old man ran up to help; They’re about to catch him, but all that’s left is the fox’s tail curling around his hands. The old man and the old woman got tired of chasing the fox, but she laughed and ran away from them. The old man and the old woman came to the yaranga and sat down to drink tea. The old man complains:
- Now we have no deer. What are we going to use now to make a kukhlyanka, a tote bag, and trousers?..
- What will we make a yaranga from? - the old woman cries.
- What will we eat? - adds the daughter.
- I’ll go and kill the fox! - the old man decided.
He went to the tundra. And the fox smeared himself in ash and came out to meet him. An old man saw her and said: “Why did you kill my deer?”
- What deer? What are you saying, old man? I'm sick and don't go anywhere.
The old man looked at her trail and thought: “Oh, she’s the one who slaughtered my entire herd!”
- Let's go to my yaranga. I'll show you where I live! - the fox calls.
The old man went to the fox. She fed him fatty meat. The old man returned home. The old woman got angry:
- This is the same fox that killed our herd. She fed you the meat of our deer.
- And that’s true! - the old man agreed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru