Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. They had one daughter. The Kumanek fox took her as his wife.
The old man and the old woman lived separately, and their son-in-law, the Kumanek fox, lived in the tundra. They began to go into the forest to hunt. They obtained meat by hunting. The old man took the meat to his son-in-law for safekeeping. The old woman began to ask the old man:
- Go and see how the fox son-in-law lives with our daughter and whether they have our meat intact?
The old man went. He walked for a long time, like that. how the fox's son-in-law's house was far away in the tundra. The old man had not yet reached their house, when suddenly his son-in-law, the fox, came out to meet him and asked:
- Why did you come?
And the old man asks him:
- How do you live? How do you preserve our meat?
Son-in-law said:
- The meat is safe. Neither crows eat it nor mice. And your daughter gave birth to me a son named Nachalo. The old man came home and said to his wife:
- The meat is okay. And our daughter gave birth to a son named Nachalo.
Several days passed. The old woman again began to ask the old man to visit his daughter and see how his son-in-law, the fox, preserved their meat. The old man went, and his son-in-law, the fox, came out to meet him. He asked the old man:
-Why did you come? The old man asked:
– How is our meat preserved?
The son-in-law replied:
– Your meat is well preserved. Your daughter gave birth to a son named Seredina.
The old man came home and said to the old woman:
– Our daughter again had a son named Seredina.
After some time, the old woman again sent the old man to check how the meat was being preserved and how their daughter was living.
The old man went into the tundra, and his son-in-law, the fox, came out to meet him. The old man asked:
– How do you preserve meat? The son-in-law replied:
– The meat is well preserved. Neither crows nor mice eat it. Your daughter gave birth to a son named The End. Come visit us tomorrow.
The old man came home to the old woman and said:
- The meat is intact. Our daughter gave birth to a son named Konets. The old lady began to cry.
- Oh, they ate all our meat.
And the son-in-law-fox at this time, when all the meat had already been eaten, killed his wife. He had comrades: grandfather-bear and uncle-wolf.
The fox-kumanek put his murdered wife in the kereshka-sledge, and grandfather-bear and uncle-wolf began to drag the kereshka on themselves. They dragged and dragged and asked:
- Fox-kumanek, Fox-kumanek, what will be our payment? And the fox answers:
- To drag and eat.
The old man and the old woman went to visit their fox son-in-law. They came and saw their daughter standing on the street. Old lady says:
“That’s how she waits for us.”
They came closer and saw that it was not their daughter, but a tree stump, dressed in her clothes. Then they started crying. There is no daughter, no meat. The animals took the sledge with the fox's dead wife away and ate her. They were also joined by an arctic fox, a hare, a squirrel and an otter. Grandfather Bear says to the fox:
- Give us something to eat!
Fox said:
- Wait, I'll count. I myself am a good person. Grandfather Bear is a good person. Grandfather the wolf is a good person. The Arctic fox is a good person. Otter is a good person. The hare is a good person. Squirrel is a bad person.
They ate the squirrel. We became hungry again. Again the fox began to count, and they ate the hare. Then they ate the otter and the arctic fox in turn, and the wolf got scared and ran into the forest.
Now the fox-kumanek and grandfather-bear began to walk together. They saw a woodpecker with a beautiful back. Fox-kumanek says:
– I painted the back of this bird. Bear says:
- Paint my back too. Lis says:
– I would paint it, but there will be a lot of work here.
Grandfather Bear says:
- I'll do everything myself. Just paint my back. Grandfather Bear did everything himself: he got firewood, wove birch bark ropes, prepared kindling, and sat down on the fire, as the Kumanek fox told him. And the Kumanek fox tied him to the logs of the fire with birch bark ropes and lit the fire. The bear caught fire and shouted:
- Fox-kumanek, I’m burning! Lis says:
“Can’t you be patient like the woodpecker was?” Your back will become beautiful.
Grandfather the bear howled and howled and burned... The Kumanek fox ran away.
Three days later he came to see how the bear had burned. He crept up quietly. The bear was completely burned out. Only the bones remained. The Kumanek fox put the bones in a bag, put the bag on his back and began to walk alone through the forest. A man came out to meet him. He asked the Kumanka fox:
-What are you talking about? The Kumanek fox replied:
– I carry the memory of the bear. The man says:
- Give me the memory of the bear. Lis says:
- I won’t give it up. She is dear to me. The man says:
- Let's change to a fat important woman.
The fox-kumanek agreed. He took the important woman and took her into the forest.
He began to eat the important food alone, without companions. Out of greed, the fox ate so much that he felt sick and died.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru