One day the Great Spirit sat and watched the children play. They sang and laughed, but the Great Spirit was sad in his soul.
“Time will pass, and these children will grow old,” he sighed. “I know: over the years, the luckiest hunter’s hands stop working, his hair turns gray, his eyes go blind, and the animals grow old, and the wonderful, beautiful flowers lose their bright colors and fall off,
It was autumn, which is why the Great Spirit’s thoughts were so sad.
He thought about the coming winter with its cold and hunger.
But while it was warm, the sun was shining with all its might. The Great Spirit looked at the play of the sun's rays on the leaves - they were constantly tossed by the breeze, looked at the blue sky, at the whiteness of the cornmeal that the women were pounding, and smiled:
“We need to preserve all these colors for the delight of the human heart.”
The Great Spirit took out his bag and began to put different things into it: a speck of sunlight, a handful of heavenly blue, the whiteness of cornmeal, the shadow of children playing, the raven tint of girls’ hair, the yellowness of falling leaves, the green of pine needles, the orange highlights of meadow flowers.
Then I thought about it and added bird songs there.
After this, the Great Spirit headed to the clearing where the children were playing.
- Look what I brought you. “And he handed them his bag: “Open it: there’s something very good hidden there.”
The children opened the bag and hundreds of bright butterflies flew out. The butterflies danced merrily, and the children looked at them as if spellbound.
Suddenly the butterflies began to sing, and the children completely listened.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a songbird flew in and sat on the shoulder of the Great Spirit.
“Why did you give our songs to these lovely creatures?” You promised that only birds would sing! Isn’t it enough that you gave them all the colors of the rainbow? - asked the bird.
“You’re right,” said the Great Spirit.
And the Great Spirit took away the songs from the butterflies, so they are silent to this day. After all, they are already very good.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru