It was a long time ago. One day a man decided to make some wine. He built a hearth under a large peepal tree, lit a fire and placed a pot of infusion of Mahua tree flowers on it. He kept the pot on the fire for a long time, but for the whole day he did not get a single drop of wine. He then went to the healer and asked him for advice.
– Cut down the tree under which you have built the fireplace, chop firewood from it and use this firewood to light your fireplace. Then there will be so much wine that you won’t even have enough dishes for it.
The man hurried back, cut down the tree, chopped firewood and began throwing it into the hearth.
And that tree gave shelter to four living creatures: a starling, a parrot, a tiger and a wild pig. In the mornings they went wherever they wanted, and at sunset they returned to the tree and spent the night under its protection.
That evening, as always, they hurried to their tree. The starling arrived first. He saw that a tree had been cut down for firewood and the wood was being thrown into the stove. The starling felt sorry for the tree that protected him, and out of grief he threw himself into the fire. Immediately the wine started dripping from the pot.
Then the parrot returned and also saw the tree on which it lived burning in the hearth. The parrot felt sorry for the tree, and out of grief he also threw himself into the fire. The wine began to drip even faster.
Then the tiger came. He, too, was sad to see the tree burn, and in great sadness the tiger also threw himself into the fire. The distiller's wine flowed even faster.
Finally the pig returned. She, like the others, was beside herself with grief and threw herself into the fire. Wine flowed from the pot into the dishes. The distiller was glad that he had obtained a lot of wine.
They say that from that very day wine received its main properties from these four forest creatures. That’s why when a person drinks one cup of wine, he begins to speak cheerfully and joyfully, like a singing starling: “Eh, brother, this is wine! I haven't tried this for a long time! Who made it? What is it made of? After the second cup the conversation becomes even more cheerful, but it becomes noisy, like the chatter of a parrot. A man bursts into song and sings songs at the top of his lungs. After the third cup, he imagines himself to be a tiger: he begins to brag and get cocky, waves his fists and wants to show with his roar that there is no one stronger in the world. And in the end he becomes a pig. And he doesn’t remember himself, and he loses all reason, he doesn’t understand what is good and what is bad. His legs carry him to no one knows where, and he falls down anywhere.
That is why our ancestors did not drink wine without measure, as they do now.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru