The old man came to the Evenks and told them:
- You Evenks, make your own skis. They began to ask the old man:
- Grandfather, how can we make skis for ourselves?
Grandfather answers:
- You bend the ends of the boards. Go on these skis and hunt for squirrels.
The Evenks again began to ask the old man:
- How are we going to kill the squirrels? The old man said:
- And you take the guns from the Russians. Again the Evenks say: “Grandfather, we don’t know how to kill with guns.” Then the old man said:
- You take the gunpowder from the Russians. The Evenki took the guns from the Russians and took the gunpowder; They began to say among themselves: “These guns are very good.”
The old man tells them again:
- Now kill the squirrels. If you kill a lot of squirrels for squirrels, you will get flour from the Russians. Evenks say:
“We don’t know what flour is.” The old man said:
- You still hunt for sables, hunt for arctic foxes, go to the Russians for flour. This will be your food.
The Evenks obtained a lot of expensive skins and traded them with the Russians for flour.
The old man then said:
- You eat this flour, you will be full. Now I won't come to you anymore.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru