You already know that all this happened when animals still spoke and people understood their language. So, bears, wolves, foxes and other animals were then found in the Pyrenees, apparently and invisibly. And each animal had a name. The wolf's name was Otsoa, the fox's name was Akerya, and the swallow that brings good news to a person's house was called Gori-Gori. Then the queen bees Erlea ruled all the animals in the mountains. She was the wisest and oldest in the Pyrenees, and all the animals obeyed her wise word. And in those days there was such a law: the beast does not touch the person who lives next to him on the slopes of the mountains.
“The man is very weak and stupid! - said the animals. “We will not attack him first, but if he violates this agreement, then let him blame himself.”
And all the animals agreed with this decision, and the mountain eagle Chori-Bellacha - the fairest and wisest bird in all of Baskonia, which sees everything, knows everything and remembers everything - wrote down this law with its wings on the leaves of the heavenly book.
“If it happens that any of you breaks this law,” Queen Erlea buzzed, “I will gather you all for judgment!” And the animals began to live in the mountains, as they had lived. Everyone hunted to their heart's content and slept to their heart's content, birds built nests, and animals dug holes, and none of them, not even snakes, touched a person unless he attacked them first.
But one day came when the mountain eagle Chori-Bellacha soared high into the sky and began to draw words of message in the air to all the inhabitants of the Pyrenees.
“Judgment!” his wings traced in the air. “Queen Erlea calls everyone to court!”
The animals were surprised and gathered for advice.
When they sat in a circle, the queen’s voice rang:
– You know our law. The beast does not attack the person first. So?
- So! – answered the wolf Otsoa.
- So! - said the fox Akeria.
- So! - the snakes hissed.
- So! - the birds sang.
– But the bear Arts broke this law! Erlea buzzed. – Arts broke the law! He killed a man!
The animals are quiet, silent, thinking. Only the bear Arts mutters to himself:
– I would have dealt with everyone who came to this trial if I had met one on one. But they are all against me, and they will defeat me, because the law is also against me.
The animals were silent. The bear Arts was silent. Queen Erlea was silent.
Chori-Belacha soared high into the sky and fell headlong down.
And then Erlea said:
– Chori-Belacha said correctly. Let Artz be thrown from the highest cliff down into the river. Let him be punished in this way for disturbing the peace in the Pyrenees. And so that none of you forget about him, let Artz turn into stone and remain in the middle of a mountain river forever, forever before your eyes.
The queen said so, her retinue surrounded her and took her to the hive-palace. And then a terrible roar was heard over the mountains: it was Arts who fell from the cliff into the abyss. But he had not yet reached the middle when he turned into a stone - a huge gray-brown stone overgrown with moss. A stone fell into the middle of a mountain river and divided it into two branches. If you go to the right, it seems like a bear fell asleep in the middle of the river and hid its muzzle in its paws. If you go to the left, it seems that Artz is looking out for someone in a stormy stream... This stone still lies in that river. Whoever doesn’t believe, let him go and look. And since then animals and people no longer trust each other.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru