In those places where Lapundi was the leader, there lived one man named Sha-Shipo. He loved hunting so much that he didn’t want to do anything else. No matter how much his wife scolded him, no matter how much she tried to persuade him to take up some other business, he did not want to listen to her. Every day I got up early and went hunting.
One day he and his dogs went to the hills of Londa, where there were many wild rabbits.
When he reached the hills, the dogs, seeing the rabbits, began to chase them. Soon they disappeared into a deep gorge. Hunter Sha-Shipo waited and waited for them, but never came. Then he decided not to waste time and examine at least this hole, to find out how deep it was. He sat down on the ground, put his feet into the hole and fell through.
The dogs jumped out of the gorge, ran around in search of the owner, found him and began to bark, calling for help.
The hunter's sons, worried that their father was taking so long to return, set out to find him. Before they even reached the hills, they heard dogs barking. We ran there and saw the dogs, whining pitifully, running around the hole. They looked inside and saw the motionless body of their father in the darkness. They thought he was dead and began to cry loudly.
But the hunter was not dead at all, he was just sleeping. Hearing his sons cry, he woke up and spoke to them. Then the sons, having calmed down, began to think about how to get their father out. They thought and thought, but came up with nothing. They were fussing upstairs, but the father still remained in the hole.
Then, finally, they decided to call one of the wise old men. But the wisest man only advised throwing food into the hole so that Sha-Shipo would not die of hunger.
When the sons told their mother about what happened to their father, she waved her hand angrily:
“Maybe now he’ll stop going hunting.” Maybe he will do housework.
A day passed, a second passed. Everyone thought and thought about how to get the hunter out of the hole, lest he die there. Every day they threw food at him.
Finally, one smart man was found - a young man named
Karialo, who figured out how to get the hunter out alive and unharmed. It is necessary, he said, for people to take turns, one after another, approach the hole and throw stones there. And everyone followed his advice. It was on these stones that the hunter got out.
Everyone was happy. Only one person was not happy. But when Sha-Shipo swore that he would never go hunting again, then the wife was happy and generously gave palm wine to everyone who saved her husband. And in the evening in the village people danced batuke in honor of the rescue of the hunter Sha-Shipo.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru