Once upon a time there lived two hunchbacks, two comrades, Nonnik and Gabik.
They were engaged in tailoring and every morning they went to look for work in the surrounding farms and castles: one in one direction, the other in the other.
One evening Nonnik was returning from work alone, and as he walked through the deserted area of Penanroku, near the town of Pluara, he heard thin voices. They chanted:
Monday is a day, Tuesday is a day, Wednesday is a day...
“Who’s singing here?” - he thought and quietly crept closer. It was a wonderful moonlit night, and he saw night dancers - gnomes; they spun in a round dance, holding hands, and sang. One of them began:
Monday - day, Tuesday - day, Wednesday - day.„
And others chorused:
Monday is a day, Tuesday is a day, Wednesday is a day...
And so on endlessly. Nonnik often heard about night dancers, but never saw them. He hid behind a rock and began to watch. But he was noticed and dragged straight into the circle. And the dwarves began to dance and whirl around him, chanting:
Monday is a day, Tuesday is a day, Wednesday is a day...
They told the hunchback.
- Dance and sing with us!
Nonnik was not a timid person - he joined a round dance and began to dance and sing with them:
Monday is a day, Tuesday is a day, Wednesday is a day...
However, noticing that they kept repeating only these words and nothing more, he asked:
- What next? Your song is too short.
“That’s all,” answered the dwarves.
- How is everything? Why don’t you continue: Thursday is also a day, and Friday is also a day...
“That’s right,” they agreed, “that’s very nice.” And they sang, stamping their feet and jumping for joy:
Monday is a day, Tuesday is a day, Wednesday is a day...
And Thursday is also a day, and Friday is also a day...
Here they began to spin around as if possessed. When Nonnik was exhausted from fatigue and wanted to leave, the dwarves began to confer among themselves:
- What will we give Nonnik for helping us compose such a good song?
“Anything: plenty of silver and gold, and if he wants, we’ll get him off his back.”
“Oh,” Nonnik exclaimed, “if you relieve me of this burden that I have been carrying for so long, take both the gold and silver for yourself!”
- Okay, let's take his hump off!
And they rubbed his back with a miraculous ointment, from which the hump disappeared, as if by magic, and he returned home lighter - slender, straight, in a word, very handsome.
The next day, when his hunchbacked brother saw him, he was very surprised and did not even recognize him right away.
- How! - he exclaimed, examining Nonnik from all sides. - Where is your hump?
- Disappeared, as you can see.
- But how did this happen? Then Nonnik told him everything.
“Oh, I’ll also go and see the night dancers in Penanroca, and this evening, without delay!”
So he did.
When he appeared among the rocks, the dwarves were already dancing there, singing.
Monday - day, Tuesday - day, Wednesday - day...—
one voice began to drawl, and others echoed in chorus:
And Thursday is also a day, and Friday is also a day...
How they whirled, jumped and galloped!.. Gabik approached them, and the dwarves shouted:
- Come dance with us!
And now he has already joined the round dance and let’s dance and sing like them:
Monday is a day, Tuesday is a day, Wednesday is a day... And Thursday is also a day, and Friday is a day...
- What next? he asked.
- This is all. Do you know further?
- Of course!
- Well, speak quickly, speak!.. And Gabik answered:
And Saturday - day and Sunday!
- Well, this is bad! It doesn't rhyme! He ruined a song for us, such a good song! We need to teach him a lesson for this. What will we do with him? - the dwarfs shouted all at once, fussing and scurrying around Gabik, like ants in an anthill.
- We need to add Nonnik’s hump to his hump! - someone advised.
- That’s right - let’s add Nonnik’s hump to his hump.
No sooner said than done. And the unfortunate Gabik returned home ashamed, bending over from unbearable weight. And all his life he had to carry his friend’s hump along with his own hump!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru