In ancient times, all animals and birds, fish and plants lived with people in peace and friendship, but little by little there were more and more people, and the poor animals had less and less space on earth. Further - and even worse: people invented bows and arrows, knives, spears and fishing tackle and began to hunt animals. They took skins and meat from the larger ones, and trampled underfoot the smaller animals, frogs and worms.
The animals became thoughtful - what should they do?
At first the bears held the council. They decided to declare war on man.
- Why are people fighting with us? With a bow and arrows. What if we do the same?
The bears made a bow and arrows. I tried to draw my bow alone, but my claws got tangled in the string.
- The claws need to be trimmed! - someone suggested. But the bear leader did not agree:
“We need long claws to climb trees, without claws we will die of hunger.” Apparently, human weapons are no good for us.
The bears decided nothing and wandered into the thicket.
And if they had agreed among themselves, we would still do nothing but fight the bears. And so the hunters don’t even ask their permission when they decide to hunt.
Then the deer, led by their leader Fawn, held a council and decided to punish those hunters who exterminate deer indiscriminately and do not ask for their forgiveness. This is what they told the Indians:
- Bad hunters will definitely get sick. And now, as soon as the hunter kills a deer, the leader Fawn, invisible and fast as the wind, is right there and quietly asks the killed deer:
— Did the hunter say words of forgiveness to you?
If yes, the Fawn immediately leaves; if not, he follows the hunter’s trail all the way to the hut and sends illness to him.
That is why no hunter worth his salt will kill a deer just like that - he will definitely ask for his forgiveness.
After the deer, fish and reptiles gathered for a council. They accumulated a lot of grievances against people, and they decided to send bad dreams to people. Let these dreams, like snakes, wrap themselves around a person and strangle him. Or they will send dreams about raw and rotten fish in order to discourage people’s appetite and starve them to death.
This is why we still sometimes dream of fish and snakes.
Finally, birds, insects and small animals gathered in council, and they elected the Caterpillar as their leader.
The frog was the first to speak.
“If you don’t stop the man,” she croaked, “he will kill us all from the world!” Look how he treated me! All because, you see, I’m ugly to look at! Yes, from his beating my whole back is bruised!
And the frog showed everyone the spots on its skin. Then a little bird spoke:
- The man is to blame! The man is to blame! He puts the birds on a spit and roasts them! Plants and fries!
And only the chipmunk dared to say a kind word about the man.
The animals got so angry that they attacked the poor chipmunk and cut him with their claws. He still bears traces of scratches on his back to this day.
And then the animals began to invent diseases, more and more new ones, and they invented so many that if their imagination had not finally run out, people would have died long ago. The caterpillar listened and listened, and she liked the animals’ proposals more and more.
- That's good! - she said, “After all, these nasty people have become somehow painfully healthy and fat, they stomp everywhere, and are always stepping on me!”
Then the Caterpillar trembled all over with joy and fell on its back, but could no longer get up. She just wriggled her whole body. Caterpillars still behave this way today.
But plants remained friends to people. When they heard what the animals were up to, they decided to thwart their evil plans. Every tree and bush, every grass, all the mosses agreed to heal a person.
“I will come to the aid of a person when he calls me,” said each of them.
This is how medicines came into being. And if it happens that the doctor does not know what medicine to prescribe for the patient, the spirits of the plants will quietly, quietly whisper in his ear.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru