This happened at a time when there were no visible tigers on earth. Two sisters lived in the same village at the foot of a steep mountain, and they had a small piece of land. They grew rice on it and fed themselves on it.
“Sister,” the older sister said one day. “It’s difficult for us to manage our field alone; this is not a woman’s job.” It would be nice if we could find a dear friend - a kind helper.
The werewolf tiger, hiding in the bushes, heard these words. He took on human form and left his refuge.
-What are you lamenting about, beauties? he asked.
The girls were embarrassed.
“We don’t regret anything,” the eldest finally decided to lie.
- Why are you hiding? “I heard you need an assistant,” said the Tiger. - So I came. Just tell me how I can help you, and I will gladly do everything.
“We are worried that we will soon be overcome by weeds,” answered the eldest.
The tiger took the knife from her and quickly dealt with the weeds. And when he was working, the younger sister immediately noticed that he was not a person, but she did not dare tell her older sister about it. After all, Tigers are smart and cunning. And if the werewolf-tiger happened to hear her speech, they would not escape trouble.
Meanwhile, the werewolf, possessing remarkable tiger strength, quickly weeded the entire field and, having finished his work, got ready to go home. He called his older sister over and invited her to visit. She, without hesitation, agreed.
The younger sister was alarmed. What to do? How to warn your older sister that she is in danger? She picked a spike of rice, cut a pipe out of it and, playing a familiar melody, sang:
Dear sister, come back.
Keep your eyes open, don't forget!
Don’t say goodbye to life along the way!
The elder sister heard, but did not understand anything and calmly went with the werewolf. At sunset they came to the hut.
“Here’s rice and water for you, prepare some food,” the Tiger said to the girl, “and I’ll go into the forest and pick sorghum and peppers for a snack.”
The elder sister was so carried away by the matter that she did not immediately see a man come from nowhere, who told her that her new acquaintance was a werewolf and she should, without waiting for his return, hide as soon as possible. With these words the stranger disappeared.
Having learned this sad news, the girl dropped everything and started running as fast as she could. So she ran without a break until dusk came. Suddenly she saw a hut. She entered, looked around - no one. The girl spread out a mat lying on the floor, lay down and covered her head. And at the head of her, chickens sat down as if on a roost.
Meanwhile, the werewolf returned home in excellent spirits and, not finding the girl, followed in her footsteps. Soon he came to the hut where she was resting, but when he went inside, he could not see anything. The chickens were alarmed, clucked, and, deciding that the girl was not here, the Tiger left.
As soon as it was dawn, its owner, a peasant who worked nearby, came to the hut. The girl told him about everything that happened to her. The peasant calmed her down as best he could and took her to her sister.
And the cunning werewolf was completely exhausted and decided to hide in a barn, not far from the sisters’ field.
Tiger waited a long time. On the fourth day, the sisters finally came to the barn, and then, jumping out of hiding, he shouted:
- Gotcha, sisters! Now you can’t hide from me anywhere!
“But my sister didn’t even try to hide,” the younger one was found. “According to our custom, after marriage we are supposed to prepare a treat for the Nats, so my sister came for rice.” It's so good that we have met now! In seven days, my sister will throw a party for Nat. Come with your friends. We'll have a wedding at the same time.
“Okay,” Tiger was happy. “In seven days I’ll be right here.”
After collecting rice in their baskets, the sisters returned home. The younger sister brewed rice moonshine and, adding poison to it, poured it into jugs. The villagers, on her advice, prepared to greet the tigers properly. They armed themselves with sticks, spears, knives and began to wait for the agreed day.
On the seventh day, the tigers, taking the form of people, came to the village. The girls handed each of them a jug of rice moonshine. The guests tasted the potion and immediately fell down dead. It was not difficult for the peasants to finish them off. Only a very small tigress survived. She did not drink moonshine and therefore managed to escape. And then she decided to take revenge on people. But there were very few tigers, and in order to fight with people, it was necessary to increase the offspring. Therefore, the tigress decided to give birth to a tiger cub per year. She ran and repeated: “One son per year! One son per year!” Suddenly a chicken came towards her. The tigress got scared and forgot her decision. Then she went to the old woman who lived nearby.
“Didn’t you hear, grandma, what I was saying as I ran?”
But the old woman was a little hard of hearing and got everything mixed up.
- You shouted: “At twelve years old for a son, at twelve years old for a son!” - she said.
This is why tigers have offspring once every twelve years, and why there are so few of them.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru