Once upon a time, they say, animals and cattle did not have tails. Only one animal king - the lion - had a tail.
Life was bad for animals without tails. In winter it’s still a bit of a mess, but when summer comes, there’s no escape from flies and midges. What will you use to drive them away? More than one has been eaten by gadflies and horseflies the summer before death. At least shout guard if they attack.
The animal king heard about such a misfortune and gave a decree that all the animals should come to him to get their tails.
The royal messengers rushed to all corners of the beasts to convene. They fly, blow trumpets, beat drums, and don’t let anyone sleep. They saw the wolf and gave him the royal decree. They saw a bull and a badger and called them too. The fox, marten, hare, elk, wild boar - everyone was told what was needed.
There was only one bear left. The messengers searched for him for a long time, and finally found him sleepy in a den. They woke me up, jostled me and told me to hurry after my tail.
But when did it happen that the bear was in a hurry? He wanders slowly, little by little - stomping, stomping, looking at everything around, looking for honey with his nose. He sees a bee hollow in a linden tree. “The road to the king is long,” he thinks, “we need to refresh ourselves.”
The bear climbed up the tree, and there, in the hollow, there was plenty of honey. He muttered in joy and began to tear out the hollow, rake in the honey, and gobble it up by both cheeks. He ate, looked at himself, and his fur coat was all covered in honey and dust!.. “How,” he thinks, “appear before the royal eyes in this form?”
The bear went to the river, washed his fur coat and lay down on a hillock to dry. And the sun was so hot that before Mishka even had time to look back, he was already snoring sweetly.
Meanwhile, the animals began to gather to the king. The fox came running first. I looked around, and in front of the royal palace there was a whole bunch of tails: both long and short, both bare and fluffy...
The fox bowed to the king and said:
- Clearly noble sir Tsar! I was the first to respond to your royal decree. For this, let me choose whatever tail I want...
Well, the king doesn’t care which tail he gives the fox.
“Okay,” he says, “choose the tail you like.”
The cunning fox tossed up the whole pile of tails, chose the most beautiful one - long, fluffy - and rushed back until the king changed his mind.
A squirrel jumped up after the fox and chose a tail that was also beautiful, but only smaller than the fox’s. Behind her is a marten. And she ran back with a good tail.
The elk chose the longest tail for itself, with a thick panicle at the end, so that it would have something to ward off gadflies and horse flies. And the badger grabbed the wide and thick tail.
The horse took a tail made of solid hair. She hooked it, swung it on the right side, on the left - it hits well. “Now the flies are dead!” - she neighed in joy and galloped off to her meadow.
The last one to come was the bunny.
-Where have you been? - says the king. - You see, I only have one small tail left.
- And that’s enough for me! - the bunny was happy. - It’s better to escape lightly from the wolf and the dog.
The little bunny tied his short tail where it was supposed to, jumped once, twice, and ran home cheerfully. And the animal king, having given away all the tails, went to bed.
Only in the evening the bear woke up. I remembered that I had to hurry to the Tsar’s tail. I looked, and the sun was already rolling behind the forest. He rushed into a gallop as fast as he could. He ran and ran, the poor fellow was already sweating. He runs to the royal palace, and there are no tails, no animals... “What to do now?” the bear thinks. “Everyone will have tails, I’m the only one without a tail...”
Mishka turned back and the evil one stomped off into his forest. As he walks, he suddenly sees a badger spinning on a tree stump, admiring its fine tail.
“Listen, badger,” says the bear, “why do you need a tail?” Give it to me!
- And what did you come up with, uncle bear! - the badger is surprised. “Is it possible to lose such a beautiful tail?”
“If you don’t give it of your own free will, I’ll take it away by force,” the bear muttered and put his heavy paw on the badger.
“I won’t let you!” the badger shouted and started to run with all his might.
The bear looked, and in his claws there was a piece of badger skin and the tip of his tail. He threw the skin away, attached the tip of the tail to himself and moved into the hollow to finish the honey.
And the badger, out of fear, will not find a place for himself. Wherever he hides, he keeps imagining that a bear is about to come and take away the rest of his tail. He then dug a large hole in the ground and settled there. The wound on the back has healed, but a dark stripe remains. So far she hasn’t brightened up.
Once a fox runs, lo and behold, there is a hole, and in it someone is snoring, as if he were tipsy. She climbed into the hole and saw a badger sleeping there.
- What is it to you, neighbor, it’s cramped upstairs, that you’ve climbed underground? - the fox is surprised.
“Yes, little fox,” the badger sighed, “it’s true, it’s cramped.” If I hadn’t gone to look for it, I wouldn’t have left here at night.
And the badger told the fox why he was cramped on the ground. “Uh,” thought the fox, “since the bear covets a badger’s tail, then mine is a hundred times more beautiful...”
And she ran to seek shelter from the bear. She ran all night and couldn’t hide anywhere. Finally, in the morning, she dug a hole for herself, the same as the badger’s, climbed into it, covered herself with her fluffy tail and calmly fell asleep.
Since then, the badger and the fox have lived in holes, but the bear has been left without a good tail.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru