In the old days, when animals were deciding whose animal name to call the years according to the lunar calendar, a dispute broke out between a camel and a mouse.
The camel demanded that the year be called the year of the camel, and the mouse insisted that the coming year should bear its name and be called the year of the mouse. Well! The animals decided: whichever of them will be the first to see the sunrise will be given the name of the year.
That night the camel did not go to bed at all, he kept waiting for the sunrise, and did not take his eyes off the edge of the sky in the east. And the mouse jumped onto the camel’s hump and began to look west, at the tops of the mountains.
The sun had not yet risen, but the tops of the mountains in the west lit up with scarlet sunlight.
- I saw it first! First! - the mouse squeaked loudly.
The camel became furious, fell down in anger into a pile of ash and started to ride on its back, the mouse tried to crush everything.
The animals named the year after the mouse, but the camel never made it into the lunar calendar.
Since then, not a single camel can pass by the ashes indifferently. As soon as he notices a pile of ash, he throws himself on his back and lets roll in the ash - he thinks that he is dealing with the mouse, his longtime rival.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru