One day a hyena found a monitor lizard's hole. I looked in: a fat monitor lizard was sitting in a hole.
- Do you live here? - asked the hyena.
“Yes, this is where I live,” answered the monitor lizard.
- What do you do when it rains, thunder roars and lightning flashes? After all, the hole is probably flooding!
— I’m hiding from the rain, from thunder and lightning under that bush.
“You’re doing the right thing,” said the hyena and ran away. The wild cat Antbyaro heard their conversation. He realized that the hyena was up to no good, and decided to warn the monitor lizard.
“My friend the monitor lizard,” said the cat. “The hyena wants to devour you.” When it rains, thunder rumbles and lightning flashes, don't hide under a bush. Better climb a tree and sleep there. And at the entrance to the hole, place a wooden monitor lizard. See what happens!
“Thank you, I’ll do that,” said the monitor lizard. He planed a wooden monitor lizard, placed his head on a bench at the entrance to the hole for sleeping and covered it with skin on top. And when it suddenly started raining at night, thunder roared, lightning flashed, the monitor lizard left a piece of wood at the hole and climbed up the tree.
Soon a hyena came running in the rain. She jumped onto a piece of wood, sank her teeth into it, and couldn’t pull it out! The monitor lizard on the tree laughed.
“If you want to free yourself,” he said to the hyena, “lower your head to the ground, lift your butt higher.”
There was nothing to do, the hyena fell to the ground and stuck out her butt. A monitor lizard jumped on her and grabbed her from behind.
- If you want to free yourself, take me to the lake! There is nothing to do, the hyena dragged the monitor lizard on itself to the lake.
- If you want to free yourself, go deeper into the water! The piece of wood floated up, and the hyena was finally able to open its mouth. But the monitor lizard was not dozing - he jumped off the hyena and was gone. And try to catch him in the water!
The hyena rushed about on the shore in a rage. I ran until the morning, until the rain stopped. In the morning he sees an elephant going to the lake to drink.
- Elephant, elephant! - the hyena shouted to him. “Varan says that you will never drink this lake.” See, there he is floating in the middle, laughing at you!
The elephant got angry:
- But now I’ll teach him a lesson! I’ll drink up the whole lake, then let him laugh! I'll just take off my sandals first so as not to get them wet.
The elephant took off his elephant sandals, entered the lake and began to drink. The elephant drinks, the water decreases. There's already half left. And then the wild cat Antbyaro came to the rescue of the monitor lizard again. He approached the hyena and whispered:
“You, poor thing, must be hungry.” What are you waiting for? The elephant will drink here until the evening. First eat his elephant sandals, and then eat his monitor lizard!
- Right! - the hyena growled and began to gnaw on the elephant's sandals.
And the cat ran to the elephant and said:
“Elephant, while you’re drinking water here, the hyena is eating your sandals.” She made it all up on purpose!
The elephant flew into a rage and immediately vomited all the water back into the lake. He ran up to the hyena and hit it on the backside with his trunk! The hyena barely carried off his legs. But since then, all hyenas have been dragging their flattened butts. And they take revenge on the monitor lizards as best they can.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru