In those days when there were no ants yet, an amazing tribe lived on earth. As soon as the people of this tribe raised their hands, their huge wings opened and they could fly like bats. These people were called Kin Kin, and all other tribes were afraid of them.
The Kin Kin were cruel and treacherous people, and they lived in a large mountain cave. In the middle of the cave there was a deep fire pit - there lived the god of fire, whom the Kin Kin tribe worshiped. People were sacrificed to the fire god kin kin; they tied them up and threw them into a fiery pit.
One day, two men from the Kin Kin tribe were flying over the hills and valleys, looking for their next victim. Far below they spotted the Winjarnin brothers returning from a hunt. The brothers were brave hunters, they were famous in all tribes for their ability to heal the sick and were always happy to help people in trouble. Everyone loved and respected the Winjarnin brothers.
Two kin-kin flew closer to the brothers, descended to the ground and went to meet them. The brothers greeted them cordially, as they always greeted everyone. They knew that it was dangerous to deal with the Kin Kin and that they sacrificed people to their god of fire, but when the Kin Kin invited the brothers to visit their cave, the Winzharnin brothers agreed to go to them because they relied on their strength and dexterity. In addition, they were curious to see how the Kin Kin tribe lived.
The Kin Kin warmly welcomed the Uinjarnin brothers and began to persuade them to stay a few days to enjoy the feast and dances that the tribe would give in their honor.
The brothers stayed in the Kin Kin tribe for two days, and on the third day they announced that it was time for them to go home. Hearing this, the Kin Kin began to beg the brothers to stay another day to watch the sacred emu dance.
The Winjarnin brothers knew that after the sacred emu dance there was always a sacrifice, but curiosity overcame fear and they stayed.
The sacred emu dance was performed around the sacred fire. The flames burned brightly in the cave, and the shadows of the dancers lay on its walls.
This dance was performed only by young Kin Kin girls. They stood in a circle, and it looked like emus were pecking at food. Each girl raised her hand, and the shadows of the hands seemed like the long necks of emus, and they swung and circled along the wall.
The girls slid around the circle, and the emu shadows also slid along the wall and either became large and scary, or became the same as the girls.
Looking at the dancing shadows of emus, people usually forgot about everything in the world, they could not take their eyes off the shadows, but the Winjarnin brothers were on their guard and remembered the danger all the time.
And the kin-kin did not take their eyes off the brothers, and when it seemed to them that the shadows had completely bewitched the brothers, the kin-kin silently rose up and began to creep up to the brothers.
But the elder brother Uinzharnin saw them from behind the fire. He saw how their white teeth sparkled in the darkness and their eyes burned - like fire without a flame. And when the kin-kin rushed at him, he jumped to his feet, ducked to the side, and their hands grabbed the void.
The elder brother Uinzharnin jumped up so quickly that he did not have time to pick up his spears from the ground, and he had nothing with which to defend himself from his enemies. Then he rushed around the fiery pit, and the kin-kin chased him with a squeal.
Uinzharnin rushed around the fire like the wind, and the kin-kin could not run so fast and moved closer and closer to the fire in order to tighten the circle.
They rushed around the fire so that the heads of the kin-kin were completely dizzy, and one after another they fell into the pit.
The flames shot up furiously, and the fire consumed the Kin Kin people. Having uttered a piercing cry, the last Kin Kin fell into the fire, and there were no more Kin Kin people in the world.
The Winjarnin brothers ran out of the cave and hid in the thicket of the forest, and the next day they returned to the cave to see if the sacred fire was still burning in the pit.
But the cave disappeared. In the place where the fire burned there was now an anthill, many ants were crawling around it, and some of them had wings.
Since then, ants have lived on the ground.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru