There once lived a woman who was very friendly with her neighbor. One fine day she sent her son to her neighbor to get coals for the fireplace. When the boy came to his neighbor, he saw that she had a huge pot of porridge on the fire. He was a very curious child and said to himself:
- Wow! After all, the neighbor lives alone, why does she need so much porridge?
He hid in the bushes and hid. After some time, the neighbor took the pan off the heat, went to a banana tree, picked leaves, laid them out on the floor of her kitchen, and dumped the pot of porridge on them. Then she shook all over and fell into pieces. Her arms, legs, eyes, ears, and head fell off. And all these pieces began to eat the porridge. The boy was terribly frightened and ran away in horror, shouting:
- Mom, help! I saw how our neighbor’s arm and leg fell off and she was eating porridge!
The witch instantly became whole again and rushed after the boy. When she was already very close, the boy climbed the tree. The witch shouted.
- Tree, down!
And the tree began to shrink. When the witch was almost reaching the boy, he shouted:
- Tree, up!
And the tree began to grow and grow again... So they shouted to each other: “Tree, up!” - "Tree, down!" When the sorceress realized that nothing was working out for her, she called the toad for help. The huge toad grabbed the tree with all his might and said:
- Become fat like a toad, bring the boy closer to the ground!
The tree began to grow thicker and shorter. When the boy saw that he was about to end up on the ground, he shouted:
- Tree, up!
And the tree began to grow thin and grow. The witch called the snake. The snake crawled, wrapped itself around the tree and said:
- Like a snake, become thin, bend closer to the ground!
The tree became thin and bent to the ground under the boy’s weight. He shouted again:
- Tree, up!
And so it went, the tree grew fatter and thinner. The witch called the lizard. The lizard ran its tail along the tree and said:
- Tree, tree, get down, let the boy down! And where the lizard ran its tail, a cut appeared on the tree, which became deeper and deeper. The tree was about to fall when the boy’s mother heard noise and screams and, along with her neighbors, ran to see what was happening.
When they came running and realized what was going on there, they killed the toad, snake and lizard with a stick.
The sorceress ran away, and no one saw her again in those parts.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru