This happened in those distant times when our land was inhabited by devils.
And at that distant time, two families lived among a dense, dark forest on the banks of a fast and deep river. The family consisted of two men, two women and two children. Rising before dawn, the men went hunting. The main weapon that each of them had with them was bows and arrows, refusals. During their absence, their wives prepared firewood, cooked food, crushed reindeer skins, and in the evening, while waiting for their husbands from the hunt, they made a fire in the middle of the tent, continuing to work near the burning fire.
One evening, when the men stayed late in the forest, a devil came to the tent where the women lived. Having entered the tent, she sat on the threshold and silently watched the women at work. The women, looking sideways at her, noticed that when her gaze fell on the children, her eyes instantly lit up, and saliva came out of her mouth. This was a sign of a growing appetite. Behind the secretion of saliva, they heard a subtle crack, as if a hare's untreated fur coat was being torn. Then one of the women sitting asked her:
“Grandma, what is it that’s cracking in you?”
- Yes, this old hare fur coat is torn.
The second woman, who was older than her friend, knew that it was not the hare’s fur coat that was tearing, but that her belly was swelling from the presence of good food. Then she quickly got up and went to the door, but the devil stopped her on the threshold and asked:
-Where did you go?
“I went to get some yukola,” the woman answered, “to feed you.”
And the devil let her into the street. Going out into the street, she looked around her in the hope of seeing or hearing the return of the men. So, having lost hope and lowered her exhausted hands, wandering with an empty gaze that did not notice anything, she continued to stand in some inexplicable stupor. Perhaps she would have stood for some time in such a stupor if it had not been for the voice of the devil, which brought her out of her stupor.
- Why did you stay outside for so long? - the devil asked her.
“Wait, grandma,” she answered, “I’m taking off the yukola.”
- “Yukol, yukol!” - the devil mimicked her and continued to wait for her to return from the street with yukola. At this time, a woman who was on the street saw how the moon stood behind the forest, scattering a red glow above it. Without hesitating for a moment, she shouted:
- Grandma, your yurt is on fire!
The devil, hearing her words, jumped up from her seat like a burnt woman and ran out into the street with the speed of a squirrel. And then she saw that there was a glow from the fire above her yurt. She began to choke with anger and, without wasting time, ran to her burning yurt in the hope of saving her children. And then she met on her way a river, which she had crossed some time ago in a shallow place. And so the devil went into the water. First the water reached my knees, then my waist, then my breasts, and finally my mouth. She closed her mouth and eyes and continued walking. At this time, the woman who was sitting in the tent went outside with the children. They saw how the devil disappeared under the water, saw how bubbles came out of the water. They were witnesses and participants in the death of their enemy. So the woman deceived the devil and thereby saved the lives of her children, the lives of her friend and herself.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru