There lived three brothers. We lived in nice, warm tents. They had a lot of deer. When the shepherds gathered all the reindeer into one herd, it was so huge that it could not fit on the large moss laid.
[Moss layda is a sand spit on which moss grows.]
Near the rich brothers' tents stood their uncle's thin tent. Uncle was an old man. I couldn't work much. He had no reindeer, and there was nothing to make good clothes out of. The old man lived poorly, just not dying of hunger. His old wife lived with him. They had a son whom they fed and raised.
One winter, the old people had nothing to eat. They sent their son to their rich nephews to ask them for meat.
The boy left. The rich brothers gave him deer peritoneum instead of meat.
“Eat the peritoneum,” they told the boy, “we’ll give you deer intestines.” Eat the intestines and we'll give you the lungs. Go.
The old woman cooked deer belly and fed it to the old man and his son, and ate the rest herself.
The night has passed. In the morning the old man came out of his tent and got scared. There were no good tents or deer at the camp. The rich nephews migrated somewhere at night, and the shepherds quietly drove away all the deer after them. The old man returned to the tent sad.
“Well, old woman,” he said, “we’ll die.” The rich nephews left us alone. We can't catch up with them. Where can we go on foot in such cold weather? We will wait for death.
The old woman felt sorry for her son. She began to cry. The old man also cried.
They grieved and grieved, then all three climbed into a sleeping bag, wrapped themselves up and fell asleep hungry. The old man woke up first. He crawled out of his sleeping bag and couldn’t believe himself. Why is it so warm in winter in a thin plague? The old man wanted to get out of the tent, lifted the cover from the door and dropped it out of fear. He woke up the old woman and quietly told her:
“A large multi-legged caterpillar circled our tent. She came to us for tribute. What will we give her? We have nothing. Now she won’t let us out of the plague and will eat us all.
The caterpillar lay as if dead, but heard everything that was whispered about in the dwelling.
The old man took the spear, gave it to his son and threw back the cover from the door. The caterpillar opened its eyes. The old man began to tell her:
“I know that you came for tribute, but there is nothing to give you.” The old woman and I have one little son and a spear. If you want, take them.
The caterpillar grabbed the boy with its mouth and flew away with him into the sky. The old people were left alone. They sat in the tent and grieved for their son.
The caterpillar flew for a long time. Finally she flew to the edge of the sky, sat down and released from her mouth the boy who was tightly holding his father’s spear in his hands. The boy saw in front of him the same forests, mountains, and swamps as on earth.
The boy began to live with a giant caterpillar. The caterpillar gave him water and food, but she kept thinking about something and was sad. The boy did not understand anything, he only noticed: when the caterpillar was lying on its stomach, it was night all around; when she turned over on her side, dawn began, and when she showed her stomach, it became as light as day. The caterpillar's belly was red and shone like fire.
One day another caterpillar, just as huge, but all black, flew to the light caterpillar. She sat down, and everything became dark. The black caterpillar grabbed onto the light one and began to choke it. They began to fight. If they grab onto a tree, they will tear out the tree by its roots; if they grab onto a hill, they will level it to the ground; if they catch on to a stone, they will crush the stone into sand.
The caterpillars fought, and the boy with the horn stood and looked at them. Light and darkness flashed before him. Finally, the black one began to overcome the fire-bellied caterpillar. Then the boy realized it.
- Why am I standing with a spear and not helping my bright caterpillar in battle? I'll try. Die anyway!..
The boy ran up to the black caterpillar and pierced its heart with a horn. Immediately it became as bright as day.
The fire-bellied caterpillar grabbed the boy and flew with him back to the ground. She flew to the tent, released the boy and said to the old people:
- Take your son. He helped me kill a black caterpillar that wanted to eat me because I give candles to people every morning. She wanted to make sure that there was eternal night on earth. Now this won't happen. I will return to the sky, lie down on the edge and slowly begin to turn over. When I turn my back to you, you will have night; when I turn sideways, you will see a bright dawn; When I open my belly, it will be day on earth.
The fire-bellied caterpillar endowed the boy with deer and flew away into the sky.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru