I would like to be related to you.”
– “Yes”, – the Moon answered to him. “I am strong beyond words, and there is no place or nook on earth where my light does not penetrate when I walk across the sky at night. But when the Sun rises in the morning, my light gradually dims and finally disappears. Only in the evening, when the Sun goes down and its light ceases to shine on the earth, does my power return to me and I illuminate the vast earth again. No, mouse, the Sun will be stronger than me: go to him!”
So the mouse went to the Sun.
– “Sun”, – she said to him. “I am looking for the daughter of the strongest man in the world to marry. And there is a rumor that you are the strongest in the world. Will you give your daughter for me?”
– “It is true that I am strong and powerful”, – replied the Sun. “And when I rise in the morning, the darkness of the night dissipates without a trace. The stars and the Moon himself do not dare to shine in my presence, their light on earth fades before my light, and they cannot be seen at that time from the earth. But there is someone stronger than me. It is the cloud that obscures my light, that shuts out the earth from me. So go to the cloud.”
So, the mouse went to the cloud and made his proposal. The cloud thought about it and said:
– “It was truly said by the Sun: his light is strong, and the stars and the Moon pale before him, but it cannot shine on the earth when I cover the sky with a great carpet, and it cannot be seen then. But neither can I resist the wind. When it blows, it tears me to shreds and scatters me across the sky… No, the wind is stronger than me!”
So the mouse went to the wind. But even the wind did not recognize himself as the strongest.
– “It is true”, – he said. “I'm strong and I can destroy a cloud with a single blow. But there's someone stronger than me. There are bulls in the field: even if there are only a couple of them, I can't do anything to them. Calmly, peacefully they walk down the lane as if they don't feel me. They'll be stronger than me.”
The mouse turned to the bulls. The bulls told her:
– “We are strong, but sometimes the plow can overpower us when it gets caught on something in the ground. And even when the master harnesses four more pairs to us, even then we can't do anything. The plow is stronger than us.”
The mouse went to the plow. The plow said to her:
– “It is true that I am strong, and I cut the damp earth without any difficulty. But there is one root that often stops me, and I cannot cut it. Go therefore, mouse, to him, he is much stronger than I.”
The mouse had to turn to the root.
– “Yes, I am strong”, – replied the root. “And the plow cannot cut me another time. But a mouse, even the smallest one, can chew me up very easily. So the mice are stronger than me.”
– “Aha!” – exclaimed the mouse. “So, there's no one stronger than us, mice!”
So he married a simple mouse.
The goat and the hare
Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. They had a daughter. They had only one goat out of their livestock.
One day the old man left home and instructed his daughter to take the goat to the steppe and graze her to its fullest.
The girl drove the goat to the steppe, grazed her and then brought her home. In the evening the old man asked the goat how she had been grazing. The goat answered that it was bad. Then the old man sent his daughter away from home.
The next day the old man gave his wife the task of grazing the goat. She drove the goat, grazed her and brought her home in the evening. The old man asked the goat how she had been grazed. She said that the old woman had grazed her in a bad manner too. The old man chased his wife out of the house.
On the third day the old man changed his clothes and sent the goat to graze. He grazed her well, and the goat ate enough grass. In the evening he brought the goat home, dressed in his old clothes and asked the goat how the old man had grazed him. The goat said about the old man that he had grazed her in a bad manner too and she had not had enough grass.
So, the old man tied the goat with ropes and went out to sharpen his knife to slaughter her. While he was sharpening the knife, the goat broke the ropes and ran into the forest. In the forest the goat went into the hare's house and climbed on the stove. In the evening the hare came home, saw the goat and was afraid to enter the house. He sat down at the threshold and began to cry.
A bear passed by and asked him:
– “Why are you crying?”
The hare told him about his grief and the bear sat down beside him. A wolf appeared and asked the hare:
– “What happened to you, why are you crying?”
The hare told him about his grief. The wolf sympathized and sat down beside him – he could not help in any other way. The fox came, and the hare told her about his grief too. Finally, the rooster came and asked the hare:
– “What happened to you, what are you crying about?”
When the hare told him about his grief, he stood at the door and shouted three times at the top of his voice:
– cock-a-doodle-do!
The goat was frightened and flew off the stove, her legs broke, and she gave up her life.
The hare and his friends had a great feast. They ate the goat's fatty meat, leaving her legs and horns for the old woman.
The jinn king and the poor man
Once upon a time there was an old man and an old woman. They lived in poverty. The old man went hunting, and if the hunt was successful, they were fed, but if the hunt was unsuccessful, they sat in their poor shack hungry.
One day the old man hunted all day and met no one. And his wife hoped that he would bring something and they would eat.
The old man was tired and thirsty. He saw a lake and went to it to drink water. But when he reached the water, someone grabbed him by his beard and started pulling towards him.
The old man began to beg:
– “I am an old man, let me go, don't pull me towards you!”
But the one who was pulling him replied:
– “I will turn you into a young man, if only you can be useful!”
And dragged the old man after him. Out of the lake a door opened into the sea. They passed these doors and went on. From the sea a door to the land opened, and they went on land.
The Jinn King lived there. He greeted the old man with joy and said to him:
– Hello, guest! The stakes of my wattle are missing one head, and I will stake your head unless you fulfill my demand. If you do, I will give you my daughter.
The poor man looked around, and when he saw the human heads on the stakes of the wattle, his heart fell: “And my head will be cut off!” he thought.
The
