Comment
Recorded from
Vasilij Shalugin
in 1990.
Translation
(16-1) There was an old man and an old woman.
(16-2) They had three sons.
(16-3) They had three sons. They went hunting on the riverheads and on the river mouths and brought up their children.
(16-4) The children did not do anything.
(16-5) When they went hunting, they did not catch anything.
(16-6) That old man and old woman were always busy feeding their children, but they themselves didn't have any food to eat in winter.
(16-7) Sometimes they starved.
(16-8) So one day the old man and the old woman talked and said: "Let our children live on their own.
(16-9) We won't support them."
(16-10) "You tell them, you are their father," said the old woman.
(16-11) The old woman called her children and said: "Go to your father.
(16-12) Your father is calling you. We shall talk."
(16-13) The elder son was called Hare.
(16-14) The middle son was called Horse.
(16-15) The younger son was called Elk.
(16-16) "Well, stay here on your own on the bank of the lake. You will grow up while walking around in the forest, looking for food and eating it. Find your food yourself."
(16-17) The old man and the old woman said that and left carrying the sledge.
(16-18) They went somewhere. Why didn't they help those children? They didn't have the heart.
(16-19) So three of them stayed. Should they starve? Once Hare felt hungry and cooked a willow tree. Elk saw that, stood up and began eating it, and so did Horse.
(16-20) But Horse said that the willow was not good to eat. He crossed the river, reached a small lake river, and started gathering the grass there and eating it.
(16-21) Elk saw that and also started gathering and eating it.
(16-22) That is why his feet split in two and his hooves also split in two.
(16-23) It was bad for him to gather it. His legs were oblong.
(16-24) Horse had good legs. He raked it in himself.
(16-25) And their elder brother Hare was a clever person. He could walk on top of swaying willow branches.
(16-26) When his younger brothers were walking on the stones, Hare said: "I have found some willows", and used them as food, and Horse said: "I have found something under the snow.
(16-27) I found some grass, gathered it and ate it."
(16-28) And Elk said: "I haven't found any willow or grass.
(16-29) I haven't found anything at all. I will look for some."
(16-30) He walked everywhere on the river banks and found some young willow trees.
(16-31) Neither Hare nor Horse had eaten these young willow trees.
(16-32) Elk was eating them as he walked around and made reserves of food from them.
(16-33) So they lived like that, providing for themselves. But one day Hare took the stores Elk had laid up, carried them away and hid them somewhere else.
(16-34) Elk came to his brothers and said: "I have found some food, so I will live on my own. I have come to leave you."
(16-35) He left.
(16-36) But they went with him as well.
(16-37) Then Elk searched for his reserves but couldn't find anything.
(16-38) He didn't know where they disappeared to.
(16-39) He searched, but still couldn't find anything and cried.
(16-40) When he was searching and standing there, Hare tried not to laugh. He was about to laugh at how Elk was behaving. But God was walking in the middle land at that time, saw him, and cursed his face.
(16-41) Horse was standing trying not to laugh. That is why a horse always keeps its lips pressed together, blowing its nose. A hare too always stands as if it is about to laugh, its eyes bulging, pressing its lips together.
(16-42) An elk is thinking "if only there were a willow branch here" and is crying. Its nose is crooked.
(16-43) That's what happens now.
(16-44) Apparently the brothers became animals, but once they were men.
(16-45) This is the end.
Glosses