Ossetian fairy tales in English. Александр Юрьевич Кожиев

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      A deer, a bear and two hedgehogs

      Once upon a time there were two hedgehogs. They lived in the forest in a hollow tree.

      One day a woodcutter went to the forest and cut down the hollow tree. He brought it home and cut it into big pieces to make it easier to stoke. The woodcutter's wife took some logs and heated the stove with them. She wanted to cook a meal for her hungry husband.

      The hedgehogs felt the heat and prayed to God:

      – “O God, save us, and we shall give you thanks with ahsarfambalams from the lungs of the deer and honey on the chest of the bear!”

      A stench came from the hedgehogs.

      – “What stinking wood is this!” – said the mistress and threw the wood out of the stove.

      The hedgehogs were afraid to run away during the day, so they hid, and at night they got out of the village. By morning they were already in the steppe and there they agreed that one of them would settle on one mound, and the second – on another, which was far away from the first.

      So they did. Each lurked on his own mound. Meanwhile, a deer approached the first hedgehog. The hedgehog talked to him and offered him a wager:

      – “Let us race against each other”, – he said. “On this condition: whoever of us reaches the next mound first can slaughter and eat the one who has fallen behind.”

      And he pointed out to the deer the mound on which the second hedgehog was sitting.

      The deer thought to himself: “How can that hedgehog outrun me?” And so he agreed.

      And they lined up and said: “Let's run!” and they started running. The deer rushed forward with all his might, and the hedgehog ducked into the hedgerow and hid there.

      When the deer reached the mound, the hedgehog said to him:

      – “Where did you disappear? I am already waiting for you!”

      The deer was very surprised:

      – “Let's run again!” asked he the hedgehog.

      – “All right”, – said the hedgehog. “Let's run back to our mound!”

      The deer started to run, and the second hedgehog also snuck into the bush and hid. The deer ran as fast as he could, but when he reached the mound, he was surprised to see the hedgehog there.

      – “Why are you so late”, – the hedgehog said to him, “I've been here for a long time!”

      So the deer lost the bet, and the hedgehogs slaughtered him. They hid the carcass of the deer and went to the forest to look for honey. They found honey in a high hollow tree, took out the honeycomb and sat down in the tree.

      Meanwhile, a bear was passing by the area. When he saw the hedgehogs, they had already been eating the honey.

      – “Give me some honey too!” – asked the bear.

      And they answered him:

      – “Get it yourself!”

      – “Show me where the honey is!” – said the bear to them.

      – “There, you see, in the tree, the bees are flying there.” The bear climbed up the tree, took out some honeycomb and asked the hedgehogs:

      – “How do I get them down?”

      – “Lie down on your back and put the honeycomb on your chest, so you can bring them down to the ground.”

      The bear obeyed the hedgehogs' advice. He lay down on his back, flew down from the top of the tree and crashed to his death.

      The hedgehogs slaughtered the bear; they also brought the carcass of a deer. They made ahsarfambals from the deer's lungs, piled the honey on the bear's chest and prayed to the God:

      – “O God, we thank Thee! You saved us, and we fulfill our word to you: we give thanks with honey on the bear's chest and ahsarfambals made of reindeer lungs!”