Mal is small less. little men
Chapter I
The life of a giant and dwarfs Five or six thousand years ago, when there were still many different miracles in the world, there lived somewhere very far from here, in the middle of hot Africa, a huge giant. Next to the giant was a whole kingdom of surprisingly small men. The giant was called Antey, the little men were called Pygmies. Antaeus and the Pygmies were the children of the same mother, our common old earthly grandmother. They were considered brothers and lived together, brotherly. The pygmies were so tiny, they lived behind such deserts and mountains, which is not surprising if in hundreds of years not a single person had to see them once. True, the giant could be seen hundreds of miles away, but prudence ordered to stay away from him.
A pygmy of five or six inches [Vershok is an old measure of length equal to 4.4 cm] was considered a giant among the Pygmies. From this you can judge what kind of little people they were. It would be nice to look at the little towns of the Pygmies, where the streets were five or six big house no more than a squirrel cage. The palace of the pygmy king was very large - even taller than our chair! He stood in the middle of such a vast area that it might not have been closed even with a damper from the kitchen stove. The main pygmy temple was as big as a chest of drawers, and the Pygmies gazed proudly at this majestic building. In general, the Pygmies were very skilled builders and built their houses in much the same way as birds build their nests: from straw, feathers, eggshells and other not too heavy materials. All this was held together with cherry glue instead of lime, and when such a magnificent building dried in the sun, the dwarfs found it both beautiful and comfortable.
Fields spread around the pygmy city. The largest of them was no larger than our flower garden. In these fields, little men planted wheat, barley and rye grains, and when ears grew from these grains, they seemed to the Pygmies to be huge trees. The hard-working crumbs went out to harvest with axes and tirelessly cut mature ears, as we cut pines and birches. It sometimes happened that a carelessly cut ear with a heavy head fell on the Pygmy, and each time a very unpleasant story came out of this: if the Pygmy remained alive, then at least he groaned and groaned for a long time. Such were the fathers and mothers of the Pygmies; imagine what their children were like! A whole crowd of pygmy children could comfortably sleep in our shoe or play blind man's blind with an old glove; you could easily cover the annual Pygmy with a thimble.
Funny little ones, as I said, lived next door to the giant. And the giant was really a giant! Going for a walk, he tore out a whole pine sazhen [Sazhen is an old measure of length equal to 2.13 m.] ten in height and waved it like we wave a cane. The most sharp-sighted Pygmy without a telescope could not clearly see the head of Antaeus. Sometimes, in foggy weather, the Pygmies could only see the terrible legs of the giant, which moved as if by themselves. But on a clear day, when the sun shone brightly, Antey joked very sweetly with the Pygmies: he used to stand, arms akimbo, a mountain, and his broad face smiled affectionately at his little brothers, and his only eye, the size of a carriage wheel, protruded from Antey in the middle of his forehead , blinks friendly at once to all the pygmy people. The pygmies liked to chat with their brother. Another fifty times a day would run up, used to be, to the feet of a giant, lift his head up, put his fist to his mouth and shout, as if into a trumpet, with all his might: “Ho-go, brother Antey! How are you, my dear?" And if a thin squeak reached the hearing of a giant, then he would certainly answer: “Thank you, brother Pygmy, I live a little,” but he will answer in such a way that even pygmy houses will tremble.
It was a great happiness for the Pygmies that Antaeus was friendly with them. If he were as angry with them as he was with every other living being, then with one kick he could turn their whole kingdom upside down; as soon as he set foot on a pygmy city, there would be no trace of him. But Antaeus loved his tiny brothers as much as such a rough giant could love, and they repaid him with such love as could fit in their tiny hearts. The giant, as a kind brother and a good neighbor, more than once rendered great services to the Pygmies. If their windmills stopped spinning due to a lack of wind, then Antey had only to breathe on his wings, and the mills began to grind; did the sun burn the crumbs too much, Antey sat on the ground, and his shadow covered their entire kingdom from end to end; but in general Antaeus was smart enough not to interfere in the affairs of the crumbs, and left them to manage themselves, as they know.
Pygmies did not live long, Antey's life was long, like his body. Many pygmy generations changed before Antey's eyes. The most respectable and gray-haired Pygmies did not hear from their ancestors when their friendship with Antey began. None of the Pygmies remembered ever quarreling with their giant brother. Their friendship has been inviolable since time immemorial. Once only Antaeus, through negligence, sat down at once on five thousand Pygmies who had gathered for a magnificent parade. But this was one of those sad events that no one can foresee, and therefore the Pygmies were not angry with Antaeus and only asked him to be more careful in choosing the place where he wanted to sit; on the site of the sad event, the Pygmies erected a quarter-three-high pyramid.
It was pleasant to think that creatures of such different sizes had such tender brotherly love for each other. This friendship was happiness for the Pygmies, but it was also happiness for the giant. Maybe the Pygmies were even more needed by their long brother than he was by the Pygmies. If Antaeus had not had his little brothers, he definitely would not have had a single friend in the whole world. In the whole world there was not a single giant like Antaeus, and when Antaeus stood like a huge tower, and his head went into the clouds, he was terribly lonely. Yes, and temper Antey was quarrelsome: if he met with a giant like him, he would probably start a fight with him not to the stomach, but to death. The two of them would have seemed cramped to live in the world. But with the Pygmies, Antaeus was the most good-natured, affectionate giant.
Antey's little friends, like all little people in general, had a very high opinion of themselves and, speaking of the giant, assumed a patronizing tone.
“Poor good creature,” they said of Antey. “He would be lost without us, poor fellow!” He must be terribly bored alone. Let's take a minute of our precious time and amuse our dear friend. Believe that he really needs us and is far from being as cheerful as we are. Thanks to mother earth that she did not create us the same giants!
On holidays, the Pygmies played merrily with Antaeus. It used to stretch out on the ground and take up such a space that for the short Pygmy to go from Antey's head to his feet was a very decent walk. Tiny little men merrily jumped from finger to finger, boldly hid in the folds of his clothes, climbed onto his head and, not without horror, looked into his wide mouth - a terrible abyss into which two hundred Pygmies could fall at once. The children played hide-and-seek in Antaeus's hair and beard, and the big ones bet who would run around his one eye the soonest. Other fellows from all over even jumped from Antey's nose to his upper lip.
Frankly speaking, the Pygmies sometimes bothered their brother quite a lot, as flies and mosquitoes bother us, but Antaeus took their jokes very good-naturedly. Looks, looks, it happened, at all their pranks and bursts out laughing. Yes, they will laugh so much that the whole pygmy people will close their ears so as not to go deaf.
- Ho, ho, ho! - Antaeus will roar, swaying like a fire-breathing mountain during an eruption. “Really, it’s not bad to be such a baby, and if I weren’t Antaeus, I would wish to be a Pygmy!”
The Pygmies lived happily, but they had their own concerns. They waged a constant war with the cranes, and this war dragged on for so long that the giant did not even remember when it started. Terrible battles took place at times between little men and cranes! Majestic were the Pygmies, when riding on squirrels, rabbits, rats and hedgehogs, armed with swords and spears, bows and arrows, blowing pipes made of straws with a loud cheer! rushed into battle. On these occasions, the pygmy generals, rousing the warriors to battle, told them more than once: “Remember, Pygmies, that the whole world is looking at you!” Although, to tell the truth, Antey's only, somewhat stupid eye was looking at them.
When both hostile armies converged for battle, the cranes rushed forward and, waving their wings, stretching their necks, tried to snatch someone from the pygmy ranks with their long noses. It was sad to see how sometimes the little man, floundering, jerking his legs, disappeared little by little in the long throat of a crane. But a hero, as you know, must be ready for all sorts of accidents, and, no doubt, fame consoled the Pygmies even in the crane's crop. If Antaeus noticed that the battle was already getting too hot and that his little friends were having a bad time, then he would only wave his club, and the cranes, shouting, overtaking each other, would go home. Then the pygmy army would return in triumph, of course attributing the victory to their own bravery to the skill of their generals. Long after that, solemn processions went through the streets of the pygmy cities, brilliant illuminations and fireworks burned, magnificent public dinners were held, statues of heroes were exhibited in all their small stature. If any Pygmy managed to pull a feather out of a crane's tail, then this feather proudly waved on his hat; for three or four such feathers, a brave man even became the leader of a pygmy army.
This is how the little Pygmies lived and prospered near their huge brother, and their friendship, perhaps, would have continued to this day, if one sad incident had not happened, which I will tell you about in the next chapter. Chapter II
“I found a scythe on a stone” Once, on a holiday, Antey rested, stretched out on the ground to his full height; his head lay on one border of the Pygmy state, and his legs extended far beyond the other. Little men climbed on him in heaps, climbed on his head, looked into his mouth, played hide-and-seek in his hair. At times the giant dozed, and his snoring sounded like the gusts of a storm. At such a sleepy moment, one brave pygmy climbed onto the very forehead of Antaeus and from there, as from a high tower, admired the surroundings. Suddenly Pygmy sees in the distance something so strange, unprecedented - he looks, looks and does not believe his eyes! At first it seemed to Pygmy that in the distance there was a mountain in the place where it had not been before. But he soon became convinced that this mountain was moving. Another two minutes passed, and the Pygmy saw with amazement that it was not a mountain at all, but a huge man, not as huge as Antaeus, but still quite large in order to seem to the Pygmy a monster, and we would call a stranger a man of great stature.
The pygmy was terribly worried. At first he did not know what to do, but then he quickly descended to the giant's ear, climbed in there as if into a cave, and shouted at the top of his lungs:
- Go, go! Brother Antey, get up, get up faster! Take your club, another giant is coming here and must want to fight you!
"Hey bro, stop it!" Antaeus murmured. - Stop fooling around, I want to sleep! What are the giants? added Antaeus and dozed off again.
But the Pygmy did not calm down: he looked again to where he saw the strange giant, and noticed with horror that he was already very close, so that his face and clothes could be clearly seen. The stranger had a golden helmet on his head, and his armor shone brightly in the sun. He was girded with a wide sword, a lion's skin fluttered on his shoulders, in one hand he held a huge club, which, it seemed, was even heavier than the Antaean pine. Now all the pygmy people noticed the huge stranger, and a million little voices screamed at once:
Get up, Antey! Wake up, lazy! Another giant is coming, as strong as you, and wants to fight you!
- Nonsense, nonsense! Antey murmured through his sleep. - Let whoever wants to go there.
But at this time the unfamiliar hero was coming closer and closer, and the Pygmies now saw quite clearly that if he was smaller and smaller than Antey, then his shoulders would be much broader. Oh, how terribly broad those shoulders were! The pygmies were an old, lively people, much smarter than their heavy, stupid brother, - and now they began to shout in one voice, pushed Antaeus with anything and even pricked his thick skin with their small swords.
- Get up! Get up! Get up! they shouted. "Pick up your lazy bones!" Look what kind of club the stranger has, much heavier than yours, look what kind of heroic shoulders he has, much wider than yours.
Antaeus could never hear in cold blood that there was somewhere a being equal to him in strength. With annoyance, reluctantly, he began to wake up; yawned three times, opening his mouth two fathoms at the same time; then he rubbed his eye and finally turned his head in the direction his little friends were pointing him to... But as soon as he saw the stranger, he immediately jumped to his feet, grabbed his pine tree and, terribly shaking it in the air, walked towards the stranger.
- Who are you? boomed the giant. - What do you need here? Why are you being brought here to my domain?
I didn’t tell you, children, about another strange thing that happened to Antaeus - I didn’t say it precisely because, having heard from me about so many miracles at once, you probably would not have believed me. Know, then, that every time this terrible giant touched the ground, his strength increased tenfold. His mother, the earth, as you can see, loved and cherished her clumsy son very much.
Fortunately, Antaeus was lazy and did not like to move. God forbid, if he jumped and twirled like Pygmies, he probably would then bring down the sky on us, the poor inhabitants of the earth. But, fortunately, this clumsy fellow was huge as a mountain, and almost as motionless as she was.
There is no doubt that any other person would be frightened half to death, looking at the ferocious face of an angry giant, but the unfamiliar hero standing in front of him, apparently, was not a cowardly dozen and hardly even knew what fear was. He, calmly playing with his club, measured Antey with his eyes from head to toe and did not even show very great surprise: it seemed that the stranger had seen before many giants even bigger than Antey.
"Tell me, who are you?" Antaeus roared again. What is your name and what do you need here? Answer this minute, tramp, otherwise I will try with my cane whether your skin is thick.
- You, as I see it, are very ignorant, - the stranger answered very calmly. “And I may have to teach you courtesy. Do you want to know my name?... Perhaps! They call me Hercules, and I go to the Hesperides gardens for golden apples.
Hearing the name of Hercules, Antey became even more furious: even in the African desert reached Antey a rumor about the terrible strength, extraordinary courage and miraculous exploits of Hercules. Antei, as you know, could not bear indifferently that, besides him, there were other strong creatures in the world. “So know, vagabond,” Antei roared, “that you will not go further, and you will not turn back either!”
“But how can you prevent me,” asked Hercules, “to go where I please?”
- Yes, here's how: I'll give you a taste of whether my pine is tasty! shouted the giant with an evil laugh. At that moment, Antaeus was truly the most disgusting monster. “Don’t you know,” he continued, “that I am ten, a hundred times stronger than you, and that I only have to put my foot on the ground to be a thousand times stronger? I am ashamed to kill such an insignificant creature as you, and I want to give you alive instead of a toy to my brothers, the Pygmies. Put down your club, take off your helmet, and bring here your lion's skin: I'll make myself a pair of gloves out of it!
“Come and take it off my shoulders yourself,” answered Hercules, raising his club.
Gritting his teeth with rage, the giant moved towards Hercules and raised his pine tree over him, but Hercules was much more agile than Antey: he deflected the blow that threatened him with his club and, in turn, so accurately grabbed Antey on the huge head that he, like a heavy tower, collapsed to the ground. The poor little Pygmies never dreamed that anyone could be stronger than Antaeus, but when they saw such a blow, they were seriously frightened for their clumsy brother. But Antaeus quickly got up from the ground and, having become ten times stronger than before, rushed furiously at Hercules. He terribly swung at the hero with his pine tree, but, blinded by rage, did not hit where he aimed, and hit his own innocent mother earth so that she groaned and trembled. While Antaeus was pulling out a pine tree that had entered the ground very deeply, Hercules managed to hit him again with a club between his shoulders. The giant let out a terrible, deafening cry - such a cry that, as I think, could be heard even on the other side of the African steppes: from one shaking of the air at this cry, the pygmy capital turned into ruins. But, pulling out his pine, Antey again became ten times stronger than before - and again rushed at Hercules.
This time, Hercules so deftly set up his club that Anteev's pine, hitting it, shattered into thousands of pieces. Taking advantage of this circumstance, Hercules again knocked down Antaeus; but again only made it ten times stronger than before. Is it necessary to say what rage seethed in the giant's soul? His single eye blazed like a circle of red-hot iron. Antey no longer had a weapon, but there were still two fists left, each the size of a good boar. Waving its arms, foaming at the mouth, the enraged monster again rushed at Hercules.
- Wait! Here I am for you! roared Antaeus, beside himself with rage.
Then Hercules saw that he could not cope with Antaeus if he continued to knock him down. Each time the giant becomes stronger and can finally become stronger than Hercules himself. Hercules was not only strong, but also smart. He threw down the club with which he won so many amazing victories, and prepared to meet Antaeus with his chest.
– Perhaps! he shouted at the monster. - Your pine tree is broken, let's try which of us fights better.
- O! Now you won't leave me! roared the overjoyed giant, who considered himself the best wrestler in the whole world. “Let’s fight, I’ll throw you into a place where you won’t get out forever and ever.”
A terrible fight began. Hercules, catching convenient minute, grabbed Antaeus in the middle of the body and lifted him above the ground. Oh what a picture it was! A huge giant, lifted into the air, chatted with his long arms and legs and dodged with his whole clumsy body, as Small child, which the father raises to the ceiling. But as soon as Antaeus was torn off the ground, his strength began to disappear. Hercules soon noticed that his enemy was getting weaker and weaker, that he was beating and spinning quieter and quieter, and finally no longer screaming, but only wheezing: the monster was dying. Separated from the earth, the giant could not live even five minutes: the clever Hercules guessed this secret and defeated the giant, who seemed invincible.
When the giant stopped breathing, Hercules threw his unconscious body to the ground. Now even mother damp earth could not resurrect her lifeless son. I believe that the huge skeleton of Antaeus still lies at the present time in the same place where Hercules threw it. But if the travelers saw this skeleton, they probably mistook it for the bones of some huge antediluvian animal.Chapter III
Revenge of the Pygmies for their brother Oh, what a plaintive groan the poor Pygmies raised when they saw what the stranger had done to their huge brother! It must be assumed that even Hercules heard these desperate cries, but he probably thought that it was some birds squeaking, frightened from their nests by the sound of weapons and the cries of Antaeus.
Hercules was tired: he walked from afar and the battle tired him. He wanted to sleep, and without hesitation, he threw his lion skin from his shoulders to the ground and calmly lay down on it.
The pygmies were even more offended by such indifferent contempt of the newcomer and, making sure that he fell asleep, they gathered for a national meeting. A huge crowd of little people covered an area of arshins [Arshin is an old measure of length, a little less than a meter.] of 30 square meters. One of the most eloquent pygmy orators, who was as skillful with his tongue as he was with his weapons, climbed the first beautiful fly agaric that came across and from there spoke to the crowd of fellow citizens surrounding him.
“Great Pygmies, great little people!” he said. “We all saw what a terrible public disaster broke out over us and what a bloody insult was inflicted on the greatness of our people! Look: there lies Antaeus, our friend and brother! Killed, killed within the borders of our state! Killed by an insignificant alien that took him by surprise and fought him... But can this murder be called a battle?! No one has heard of such a battle so far: neither the giant nor the Pygmy. And now, completing his villainy with an insult, the murderer lay down to sleep in our midst just as calmly, as if he did not care about our revenge. Think, great Pygmies, what will the world say about us, what will impartial history say, if we leave this monstrous, unheard-of insult unavenged? Antaeus was our brother, the son of our mother, from whom we received our body and our brave hearts; he knew it - and was proud of our relationship! He was our faithful ally and fell fighting for his honor and for our people's rights. We and our ancestors lived with him in friendly relations from time immemorial. Remember how often all of our great people rested under the shadow of Antaeus! Remember how our little ones, playing, hid in the rings of his hair! Remember how carefully his mighty foot moved between us! And now this good brother, this quiet and affectionate friend, this brave and faithful ally of ours, this virtuous giant, this impeccable Antaeus - is killed, killed! Lying lifeless, insensible, motionless, like a mountain! Oh sorry! Tears involuntarily flow from my eyes, but I see that your eyes are also watered with tears, and I am not ashamed to cry. Can, dare the world accuse us if we flood it with our tears?!
But to the point! .. - the speaker continued. - Not tears, no, not tears, but revenge should be the consolation of heroes. Great Pygmies! Can we bear this insult? Shall we allow a perfidious foreigner to leave our state with impunity, to go to distant lands and boast of his feat there? Shouldn't we make him lay down his bones in the same place where the corpse of our friend and brother lies? May the skeleton of this villain forever testify to the world about the power of pygmy revenge. Revenge, revenge! I am sure that the decision of this meeting will be worthy of our national character and will increase, and not decrease, the glory that our ancestors have passed on to us and that we have so valiantly supported in our battles with cranes!
The speaker's speech was interrupted by an explosion of applause. The crowd unanimously yelled that the people's honor must be saved. After reassuring the listeners with a wave of his hand, the speaker continued:
“Now it only remains for us to decide the question: will we fight as a whole people against our common enemy, or will one of us be chosen to challenge the murderer of our dear brother to a duel? Oh, how I would rejoice if this great honor fell on me! And believe me, fellow citizens, that no matter what fate awaits me, I will not lose the honor of our homeland, the honor bequeathed to us by our brave ancestors. Never ever! Even if the villainous hand that killed the great Antaeus laid me on the same native land to whose defense I lay down my life!
At these words, the courageous Pygmy drew his terrible sword the size of a penknife and threw the scabbard far away from him. Enthusiastic cries and applause were the answer to the orator; the terrible noise would have continued for a long time if at that moment it had not been drowned out by strong breathing or simply by the snoring of the sleeping Hercules.
After a short discussion on how to act against a common enemy, all the warriors of the Pygmy people took up arms and courageously marched on Hercules. And he, unfortunate, continued to sleep very soundly, he did not even see in his sleep what troubles the Pygmies were preparing for him. Ahead was a twenty-thousand-strong detachment of shooters, putting arrows on the bowstrings, behind this detachment was another, which instead of weapons carried shovels, bundles of hay and various garbage: these brave men had to dig out the eyes of Hercules and, plugging his mouth and nostrils with anything, strangle the villain. But the whirlwind coming out of the nose and mouth of the enemy carried away the brave warriors like a hurricane, which prevented them from fulfilling their mission.
After such a failure, the Pygmies again held a council of war, at which it was decided to burn Hercules alive. Thousands of pygmy warriors, working with all their might, applied twigs, straw, brushwood and put them over the head of Hercules. Meanwhile, the pygmy archers stood at such a distance as to launch a whole cloud of arrows into the face of the enemy, as soon as he wakes up. When everything was ready, they brought a burning brand and set fire to the brushwood. A strong flame instantly flared up, and the enemy would certainly have burned down if he had remained lying on the spot. Pygmies, as you know, though small people, can set fires just as well as the most big man. But as soon as Hercules felt that they were beginning to fry him, he jumped to his feet at that very moment and began to put out his hair, which was already on fire.
- What else does that mean? he shouted, looking around in amazement and not noticing anyone.
At that moment, twenty thousand arrows, buzzing like a swarm of mosquitoes, rushed straight into the face of the enemy, but I believe that few of them pierced the hero’s skin, which, as a hero’s skin should be, was very thick.
- The villain! – shouted at this time all the Pygmies at once. - You killed our great brother and ally, we declare you a bloody war of life and death, a war until we put you in your place!
Hercules had already put out his hair at that time, and the cry of a million thin voices reached his ears. He looked around in surprise, but saw no one. Finally, by chance, he glanced at the ground and noticed that thousands of tiny creatures were swarming at his feet. Hercules saw many miracles, but he had never seen such small people. He bent down, caught one of the Pygmies in his fingers and, placing it in his palm, raised it to his eyes in order to take a closer look at what it was. It happened that this Pygmy was the very eloquent speaker who, as you remember, spoke such a heroic speech from the top of the fly agaric and asked the people for permission to challenge Hercules to a duel.
What are you, my little friend? Hercules asked, looking with surprise at the tiny creature standing on his wide palm. “Who am I? ... I am your enemy!” answered the courageous Pygmy. - You killed the giant Antey, our brother and friend, a true ally of our great people. We have decided to take revenge on you, and I - I challenge you to a mortal battle!
The courageous squeak of the Pygmy and the warlike appearance of this tiny creature, so bravely standing in the palm of his hand, struck Hercules. He burst into thunderous laughter and almost strangled the little brave man, involuntarily clasping his hand in a fit of convulsive laughter.
“I swear on my honor, this is a miracle of miracles!” - shouted the hero. “I have seen a hydra with nine heads, deer with golden horns, six-legged men, three-headed dogs, but here, in my palm, stands a miracle beyond anything I have ever seen. Your body, my friend, is smaller than my little finger, but what should your soul be?
"It's as big as yours!" answered Pygmy calmly and with dignity.
Hercules was touched by the invincible courage of the tiny creature and could not help but feel for him the respect that one hero involuntarily feels for another.
“My brave little people! - said Hercules, carefully lowering the brave man to the ground and bowing low to the great nation. “There is no way in the world that I would dare to insult such brave little people as you. Your hearts seem to me such great hearts that I absolutely do not understand how they can fit in such small bodies. I ask you for peace, on the condition that I be allowed to take five steps and on the sixth find myself outside the borders of your state. Farewell! I will try to step more carefully so as not to crush any of you, which would be very regrettable to me. But you, for your part, take the trouble to step aside. Go, go, go, go, go, step aside! For the first time, I admit I'm defeated!
Some of the writers say that Hercules took the whole great nation of Pygmies into his lion skin, brought them home to Greece and gave them instead of toys to the children of King Eristhenes, but this is a mistake: Hercules did not touch any of the Pygmies and left them in the same place where they lived . Perhaps their descendants still continue to live in the same place, still build their little cities, still cultivate their little fields, lull their tiny children to sleep, give their little battles to the cranes, write and read little stories. his great deeds. In these stories it is written, perhaps, that many, many centuries ago, the courageous Pygmies avenged the death of their brother and friend, the giant Antey: they forced the glorious and powerful Hercules to admit defeat and put him to flight.
One shoemaker became so impoverished that he had nothing left but a piece of leather for just one pair of boots. Well, he cut these boots in the evening and decided to start sewing the next morning. And since his conscience was clear, he calmly lay down in bed and fell asleep sweetly.
In the morning, when the shoemaker wanted to get to work, he saw that both boots were completely ready on his table.
The shoemaker was very surprised and did not know what to think about this. He began to carefully examine the boots. They were so cleanly made that the shoemaker could not find a single uneven stitch. It was a real miracle of shoemaking!
A buyer soon arrived. He liked the boots very much and paid more for them than usual. Now the shoemaker could buy leather for two pairs of boots.
He cut them in the evening and wanted to get to work the next morning with fresh strength.
But he did not have to do this: when he got up, the boots were already ready. The buyers again did not keep themselves waiting and gave him so much money that he already bought leather for four pairs of boots.
In the morning he found these four pairs ready.
Since then, it has become customary: what he sews in the evening, it is ready by morning. And soon the shoemaker again became a wealthy man.
One evening, shortly before the New Year, when the shoemaker cut his boot again, he said to his wife:
What if we stay up that night and see who is helping us so well?
The wife was delighted. She dimmed the light, they both hid in the corner behind a dress hanging there and waited to see what would happen.
It was midnight, and suddenly two little naked men appeared. They sat down at the shoemaker's table, took the cut boots, and began to stab, sew, and nail so deftly and quickly with their little hands that the astonished shoemaker could not take his eyes off them. The little men worked tirelessly until all the boots were sewn. Then they jumped up and ran away.
The next morning the shoemaker's wife said:
These little people have made us rich and we must thank them. They don't have any clothes, and they'll probably get cold. You know? I want to sew them shirts, kaftans, panties and knit each of them a pair of stockings. Make them a pair of shoes too.
With pleasure, - the husband answered.
In the evening, when everything was ready, they put their gifts on the table instead of the cut boots. And they hid themselves to see what the little men would do.
At midnight the little men appeared and wanted to get to work. But instead of leather for boots, they saw gifts prepared for them. The people were surprised at first, and then very happy.
They immediately dressed, straightened their beautiful coats and sang:
What handsome men we are!
Like to take a look.
Nice job-
You can rest.
Then they began to jump, dance, jump over chairs and benches. And finally, dancing, they ran out the door.
Since then, they have not appeared again. But the shoemaker lived well until his death.
The poor old widow had three dwarf sons, and they were so small that no one had ever seen anything like it: the eldest was three inches tall, the middle one was two, and the youngest was an inch.
There was nothing to eat at home, and so they went to work to feed themselves and their old mother. Once they were more fortunate than usual: they came home and brought with them in the form of earnings three goats and three loaves of bread. They considered their earnings to be real wealth and began to divide: of course, each had a goat and bread. The more you have, the more you want to have; so our dwarfs also took it into their heads to try their luck again: would they not earn enough so that they no longer need. The elder goes to work, taking with him a goat and bread. He goes along the big road, turns into all the auls and asks if they need a worker somewhere; at last, passing through the field, he noticed a giant plowing the earth.
- Do you need a worker? asked the dwarf. The giant looked at the dwarf, barely visible from the ground, and said mockingly:
- Perhaps, such a worker as you is just what I need; hire for a whole year: I won’t stand up for the price!
Bargained for a chest of gold.
- Well, since you have already hired me, then go to my house, roast your goat well and cut your bread into pieces; let's have dinner together!
The dwarf went to fulfill the order of his new master. The giant's wife did not interfere in anything and left the worker in charge, knowing, of course, how it would all end.
In the evening the giant came home and wanted to sit down at the table; but there was no chair or bench in the house.
“Go out into the yard and bring something to sit on.” But look, - added the owner, - that this thing was neither of stone, nor of earth, nor of wood!
No matter how much the worker searched, he could not find such a thing. When he returned, he noticed, to his annoyance, that everything he had prepared for both of them had been eaten by the owner. In his hearts he asks the owner:
Where did my share go?
- Excuse me, please, - the giant answered, - I was so afraid to eat; I'll eat you for a snack too! - With these words, he grabbed the dwarf and swallowed it.
The brothers waited a long time for the elder to return. Then the middle one, also wanting to try his luck, decided to go to work; the youngest stayed with the old woman's mother. It so happened that the middle one went the same way as the older one.
It is not surprising that he stumbled upon the same giant: he suffered the same fate as his older brother.
Finally, he decided to go to work Vershok. Since he also followed the same path, he also hired himself as a worker for the giant for the same wages for which his older brothers were hired. And the giant sent him to his house with the same assignment.
While the giant was plowing, he prepared supper from his goat and bread; he divided all this in half and immediately dug a small hole, which he covered with the grass he had cut. In the evening the giant came.
“Go outside and look for something to sit on.” But beware,” he added, “that this thing be neither of stone, nor of earth, nor of wood!
Vershok realized what was the matter, and dragged an iron plow with which the giant plowed.
- Sit down, dummy! Vershok said at the same time.
The giant was surprised at his ingenuity and began to greedily eat his share. Vershok, of course, could not eat as much as a giant, and what he did not eat he threw imperceptibly into the pit. The giant was more and more surprised, seeing the voracity of Vershk; he was still finishing his share when Vershok, having finished his, began puffing smugly and stroking his belly.
- Give me, please, another piece of your share, - said Vershok, - I'm so hungry for food!
“You already ate more than you should!” the giant replied with annoyance.
- What you? Vershok said. “I can still eat you!” The giant, narrow-minded in mind, nevertheless believed and chickened out. The next day the owner went to plow with his worker. The smart Vershok kept cheating on his master, pretending to be a strong man; the giant, in fact, worked, and Vershok only pretended that he himself was working, and shouted at the owner; the giant starved for whole days, and Vershok tasted his portion, which he hid in the pit. The giant, of course, was weary of all this, but it was already difficult for him to get rid of the clever dwarf, who had completely taken possession of him.
One evening they returned from the field; the owner hesitated in the yard, and meanwhile Vershok darted into the room and hid behind the hearth. The disgruntled owner came in and, thinking that Vershok was still busy in the barn, began to complain to his wife:
“You know, wife, our servant has extraordinary strength. But it's not about strength: he's smart beyond his height. He will destroy us both, - added the giant, - if we somehow do not put an end to him. That's what came to my mind: when he sleeps, we will nail him down with a heavy stone!
The owner and his wife set off to look for a suitable stone, while Vershok prepared a bundle of reeds, wrapped it all in a blanket and laid it on his bed; he hid himself in the same place. The giant and the giantess dragged a heavy stone and piled it on the dwarf's bed; the reeds began to crackle, and they imagined that it was the bones of a dwarf crackling.
Having got rid, as it seemed to them, of the worker, they lay down to sleep. Vershok also slept well in his corner. At dawn, he got up before everyone else, went to the bed of the giants and began to mock them.
“You thought, mindless giants,” said Vershok, “that you could easily deal with me; I have more power than both of you. This pebble, with which you thought to crush me, tickled me gloriously!
Here the giants were finally convinced that they could not cope with the smart dwarf, and therefore decided to pay him off as soon as possible and let him go home. They gave him a whole chest of gold instead of the promised chest.
“Here you are,” said the giant, “the payment for your service, even more than the due; get yourself home!
- What do you think, you kind of stupid, make me carry such a trunk; bring it yourself!
The giant was completely at a loss and, not knowing what to do with the clever Vershk, he shouldered the chest and set off. Vershok, not wanting to tire himself, jumped on the chest and began to show the giant the way. There was a large pear tree with ripe pears halfway along the path. Approaching him, the giant stopped, bent down a tree and began to feast on pears; Vershok sat down on a branch and also ate pears. When the giant, having eaten his fill of pears, let go of the bent tree, Vershok, who was sitting on a knot, described an arc and flew to the other side. The dwarf would have crashed to the ground if there had not been a fox, which caught him right between his legs. Sitting on top of her and holding her tightly by the ears, the dwarf called out:
“Look, giant, how slow-witted you are!” You ate pears, and when I saw a fox, I jumped over the tree and caught the prey!
– How is it so? - said the giant in bewilderment; he still did not guess what was the matter; holding the fox a little, Vershok released it and again jumped onto the chest.
The respect and even some kind of superstitious fear that the giant began to have for Vershka had no limits since then.
Before reaching the house, Vershok stopped the giant and said that he would go and ask his mother to cook something to eat. After some time, he returned, and they went to Vershka's house. Vershka's mother fumbles around the hearth and doesn't say a word. The giant placed the chest near the old woman and, stepping back, sat down at the door.
- Mother! Vershok said. “Give our dear guest something to eat!”
What will I give him? the mother asked.
- Like what? After all, when I went to work, I left you two giants killed by me; have you already eaten them?
“Do you eat giants?” the guest asked in amazement.
- How; we eat their meat every now and then. I'll probably have to eat you, as you ate my two brothers. Having said this, Vershok began to close the door.
Beside himself with fear, the giant kicked the door, and Vershok flew far to the side, and rushed to run without looking back. The top of this was all that was needed.
Thus, Vershok became rich and lived well; but sometimes he laughed heartily, remembering what fools those giants were!
Tonechka lived on Stroiteley Street, house number 3, apartment 23, on the third floor of a 5-storey building, during the day she went to school, walked in the yard, studied lessons, and in the evening, if she went to bed on time, Mom told her a fairy tale.
So it was on this day.
A fairy tale that day was about Lilliputians.
“Far, far away in the forest,” Mom began slowly: “Where no man has gone before, in a place that is not on any map, there lived, there were little men - midgets.”
They built tree houses, laid paths and real big roads, gathered apples and strawberries, flower honey and nuts for the winter, and together defended themselves from birds of prey and animals. They got along just like real people.
The Lilliputians lived in several cities, which were located at a very large (by Lilliputian standards) distance from each other (two weeks of travel, or even three if it rains or the wind blows). The cities were named after the colors of the rainbow and all differed from each other in something special.
For example, in the city of Orange (which we are talking about) there was a tall, tall tower made of wood as hard as stone, which was higher than all the trees, and seemed to rest on the sky with its spire. And only the most daring of the Lilliputians could reach the peaked top, look into the distance from there and see the boundless green sea of the forest and the huge orange Sun.
It was an ordinary day, and nothing special had happened yet, but some painful expectation still hung in the air. And in the evening came the sad news from the Green City. A real famine began there - the birds destroyed the store and ate all the food supplies.
It was early spring, and the new harvest was still very far away.
At the city council in Orange City, an unequivocal decision was made - to help.
The expedition was equipped quickly, they chose the ten largest apples, and decided to roll them on the ground. Many wanted to get on this expedition, but they chose only those from whom the campaign would be more useful.
The other group, according to the plan, was supposed to fly in an airship, fly faster and warn that help was already close. Flying in an airship over such a long distance was also a rather dangerous undertaking, but the dangers in the sky, of course, could not be compared with those that could lie in wait for the midgets on the ground.
The journey began on a clear sunny day, and the road could have been easy:
if apples weren't so heavy,
if the rain that began on the third day of the journey had not washed away all the roads,
if I didn't have to stop - and build rafts and sail on them, and not along the shortest route until the weather improved,
if after that you didn’t have to climb the mountain after,
if on the tenth day of the journey the Lilliputians had not been attacked by apple eaters, from whom they barely fought back, while losing the two largest apples.
But by the end of the third week of the journey, the Lilliputians, despite all the difficulties, nevertheless reached the Green City. At the same time, an airship arrived. The weather was not windy, and it was not possible to fly faster.
The whole city came out to meet the airship, from which, even before it landed, they said a speech about mutual assistance and friendship.
They decided not to show the tortured, unwashed and dirty Lilliputians from the walking expedition to anyone at the celebration, which began immediately after the airship landed. True, they were washed, fed and put to bed, but they didn’t need anything else.
And you, Tonechka, if you were a Lilliputian, would you like to fly to the aid of other Lilliputians in an airship or make your way across the Earth? Mom suddenly asked.
Tonka thought.
“Fly high in the sky,” Mom continued: “Swim slowly and calmly, touching the tops of the trees, admiring the blue sky, snow-white clouds, away from adversity and danger.
Tonechka clearly presented this bewitching picture, clouds like white soft cotton wool, blue-blue sky, bright sunlight and a huge gray airship balloon overhead.
“Or roll huge apples through a forest full of dangers, frightened by every rustle, hide at night in the darkness of dense trees from wild animals, so that in the morning with the first rays to continue an endless journey,” Mom quietly finished the phrase.
(And what would you choose, dear children?)
Tonechka felt that for some reason she did not want to choose what she should choose without any hesitation. She noted that for the first time in her life she solves such a difficult task, when everything is clearer than clear, but something does not allow her to make a choice. What is this?
This is what lives in you, Mom guessed her thoughts, you can be wrong, but what you have there is never wrong. It knows exactly who you are and what you need to do, just listen and you will hear everything!
I would be the one who sent them there, - Tonechka had an unexpected thought.
Not tricky! - Mom said softly, - Listen to yourself and say what you hear.
(What did Tonechka answer, - what do you think?)
Yes, that's exactly what she chose.
Page 1 of 3
Chapter I
Life of a giant and dwarfs
About five or six thousand years ago, when there were still many different miracles in the world, there lived somewhere very far from here, in the middle of hot Africa, a huge giant. Next to the giant was a whole kingdom of surprisingly small men. The giant was called Antey, the little men were called Pygmies. Antaeus and the Pygmies were the children of the same mother, our common old earthly grandmother. They were considered brothers and lived together, brotherly. The pygmies were so tiny, they lived behind such deserts and mountains, which is not surprising if in hundreds of years not a single person had to see them once. True, the giant could be seen hundreds of miles away, but prudence ordered to stay away from him.
A pygmy of five or six inches [Vershok is an old measure of length equal to 4.4 cm] was considered a giant among the Pygmies. From this you can judge what kind of little people they were. It would have been nice to see the little towns of the Pygmies, where the streets were five or six-quarters wide, the pavements were of tiny pebbles, and the biggest house no bigger than a squirrel's cage. The palace of the pygmy king was very large - even taller than our chair! He stood in the middle of such a vast area that it might not have been closed even with a damper from the kitchen stove. The main pygmy temple was as big as a chest of drawers, and the Pygmies gazed proudly at this majestic building. In general, the Pygmies were very skilled builders and built their houses in much the same way as birds build their nests: from straw, feathers, eggshells and other not too heavy materials. All this was held together with cherry glue instead of lime, and when such a magnificent building dried in the sun, the dwarfs found it both beautiful and comfortable.
Fields spread around the pygmy city. The largest of them was no larger than our flower garden. In these fields, little men planted wheat, barley and rye grains, and when ears grew from these grains, they seemed to the Pygmies to be huge trees. The hard-working crumbs went out to harvest with axes and tirelessly cut mature ears, as we cut pines and birches. It sometimes happened that a carelessly cut ear with a heavy head fell on the Pygmy, and each time a very unpleasant story came out of this: if the Pygmy remained alive, then at least he groaned and groaned for a long time. Such were the fathers and mothers of the Pygmies; imagine what their children were like! A whole crowd of pygmy children could comfortably sleep in our shoe or play blind man's blind with an old glove; you could easily cover the annual Pygmy with a thimble.
Funny little ones, as I said, lived next door to the giant. And the giant was really a giant! Going for a walk, he tore out a whole pine sazhen [Sazhen is an old measure of length equal to 2.13 m.] ten in height and waved it like we wave a cane. The most sharp-sighted Pygmy without a telescope could not clearly see the head of Antaeus. Sometimes, in foggy weather, the Pygmies could only see the terrible legs of the giant, which moved as if by themselves. But on a clear day, when the sun shone brightly, Antey joked very sweetly with the Pygmies: he used to stand, arms akimbo, a mountain, and his broad face smiled affectionately at his little brothers, and his only eye, the size of a carriage wheel, protruded from Antey in the middle of his forehead , blinks friendly at once to all the pygmy people. The pygmies liked to chat with their brother. Another fifty times a day would run up, used to be, to the feet of a giant, lift his head up, put his fist to his mouth and shout, as if into a trumpet, with all his might: “Ho-go, brother Antey! How are you, my dear?" And if a thin squeak reached the hearing of a giant, then he would certainly answer: “Thank you, brother Pygmy, I live a little,” but he will answer in such a way that even pygmy houses will tremble.
It was a great happiness for the Pygmies that Antaeus was friendly with them. If he were as angry with them as he was with every other living being, then with one kick he could turn their whole kingdom upside down; as soon as he set foot on a pygmy city, there would be no trace of him. But Antaeus loved his tiny brothers as much as such a rough giant could love, and they repaid him with such love as could fit in their tiny hearts. The giant, as a kind brother and a good neighbor, more than once rendered great services to the Pygmies. If their windmills stopped spinning due to a lack of wind, then Antey had only to breathe on his wings, and the mills began to grind; did the sun burn the crumbs too much, Antey sat on the ground, and his shadow covered their entire kingdom from end to end; but in general Antaeus was smart enough not to interfere in the affairs of the crumbs, and left them to manage themselves, as they know.
Pygmies did not live long, Antey's life was long, like his body. Many pygmy generations changed before Antey's eyes. The most respectable and gray-haired Pygmies did not hear from their ancestors when their friendship with Antey began. None of the Pygmies remembered ever quarreling with their giant brother. Their friendship has been inviolable since time immemorial. Once only Antaeus, through negligence, sat down at once on five thousand Pygmies who had gathered for a magnificent parade. But this was one of those sad events that no one can foresee, and therefore the Pygmies were not angry with Antaeus and only asked him to be more careful in choosing the place where he wanted to sit; on the site of the sad event, the Pygmies erected a quarter-three-high pyramid.
It was pleasant to think that creatures of such different sizes had such tender brotherly love for each other. This friendship was happiness for the Pygmies, but it was also happiness for the giant. Maybe the Pygmies were even more needed by their long brother than he was by the Pygmies. If Antaeus had not had his little brothers, he definitely would not have had a single friend in the whole world. In the whole world there was not a single giant like Antaeus, and when Antaeus stood like a huge tower, and his head went into the clouds, he was terribly lonely. Yes, and temper Antey was quarrelsome: if he met with a giant like him, he would probably start a fight with him not to the stomach, but to death. The two of them would have seemed cramped to live in the world. But with the Pygmies, Antaeus was the most good-natured, affectionate giant.
Antey's little friends, like all little people in general, had a very high opinion of themselves and, speaking of the giant, assumed a patronizing tone.
“Poor good creature,” they said of Antey. “He would be lost without us, poor fellow!” He must be terribly bored alone. Let's take a minute of our precious time and amuse our dear friend. Believe that he really needs us and is far from being as cheerful as we are. Thanks to mother earth that she did not create us the same giants!
On holidays, the Pygmies played merrily with Antaeus. It used to stretch out on the ground and take up such a space that for the short Pygmy to go from Antey's head to his feet was a very decent walk. Tiny little men merrily jumped from finger to finger, boldly hid in the folds of his clothes, climbed onto his head and, not without horror, looked into his wide mouth - a terrible abyss into which two hundred Pygmies could fall at once. The children played hide-and-seek in Antaeus's hair and beard, and the big ones bet who would run around his one eye the soonest. Other fellows from all over even jumped from Antey's nose to his upper lip.
Frankly speaking, the Pygmies sometimes bothered their brother quite a lot, as flies and mosquitoes bother us, but Antaeus took their jokes very good-naturedly. Looks, looks, it happened, at all their pranks and bursts out laughing. Yes, they will laugh so much that the whole pygmy people will close their ears so as not to go deaf.
- Ho, ho, ho! - Antaeus will roar, swaying like a fire-breathing mountain during an eruption. “Really, it’s not bad to be such a baby, and if I weren’t Antaeus, I would wish to be a Pygmy!”
The Pygmies lived happily, but they had their own concerns. They waged a constant war with the cranes, and this war dragged on for so long that the giant did not even remember when it started. Terrible battles took place at times between little men and cranes! Majestic were the Pygmies, when riding on squirrels, rabbits, rats and hedgehogs, armed with swords and spears, bows and arrows, blowing pipes made of straws with a loud cheer! rushed into battle. On these occasions, the pygmy generals, rousing the warriors to battle, told them more than once: “Remember, Pygmies, that the whole world is looking at you!” Although, to tell the truth, Antey's only, somewhat stupid eye was looking at them.
When both hostile armies converged for battle, the cranes rushed forward and, waving their wings, stretching their necks, tried to snatch someone from the pygmy ranks with their long noses. It was sad to see how sometimes the little man, floundering, jerking his legs, disappeared little by little in the long throat of a crane. But a hero, as you know, must be ready for all sorts of accidents, and, no doubt, fame consoled the Pygmies even in the crane's crop. If Antaeus noticed that the battle was already getting too hot and that his little friends were having a bad time, then he would only wave his club, and the cranes, shouting, overtaking each other, would go home. Then the pygmy army would return in triumph, of course attributing the victory to their own bravery to the skill of their generals. Long after that, solemn processions went through the streets of the pygmy cities, brilliant illuminations and fireworks burned, magnificent public dinners were held, statues of heroes were exhibited in all their small stature. If any Pygmy managed to pull a feather out of a crane's tail, then this feather proudly waved on his hat; for three or four such feathers, a brave man even became the leader of a pygmy army.
So the little Pygmies lived and prospered near their huge brother, and their friendship, perhaps, would have continued to this day, if one sad incident had not happened, which I will tell you about in the next chapter.