Amur Tales. How the bear and the chipmunk ceased to be friends

When the Khingan Mountains were still small, when it was necessary to shoot from a bow and hear the arrow on the other side of the Khingan fall - that's when the bear and the chipmunk were friends.
They lived together in the same den. Together we went hunting. We divided everything in half: whatever the bear gets, the chipmunk eats; whatever the chipmunk gets, the bear eats. So they were friends for a very long time. Yes it is known - the envious friendship always hurts the eyes. Until friends quarrel, they will not calm down ...
Once a chipmunk came out of the den, he wanted to snap nuts. He met a fox. She twirled her red tail, greeted, asks:
- How are you, neighbor?
The chipmunk told her everything without hiding.
The fox listened to him, and it became enviable that the two animals lived together and did not quarrel. And she herself was not friends with anyone, because she was always cunning and strove to deceive everyone.
The fox pretended to feel sorry for the chipmunk, folded her paws on her stomach, let out a tear: it is known that a deceiver is worth nothing to cry. Is talking:
- Poor you, poor! I feel sorry for you.
The chipmunk got scared:
- Why do you feel sorry for me, neighbor?
- You stupid! - the fox answers. - The bear offends you, but you do not even know about it.
- How so - offend? The chipmunk asks.
- But like this. When a bear takes its prey, who is the first to tear it with its teeth?
“Brother-bear,” the chipmunk answers.
- You see, he gets the sweetest piece. You, go, have not seen a good piece for a long time, you feed on bear scraps! That is why you are small.
The fox wagged its tail, wiped away tears, shook her head.
“Well, goodbye,” she says at last. - I see you like this life. Only if I were you, I would be the first to launch my teeth into the prey!
And the fox ran as if on business. He runs, covering his tracks with his tail.
The chipmunk looked after her, thought: "But the neighbor, perhaps, judged correctly!"
So the chipmunk thought that he forgot about the nuts. “Here,” he thinks, “the bear turned out to be such a deceiver! And I believed him, considered him my elder brother. "
... So the bear and the chipmunk went hunting.
We went on the way to the raspberry-tree. The bear scooped up a raspberry bush in its paws, sucked himself and invites his brother. And he looks - the fox told the truth!
The bear caught a gopher - a gopher. Calling the chipmunk. And he looked - the bear was the first to plunge its claws into the euraska. It turns out that the fox spoke the truth!
The brothers went past the bee oak. The bear turned that oak tree, held it with his paw, stuck his nose into the hive, puffed up his nostrils, spanked it with his lips. He calls his brother - to taste the honey. And he sees: again the bear is the first to try - it means that the fox is right again!
The chipmunk got angry here! "Well," he thinks, "I'll teach you a lesson!"
They went hunting another time.
The chipmunk sat on the scruff of his brother - he couldn't keep up with the bear on his little paws.
The bear smelled its prey. I caught the roe. He just wanted to grab her with his teeth, and then the chipmunk would jump between his ears! This is to drive your teeth into the prey before your brother, take a sweet piece for yourself and grow a little. The bear got scared, released the roe, and she left.
Both brothers remained hungry.
They went on.
I saw a bear eurazhka, crept up, and the chipmunk was right there again! Again he scared the bear half to death. Again the hunt was gone. The bear got angry, but says nothing to his brother.
They met a young wild boar. At other times, the bear would not bully, but here from hunger his stomach stuck to his ribs. The bear got angry and flooded on the wild boar! He roared so that the boar backed away from the bear. He backed away, backed up, - buried his tail in a tree - there is nowhere else. Here a bear and populated him. He opened his mouth, clicks his teeth, now he will swallow entirely!
As soon as the bear started to approach the boar, the chipmunk again jumped on the boar from the back of his neck between the ears! He wants to try the boar first. Then the bear got completely angry. As soon as the chipmunk had enough paw on the back, so he thrust all five claws into his back, so that he would not fall under the paw, would not interfere!
The chipmunk rushed - ripped his entire skin from head to tail. Howled in pain. He jumped on a tree, on another, and on a third.
As he went from branch to branch to jump, only the bear saw him!
The bear called his brother when the boar broke:
- Hey brother! Go eat fresh food!
There is no chipmunk, as if there never was.
The bear went home. I waited, waited for my brother, but did not wait.
The chipmunk ran away. He lived in the trees for a long time until the wounds on his back healed. Well, the wounds have healed, but five black stripes from the bear's claws remain for his whole life.
Now the chipmunk does not come to the bear and does not eat meat. And if he happens to be close to the bear, he throws cedar cones at the bear with anger. And as the bear raises its head, the chipmunk run - only he was seen!



A fairy tale based on Nanai folklore, arranged by Dmitry Nagishkin