Short legends and parables for primary school children. AND

Rus... This word has absorbed the expanses from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and from the Elbe to the Volga, expanses blown by the winds of eternity. That is why in our encyclopedia there are references to a wide variety of tribes, from southern to Varangian, although it mainly deals with the legends of Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians.

The history of our ancestors is bizarre and full of mysteries. Is it true that during the time of the great migration of peoples they came to Europe from the depths of Asia, from India, from the Iranian plateau? What was their common proto-language, from which, like an apple from a seed, a noisy garden of dialects and dialects grew and blossomed? Scientists have been puzzling over these questions for centuries. Their difficulties are understandable: almost no material evidence of our deepest antiquity has been preserved, as well as images of the gods. A. S. Kaisarov wrote in 1804 in “Slavic and Russian Mythology” that there were no traces of pagan, pre-Christian beliefs left in Russia because “our ancestors very zealously took up their new faith; they smashed and destroyed everything and did not want their descendants to have any signs of the error they had hitherto indulged in.”

New Christians in all countries were distinguished by such intransigence, but if in Greece or Italy time saved at least a small number of marvelous marble sculptures, then wooden Russia stood among the forests, and as you know, the Tsar Fire, when it raged, did not spare anything: neither human dwellings nor temples, no wooden images of gods, no information about them written in ancient runes on wooden tablets. And so it happened that only quiet echoes reached us from the pagan distances, when a bizarre world lived, flourished, and ruled.

Myths and legends in the encyclopedia are understood quite broadly: not only the names of gods and heroes, but also everything wonderful and magical with which the life of our Slavic ancestor was connected - a spell word, the magical power of herbs and stones, concepts about heavenly bodies, natural phenomena and so on.

The tree of life of the Slavs-Russians stretches its roots into the depths of primitive eras, the Paleolithic and Mesozoic. It was then that the first growths, the prototypes of our folklore, were born: the hero Bear's Ear, half-man, half-bear, the cult of the bear's paw, the cult of Volos-Veles, conspiracies of the forces of nature, tales about animals and natural phenomena (Morozko).

Primitive hunters initially worshiped, as stated in the “Tale of Idols” (XII century), “ghouls” and “beregins”, then the supreme ruler Rod and the women in labor Lada and Lela - the deities of the life-giving forces of nature.

The transition to agriculture (IV–III millennium BC) was marked by the emergence of the earthly deity Mother Cheese Earth (Mokosh). The farmer already pays attention to the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars, and keeps count according to the agrarian-magical calendar. The cult of the sun god Svarog and his son Svarozhich-fire, the cult of the sun-faced Dazhbog, arose.

First millennium BC e. - the time of the emergence of the heroic epic, myths and legends that have come down to us in the guise of fairy tales, beliefs, legends about the Golden Kingdom, about the hero - the winner of the Serpent.

In subsequent centuries, the thunderous Perun, the patron of warriors and princes, came to the fore in the pantheon of paganism. His name is associated with the flourishing of pagan beliefs on the eve of the formation of the Kyiv state and during its formation (IX–X centuries). Here paganism became the only state religion, and Perun became the first god.

The adoption of Christianity almost did not affect the religious foundations of the village.

But even in the cities, pagan conspiracies, rituals, and beliefs, developed over many centuries, could not disappear without a trace. Even princes, princesses and warriors still took part in national games and festivals, for example in rusalia. The leaders of the squads visit the wise men, and their household members are healed by prophetic wives and sorceresses. According to contemporaries, churches were often empty, and guslars and blasphemers (tellers of myths and legends) occupied crowds of people in any weather.

By the beginning of the 13th century, dual faith had finally developed in Rus', which has survived to this day, for in the minds of our people the remnants of the most ancient pagan beliefs coexist peacefully with the Orthodox religion...

The ancient gods were formidable, but fair and kind. They seem to be related to people, but at the same time they are called upon to fulfill all their aspirations. Perun struck villains with lightning, Lel and Lada patronized lovers, Chur protected the boundaries of their possessions, and the crafty Pripekalo kept an eye on the revelers... The world of the pagan gods was majestic - and at the same time simple, naturally fused with everyday life and existence. That is why, even under the threat of the most severe prohibitions and reprisals, the people’s soul could not renounce ancient poetic beliefs. The beliefs by which our ancestors lived, who deified - along with the humanoid rulers of thunder, winds and the sun - the smallest, weakest, most innocent phenomena of nature and human nature. As I.M. Snegirev, an expert on Russian proverbs and rituals, wrote in the last century, Slavic paganism is the deification of the elements. He was echoed by the great Russian ethnographer F.I. Buslaev:

“The pagans related the soul to the elements...”

And even though the memory of Radegast, Belbog, Polel and Pozvizd has weakened in our Slavic race, to this day the goblins joke with us, the brownies help, the merman mischief, the mermaids seduce - and at the same time they beg us not to forget those in whom we fervently believed our ancestors. Who knows, maybe these spirits and gods will indeed not disappear, they will be alive in their highest, transcendental, divine world, if we do not forget them?..

Elena Grushko,

Yuri Medvedev, Pushkin Prize laureate

Father of all stones

Late in the evening, hunters returned from Perunovaya Pad with rich booty: they shot two roe deer, a dozen ducks, and most importantly, a hefty boar, ten pounds worth. One bad thing: while defending himself from the spears, the enraged beast tore open young Ratibor’s thigh with his fang. The boy's father tore his shirt, bandaged the deep wound as best he could and carried his son, throwing him on his powerful back, to his home. Ratibor lies on the bench, groaning, and the blood ore still does not subside, oozing out and spreading into a red spot.

There was nothing to do - Ratibor's father had to go to bow to the healer, who lived alone in a hut on the slope of Snake Mountain. A gray-bearded old man came, examined the wound, anointed it with greenish ointment, and applied leaves and fragrant herbs. And he ordered all the household members to leave the hut. Left alone with Ratibor, the healer bent over the wound and whispered:

At sea on Okiyan, on Buyan Island

The white-flammable stone Alatyr lies.

On that stone stands the throne table,

A beautiful girl sits on the table,

Seamstress-craftswoman, dawn-dawn,

Holds a damask needle,

Threads a ore-yellow thread,

He sews up a bloody wound.

If the thread breaks, there will be dried blood!

The healer holds a semi-precious stone over the wound, its edges playing in the light of a torch, and whispers, closing his eyes...

Ratibor slept soundlessly for two nights and two days. And when I woke up, there was no pain in my leg, no medicine man in the hut. And the wound has already healed.

According to legend, the Alatyr stone existed even before the beginning of the world. It fell from the sky onto Buyan Island in the middle of the ocean sea, and on it were written letters with the laws of the god Svarog.

Buyan Island - perhaps this is what the modern island of Rügen in the Baltic (Alatyr) Sea was called in the Middle Ages. Here lay the magic stone Alatyr, on which the red maiden Dawn sits before spreading her pink veil across the sky and awakening the whole world from a night's sleep; the world tree with birds of paradise grew here. Later, in Christian times, the popular imagination settled on the same island the Mother of God, along with Elijah the Prophet, Yegor the Brave and a host of saints, as well as Jesus Christ himself, the king of heaven.

According to other sources, the Bel-flammable stone Alatyr is located in the Riphean Mountains. There are different opinions about the location of these mountains in the chronicles. This could be the Urals (Irian Mountains), unknown mountains beyond the Scythian steppes (Aristotle), Sarmatian mountains (Carpathians?), in any case, these are northern mountains. However, there is an opinion that these are the Altai Mountains (Mount Belukha).

There is also an opinion that the white mountain Elbrus, from which the Belaya River originates, was called the Alatyr stone.

The great elm, the Svarog tree, also grows there. The white-flammable stone Alatyr has seven images, which, like its shadows, are scattered throughout the world.

The white-flammable stone Alatyr is small and large, cold and hot. The stone is both heavy and light. “And no one could know that stone, and no one could lift it from the ground,” says the ancient epics. On this stone is the World Tree and the Throne of World Kingship.

In the Russian epic, this stone fell from Heaven (or was raised from the bottom of the Sea), and the laws of the god Svarog were carved on it with fire. The stone was created by the supreme god of the Slavs, Rod. If Svarog hit a stone with a huge hammer, sparks flew in all directions and from these sparks gods were born.

Alatyr is a stone-altar (altar). The Temple of the Most High was built on it by the half-horse Kitovras. On this altar stone, the Supreme God himself sacrifices himself, turning into the Alatyr stone. The white-flammable stone Alatyr is unknowable to the human mind; it is the sacred center of the World.

The stone connects Prav, Reality and Nav, the low and high worlds, that is, it is triune. Rule personifies balance, the middle path between Reality and Nav. The Book of the Vedas, which fell from the sky, also connects these worlds. The stone is vigilantly guarded by the huge snake Garafena and the white bird Gagana with an iron beak and copper claws.

A powerful force is hidden under the Bel-flammable stone Alatyr, it is irresistible. “Whoever gnaws this stone will overcome my conspiracy...” - it was said in the conspiracies of sorcerers and magicians.

On the Bel-flammable stone of Alatyr, Zarya Zaryanitsa, a red maiden, sits and sews up the bloody wounds of the soldiers.

The stone at the crossroads in fairy tales is never called the “White-flammable stone Alatyr”, although the connection is obvious.

Translators from Old Church Slavonic translated “alatyr” as amber, and assumed that it was the amber stone Alatyr that was located on the Baltic Sea.

Glowing Skulls

Once upon a time there lived an orphan girl. Her stepmother did not like her and did not know how to get rid of her. One day she says to the girl:

Stop eating bread for free! Go to my forest grandmother, she needs a charwoman. You will earn your own living. Go right now and don’t turn anywhere. As soon as you see the lights, grandma’s hut is there.

And it’s night outside, it’s dark - you can prick your eyes out. The hour is approaching when wild animals will go hunting. The girl became scared, but there was nothing to do. She ran away without knowing where. Suddenly he sees a ray of light appearing ahead. The further you go, the brighter it becomes, as if fires had been lit nearby. And after a few steps it became clear that it was not fires that were glowing, but skulls impaled on stakes.

The girl looks: the clearing is studded with stakes, and in the middle of the clearing there is a hut on chicken legs, turning around. She realized that the forest stepmother was none other than Baba Yaga herself.

She turned to run wherever her eyes looked - she heard someone crying. He looks at one skull and large tears are dripping from the empty eye sockets.

What are you crying about, human being? - she asks.

How can I not cry? - the skull answers. - I was once a brave warrior, but I fell into the teeth of Baba Yaga. God knows where my body has decayed, where my bones are lying. I miss the grave under the birch tree, but apparently I don’t know the burial, like the last villain!

Here the rest of the skulls began to cry, some were a cheerful shepherd, some a beautiful maiden, some a beekeeper... Baba Yaga devoured them all, and impaled the skulls on stakes.

The girl took pity on them, took a sharp twig and dug a deep hole under the birch tree. She put the skulls there, sprinkled earth on top, and covered them with turf.

The girl bowed to the ground at the grave, took the rotten thing - and well, run away!

Baba Yaga came out of the hut on chicken legs - and in the clearing it was pitch black. The eyes of the skulls do not glow, she does not know where to go, where to look for the fugitive.

And the girl ran until the rotten fire went out and the sun rose above the ground. Here she met a young hunter on a forest path. He liked the girl and took her as his wife. They lived happily ever after.

Baba Yaga (Yaga-Yaginishna, Yagibikha, Yagishna) is the oldest character in Slavic mythology. They used to believe that Baba Yaga could live in any village, masquerading as an ordinary woman: caring for livestock, cooking, raising children. In this, ideas about her come closer to ideas about ordinary witches. But still, Baba Yaga is a more dangerous creature, possessing much greater power than some witch. Most often, she lives in a dense forest, which has long instilled fear in people, since it was perceived as the border between the world of the dead and the living. It’s not for nothing that her hut is surrounded by a palisade of human bones and skulls, and in many fairy tales Baba Yaga feeds on human flesh, and she herself is called the “bone leg.” Just like Koschey the Immortal (koshch - bone), she belongs to two worlds at once: the world of the living and the world of the dead. Hence its almost limitless possibilities.

I wanted to take a steam bath

One miller returned home from the fair after midnight and decided to take a steam bath. He undressed,, as usual, took off his pectoral cross and hung it on a nail, climbed onto the shelf - and suddenly a terrible man with huge eyes and a red hat appeared in the fumes and smoke.

Oh, I wanted to take a steam bath! - the baennik growled. - I forgot that after midnight the bathhouse is ours! Unclean!

And well, whip the miller with two huge red-hot brooms until he fell unconscious.

When the household came to the bathhouse at dawn, alarmed by the long absence of the owner, they barely brought him to his senses! He shook with fear for a long time, even lost his voice, and from then on he went to wash and steam only until sunset, each time reading the conspiracy in the dressing room:

He stood up, blessed himself, walked, crossing himself, out of the hut through the doors, out of the yard through the gates, and went out into an open field. There is a dry clearing in that field, in that clearing the grass does not grow, the flowers do not bloom. And in the same way, I, the servant of God, would not have had any chiry, nor vered, nor slaughtered evil spirits!

The bathhouse has always been of great importance for the Slavs. In a difficult climate, this was the best way to get rid of fatigue, or even drive away illness. But at the same time it was a mysterious place. Here a person washed away dirt and illness from himself, which means that it itself became unclean and belonged not only to man, but to otherworldly forces. But everyone must go to the bathhouse to wash: whoever does not go is not considered a good person. Even the banishche - the place where the bathhouse stood - was considered dangerous, and it was not recommended to build a dwelling on it, a hut or a barn. Not a single good owner would dare to build a hut on the site of a burnt bathhouse: either bedbugs will prevail, or a mouse will ruin all the belongings, and then expect a new fire! Over many centuries, many beliefs and legends associated specifically with the bath have accumulated.

Like any place, its spirit lives here. This is a bathhouse, bannik, bainnik, bainnik, baennik - a special breed of brownie, an unkind spirit, an evil old man, dressed in sticky leaves that have fallen off the brooms. However, he easily takes the form of a boar, a dog, a frog and even a person. His wife and children live here with him, but in the bathhouse you can also meet barnacles, mermaids, and brownies.

Bannik, with all his guests and servants, likes to take a steam bath after two, three, or even six shifts of people, and he washes himself only with dirty water that has drained from people’s bodies. He puts his red invisible hat to dry on the heater; it can even be stolen at the stroke of midnight - if one is lucky. But here you really need to run to church as soon as possible. If you manage to run before the bannik wakes up, you will have an invisibility cap, otherwise the bannik will catch up and kill you.

They gain the favor of the baennik by leaving him a piece of rye bread, thickly sprinkled with coarse salt. It is also useful to leave a little water and at least a small piece of soap in the tubs, and a broom in the corner: baeniki love attention and care!

Crystal Mountain

One man got lost in the mountains and already decided that it was the end for him. He was exhausted without food and water and was ready to throw himself into the abyss to end his torment, when suddenly a beautiful blue bird appeared to him and began to flutter in front of his face, keeping him from a rash act. And when she saw that the man repented, she flew forward. He followed and soon saw a crystal mountain ahead. One side of the mountain was white as snow, and the other black as soot. The man wanted to climb the mountain, but it was so slippery, as if covered with ice. The man went around the mountain. What kind of miracle? Fierce winds blow from the black side, black clouds swirl over the mountain, and evil animals howl. The fear is such that you don’t want to live!

With the last of his strength, the man climbed to the other side of the mountain - and his heart was immediately relieved. It’s a white day here, sweet-voiced birds are singing, sweet fruits are growing on the trees, and clean, transparent streams are flowing underneath them. The traveler quenched his hunger and thirst and decided that he had ended up in the Iriy Garden itself. The sun shines and warms so kindly, so welcomingly... White clouds flutter next to the sun, and on the top of the mountain stands a gray-bearded old man in magnificent white clothes and drives the clouds away from the face of the sun. Next to him the traveler saw the very bird that saved him from death. The bird fluttered towards him, and after it a winged dog appeared.

Sit on it,” said the bird in a human voice. - He will carry you home. And never dare to take your life again. Remember that luck will always come to the brave and patient. This is as true as the fact that night will be replaced by day, and Belbog will defeat Chernobog.

Belbog among the Slavs is the embodiment of light, the deity of goodness, good luck, happiness, and goodness.

Initially he was identified with Svyatovid, but then he became a symbol of the sun.

Belbog lives in heaven and personifies a bright day. With his magic staff, he drives away flocks of white clouds to open the way for the luminary. Belbog constantly fights with Chernobog, just as day fights with night, and good fights with evil. No one will ever win a final victory in this dispute.

According to some legends, Chernobog lives in the north, and Belbog lives in the south. They blow alternately and generate winds. Chernobog is the father of the northern icy wind, Belbog - the warm, southern one. The winds fly towards each other, then one prevails, then the other - and so on at all times.

In ancient times, the sanctuary of Belbog was located in Arkona, on the Baltic island of Rugen (Ruyan). It stood on a hill open to the sun, and numerous gold and silver decorations reflected the play of rays and even at night illuminated the temple, where there was not a single shadow, not a single dark corner. Sacrifices were made to Belbog with fun, games and joyful feasting.

In ancient frescoes and paintings he was depicted as the sun on a wheel. The sun is the head of God, and the wheel is also a solar symbol, the solar symbol is his body. In chants in his honor it was repeated that the sun is the eye of Belbog.

However, this was by no means a deity of serene happiness. It was Belbog who was called upon by the Slavs for help when they submitted some controversial matter to arbitration. That is why he was often depicted with a red-hot iron staff in his hands. After all, often at God’s court one had to prove one’s innocence by taking a hot iron in one’s hands. It will not leave a fiery trace on the body - that means the person is innocent.

The sun dog Khors and the bird Gamayun serve Belbog. In the form of a blue bird, Gamayun listens to divine prophecies, and then appears to people in the form of a bird maiden and prophesies their fate. Since Belbog is a bright deity, meeting the Gamayun bird promises happiness.

Such a deity is known not only to the Slavs. The Celts had the same god - Belenius, and the son of Odin (Germanic mythology) was called Balder.

Gold beregins

A handsome young man went into the forest and saw a beauty swinging on the branches of a large birch tree. Her hair is green, like birch leaves, but there is not even a thread on her body. The beauty saw the guy and laughed so hard that it gave him goosebumps. He realized that this was not an ordinary girl, but a guardian.

“This is bad,” he thinks. - We must run!

He just raised his hand, hoping that he would cross himself and the evil spirits would disappear, but the maiden began to lament:

Don't drive me away, beloved groom. Fall in love with me - and I will make you rich!

She began to shake the birch branches - round leaves fell on the guy’s head, which turned into gold and silver coins and fell to the ground with a ringing sound. Fathers of light! The simpleton has never seen so much wealth in his life. He figured that now he would certainly cut down a new hut, buy a cow, a zealous horse, or even a whole troika, dress himself in new clothes from head to toe and marry the daughter of the richest man.

The guy couldn’t resist the temptation - he took the beauty into his arms and, well, kissed and made love to her. The time until the evening flew by unnoticed, and then the bereginya said:

Come back tomorrow and you'll get even more gold!

The guy came tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and then came more than once. He knew that he was sinning, but in one week he filled a large chest to the brim with gold coins.

But then one day the green-haired beauty disappeared, as if she had never existed. The guy remembered - but after all, Ivan Kupala has passed, and after this holiday in the forest you will only meet the devil from evil spirits. Well, you can't go back to the past.

After some thought, he decided to wait a while with matchmaking and put his wealth into circulation and become a merchant. I opened the chest... and it was filled to the brim with golden birch leaves.

From then on, the guy became not himself. Until he was old, he wandered through the forest from spring to autumn in the hope of meeting the treacherous coast guard, but she never appeared again. And he kept hearing, he heard iridescent laughter and the clink of gold coins falling from birch branches...

And to this day, in some places in Rus', fallen leaves are called “gold of the guardians.”

The ancient Slavs believed that Bereginya was the great goddess who gave birth to all things.

Some scientists believe that the name “bereginya” is similar to the name of the thunderer Perun and the Old Slavonic word “prj (here yat) gynya” - “hill covered with forest.” But it also probably originates from the word “shore”. After all, rituals for invoking and conjuring beregins were usually performed on the elevated, hilly banks of rivers.

According to popular beliefs, betrothed brides who died before the wedding turned to beregins. For example, those girls who committed suicide because of the betrayal of a treacherous groom. In this they differed from water mermaids, who always live in water and are born there. On Rusalnaya, or Trinity, week, at the time of flowering of rye, beregins appeared from the other world: they came out of the ground, descended from heaven along birch branches, and emerged from rivers and lakes. They combed their long green braids, sitting on the bank and looking into the dark waters, swung on birch trees, wove wreaths, tumbled in the green rye, danced in circles and lured young handsome men to them.

But then the week of dancing and round dances ended - and the beregins left the earth to return to the next world again.

Where did demons come from?

When God created heaven and earth, he lived alone. And he became bored.

One day he saw his reflection in the water and brought it to life. But the double - his name was Bes - turned out to be stubborn and proud: he immediately left the power of his creator and began to bring only harm, hindering all good intentions and undertakings.

God created the Demon, and the Demon creates demons, devils and other evil spirits.

They fought for a long time with the angelic army, but finally God managed to cope with the evil spirits and overthrow it from heaven. Some - the instigators of all the troubles - fell straight into the inferno, others - mischievous, but less dangerous - were thrown to the ground.

Demon is an ancient name for an evil deity. It comes from the word “trouble”, “distress”. “Demon” - one who brings misfortune.

Demons are the general name for all unclean spirits and devils (the Old Slavonic “devil” means cursed, cursed, crossed the line).

Since ancient times, the popular imagination has depicted demons as black or dark blue, with tails, horns, and wings, while ordinary devils are usually wingless. They have claws or hooves on their hands and feet. Demons are sharp-headed, like owls and lame birds. They broke their legs even before the creation of man, during a crushing fall from the sky.

Demons live everywhere: in houses, pools, abandoned mills, in forest thickets and swamps.

All demons are usually invisible, but they easily turn into any beasts or animals, as well as into people, but certainly with tails, who have to carefully hide these tails from the discerning gaze.

Whatever image the demon takes on, it is always given out by a strong, very loud voice mixed with frightening and ominous sounds. Sometimes he croaks like a black raven or chirps like a damned magpie.

From time to time, demons, devils (or imps) and little devils gather for noisy celebrations, singing and dancing. It was the demons who invented both wine and tobacco potion for the destruction of the human race.

Swampers and Swampwomen

Earth from the ocean floor

A long time ago, when Belbog fought with Chernobog for power over the world, there was no Earth yet: it was completely covered with water.

One day Belbog was walking on the water and looked to see Chernobog swimming towards him. And the two enemies decided to reconcile for a while in order to create at least an island of land in this vast ocean.

Belbog dreamed of founding a kingdom of good, but Chernobog hoped that only evil would reign here.

They took turns diving and finally found some land at depth. Belbog dived diligently, he brought up a lot of earth to the surface, and Chernobog soon abandoned this idea and only watched angrily as the delighted Belbog began to scatter the earth, and wherever it fell, continents and islands arose.

But Chernobog hid part of the earth in his cheek: he still wanted to create his own world where evil would reign, and was just waiting for Belbog to turn away.

At that moment, Belbog began to cast spells - and trees began to appear all over the earth, grass and flowers began to sprout.

However, obeying the will of Belbog, plants began to sprout in Chernobog’s mouth! He held on, held on, puffed up, puffed out his cheeks, but finally could not stand it - and began to spit out the hidden earth.

This is how the swamps appeared: earth mixed with water, gnarled trees and bushes, coarse grass.

And over time, bogworts and bogworts settled here, just as water goblins and woodworts settled in the water, and wood goblins and woodworts settled in the forest.

Bolotnik (bolotyanik, bog) - the evil spirit of the swamp, where he lives with his wife and children. His wife becomes a maiden who drowned in a swamp. The swamp is a relative of the water and goblin. He looks like a gray-haired old man with a wide, yellowish face. Turning into a monk, he goes around and leads the traveler, luring him into the quagmire. He loves to walk along the shore, scaring those walking through the swamp with sharp sounds and sighs; blowing out air with water bubbles, he smacks his lips loudly.

The swampman cleverly sets up traps for the ignorant: he throws a piece of green grass or a snag, or a log - it beckons you to step, and underneath it is a quagmire, a deep swamp! Well, at night he releases the souls of children who drowned unbaptized, and then in the swamp, blue wandering lights run and wink.

The swamp woman is the sister of the mermaids, she is also a water woman, but she lives in the swamp, in a snow-white water lily flower the size of a cauldron. She is indescribably beautiful, shameless and seductive, and sits in a flower to hide her goose legs from a person, in addition - with black membranes. Seeing a man, the swamp woman begins to cry bitterly, so that everyone wants to console her, but as soon as you take even a step towards her in the swamp, the villainess will pounce, strangle her in her arms and drag her into the swamp, into the abyss.

MIRACLE THRESHING

Once Christ somehow took on the appearance of an old beggar and walked through the village with two apostles. It was late, towards night; He began to ask the rich man: “Let us spend the night, little man.” And the rich man says: “There are a lot of you beggars hanging around here! Why are you wandering around other people's yards? You only know how to make tea, but I suppose you don’t work...” and he flatly refused. “We are still going to work,” the wanderers say, “but a dark night caught us on the road. Let me go, please! We even spend the night under a bench.” - “Well, so be it! Go to the hut." They let the strangers in; They weren’t fed anything, they weren’t given anything to drink (the owner himself had dinner with his family and didn’t give them anything), and they had to spend the night under a bench.

Early in the morning the owner's sons began to get ready to thresh bread. So the Savior says: “Let me in, we will help you for an overnight stay, we will thresh for you.” “Okay,” said the man, “and it would have been like this a long time ago!” Better than loitering around in vain!” So we went to thresh. They come, Christ, and says to the owner’s sons: “Well, sweep out the adonye, ​​and we will prepare the current.” And he and the apostles began to prepare the current in their own way: they did not place one sheaf in a row, but five, six sheaves, one on top of the other, and laid almost a whole palm. “Yes, you so-and-so don’t know the matter at all! - the owners swore at them. “Why did they put in such a heap?” - “So they put it on our side; work, you know, that’s why it goes faster,” said the Savior and lit the sheaves laid on the threshing floor. The owners started screaming and cursing, saying they had ruined all the grain. And only the straw burned, the grain remained intact and shone in huge piles, large, clean and so golden! Returning to the hut, the sons say to their father: so and so, father, they threshed palms of their hands, they say. Where! and doesn’t believe it! They told him everything as it happened; he is even more amazed: “It can’t be! the fire will destroy the grain!” I went to see for myself: the grain lay in large heaps, and it was so large, clean, and golden - it was amazing! So they fed the wanderers, and they stayed one more night with the man.

The next morning the Savior and the apostles are getting ready to set off on their journey, and the man is shouting to them: “Help us for another day!” - “No, master, don’t ask; Somehow, I have to go to work.” And the owner’s eldest son quietly says to his father: “Don’t touch them, tank; They're coming soon. We ourselves know how to thresh.” The wanderers said goodbye and left. So a man and his children went to the threshing floor; They took and laid sheaves and lit them; They think that the straw will burn, but the grain will remain. But it didn’t turn out that way: all the grain was consumed by fire, and the sheaves threw broken pieces onto various buildings; a fire started, so terrible that everything was naked and burned!

MIRACLE AT THE MILL

Once upon a time Christ came to the mill in thin beggar's clothes and began to ask the miller for holy alms. The miller became angry: “Go, go away with God! There are a lot of you dragging around, you can’t feed everyone!” Still, he didn’t give anything. At that time, something happened - a peasant brought a small bag of rye to the mill to grind, saw a beggar and took pity: “Come here, I’ll give it to you.” And he began to pour bread out of his bag; poured out, almost, a whole measure, and the beggar substitutes everything for his kitty. “What, should I sleep some more?” - “Yes, if your grace will!” - “Well, perhaps!” He poured out another measure, but the beggar still exposes his kitty. The peasant poured it out for him a third time, and he had very little grain left. “What a fool! How much I paid, the miller thinks, but I’ll take more for grinding; What’s left for him?” OK then. He took the rye from the peasant, poured it in and began to grind; looks: a lot of time has passed, and the flour keeps pouring in and out! What a wonder! There was about a quarter of the grain in total, and about twenty quarters of the flour had been ground, and there was still a lot left to grind: the flour kept pouring in and out... The man didn’t know where to collect it!

POOR WIDOW

It was a long time ago when Christ traveled the earth with the twelve apostles. They walked once as if they were ordinary people, and it was impossible to recognize that they were Christ and the apostles. So they came to one village and asked to spend the night with a rich man. The rich man didn’t let them in: “There’s a widow living over there, she lets in the beggars; go to her." They asked to spend the night with the widow, and the widow was poor, getting poorer! She had nothing; there was only a tiny piece of bread and a handful of flour; She also had a cow, and even that one had no milk - it didn’t calve by that time. “I, father,” says the widow, “have a small hut, and you have nowhere to lie!” - “Nothing, we’ll calm down somehow.” The widow received the strangers and does not know how to feed them. “What can I feed you, my dear ones,” says the widow, “I just have one tiny little piece of bread and a handful of flour, but the cow hasn’t brought a calf yet, and there’s no milk: I’m still waiting for it to calve... Don’t demand on bread - on salt! - “And, grandma! - said the Savior, - don’t worry, we’ll all be full. Let’s have what we have, we’ll eat the bread too: everything, grandma, is from God...” So they sat down at the table, began to have dinner, they all got their fill of one piece of bread, there are still so many slices left! “Here, grandmother, you said that there would be nothing to feed you,” said the Savior, “look, we are all full, and there are still chunks left. Everything, grandmother, is from God...” Christ and the apostles spent the night with a poor widow. The next morning the widow says to her daughter-in-law: “Go and scrape the torment in the bin; Maybe you’ll get a handful for pancakes to feed the wanderers.” The daughter-in-law went and is carrying a decent makhotka (clay

pot). The old woman will not wonder where so much came from; There was just a little bit, but now there was enough for pancakes, and the daughter-in-law says: “There’s some left in the bin for next time.” The widow baked pancakes and served the Savior and the apostles: “Eat, dear ones, with what God sent...” - “Thank you, grandmother, thank you!”

They ate, said goodbye to the poor widow and went on their way. They are walking along the road, and to the side of them sits a gray wolf on a hillock; He bowed to Christ and began to ask for food: “Lord,” he howled, “I want to eat!” Lord, I’m hungry!” “Go,” the Savior told him, “to the poor widow, eat her cow and calf.” The apostles doubted and said: “Lord, why did you order the poor widow’s cow to be slaughtered? She so kindly received and fed us; she was so happy, expecting a calf from her cow: she would have milk - food for the whole family.” - “That’s how it should be!” - answered the Savior, and they moved on. The wolf ran and killed the poor widow’s cow; when the old woman found out about this, she said with humility: “God gave. God took away; his holy will!”

Here Christ and the apostles are coming, and a barrel of money is rolling towards them along the road. The Savior says: “Roll, barrel, into the rich man’s yard!” The apostles doubted again: “Lord! It would be better if you told this barrel to roll into the yard of the poor widow; The rich man already has a lot of everything!” - “That’s how it should be!” - the Savior answered them, and they went further. And the barrel of money rolled straight into the rich man’s yard; The man took and hid this money, but he himself was still dissatisfied: “If only the Lord would send as much more!” - Thinks to himself. Christ and the apostles go and go. At noon it became very hot, and the apostles wanted to drink. “Jesus! We’re thirsty,” they say to the Savior. “Go,” said the Savior, “along this path, you will find a well and get drunk.”

The apostles went; They walked and walked and saw a well. They looked into it: there is shame there, there is filth there - toads, snakes, frogs, it is not good there! The apostles, not having drunk, soon returned back to the Savior. “Well, did you drink some water?” - Christ asked them. “No, Lord!” - "From what?" - “Yes, Lord, you showed us such a well that it’s scary to even look into it.” Christ did not answer them, and they went forward on their own way. They walked and walked; The apostles again say to the Savior: “Jesus! We're thirsty." The Savior sent them in the other direction: “You see a well, go and get drunk.” The apostles came to another well: it was good there! It's wonderful there! Wonderful trees are growing, the birds of paradise are singing, I would never have left there! The apostles got drunk, and the water was so clean, cold and sweet! - and turned back. “Why didn’t you come for so long?” - the Savior asks them. “We just got drunk,” the apostles answer, “but we only stayed there for three minutes.” “You weren’t there for three minutes, but for three whole years,” said the Lord. “What it’s like in the first well, that’s how bad it will be for a rich man in the next world, and what it’s like in the other well, that’s how good it will be for a poor widow in the next world!”

POP - ENVYING EYES

Once upon a time there was a priest; His parish was large and rich, he collected a lot of money and took it to hide it in the church; came there, picked up the floorboard and hid it. Just be a sexton and take a look at this; He slowly took out the priest’s money and took every single penny for himself. About a week has passed; the priest wanted to look at his goods; I went to church, lifted the floorboard, and lo and behold, there was no money! The priest fell into great sadness; out of grief he did not return home, but set out to wander around the world - wherever his eyes looked.

So he walked and walked and met Nikola the saint; At that time, the holy fathers still walked the earth and healed all kinds of diseases. “Hello, elder!” - says the priest. "Hello! where is God taking? - “I’m going wherever my eyes look!” - "Let's go together". - “Who are you?” - “I am God’s wanderer.” - “Well, let's go.” Let's go together along the same road; one day goes by, another day goes by; everyone ate what they had. Nikola the saint had only one mallow left; the priest stole it at night and ate it. “Didn’t you take my mallow?” - Nikola the saint asks the priest in the morning. “No,” he says, “I haven’t even seen her!” - “Oh, got it! admit it, brother." The priest swore and swore that he did not take the prosvira.

“Let’s go in this direction now,” said Nikola the saint, “there is a gentleman there who has been raging for three years, and no one can cure him, let’s take it upon ourselves to treat him.” - “What kind of doctor am I! - the priest answers. “I don’t know this matter.” - “Nothing, I know; you follow me; whatever I say, you say too.” So they came to the master. “What kind of people are you?” - they are asked. “We are healers,” answers Nikola the saint. “We are healers,” the priest repeats after him. “Can you heal?” “We can,” says Nikola the saint. “We can,” the priest repeats. “Well, treat the master.” Saint Nikola ordered the bathhouse to be heated and the patient brought there. Nikola the saint says to the priest: “Cut his right hand.” - “What to chop for?” - "None of your business! chop away." The priest cut off the master's right hand. “Chop your left leg now.” The priest also cut off his left leg. “Put it in the cauldron and stir.” Pop put it in the cauldron - and let's stir. Meanwhile, the lady sends her servant: “Go and take a look, what’s going on with the master?” The servant ran to the bathhouse, looked and reported that the healers had cut the master into pieces and were boiling him in a cauldron. Here the lady became very angry, ordered a gallows to be erected and, without hesitation for a long time, to hang both healers. They set up a gallows and led them to hang them. The priest was frightened, he swore that he had never been a healer and had never taken treatment, and his comrade was to blame for everything. “Who will understand you! you treated together.” “Listen,” says Nikola the saint to the priest, “your last hour is coming, tell me before you die: you stole the bread from me?” “No,” the priest assures, “I didn’t take it.” - “So you didn’t take it?” - “By God, I didn’t take it!” - “Let it be your way.” “Wait,” he says to the servants, “your master is coming.” The servants looked around and saw: as if a master was coming and completely healthy. The lady was delighted, rewarded the doctors with money and sent them on their way.

So they walked and walked and found themselves in another state; They see great sadness all over the country, and they learn that the king there’s daughter is going berserk. “Let’s go treat the princess,” says the priest. “No, brother, you can’t cure the princess.” - “It’s okay, I’ll start healing, and you follow me; whatever I say, you say too.” We arrived at the palace. “What kind of people are you?” - asks the guard. “We are healers,” says the priest, “we want to treat the princess.” They reported to the king; the king called them in front of him and asked: “Are you really healers?” “Exactly healers,” the priest answers. “Healers,” Nikola the saint repeats after him. “And you undertake to cure the princess?” “We’ll take it,” the priest answers. “Let’s take it,” repeats Nikola the saint. “Well, treat me.” He forced the priest to heat the bathhouse and bring the princess there. As he said, they did so: they brought the princess to the bathhouse. “Ruby, old man, give her your right hand,” says the priest. Nikola the saint cut off the princess's right hand. “Chop your left leg now.” He also cut off his left leg. “Put it in the cauldron and stir.” He put it in the cauldron and began to stir. The king sends to find out what happened to the princess. When they reported to him what had happened to the princess, the king became angry and fearful, and at that very moment he ordered a gallows to be erected and both healers to be hanged. They were taken to the gallows. “Look,” says Nikola the saint to the priest, “now you were a doctor, you alone are responsible.” - “What kind of doctor I am!” - and began to blame himself on the old man, swearing and swearing that the old man was the mastermind of all the evil, and he was not involved. “Why take them apart! - said the king. “Hang them both.” They took hold of the first one; Now the noose is being prepared. “Listen,” says Nikola the saint, “tell me before you die: you stole the prosvira?” - “No, by God, I didn’t take it!” “Admit it,” he begs, “if you admit it, now the princess will wake up healthy and nothing will happen to you.” - “Well, really, I didn’t take it!” They've already put a noose on my butt and want to lift it up. “Wait,” says Nikola the saint, “there’s your princess.” They looked - she was walking completely healthy, as if nothing had happened. The king ordered the healers to be rewarded from his treasury and released in peace. They began to allocate them with treasury; The priest filled his pockets full, and Nikola the saint took one handful.

So they set off on their way; They walked and walked and stopped to rest. “Take out your money,” says Nikola the pleaser, “let’s see who has more.” He said and poured out his handful; I started pouring out and popping my money. Only Nikola the saint’s heap keeps growing and growing, growing and growing; but the priest’s heap is not increasing at all. The priest sees that he has less money and says: “Let’s share.” - "Let's!" - Nikola the saint answers and divided the money into three parts: “This

let part be mine, this part yours, and the third for the one who stole the bread.” “But I stole the bread,” says the priest. “How greedy you are! They wanted to hang him twice - and he didn’t repent, but now he confessed for money! I don’t want to travel with you, take your goods and go alone wherever you know.”

BEER AND BREAD

In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived a rich peasant; He had a lot of money and bread. And he lent money to poor peasants all over the village: he gave money from interest, and if he gave him bread, then return it in full for the summer, and in addition, for every four-year salary, work for him in the field for two days. It happened once: a temple holiday was approaching and the peasants began to brew beer for the holiday; only in this very village there was one peasant, and he was so poor that there was no poorer man in the whole area. He sits in the evening, on the eve of the holiday, in his hut with his wife and thinks: “What to do? good people will go out and have fun; and we don’t have a piece of bread in our house! I would go to a rich man to ask for a loan, but he wouldn’t believe me; and what will they take from me, the unfortunate one, afterward?” I thought and thought, got up from the bench, stood in front of the image and sighed heavily. "God! - he says, - forgive me, a sinner; and there’s no money to buy oil to light the lamp in front of the icon for the holiday!” A little later, an old man comes to his hut: “Hello, master!” - “Great, old man!” - “Can’t I spend the night with you?” - “Why is it impossible! spend the night if you like; Only I, my dear, don’t have a single piece of food in the house, and there’s nothing to feed you with.” - “Nothing, master! I have three pieces of bread with me, and you give me a ladle of water: I’ll eat some bread, and I’ll take a sip of water, and I’ll be full.” The old man sat down on the bench and said: “Why, master, are you so depressed? Why are you sad?” - “Oh, old man! - the owner answers. - How can I not bother? God has given us - we have waited for the holiday, good people will begin to rejoice and have fun, but my wife and I can roll a ball - everything is empty all around! “Well,” says the old man, “go to a rich man and ask him to borrow what you need.” - "No I'm not going; still won’t!” “Go,” the old man pesters, “go boldly and ask him for a quarter of malt; We’ll make some beer for you.” - “Eh, old man! it's late now; When do you brew beer here? There’s a holiday tomorrow.” - “I’m telling you: go to a rich man and ask for four bucks of malt; he will give it to you right away! I bet he won’t refuse! And tomorrow by lunch we will have such beer as has never been seen in the whole village!” There was nothing to do, the poor man got ready, took the bag under his arm and went to the rich man. He comes to his hut, bows, calls him by name and patronymic, and asks to borrow four kopecks of malt: I want to brew some beer for the holiday. “What did you think before! - the rich man tells him. - When should you cook it now? There’s only one night left before the holiday.” - “Nothing, darling! - answers the poor woman. “If you have your mercy, my wife and I will somehow cook for ourselves, and we will drink together and celebrate the holiday.” The rich man picked up four quarters of malt for him and poured it into a bag; The poor man lifted the bag onto his shoulders and carried it home. He came back and told how and what happened. “Well, master,” said the old man, “you will have a holiday too. What, is there a well in your yard?” “Yes,” says the man. “Well, here we are in your well and we’ll brew some beer; take the bag and follow me.” They went out into the yard and straight to the well. “Get some sleep here!” - says the old man. “How can you pour such goodness into a well! - the owner answers. - There is only one quadrangle, and even that should go to waste! We won’t do anything good, we’ll only muddy the waters.” - “Listen to me, everything will be fine!” What to do, the owner dumped all his malt into the well. “Well,” said the old man, “there was water in the well, turn into beer overnight!.. Now, master, let’s go to the hut and go to bed - the morning is wiser than the evening; and tomorrow by lunchtime there will be such beer that you’ll be drunk from just one glass.” So we waited until morning; It’s time for dinner, the old man says: “Well, master! Now get more tubs, stand around the well and pour a full glass of beer, and invite everyone you see to drink hangover beer.” The man rushed towards the neighbors. “What did you need the tubs for?” - they ask him. “It’s very necessary,” he says; There’s nothing to pour beer into.” The neighbors were freaking out: what does this mean? Is he crazy? There isn’t a piece of bread in the house, and he’s still worrying about beer! That’s good, the man collected twenty tubs, put a well around and began to pour - and the beer became such that you couldn’t even imagine it, you couldn’t imagine it, you could only tell it in a fairy tale! I filled all the tubs full, but it was as if nothing was left in the well. And he began to shout and invite guests into the yard: “Hey, Orthodox! come to me for a hangover beer; This is beer, this is beer!” People are looking, what kind of miracle is this? See, he poured water from the well, but he’s calling for beer; Let's go in and see what kind of trick he got up to? So the men rushed to the tubs, began to scoop with a ladle, and tried the beer; They really liked this beer: “I’ve never had anything like this in my life!” And the yard was full of people. But the owner does not regret it, he draws from the well and treats everyone. A rich man heard about this, came to the poor man’s yard, tried the beer and began to ask the poor man: “Teach me, by what cunning did you create such beer?” “Yes, there is no trick here,” answered the poor man, “it’s the simplest thing, when I brought four pieces of malt from you, I just poured it into the well: there was water, it turned into beer overnight!” " - "Well, good! - the rich man thinks, - as soon as I return home, I’ll do it.” So he comes home and orders his workers to carry the best malt from the barn and pour it into the well. How the workers began to carry ten sacks of malt from the barn and pushed them into the well. “Well,” the rich man thinks, “I’ll have better beer than the poor one!” So the next morning the rich man went out into the yard and quickly went to the well, drew it and looked: just as there was water, so there is water! It just became muddier. "What's happened! They must have put in little malt; “We need to add more,” the rich man thinks and ordered his workers to dump five more bags into the well. They poured out another time; no such luck, nothing helps, all the malt was wasted. Yes, how the holiday passed, and the poor man had only dry water left in his well; there was no beer anyway.

Again the old man comes to the poor man and asks: “Listen, master! did you sow grain this year? - “No, grandfather, I didn’t sow any grain!” - “Well, now go again to the rich peasant and ask him for four rubles of all kinds of bread; You and I will go to the field and sow.” - “How to sow now? - answers the poor woman, “after all, it’s a bitter winter outside!” - “Not your concern! do as I command. I’ve made you some beer and some bread!” The poor man got ready, went again to the rich man and begged him for a loan of four pieces of grain. He returned and said to the old man: “Everything is ready, grandfather!” So they went out onto the field, found a peasant's strip by signs - and let's scatter the grain on the white snow. Everything was scattered. “Now,” the old man said to the poor man, “go home and wait for the summer: you too will have bread!” As soon as the poor man came to his village, all the peasants learned about him that he had been sowing grain in the middle of winter; They laugh at him - and that’s all: “Oh, my dear, he missed the time to sow! I guess I didn’t think of it in the fall!” OK then; We waited for spring, it became warm, the snow melted, and green shoots began to appear. “Let me,” thought the poor man, “I’ll go and see what’s happening on my land.” He comes to his strip, looks, and there are such shoots that the soul cannot get enough of it! On other people's tithes they are not half as good. “Glory to you. God! - says the man. “Now I’ll get better too.” Now the time of harvest has come; good people began to harvest grain from the field. He got ready and the poor man is busy with his wife and can’t manage it in any way; forced to call the working people to the harvest and give half of their grain. All the men marvel at the poor man: he did not plow the land, he sowed in the middle of winter, and his bread grew so glorious. The poor man managed and lived for himself without need; if he needs something around the house, he will go to the city, sell a quarter or two of bread and buy what he knows; and he paid his debt to the rich man in full. So the rich man thinks: “Let me sow in winter; Maybe in my area the same glorious bread will be born.” I waited for the very day on which the poor man sowed last year, he piled several quarters of different grains into a sleigh, went out into the field and let’s sow in the snow. He sowed the whole field; As soon as the weather rose towards night, strong winds blew and blew all the grain from his land onto other people's stripes. And spring is red; The rich man went to the field and saw: his land was empty and bare, not a single shoot could be seen, but nearby, on other people’s strips, where there was no plowing or sowing, such greenery had risen that it would be very expensive! The rich man thought: “Lord, I spent a lot on seeds - it’s all to no avail; But my debtors have not plowed, not sown - but the bread grows by itself! I must be a great sinner!”

CHRIST'S BROTHER

Once upon a time there lived a merchant and a merchant's wife - both were stingy and unmerciful to the poor. They had a son, and they decided to marry him. They got the bride and got married. “Listen, friend,” the young woman says to her husband, “from our wedding there is a lot of baked and boiled things left; order all this to be put on a cart and distributed to the poor: let them eat for our health.” The merchant's son now called the clerk and ordered everything that was left from the feast to be distributed to the poor. When the father and mother found out about this, they became painfully angry with their son and daughter-in-law: “Perhaps they will give away all their property!” - and drove them out of the house. The son and his wife went wherever they looked. They walked and walked and came to a dense dark forest. We came across a hut - it was empty - and stayed to live in it.

Much time has passed, Great Lent has begun;

Now the post is coming to an end. “Wife,” says the Merchant’s son, “I’ll go into the forest to see if I can shoot a bird so that I have something to break my fast for the holiday.” - “Go!” - says the wife. He walked through the forest for a long time, did not see a single bird; I started tossing and turning home and saw a human head lying there, covered in worms. He took this head, put it in a bag and brought it to his wife. She immediately washed it, cleaned it and put it in the corner under the icon. At night, just before the holiday, they lit a wax candle in front of the icons and began to pray to God, and when it was time for matins, the merchant’s son approached his wife and said: “Christ is risen!” The wife replies: “Truly he is risen!” And the head answers: “Truly he is risen!” He says a second and a third time: “Christ is risen!” - and the head answers him: “Truly he is risen!” He looks with fear and trembling: his head turns like a gray-haired old man. And the elder said to him: “Be my little brother; come to me tomorrow, I will send a winged horse for you.” He said and disappeared.

The next day a winged horse stands in front of the hut. “It was my brother who sent for me,” says the merchant’s son, as he mounted his horse and set off on the road. He arrived and was greeted by an elder. “Walk through all my gardens,” he said, walk through all the upper rooms; just don’t go to this one, which is sealed with a seal.” Here the merchant's son walked and walked through all the gardens, through all the upper rooms; Finally he approached the one that was sealed with a seal, and could not stand it: “Let me see what it is!” He opened the door and went in; looks - there are two boiling cauldrons; I looked into one, and my father was sitting in the cauldron and was trying to jump out of there; His son grabbed him by the beard and began to pull him out, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not pull him out; only the beard remained in his hands. He looked into another cauldron, and there his mother was suffering. He felt sorry for him, took her by the braid and started dragging her; but again, no matter how hard he tried, he did nothing; only the scythe remained in his hands. And he found out then that this was not an elder, but the Lord himself called him a younger brother. He returned to him, fell at his feet and begged for forgiveness for breaking the commandment and being in the forbidden room. The Lord forgave him and sent him back on a winged horse. The merchant’s son returned home, and his wife said to him: “Why did you stay with your brother for so long?” - "How long! I only stayed for one day.” - “Not just one day, but three whole years!” Since then, they have become even more merciful towards the poor brethren.

EGORY BRAVE

Not in an alien kingdom, but in our state, my dear, there was a time - oh-oh-oh! At that time we had many kings, many princes, and God knows who to obey, they quarreled among themselves, fought and shed Christian blood in vain. And then an evil Tatar came running, filled the entire land of Meshchera, built himself the city of Kasimov, and he began to take vines and red maidens as his servants, converted them to his filthy faith and forced them to eat unclean makhan food. Grief, and that’s all; tears, so many tears were shed! all the Orthodox Christians fled to the forests, made dugouts there and lived with the wolves; The temples of God were all destroyed, and there was nowhere to pray to God.

And so there lived and lived in our Meshchera side a kind peasant Antip, and his wife Marya was such a beauty that you couldn’t write it down with a pen, only tell it in a fairy tale. Antipas and Marya were pious people, they often prayed to God, and the Lord gave them a son of unprecedented beauty. They named their son Yegor; he grew by leaps and bounds; Yegor’s mind was not that of a child: it used to be that he would hear some prayer and sing it in such a voice that the angels in heaven rejoice. He heard the schema-monk Hermogenes about the mind of the baby Yegor, and begged him from his parents to teach him the word of God. The father and mother cried and grieved, prayed and sent Yegor into science.

And at that time there was some khan in Kasimov, Brahim, and his people called him Zmiy Goryunych: he was so angry and cunning! It’s just that the Orthodox couldn’t live from him. It used to be that he would go out hunting to poison a wild animal, don’t get caught by anyone, he’ll kill him in a minute; and Kasimov drags young women and beautiful girls to his city. Once he met Antipas and Marya, and he fell in love with her;

Now he ordered her to be seized and dragged to the city of Kasimov, and Antipas immediately put her to an evil death. As Yegoriy learned about the unfortunate lot of his parents, he cried bitterly and began to fervently pray to God for his own mother, and the Lord heard his prayer. That's how Yegori grew up, he decided to go to Kasimov-grad to save his mother from evil bondage; took the blessing from the schema-monk and set off on his path. Whether he walked for a long time or for a short time, he only came to Bragimov’s chambers and saw: evil infidels were standing and mercilessly beating his poor mother. Yegory fell at the khan’s feet and began to ask for his mother; Brahim the formidable Khan began to seethe with anger at him and ordered him to be seized and subjected to various tortures. Yegory was not afraid and began to send his prayers to God. So the khan ordered to saw it with saws and chop it with axes; The teeth of the saws were broken, the blades of the axes were knocked out. The khan ordered it to be boiled in fiery resin, and Saint Yegory floats on top of the resin. The khan ordered to put him in a deep cellar; Yegory sat there for thirty years - he kept praying to God; and then a terrible storm arose, the winds carried away all the oak boards, all the yellow sands, and Saint Yegory came out into the free world. I saw in the field a saddled horse standing, and next to it lay a treasure sword and a sharp spear. Yegory jumped on his horse, adjusted himself and rode into the forest; I met many wolves here and unleashed them on Brahim Khan the Terrible. The wolves did not cope with him, and Yegory himself jumped on him and stabbed him with a sharp spear, and freed his mother from evil captivity.

And after that, Saint Yegoriy built a cathedral church, started a monastery and himself wanted to work for God. And many Orthodox Christians went to that monastery, and a cell and a settlement were created around it, which to this day is known as Yegoryevsk.

ILYA THE PROPHET AND NICOLA

It was a long time ago; Once upon a time there was a man. Nikolin always revered the day, but in Ilyin no, no, and he will work; He will serve a prayer service for St. Nicholas the saint and light a candle, but he forgot to think about Elijah the prophet.

One day, Elijah the Prophet was walking with Nikola across the field of this same man; They walk and look; the greenery in the field is so glorious that the soul cannot rejoice. “There will be a harvest! - says Nikola. - Yes, and the guy is really good, kind, pious;

He remembers God and knows the saints! Good things will fall into your hands...” - “But we’ll see,” answered Ilya, “how much more will be left!” As I burn with lightning, as I knock out the whole field with hail, so will your man know the truth and honor Ilya’s day.” They argued and argued and went in different directions. Nikola the saint now goes to the peasant: “Sell,” he says, “quickly to Ilyin’s dad all your standing grain; Otherwise there will be nothing left, everything will be destroyed by hail.” The man rushed to the priest: “Won’t you buy some standing bread, father? I will sell the entire field; I have such a need for money, take it out and put it down! Buy it, father! I’ll give it away cheap.” They bargained and bargained and bargained. The man took the money and went home.

No more or less time passed: a menacing cloud gathered, moved in, burst into terrible rain and hail over the peasant’s field, cut off all the bread as if with a knife, and did not leave a single blade of grass. The next day, Elijah the Prophet and Nicholas walk past; and Ilya says: “Look how I ruined the peasant’s field!” - “Muzhikovo? No, brother! You ruined it well, only this is the field of Ilyin’s priest, and not the peasant’s.” - “How’s your butt?” - “Yes so; The guy will have sold it to Ilyinsky’s dad in a week and received the money in full. That's it, tea, the priest is crying for money! “Wait,” said Elijah the prophet, “I’ll straighten the field again, it will be twice as good as before.” We talked and went our separate ways. Nikola the saint again goes to the peasant: “Go,” he says, “to the priest, buy back the field - you won’t be at a loss.” The man went to the priest, bowed and said: “I see, father, the Lord God has sent misfortune to you - the whole field has been knocked out by hail, even if you roll a ball! So be it, let’s cut the sin in half; I’m taking back my field, and here’s half your money for your poverty.” The priest was delighted, and they immediately shook hands.

Meanwhile - where did everything come from - the peasant field began to get better; new fresh shoots sprang from the old roots. Rain clouds constantly rush over the fields and water the earth; wonderful bread was born - high-rise and frequent; no weeds to be seen at all; and the ear is full and full, and bends to the ground. The sun warmed up, and the rye ripened - as if it were golden in the field. The man pressed a lot of sheaves, laid down a lot of hay; I was just about to carry it and put it in stacks. Once again, Elijah the Prophet walks past with Nikolai. He looked cheerfully around the whole field and said: “Look, Nikola, what grace! This is how I awarded the priest, he will never forget his life...” - “Pop?! No, brother! the grace is great, but this is a peasant’s field; The priest will have nothing to do with it.” - "What you!" - “The right word! When the whole field was knocked out by hail, the man went to Ilyinsky’s dad and bought it back for half the price.” “Wait,” said Elijah the prophet, “I will take away all the ergot from the bread: no matter how many sheaves a man puts down, he will not thresh more than four at a time.” - “This is bad,” thinks Nikola the saint; Now he went to the peasant: “Watch,” he says, “how you start threshing bread, don’t put more than one sheaf on the current.” The man began to thresh: every sheaf, then a quarter of grain. I filled all the bins, all the cages with rye, but there is still a lot left; He built new barns and filled them full. Here comes Elijah the prophet one day with Nikolai

past his yard, looked back and forth and said: “Look at the barns you brought out! Will you pour something into them?” “They are too plump,” answers Nikola the saint. “Where did the man get so much bread?” - “Eva! every sheaf gave him four quarters of grain; as soon as he started threshing, he put everything one sheaf on the current.” - “Eh, brother Nikola! - Ilya the prophet guessed; You’re telling all this to the peasant.” - “Well, I made it up; I’ll retell it...” - “Whatever you want, and that’s your business! Well, the man will remember me!” - “What are you going to do to him?” - “What I will do, I won’t tell you.” - “When there’s trouble, trouble comes!” - thinks Nikola the saint - and again to the peasant: “Buy,” he says, “two candles, a large one and a small one, and do this and that.”

The next day, Elijah the prophet and Nikola the saint are walking together in the form of wanderers, and a man comes across them: he is carrying two wax candles - one for rubles, and the other for kopecks. “Where are you going, little man?” - Nikola the saint asks him. - “Yes, I’m going to light a ruble candle for Elijah the prophet, he was so merciful to me! The field was devastated by hail, so the priest did his best, but he produced a harvest twice as good as before.” - “What’s a cheap candle good for?” - “Well, this Nicolet!” - the man said and moved on. “Here you are, Ilya, saying that I am telling everything to the peasant; tea, now you see for yourself how true this is!”

That was the end of the matter; Elijah the prophet had mercy and stopped threatening the peasant with trouble; and the man lived happily ever after, and from that time on he began to honor both Ilya’s day and Nikolin’s day equally.

KASYAN AND NIKOLA

Once in the autumn, a man got stuck in a cart on the road. We know what kind of roads we have; and then it happened in the fall - there’s nothing to say! Kasyan-pleaser walks past. The man didn’t recognize him - and let’s ask: “Help, darling, pull out the cart!” - “Go away! - Kasyan the saint told him. “I have time to hang out with you!” And he went his own way. A little later, Nikola the saint comes along. “Father,” the man screamed again, “father! help me pull out the cart.” Nikola is a people-pleaser and helped him.

So Kasyan the saint and Nikola the saint came to God in heaven. “Where have you been, Kasyan the saint?” - asked God. “I was on the ground,” he answered. - I happened to walk past a man whose cart got stuck; he asked me: help, he says, pull out the cart; Yes, I didn’t bother to stain the heavenly dress.” - “Well, where did you get so dirty?” - God asked Nikola the saint. “I was on the ground; walked along the same road and helped the man pull out the cart,” answered Nikola the saint. “Listen, Kasyan,” God said then, “you didn’t help the peasant - for that, in three years they will serve you prayers. And for you, Nikola the saint, for helping the man pull out the cart, prayers will be served twice a year.” Since then, this has been the case: prayers are served for Kasyan only on leap years, and for Nikola twice a year.

GOLDEN STIRRUP

In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived a gypsy, he had a wife and seven children, and he lived to the point where there was nothing to eat or drink - not a piece of bread! He is lazy to work, and is afraid to steal; what to do? A gypsy came out onto the road and stood in thought. At that time, Yegor the Brave was traveling. "Great! - says the gypsy. -Where are you going? - “To God.” - "For what?" - “For the order: how to live, what to earn.” “Report about me to the Lord,” says the gypsy, “what does he tell me to eat?” - “Okay, I’ll report!” - Yegory answered and went his way. So the gypsy was waiting for him, waiting, and just saw that Yegory was driving back, and now he asks: “Well, did you report me?” “No,” says Yegory. “What is it?” - "Forgot!" So another time the gypsy went out onto the road and again met Yegory: he was going to God for an order. The gypsy asks: “Report about me!” “Okay,” said Yegory, and forgot again. The gypsy went out onto the road for the third time, saw Yegor and asked again: tell God about me! - "Ok I will tell". - “Perhaps you’ll forget?” - “No, I won’t forget.” Only the gypsy doesn’t believe it: “Give me,” he says, “your golden stirrup, I’ll hold it until you come back; and without that you will forget again.” Yegory untied the golden stirrup, gave it to the gypsy, and he himself rode on with one stirrup. He came to God and began to ask: what should someone live on, what should they earn a living? I received the order and wanted to go back; As soon as he began to mount the horse, he looked at the stirrup and remembered the gypsy. He returned to God and said: “I came across a gypsy on the road and told me to ask what he should eat?” - “And for a gypsy,” says the Lord, “that’s the trick, if he takes something from someone and hides it; his job is to deceive and extort!” Yegory got on his horse and came to the gypsy: “Well, it’s true what you said, gypsy! If you hadn’t taken the stirrup, I would have completely forgotten about you.” - “That’s exactly it! - said the gypsy. - Now you won’t forget me for a century, as soon as you look at the stirrup, you’ll remember me now. Well, what did the Lord say?” - “And then he said: if you take something from someone, hide it and neglect it, and it will be yours!” “Thank you,” said the gypsy, bowed and turned home. “Where are you going? - said Yegoriy, “give me back my golden stirrup.” - “What stirrup?” - “But you took it from me?” - “When did I take it from you? This is the first time I’ve seen you, and I didn’t take any stirrups, by God, I didn’t take them!” - the gypsy became pious.

What should I do? I fought with him, Yegoriy fought, and he left with nothing! “Well, what the gypsy said was true: if he hadn’t given me the stirrups, I wouldn’t have known him, but now I’ll remember him forever!”

The gypsy took the golden stirrup and went to sell it. He walks along the road, and a gentleman rides towards him. “What, gypsy, are you selling stirrups?” - “I’m selling.” - “What will you take?” - “One and a half thousand rubles.” “Why so expensive?” - “Because it’s gold.” OK!" - said the master; pocketed thousands. “Here’s a thousand for you, gypsy, give me the stirrup; and you’ll get the rest of the money in the end.” - “No, master; Perhaps I’ll take a thousand rubles, but I won’t give away the stirrups; As soon as you deliver what is agreed upon, then you will receive the goods.” The master gave him a thousand and went home. And as soon as he arrived, he immediately took out five hundred rubles and sent him to the gypsy with his man: “Give,” he said, “this money to the gypsy and take his golden stirrup.” Here comes a nobleman to a gypsy's hut. “Great, gypsy!” - “Great, good man!” - “I brought you money from the master.” - “Well, come on, if you brought it.” The gypsy took five hundred rubles, and let’s give him wine: he gave him enough to drink, the nobleman began to get ready to go home and said to the gypsy: “Give me the golden stirrup.” - "Which?" -<«Да то, что барину продал!» - «Когда продал? у меня никакого стремена не было». - «Ну, подавай назад деньги!» - «Какие деньги?» - «Да я сейчас отдал тебе пятьсот рублев». - «Никаких денег я не видал, ей-богу, не видал! Еще самого тебя Христа ради поил, не то что брать с тебя деньги!» Так и отперся цыган. Только услыхал про то барин, сейчас поскакал к цыгану: «Что ж ты, вор эдакой, деньги забрал, а золотого стремена не отдаешь?» - «Да какое стремено? Ну, ты сам, барин, рассуди, как можно, чтоб у эдакого мужика-серяка да было золотое стремено!» Вот барин с ним дозился-возился, ничего не берет. «Поедем, - говорит, - судиться». - «Пожалуй, - отвечает цыган, - только подумай, как мне с тобой ехать-то? ты как есть барин, а я мужик-вахлак! Наряди-ка наперед меня в хорошую одежу, да и поедем вместе».

The master dressed him up in his clothes, and they went to the city to sue. We arrived at the court; the master says: “I bought a golden stirrup from this gypsy; But he took the money, but won’t give me the stirrups.” And the gypsy says: “Gentlemen, judges! Think for yourself, where will a gray man get a golden stirrup? I don’t even have bread at home! I don’t know what this gentleman wants from me? He’ll probably say that I’m wearing his clothes too!” -<Да таки моя!» - закричал барин. «Вот видите, господа судьи!» Тем дело и кончено; поехал барин домой ни с чем, а цыган стал себе жить да поживать, да добра наживать.

SOLOMON THE WISE

After the crucifixion, Jesus Christ descended into hell and brought everyone out of there, except for one Solomon the Wise. “You,” Christ told him, “come out with your own wisdom!” And Solomon was left alone in hell: how could he get out of hell? I thought and thought and began to twist the wrapper. A little devil comes up to him and asks why he keeps twisting the rope endlessly? “You will know a lot,” answered Solomon, “you will be older than your grandfather, Satan!” you’ll see what it’s like!” Solomon made a wrapper and began to measure it in hell. The little devil again began to ask him, what is he measuring hell for? “Here I will build a monastery,” says Solomon the Wise, “here is a cathedral church.” The little imp got scared, ran and told everything to his grandfather, Satan, and Satan drove Solomon the Wise out of hell.

SOLDIER AND DEATH

One soldier served for twenty-five years, and he can’t wait to retire! He began to think and wonder: “What does this mean? I served God and the great sovereign for twenty-five years, I have never been fined, but they won’t let me resign; let me go wherever my eyes look!” I thought and thought and ran away. So he walked a day, and another, and a third, and met the Lord. The Lord asks him: “Where are you going, service?” - “Lord, I served for twenty-five years with faith and truth, I see: they don’t give resignation - so I ran away; Now I’m going wherever my eyes look!” - “Well, if you have served twenty-five years with faith and truth, then go to heaven - to the kingdom of heaven.” A soldier comes to paradise, sees indescribable grace and thinks to himself: that’s when I’ll live! Well, he just walked, walked through heavenly places, approached the holy fathers and asked: will anyone sell tobacco? “What a service, tobacco! This is paradise, the kingdom of heaven!” The soldier fell silent. Again he walked, walked through heavenly places, another time he approached the holy fathers and asked: are they selling wine somewhere nearby? “Oh, you service-service! what kind of wine is this! This is paradise, the kingdom of heaven!<...>“What a paradise this is: no tobacco, no wine!” - said the soldier and left paradise.

He went on and on and found himself meeting the Lord again. “What heaven,” he says, “did you send me?” God? no tobacco, no wine!” “Well, go to the left hand,” the Lord answers, “everything is there!” The soldier turned left and set off on the road. The evil spirit is running: “What do you want, Mr. Service?” - “Wait asking; Give me some space first, then talk.” So they brought the soldier into the inferno. “What, do you have any tobacco?” - he asks the evil spirits. “Yes, servant!” - “Is there any wine?” - “And there is wine!” - “Give me everything!” They gave him an unclean pipe of tobacco and half a glass of pepper. The soldier drinks and walks, smokes a pipe, the little guy becomes: this is truly paradise! Yes, the soldier didn’t have a long time, the devils began to press him from all sides, he felt sick! What to do? he set out on an invention, made a fathom, trimmed the pegs and let’s measure: he measures out a fathom and beats the peg. The devil jumped up to him: “What are you doing, service?” - “Are you blind! Can't you see? I want to build a monastery." How the devil rushed to his grandfather: “Look, grandfather, the soldier wants to build a monastery with us!” The grandfather jumped up and ran to the soldier: “What,” he said, “are you doing?” - “Don’t you see, I want to build a monastery.” Grandfather got scared and ran straight to God: “Lord! what kind of soldier did you send into hell: he wants to build a monastery with us!” - “What does it matter to me! Why do you accept people like that?” - "God! take him away." - “And how to take it! I wished it myself." - “Wow! - the grandfather screamed. “What should we, poor people, do with him?” - “Go, rip the skin off the little devil and put it on a drum, and then come out of the heat and sound the alarm: he will leave on his own!” The grandfather returned, caught the little devil, tore off his skin, and pulled the drum. “Look,” he punishes the devils, “how a soldier will jump out of the inferno, now lock the gates tightly, otherwise he won’t burst in here again!” The grandfather went out the gate and sounded the alarm; the soldier, when he heard the drumming, began to run away from hell at breakneck speed, as if mad; he scared away all the devils and ran out of the gate. As soon as he jumped out, the gate slammed, and they locked it tightly. The soldier looked around: he saw no one and heard no alarm; went back and let’s knock on the inferno: “Open it quickly!” - Screams at the top of his lungs. “Otherwise I’ll break the gate!” - “No, brother, you won’t break it! - say the devils. - Go wherever you want, but we won’t let you in; We survived by force of you!” The soldier hung his head and walked wherever he could. He walked and walked and met the Lord. “Where are you going, service?” - “I don’t know either! " - "Well, where am I going to take you? sent to heaven - not good! sent to hell - and didn’t get along there!” - “Lord, place me at your door as a watch.” - “Well, stand up.” Became a soldier on his watch. Here comes Death. "Where are you going?" - asks the sentry. Death replies: “I go to the Lord for a command, whom he orders me to kill.” - “Wait, I’ll go and ask.” He went and asked: “Lord! Death has come;

Who do you want to kill? - “Tell her to starve the oldest people for three years.” The soldier thinks to himself: “Well, perhaps she will kill my father and mother: after all, they are old people.” He came out and said to Death: “Go through the forests and grind the oldest oaks for three years.” Death cried:

“Why is the Lord angry with me, sending oaks to grind!” And she wandered through the forests, sharpening the oldest oaks for three years; and when time passed, she returned again to God for command. “Why did you drag yourself?” - asks the soldier. “After the command, whom the Lord commands to kill.” - “Wait, I’ll go and ask.” He went again and asked: “Lord! Death has come; Who do you want to kill? - “Tell her to starve the young people for three years.” The soldier thinks to himself: “Well, maybe she’ll kill my brothers!” He came out and said to Death:

“Go again through the same forests and trim the young oak trees for three whole years; so the Lord commanded!” - “Why is the Lord angry with me!” Death cried and walked through the forests. For three years she sharpened all the young oaks, and when time was up, she went to God; I can barely drag my legs. "Where?" - asks the soldier. “To the Lord for a command, whomever he commands to be killed.” - “Wait, I’ll go and ask.” He went again and asked: “Lord! Death has come; Who do you want to kill? - “Tell her to starve the babies for three years.” The soldier thinks to himself: “My brothers have children; this way, perhaps, she will kill them!” He came out and said to Death: “Go again through the same forests and gnaw the smallest oak trees for three whole years.” - “Why is the Lord tormenting me!” - Death cried and walked through the forests. For three years she gnawed at the smallest oak trees; and when time has passed, he goes back to God, barely moving his legs. “Well, now at least I’ll fight with the soldier, and I’ll reach the Lord myself!” Why is he punishing me for nine years?” The soldier saw Death and called out: “Where are you going?” Death is silent and climbs onto the porch. The soldier grabbed her by the collar and wouldn’t let her in. And they made such a noise that the Lord heard and came out: “What is it?” Death fell at his feet: “Lord, why are you angry with me? I suffered for nine whole years: I dragged myself through the forests, for three years I sharpened old oaks, for three years I sharpened young oaks, for three years I gnawed at the smallest oaks... I could barely drag my legs!” - “It’s all you!” - the Lord said to the soldier. “It’s my fault, Lord!” - “Well, go and wear Death on your backside for nine years for this!”

Death sat on a soldier astride. The soldier - there was nothing to do - took her on himself, drove and drove and exhausted himself; He pulled out a horn of tobacco and began to sniff. Death saw that the soldier was sniffing and said to him: “Servant, let me smell the tobacco too.” - “Here you go!” climb into the horn and sniff as much as you like.” - “Well, open your horn!” The soldier opened it, and as soon as Death climbed in, he at that very moment closed the horn and tucked it behind his boot. He came back to the old place and stood at the clock. The Lord saw him and asked: “Where is Death?” - "With me". - “Where with you?” - “Right here behind the boot.” - “Well, show me!” - “No, Lord, I won’t show you until I’m nine years old: it’s no joke to wear it on the shorts! it’s not easy!” - “Show me, I forgive you!” The soldier pulled out the horn and as soon as he opened it, Death immediately sat down on his shoulders. “Get off if you couldn’t ride!” - said the Lord. Death got down. “Now kill the soldier!” - the Lord ordered her and went - wherever he knew.

“Well, soldier,” says Death, “I heard that the Lord ordered you to be killed!” - "Well? you have to die someday! just let me correct myself.” - “Well, correct yourself!” The soldier put on clean underwear and brought the coffin. "Ready?" - asks Death. “Completely ready!” - “Well, lie down in the coffin!” The soldier lay down with his back up. "Not this way!" - says Death. “But what about?” - asks the soldier and lay down on his side. “It’s not like that!” - “You won’t please me to die!” - and lay down on the other side. “Oh, what are you, really! didn’t you see how they die?” - “That’s it, I haven’t seen it!” - “Let me distort it for you.” The soldier jumped out of the coffin, and Death lay in his place. Then the soldier grabbed the lid, quickly covered the coffin and pinned iron hoops on it; as soon as he hammered on the hoops, he immediately lifted the coffin onto his shoulders and dragged it into the river. He pulled it into the river, returned to his original place and stood at his watch. The Lord saw him and asked: “Where is Death?” - “I let her into the river.” The Lord looked - and she was floating far on the water. The Lord released her. “Why didn’t you kill the soldier?” - “Look, he’s so cunning! You can’t do anything with him.” - “Don’t talk to him for a long time; go and kill him!” Death went and killed the soldier.

A passerby walked by and asked to spend the night with a janitor. They fed him dinner, and he lay down to sleep on a bench. This janitor had three sons, all married. After dinner, he and his wives went to sleep in special cages, and the old owner climbed onto the stove. A passerby woke up at night and saw... table of various reptiles; could not bear such shame, he left the hut and went into the cage where the master’s big son was sleeping; here you can see that the baton is beating from the floor to the ceiling. He was horrified and moved to another cage, where the middle son was sleeping; He looked, and between him and his wife lay a serpent and was breathing on them. “Let me test the third son again,” thought the passerby and went to another cage; here I saw a kunka: jumping from husband to wife, from wife to husband. He gave them peace and went to the field; He lay down under the hay, and it seemed to him as if some man in the hay was groaning and saying: “My stomach is sick! oh, my stomach feels sick!” The passerby got scared and was about to lie down under the rye wort; and then a voice was heard shouting: “Wait, take me with you!” The passerby couldn’t sleep, so he returned to the old man’s hut, and the old man began to ask him: “Where was the passerby?” He recounted to the old man everything he had seen and heard: “On the table,” he says, “I found all sorts of bastards, because after dinner your daughters-in-law, with their blessing, did not collect or cover anything; the big son's club is beating in his cage - this is because he wants to be a big man, but his little brothers do not listen: it is not the club that is beating, but his mind; I saw a serpent between his middle son and his wife - this is because they have enmity against each other; I saw a kunka on the youngest son - it means that he and his wife have the grace of God, they live in good harmony; I heard a groan in the hay - this is because: if someone is flattered by someone else’s hay, he mows it and sweeps it into the same place as his own, then someone else’s something crushes his own, and his own groans, and it’s hard for his stomach; and that ear of corn shouted: wait, take me with you! - this is what is not collected from the strip, it says: I’m lost, collect me!” And then a passerby said to the old man: “Watch, master, over your family: give your big son the majority and help him in everything; Talk to your middle son and his wife so that they can live more councilably; Do not mow other people’s hay, but gather the ears of grain from the stripes clean.” He said goodbye to the old man and went on his way.

THE HERMIT AND THE DEVIL

There was a hermit who prayed to God for thirty years: demons often ran past him. One of them, lame, stood far from his comrades. The hermit stopped the lame man and asked: “Where are you, devils, running?” The lame man said: “We are running to the king for lunch.” - “When you run back, bring me a salt shaker from the king; then I will believe that you are having lunch there.” He brought salt lick. The hermit said: “When you run to the king again for dinner, run to me and take back the salt lick.” Meanwhile, he wrote to the salt shaker: “You, king, ate without blessing; I hate to eat with you!” The Emperor ordered that everything be placed on the table with a blessing. After that, the imps came running for lunch and could not approach the blessed table, it burned them, and they ran back. They began to ask the lame man: “You stayed with the hermit; Is that right, I told him that we were going to lunch?” He said: “I only brought him one salt lick from the king.” The demons began to torment the lame man for what he told the hermit. So the lame man, in revenge, built a forge opposite the hermit’s cell and began to transform the old people into the forge for the young. The hermit saw this and wanted to change himself: “Give it to me,” he says, “and I’ll change it!” He came to the forge to the imp and said: “You can’t

Is it possible to change me into a young one?” “If you please,” the lame man answers and threw the hermit into the mountain; There he cooked and cooked him and pulled him out like a chick; He put him in front of the mirror: “Look now - what are you like?” The hermit cannot stop admiring himself. Then he liked getting married. The lame man provided him with a bride; They both can't stop looking at each other, they can't stop admiring each other. Now we need to go to the crown;

The imp says to the hermit: “Look, when they start putting on crowns, don’t be baptized!” The hermit thinks: how can one not be baptized when they are putting on crowns? He did not listen to him and crossed himself, and when he crossed himself, he saw that an aspen was bent over him, and there was a noose on it. If I hadn’t crossed myself, I would have hung on a tree here; but God took him away from final destruction.

HERMIT

There were three men. One man was rich; he just lived, he lived in this world, he lived for two hundred years, he still doesn’t die; and his old woman was alive, and his children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were all alive - no one dies; what? Not even a single one of the cattle was wasted! And the other man was reputed to be unhappy, he had no luck in anything, because he took on every task without prayer; Well, he wandered here and there to no avail. And the third man was a bitter, bitter drunkard; I drank everything clean from myself and began to wander around the world.

Then one day they came together and all three went to the same hermit. The old man wanted to find out whether Death would soon come for him, and the unfortunate man and the drunkard - how long would they suffer grief? They came and told everything that had happened to them. The hermit led them into the forest, to the place where three paths converged, and ordered the ancient old man to walk along one path, the unfortunate one along the other, the drunkard along the third: there, they say, everyone will see his own. So the old man walked along his path, walked and walked, walked and walked and saw mansions, so nice, and in the mansions there were two priests; As soon as he approaches the priests, they shout to him: “Go, old man, dogma! When you return, you will die.” The unfortunate man saw a hut on his path, entered it, and in the hut there was a table, on the table there was a piece of bread. The unfortunate man got hungry, was delighted with the edge, and already extended his hand, but forgot to cross his forehead - and the edge immediately disappeared! And the drunkard walked and walked along his path and came to the well, looked in there, and in it were reptiles, frogs and all sorts of shame! The unfortunate drunkard returned to the hermit and told him what they had seen. “Well,” said the hermit to the unfortunate man, “you will never have any luck in anything until you get down to business, blessing yourself and with prayer; “And for you,” he said to the drunkard, “eternal torment is prepared in the next world - because you get drunk on wine, not knowing either fasts or holidays!” And the ancient old man went home and only to the hut, and Death had already come for the soul. He began to ask: “Let me live in this world, I would give away my wealth to the poor; give it at least three years!” - “You don’t have time for three weeks, or three hours, or three minutes! - says Death. “Why didn’t you give it away before you thought?” That's how the old man died. He lived on earth for a long time, the Lord waited for a long time, but only when Death came did he remember the beggars.

TSAREVICH EVSTAFY

In a certain state there lived a king. He had a young son, Tsarevich Eustathius; He did not like feasts, dances, or carnivals, but loved to walk the streets and hang out with beggars, simple and wretched people, and gave them money. The king became very angry with him and ordered him to be taken to the gallows and put to a cruel death. They brought the prince and they want to hang him. So the prince fell on his knees before his father and began to ask for at least three hours. The king agreed and gave him three hours. Meanwhile, Tsarevich Eustathius went to the locksmiths and ordered three chests to be quickly made: one gold, another silver, and the third - to simply split the ridge in two, hollow it out with a trough and attach a lock. The locksmiths made three chests and brought them to the gallows. The Tsar and the boyars are watching what will happen; and the prince opened the chests and showed: the gold one was full of gold, the silver one was full of silver, and the wooden one was filled with all sorts of abominations. He showed them and again closed the chests and locked them tightly. The king became even more angry and asked Tsarevich Eustathius: “What kind of ridicule are you making?” - “Sovereign Father! - says the prince. “You’re here with the boyars, tell them to evaluate the chests, what are they worth?” The boyars valued a silver chest dearly, a gold one even more expensive, but they didn’t even want to look at a wooden one. Eustathius Tsarevich says: “Now open the chests and look what’s in them!” So they opened the golden chest, there were snakes, frogs and all sorts of shame; we looked at the silver one - and here too; They opened the wooden one, and in it trees grow with fruits and leaves, they give off sweet perfumes, and in the middle there is a church with a fence. The king was amazed and did not order the execution of Tsarevich Eustathius.

DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND SINNER

One elder asked God to allow him to see how the righteous die. So an angel appeared to him and said: “Go to such and such a village and you will see how the righteous die.” The old man went; comes to the village and asks to spend the night in one house. The owners answer him: “We would be glad to let you in, old man, but our parent is sick, lying on the verge of death.” The sick man heard these speeches and ordered the children to let the wanderer in. The elder entered the hut and settled down for the night. And the sick man called his sons and daughters-in-law, gave them parental instructions, gave his last forever indestructible blessing and said goodbye to everyone. And that same night Death came to him with the angels: they took out his righteous soul, put it on a golden plate, sang “Like the Cherubim” and carried it to heaven. No one could see it; only one old man saw. He waited for the funeral of the righteous man, served a memorial service and returned home, thanking the Lord for having made him worthy to see his holy death.

After that, the elder asked God to allow him to see how sinners die; and a voice came to him from above: “Go to such and such a village and you will see how they die

hazel trees." The elder went to that same village and asked to spend the night with three brothers. So the owners returned from threshing to the hut and went about their business, began to chatter and sing songs; and invisibly Death came to them with a hammer in his hands and hit one brother in the head. “Oh, my head hurts!.. oh, my death...” - he shouted and immediately died. The elder waited for the sinner’s funeral and returned home, thanking the Lord for making him worthy to see the death of the righteous and the sinner.

The woman gave birth to twins. And God sends an angel to take the soul out of her. An angel flew to the woman; He felt sorry for the two small babies, he did not take the soul out of the woman and flew back to God. “What, did you take out your soul?” - the Lord asks him. “No, Lord!” - “What’s so?” The angel said: “That woman, Lord, has two little babies; what will they eat?” God took the rod, struck the stone and broke it in two. “Get in there!” - God said to the angel; The angel climbed into the crack. “What do you see there?” - asked the Lord. “I see two worms.” - “Whoever feeds these worms would feed these two babies!” And God took away the angel’s wings and sent him to earth for three years.

The angel hired himself as a farm laborer for the priest. He lives with him for a year or two; once the priest sent him somewhere on business. A farm laborer walks past the church, stops, and lets throw stones at it, but he tries to hit the cross directly. Many, many people gathered, and everyone began to scold him; Almost arrived! The farmhand walked further, walked and walked, saw a tavern - and let God pray to him. “What kind of fool is this,” passers-by say, “he throws stones at the church and prays at the tavern!” They don’t beat such fools enough!..” And the farm laborer prayed and moved on. He walked and walked, saw a beggar - and well, scold him as a beggar. Passers-by heard this and went to the priest with a complaint: so and so, they say, your farm laborer walks the streets - he just makes fools, mocks the shrine, swears at the poor. The priest began to interrogate him: “Why did you throw stones at the church, why did you pray to God at the tavern?” The farmhand tells him:

“I didn’t throw stones at the church, I didn’t pray to God at the tavern! I walked past the church and saw that the evil spirits for our sins were circling over the temple of God and clinging to the cross; so I started throwing stones at her. And walking past the tavern, I saw a lot of people, drinking, walking, not thinking about the hour of death; and here I prayed to God not to allow the Orthodox to become drunken and die.” - “Why did you bark at the poor guy?” - “What a wretched thing!” He has a lot of money, but he goes around the world collecting alms; Only he takes away bread from the direct beggars. That’s why he called him a beggar.”

The farm laborer lived for three years. The priest gives him money, and he says: “No, I don’t need money; You’d better take me out.” The priest went to see him off. So they walked, walked, walked for a long time. And the Lord again gave wings to the angel; he rose from the ground and flew into the sky. It was only then that the priest found out who had served with him for three whole years.

SIN AND REPENTANCE

Once upon a time there lived an old woman, she had one son and one daughter. They lived in great poverty. One day my son went into an open field to look at the winter shoots; He went out and looked around: there was a high mountain nearby, and on that mountain at the very top thick smoke was billowing. “What a miracle this is! - he thinks, - this mountain has been standing for a long time, I have never seen even a little smoke on it, but now, look how thick it has risen! Let me go look at the mountain.” So I climbed the mountain, and it was very steep! - I climbed by force to the very top. He looks - and there is a large cauldron full of gold. “It is the Lord who has sent a treasure for our poverty!” - the guy thought, walked up to the boiler, bent down and was just about to pick up a handful - when a voice was heard: “Don’t you dare take this money, otherwise it will be bad!” He looked back - no one was visible, and thought: “That’s right, I imagined it!” He bent down again and was just about to take a handful from the cauldron when the same words were heard. "What's happened? - he says to himself. “There’s no one, but I hear a voice!” I thought and thought and decided to approach the boiler for the third time. Again he bent down for the gold, and again a voice was heard: “You were told - don’t you dare touch it! and if you want to get this gold, then go home and commit a sin in advance with your own mother, sister and cousin

Mine. Then come: all the gold will be yours!”

The guy returned home and thought deeply. The mother asks: “What’s wrong with you? Look how sad you are!” She pestered him, and arranged things this way and that: the son could not stand it and confessed about everything that happened to him. The old woman, when she heard that he had found a large treasure, from that very hour began to think about how she could manage to confuse her son and lead him to sin. And on the first holiday, she called her godfather to her, had a word with her and her daughter, and together they came up with the idea of ​​making the little one drunk. They brought wine - and well, treat him; So he drank a glass, drank another, and a third, and got so drunk that he completely forgot and committed a sin with all three: his mother, sister and godfather. The drunken man is knee-deep in the sea, but when he woke up and remembered what sin he had committed, he simply wouldn’t look at the light! “Well, son,” the old woman tells him, “what do you have to be sad about? Go up the mountain and take the money to the hut.” The guy got ready, climbed the mountain, looked, the gold stood in the cauldron untouched, and it glittered! Where should I put this gold? I would give away my last shirt now, just to avoid sin.” And a voice was heard: “Well, what else do you think? Now don’t be afraid, take it boldly, all the gold is yours!” The guy sighed heavily, cried bitterly, did not take a single penny and went wherever his eyes led him.

He goes on his way, and whoever he meets asks everyone: does he know how to atone for his grave sins? No, no one can tell him how to atone for his grave sins. And out of terrible grief, he embarked on a robbery: he interrogates everyone who comes his way: how can he atone for his sins before God? and if he doesn’t tell, he immediately kills to death. He ruined many souls, he ruined his mother, his sister, and his godfather, and in total - ninety-nine souls; but no one told him how to atone for his grave sins. And he went into the dark dense forest, walked and walked and saw a hut - so small, cramped, all made of turf; and in that hut the hermit took refuge. Entered the hut; the hermit and asks: “Where are you from, good man, and what are you looking for?” The robber told him. The hermit thought and said: “You have many sins, I cannot impose penance on you!” - “If you do not impose penance on me, you will not escape death; I have ruined ninety-nine souls, and with you there will be exactly one hundred.” He killed the hermit and moved on. He walked and walked and got to the place where another hermit was fleeing, and told him about everything. “Okay,” says the hermit, “I will impose penance on you, but can you bear it?” - “Whatever you know, order it, even if I gnaw stones with my teeth, I’ll do it!” The hermit took a burnt brand, led the robber to a high mountain, dug a hole there and buried the brand in it. “Do you see,” he asks, “the lake?” And the lake was at the bottom of the mountain, about half a mile away. “I see,” says the robber. “Well, crawl to this lake on your knees, carry water from there with your mouth and water this very place where the burnt brand is buried, and keep watering until it sprouts shoots and an apple tree grows out of it. When an apple tree grows from it, blooms and bears a hundred apples, and you shake it and all the apples fall from the tree to the ground, then know that the Lord has forgiven you all your sins.” The hermit said and went to his cell to save himself as before. And the robber knelt down, crawled to the lake and took water into his mouth, climbed the mountain, watered the firebrand and again crawled for water. He worked for a long, long time; A whole thirty years passed - and with his knees he pierced the road along which he crawled into the belt of depth, and the firebrand sprouted. Another seven years passed - and the apple tree grew, blossomed and brought a hundred apples. Then the hermit came to the robber and saw him thin and skinny: only bones! “Well, brother, now shake the apple tree.” He shook the tree, and immediately every single apple fell off; at that very moment he himself died. The hermit dug a hole for him and buried him honestly.

Dear reader! Collected here short parables, fables and legends for children of primary school. They are redone and written in short sentences. Easy to read children. Will fit for children of any grade. Parables are added. If you have your own good parable, fable or legend, please send it. Or post it in the comments. Thank you! 🙂

Parable. What to be afraid of?

One day a strong thunderstorm began. All the children ran home. But the little girl herself was not there.

Mom went to look for her. It was raining in the yard. Lightning flashed brightly. Thunder rumbled loudly.

Mom was scared. She closed her eyes from every lightning. And from every thunder she covered her head with her hands.

Mom found her daughter on the street. The girl was all wet. She jumped and danced in the rain. And when lightning flashed, the girl raised her face up. And smiled at the sky.

Mom was very surprised. She asked:

- Daughter! Are not you afraid? Are you scared?

But the daughter answered in surprise:

- No, mom! I'm not scared! I don't know what to be afraid of here?

And then she said:

- Mother! Look! I dance and the sky takes pictures of me!

The same parable performed by Alexandra

Don't judge strictly, performance without rehearsal:

Two apples

A parable about not making hasty conclusions.

A little girl brought two apples from the street. Probably someone gave it to me.

– Mom, look how beautiful the apples are!
- Yes, beautiful! Will you treat me? - Mom asked.

The little girl looked at the apples. And then she took a bite from one apple. I thought for a second and... – I bit the second one.

Mom was surprised. And I thought:

– What a greedy girl I’m growing up. She started eating both apples, but didn’t offer me one.

But to her surprise, the girl handed her mother one apple with the words:

- Mommy! Take this apple! It's sweeter! 🙂

Dear reader!

Fable for children

Fable Lion and Mouse

The lion was sleeping under a tree. And under this tree there was a Mouse hole. The mouse began to crawl out of the hole and woke up the Lion. The lion woke up and caught the mouse. The mouse began to ask:

- Let go! I promise to help you when you ask me.

The Lion let go of the Mouse and laughed. He said:

- How can you help me? You're so small.

Time has passed. The hunters wounded the lion. They tied him up with rope and decided to sell him to the zoo.

The lion roared loudly, but none of the animals came to the rescue. All the animals were also afraid of the hunters.

But the Mouse came running. She chewed the rope at night. And Leo was freed.

Then the Mouse said to the Lion:

– Remember, you laughed at me for being so small. You didn't believe that I could help you.

Lev said:

- Sorry, Mouse, that I laughed. I didn’t know that small animals can also be useful.

Fable for children

Fable Dog and Reflection

The dog walked along the plank across the river. She carried a bone in her teeth.

Suddenly the Dog saw her reflection in the water. She thought that another dog was carrying prey there. And it seemed to the dog that that dog had a much larger bone than hers.

The dog abandoned his prey and rushed to take the bone from the reflection.

As a result, the Dog was left with nothing. She lost hers and couldn’t take away someone else’s.

This fable is about a cowardly heart.
No matter how much you help a coward, he will still be afraid.

Mouse heart

Once upon a time there lived a little Mouse who was unhappy because he was afraid of everything. But most of all he was afraid of falling into the paws of a cat.

The mouse came to the Wizard and began to ask him to make him a cat.

The wizard took pity on the mouse and turned him into a cat.

But then this cat began to be afraid of dogs.

The wizard turned a former mouse into a dog. But then he began to be afraid of wolves.

The wizard turned him into a wolf. But then he became very afraid of hunters.

And then the Wizard gave up. He again turned him into a mouse and said:

- Nothing will help you. Because you have the heart of a cowardly mouse.

The Legend of King Solomon's Ring.

There is a legend about King Solomon.
This legend is about King Solomon and the magic ring. I think children will understand it just as much as adults.

The sage gave King Solomon a magic ring. He put this ring on the king's finger and said:

“Never take off the ring!”

On this ring was the inscription:

"All will pass!"

When the king was sad, Solomon looked at the ring and read the inscription:

"All will pass!"

And the magic of the ring acted on the king. Solomon stopped grieving.

The ring always helped the king. Even when Solomon was angry, he also looked at the ring and read:

"All will pass!"

He smiled and calmed down.

But one day a great grief happened. Solomon looked at the ring and read the inscription. But he didn’t calm down, he even got angry. Then he took the ring off his finger for the first time and wanted to throw it away. But he saw that there was also an inscription inside the ring. He read:

“This too shall pass!”

Solomon calmed down and smiled.

He never took his magic ring off his hand again. And he gave the sage an expensive gift.

Parable for children

Where does a zebra get stripes? African legend.

Once upon a time, the zebra was one color. She was brown, like an antelope. And Zebra didn't like it. But she didn't know what color she should be. She liked black and white.

The zebra took two brushes and two cans of paint: white and black.

Each time she painted herself, sometimes with black paint, sometimes with white. This is how the stripes appeared. She never decided what she should be, white or black.

Then Zebra decided to take a swim to wash off the paint. But the paint was already so ingrained that it was impossible to get rid of it. Since then, Zebras have become black and white striped.

The Legend of Narcissus.

It was a long time ago. Back when people didn't have mirrors.

One young man was very handsome. And to see his beauty, he went to the stream to look at his reflection.

He looked at his reflection for a long time and admired himself. Then a Fairy appeared from the forest and made a beautiful flower out of the young man. This beautiful flower remained on the bank of the stream, admiring its reflection.

And people began to say to those who often look at their reflection:

– Don’t admire yourself for too long, lest you turn into a flower like Narcissus

Parables for children

The legend of how the kangaroo got its name.

The famous navigator James Cook sailed to Australia. There he saw amazing animals that jumped with huge leaps on two legs.

The surprised captain asked a local resident:

-What is the name of this beast?

The native shrugged his shoulders because he didn’t understand anything.

Cook asked again:

- Who is this?– and pointed to the jumping animal.

The native replied:

- Kan garu.

In the local language this meant: "I do not understand you".

Cook asked:

- Kangaroo?

The native nodded his head:

– Kan garu

Cook wrote in his journal that he saw amazing animals that run by jumping on two legs. And these animals are called: kangaroo.

Parables for children

The dispute between the Sun and the Wind. Who is stronger?

The wind was bragging about how strong it was. The Sun decided to teach the Wind a lesson. It said:

“You see, there’s an old man in a raincoat.” Can you take his cloak off?
“Of course I can,” answered the Wind.

The sun hid behind a cloud, and the wind began to blow. It got stronger and stronger until it finally turned into a hurricane. But the stronger the Wind blew, the more the traveler wrapped himself in his cloak.

The sun said:

- Enough! Now it's my turn!

The wind died down and stopped.

And the Sun smiled at the traveler and warmed him with its rays. The old man cheered up, he felt warm - and he took off his cloak.

And the Sun said to the Wind:

- You see! There is another force.

Since then, the Wind has stopped boasting of its power in front of the Sun.

Parables for children

Parable. How to divide equally?

Two brothers lived in the same village. Father, we will give them a field. And the brothers decided to divide the field in half.

We started dividing. It seemed to one that the other was getting most of it... then vice versa... They couldn’t draw a line. We thought and wondered... we almost came to a fight...

And they decided to turn to the Sage.

- Tell me, Sage... How can we equally and peacefully divide the field among ourselves?

And the sage says:

- Do this. Let one brother divide the field in half as he decides to do it. And let the second one choose from two halves: which part will be his, and which part will go to his brother.

And so they did. One brother divided the field in half. He tried very hard to make sure the halves were the same. The second brother chose one half of the field. And I was pleased too. After this incident, the brothers began to divide everything in this way.

Parables for children

How to feel about your work.

Three workers were carrying bricks. A boy came up to them and asked:

- What are you doing?

The worker wiped the sweat from his forehead and replied:

– Don’t you see that we are carrying bricks?
- But why?
- Baby, this is our job.

The boy did not understand why people carry bricks. He approached another worker and asked:

- What are you doing?

He rolled up his sleeves and said matter-of-factly:

– Don’t you see? - We earn money.
- What for?
- What do you mean why? I need money, otherwise I wouldn't take this job.

Then the boy approached the third worker.

- What are you doing?

The man smiled and said:

- Like what? We are doing a good job. We are building a house for good people. People will live happily in it. I am glad that I have already built many beautiful houses.

The boy thought about it. People do the same job for different reasons. And with different moods.

Children's parables

Fight with Leo

The lion was resting in the shade of a large tree after a hearty lunch. It was midday. Heat.

The Jackal approached the Lion. He looked at the resting Leo and timidly said:

- A lion! Let's fight!

But the answer was only silence.

The jackal began to speak louder:

- A lion! Let's fight! Let's have a battle in this clearing. You are against me!

Leo didn't pay any attention to him.

Then the Jackal threatened:

- Let's fight! Otherwise I’ll go and tell everyone that you, Leo, scared me terribly.

Leo yawned, stretched lazily and said:

- And who will believe you? Just think! Even if someone condemns me for cowardice, it is still much more pleasant than the fact that they will despise me. Despised for fighting with some Jackal...

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Parables for children

Fly and bee

Mosquito asked Mukha:

– Are there any beautiful flowers somewhere nearby?

But the Fly answered Mosquito:

- There are no flowers here. But there are a lot of good trash heaps. You definitely need to fly to them. There's so much interesting stuff there.

The mosquito flew away. And he met the Bee. He asked:

- Bee! Where are the trash cans? I can't find them at all.

And the Bee answers:

- Don't know. I saw only beautiful flowers nearby. Let's fly together and I'll show them to you.

Parables for children

Ghost tree.

Not far from the road stood a large withered tree.

One night a thief passed by on the road. He saw a tree in the dark. But this silhouette seemed to him in the form of a policeman. The thief got scared and ran away.

In the evening a lover passed by. From a distance he noticed an elegant silhouette and thought that it was his beloved who had been waiting for him for a long time. His heart began to beat joyfully. He smiled and quickened his pace.

One day a mother and child walked past the tree. The kid, frightened by the scary fairy tales, thought there was a ghost near the road and burst into tears.

But the tree always remained just a tree!

The world around us is a reflection of ourselves.

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Parables for children

What else could I become?

There lived two brothers. One brother was a successful man who achieved fame for his good deeds. The other brother was a criminal.

One day the police caught the criminal and the case was brought to court. Before the trial, a group of journalists surrounded him, and one asked a question:

- How did it happen that you became a criminal?
- I had a difficult childhood. My father drank, beat my mother and my brother and me. Who else could I become?

After a while, several journalists approached the first brother, and one asked:

- You are known for your achievements and good deeds. How did you achieve all this?

The man thought for a moment and then answered:

- I had a difficult childhood. My father drank, beat my mother, my brother and me. Who else could I become?

Parables for children

ALL IN YOUR HANDS
Parable

Once upon a time, in one city, there lived a great sage. The fame of his wisdom spread far around his hometown, people from afar came to him for advice.

But there was a man in the city who was jealous of his glory. He once came to a meadow, caught a butterfly, planted it between his closed palms and thought:

- Let me go to the sage and ask him: tell me, oh wisest one, which butterfly is in my hands - alive or dead? - If he says dead, I will open my palms and the butterfly will fly away. If he says alive, I will close my palms and the butterfly will die. Then everyone will understand which of us is smarter.

That's how it all turned out. An envious man came to the city and asked the sage: “Tell me, oh wisest one, which butterfly is in my hands - alive or dead?”

Looking intently into the eyes, the sage said:

"All in your hands".

Parables for children

Parable. MASTER OF TOYS

In one distant country there lived an old man who loved children very much. He constantly made toys for them.

But these toys turned out to be so fragile that they broke faster than the child had time to play with them. Having broken another toy, the children were very upset and came to the master to ask for new ones. He gladly gave them others, even more fragile ones...

Finally, the parents intervened. They came to the old man with a question:

- Tell us, O Wise One, why do you always give our children such fragile toys that the children cry inconsolably when they break them?

And then the sage said:

- Quite a few years will pass, and someone will give these former children their heart. Maybe, having learned not to break fragile toys, they will be more careful about someone else’s heart?..

The parents thought for a long time. And they left, thanking the Teacher.

Parables for children

Paper

The teacher called his students and showed them a piece of white paper.

-What do you see here? – asked the Sage.

“Point,” one answered.

All the other students nodded their heads as a sign that they also saw the dot.

“Take a closer look,” said the Teacher.

But no matter how hard the students looked, they saw nothing but a black dot.

And then the teacher said:

- You all saw a small black dot, and no one noticed a clean white sheet...

“So I still have something to teach you.”

Parables for children

About trading methods

Once at the bazaar an ancient old man appeared in a skullcap and an oriental robe embroidered with an unusual pattern. The old man was selling watermelons.

There was a sign above his product:

“One watermelon – 3 rubles. Three watermelons – 10 rubles.”

A bearded man comes up and buys a watermelon for three rubles...

Then another watermelon for three rubles...

And at parting he joyfully says to the seller:

- Look, I bought three watermelons, but only paid 9 rubles, not 10. You don’t know how to trade!

The old man looks after him:

- Yes! They buy three watermelons from me instead of one, and then teach me how to trade...

Children's parables

Parable of two wolves

Once upon a time, an old Indian revealed one vital truth to his grandson.

- You see, there is a struggle in every person. This fight is very similar to the fight between two wolves. One wolf represents evil: envy, jealousy, regret, selfishness, greed, lies... And the other wolf represents good: peace, love, hope, care, kindness, loyalty... And other good qualities of a person.

The little Indian thought for a long time. And then he asked:

- Grandfather! Which wolf wins in the end? Bad wolf or good wolf?

The old Indian smiled faintly and replied:

- Remember: the wolf you feed always wins.

Parables for children

A stupid boy

A little boy walks into a barber shop. The hairdresser recognizes him immediately and says to his clients:

- Look, this is the stupidest boy in the world! Now I will prove it to you.

The barber takes $1 in one hand and 25 cents in the other. He calls the boy and invites him to choose:

– Do you choose 1 or 25?
- Twenty five!

Everyone laughs. The boy receives 25 cents and leaves.

Soon, one client catches up with the boy and asks:

- Boy! Tell me, why did you choose 25 cents and not 1 dollar? Are you really that stupid that you don't realize that $1 is more than 25 cents?
- Fine! What will I get for this?
- You'll get another 25 cents.

The boy receives coins and says:

- Because the day I choose $1, I think the hairdresser will stop being happy. Visitors will have nothing to laugh about. I will become “smart”, I will no longer be “stupid”. And I won’t be able to get 25 cents every time.

Children's parables

The Legend of the Temple of a Thousand Mirrors

Many hundreds of years ago, high in the mountains there was a Temple with a Thousand Mirrors. Many people went to see him.

One day, a dog entered this temple. Looking around, the dog saw a thousand dogs in the mirrors and, frightened, bared its teeth.

At that moment she saw a thousand grinning dogs. The dog growled. And the echo responded with a growl...

With its tail between its legs, the dog jumped out of the temple, convinced that evil dogs lived in this temple.

A month later, another dog came to the temple with a thousand mirrors.

She entered it and, looking in the mirrors, saw a thousand friendly and peaceful dogs. She wagged her tail. And I saw a thousand friendly dogs.

Barking joyfully, she left the temple with full confidence that this Temple was full of friendly dogs.

• The world is often only a reflection of ourselves: if we look at the world brightly and joyfully, then it responds to us in the same way!

Parables for children

Bucket of apples

A man bought himself a new house - large, beautiful - and a garden with fruit trees near the house. And nearby in an old house lived an envious neighbor.

One day a man woke up in a good mood, went out onto the porch, and there was a pile of garbage.

What to do? Your porch needs to be cleaned. And also to find out who it was. And he found out - an envious neighbor.

I wanted to go and argue, but after thinking about it, I decided to do it differently.

He went into the garden, picked up the ripest apples and went to his neighbor.

The neighbor, hearing a knock on the door, thought maliciously: “Finally, my neighbor is angry!” Opens the door.

To his surprise, there was no one there, only apples. And on the apples there is a note:

He who is rich in what, shares it!

Children's parables

Bad words.

Two friends quarreled. And one began to say bad words about his friend to everyone he knew.

But then he calmed down and realized that he was wrong. He came to his friend and began to ask him for forgiveness.

Then the second friend said:

- Fine! I'll forgive you. Only on one condition.
- Which one?
- Take a pillow and let all the feathers out into the wind.

The first friend did just that. He tore the pillow. And the wind carried the feathers throughout the village.

A satisfied friend came to another and said:

- I completed your task. Am I forgiven?
- Yes, if you put all the feathers back into the pillow.

But you understand that it is impossible to collect all the feathers back. Likewise, bad words that have already scattered throughout the village cannot be taken back.

Sincerely, rhetoric coach Oleg Bolsunov.

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Short legends, parables, fables for primary school children

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/ Legends and parables for schoolchildren / The best legends and parables / Short legends and parables for elementary school children / Parables and legends for grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 /

Legends and traditions, born in the depths of Russian folk life, have long been considered a separate literary genre. In this regard, the famous ethnographers and folklorists A. N. Afanasyev (1826–1871) and V. I. Dal (1801–1872) are most often mentioned. M. N. Makarov (1789–1847) can be considered the pioneer of collecting ancient oral stories about secrets, treasures and miracles and the like.

Some stories are divided into the most ancient - pagan (this includes legends: about mermaids, goblins, water creatures, Yaril and other gods of the Russian pantheon). Others belong to the times of Christianity, explore folk life more deeply, but even those are still mixed with a pagan worldview.

Makarov wrote: “Tales about the failures of churches, cities, etc. belong to something unmemorable in our earthly upheavals; But the legends about towns and settlements are not a pointer to the wanderings of the Russians across the Russian land. And did they belong only to the Slavs? He came from an old noble family and owned estates in the Ryazan district. A graduate of Moscow University, Makarov wrote comedies for some time and was involved in publishing. These experiments, however, did not bring him success. He found his true calling in the late 1820s, when, as an official for special assignments under the Ryazan governor, he began to record folk legends and traditions. It was during his numerous official trips and wanderings throughout the central provinces of Russia that “Russian Legends” took shape.

In those same years, another “pioneer” I.P. Sakharov (1807–1863), then still a seminarian, while doing research for Tula history, discovered the charm of “recognizing the Russian people.” He recalled: “Walking through villages and hamlets, I peered into all classes, listened to the wonderful Russian speech, collecting legends of long-forgotten antiquity.” Sakharov’s type of activity was also determined. In 1830–1835 he visited many provinces of Russia, where he was engaged in folklore research. The result of his research was the long-term work “Tales of the Russian People.”

An exceptional for his time (a quarter of a century long) “going to the people” in order to study their creativity and everyday life was accomplished by the folklorist P. I. Yakushkin (1822–1872), which was reflected in his repeatedly republished “Travel Letters.”

In our book, undoubtedly, it was impossible to do without legends from the “Tale of Bygone Years” (11th century), some borrowings from church literature, and “Abewega of Russian Superstitions” (1786). But it was the 19th century that was marked by a rapid surge of interest in folklore and ethnography - not only Russian and pan-Slavic, but also Proto-Slavic, which, having largely adapted to Christianity, continued to exist in various forms of folk art.

The ancient faith of our ancestors is like scraps of ancient lace, the forgotten pattern of which can be determined from the scraps. No one has yet established the full picture. Until the 19th century, Russian myths never served as material for literary works, unlike, for example, ancient mythology. Christian writers did not consider it necessary to turn to pagan mythology, since their goal was to convert the pagans, those whom they considered their “audience,” to the Christian faith.

The key to the national awareness of Slavic mythology was, of course, the widely known “Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature” (1869) by A. N. Afanasyev.

Scientists of the 19th century studied folklore, church chronicles, and historical chronicles. They restored not only a number of pagan deities, mythological and fairy-tale characters, of which there are a great many, but also determined their place in the national consciousness. Russian myths, fairy tales, and legends were studied with a deep understanding of their scientific value and the importance of preserving them for subsequent generations.

In the preface to his collection “Russian people. Its customs, rituals, legends, superstitions and poetry" (1880) M. Zabylin writes: “In fairy tales, epics, beliefs, songs there is a lot of truth about our native antiquity, and their poetry conveys the entire folk character of the century, with its customs and concepts."

Legends and myths also influenced the development of fiction. An example of this is the work of P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky (1819–1883), in which the legends of the Volga and Urals shimmer like precious pearls. “The Unclean, Unknown and Godly Power” (1903) by S. V. Maksimov (1831–1901) undoubtedly also belongs to high artistic creativity.

In recent decades, forgotten during the Soviet period, but now deservedly enjoying wide popularity, have been republished: “The Life of the Russian People” (1848) by A. Tereshchenko, “Tales of the Russian People” (1841–1849) by I. Sakharov, “Ancient Moscow and the Russian People in the Historical relationship with the everyday life of Russians" (1872) and "Moscow environs near and far..." (1877) by S. Lyubetsky, "Fairy tales and legends of the Samara region" (1884) by D. Sadovnikov, "People's Russia. All year round legends, beliefs, customs and proverbs of the Russian people" (1901) by Apollo of Corinth.

Many of the legends and traditions presented in the book are taken from rare publications available only in the largest libraries in the country. These include: “Russian Legends” (1838–1840) by M. Makarova, “Zavolotskaya Chud” (1868) by P. Efimenko, “Complete Collection of Ethnographic Works” (1910–1911) by A. Burtsev, publications from ancient magazines.

The changes made to the texts, most of which date back to the 19th century, are minor and purely stylistic.

Before the creation of the world there was only water. And the world was created by God and his helper, whom God found in a bubble of water. It was like that. The Lord walked on the water and saw a large bubble in which a certain person could be seen. And that man prayed to God, began to ask God to break through this bubble and release him to freedom. The Lord fulfilled this man’s request, released him, and the Lord asked the man: “Who are you?” “No one yet. And I will be your assistant, we will create the earth.”

The Lord asks this man: “How do you plan to make the earth?” The man answers God: “There is land deep in the water, we need to get it.” The Lord sends his assistant into the water to fetch earth. The assistant carried out the order: he dived into the water and reached the earth, which he took a full handful of, and returned back, but when he appeared on the surface, there was no earth in the handful, because it had been washed away by water. Then God sends him another time. But another time, the helper could not deliver the earth intact to God. The Lord sends him for the third time. But the third time the same failure. The Lord dived himself, took out the earth, which he brought to the surface, he dived three times and returned three times.

The Lord and his assistant began to sow the extracted land on the water. When everything was scattered, it became earth. Where the earth did not fall, water remained, and this water was called rivers, lakes and seas. After the creation of the earth, they created a home for themselves - heaven and paradise. Then they created what we see and do not see in six days, and on the seventh day they lay down to rest.

At this time, the Lord fell fast asleep, but his assistant did not sleep, but figured out how he could do it so that people would remember him more often on earth. He knew that the Lord would throw him down from heaven. When the Lord was sleeping, he disturbed the whole earth with mountains, streams, and abysses. God soon woke up and was surprised that the earth was so flat, and suddenly became so ugly.

The Lord asks the assistant: “Why did you do all this?” The Helper answers the Lord: “Well, when a person is driving and approaches a mountain or a precipice, he will say: “Oh, damn you, what a mountain!”” And when he drives up, he will say: “Glory to you, Lord!”

The Lord was angry with his assistant for this and said to him: “If you are a devil, then be one from now on and forever and go to the underworld, and not to heaven - and let your home be not heaven, but hell, where those people will suffer with you.” who commit sin."