Page 107 - Animals of the Sakhalin Region in myths and legends

They say that before, swans were mute birds, and all had black legs. Now everyone
knows that they shout «ky-ky, ky-ky», for which they received the name «kykik», and
many have red paws.
Why did swans become like this?
A little girl lived in a camp on the shore of the bay. She was very fond of playing
on a flat sandy spit: from morning to evening she drew various patterns with a twig,
built small houses out of sand.
She also admired the beautiful birds for a long time, which, like silent white clouds,
swam over her camp. The girl lay down on the warm sand and looked after the flocks
until they disappeared into the distance.
The girl’s parents loved their daughter very much. But one day in the summer his
mother died. Father and daughter grieved greatly. A month later, the father went to a
distant camp for a new mother for his little daughter.
The father brought a beautiful woman with black sable eyebrows and eyelashes,
like the tassels of the ears of a winter squirrel, with thick braids like the tail of a
black-brown fox. The stepmother looked down at the girl and said nothing.
The next day my father went hunting. The girl got up at sunrise and went to the
shore of the bay to play with the waves. She played for a long time, and when the sun
rose high above the forest, she ran home to breakfast. I went into the house and saw:
my stepmother was still asleep. The girl sighed softly, returned to the shore and began
to play again.
At the very water, she was building a house of sea sand. The oncoming wave washed
him away. But when the wave receded, the girl managed to build a new house. So she
did not notice how it was noon. She caught herself when the sun began to bake her
head strongly, and ran home.
The stepmother was still asleep. Finally, she got up, brought a soft white yukola
from the barn and began to eat. She didn’t even notice the girl standing next to her.
The stepmother chewed the last piece of yukola, licked her greasy fingers and,
without looking at the girl, threw her a tail of dried chum salmon. The girl ate this
tail. And she felt even more hungry. The stepmother yawned, turned away, went to bed
again.
So the hard days came for the little girl.
Her father hunted a lot of animals and game. He came home only to bring the prey,
and again left for the taiga for a long time. The stepmother ate all the tasty pieces
herself.
One day the father asked his wife:
— My wife, my daughter has lost a lot of weight. Perhaps she is ill?
The womanreplied:
— No, she is healthy. She is already big, but she does nothing about the housework,
does not help me. Only knows to run all day! Loser! No matter how you feed her, she
will be thin — she runs so much!
One autumn evening, when the birds in large flocks flew away towards noon, my
father returned from hunting and lay down to rest. Mother brought a fat yukola and
began to cut it into thin slices. The girl has not eaten since morning. She came up to
the table, I began to ask her stepmother to give her something to eat.

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