Page 17 - Animals of the Sakhalin Region in myths and legends

All the wading birds gathered at the Big Lake. They gathered and
argued. Each one praises themselves. Crane came out from behind a
large bump:
— You pathetic birds, look at my long legs, and you will say that the
crane is the best bird!
The Forest Master heard this and made the Crane’s legs dry up and
not bendable. Therefore, the female Crane incubates chicks on a high
hummock, but cannot sit in another place: there is nowhere to put its

straight and long legs.
The crane got angry with the Forest Master and went to him for the
truth. At this time, the Forest Master was surrounded by birds They
asked:
— Help! It’s cold in winter, and it’s hard for us to fly to the south: our
wings are small, we get tired, we fall, we die.

And as soon as the long-legged Crane appeared, the Forest Master
laughed:
— Here you, birds, a good heavenly deer, he will take you south.
Since then, as soon as the cranes rise into the sky to fly to warm
countries, they are surrounded by birds. They are in a hurry to take
a better place on the long legs of the cranes. So every autumn the
cranes take birds away from us to the south, and in the spring they

bring them back.

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