Recorded in the village of Kylmäsalmi in Kianta
THE FOX AND THE WOLF
A
fox saw a man catch some whitefish in a net, put them in
his sledge and leave for home. He ran ahead of the man and
played dead in the road. The man came along, saw the fox,
picked him up and put him on top of the fish in the sledge
and drove on. The fox threw the whitefish into the forest
and the man, feeling his load getting lighter, took a look
behind him. The fox jumped from the sledge and ran into
the forest, leaving the man but a single fish. There was
nothing the man could go about it; his fish were all gone,
and he headed home unhappy.
The fox gathered his fish into a pile and a wolf came along,
saw the pile of fish and asked:
- Where did you get the fish?
- The fox said: You get them if you fish for them..
- How do you catch them?
- Go over to Ilmola's, where they've cut a hole in the ice,
and when you see lots of stars in the sky put your tail
into the water and you'll bring a good catch home; that's
how you fish for them.
The wolf went and did as the fox told him. In the morning,
the fox went to Mrs. Ilmola and said:
- There's a wolf at your fishing hole.
The woman stopped her churning and ran with the plunger
to the hole. The wolf panicked and his tail broke off after
being frozen in the ice. Meanwhile, the fox ate the butter
from the churn and ran off with a smile when he saw the
woman come back.
He then met the wolf again in the forest, and the wolf
was very angry now that he realized he'd been tricked. The
fox didn't want to fight with the wolf, so he fled into
the forest. When he couldn't keep ahead of the wolf any
more, he hid under a tree. The wolf got a hold of the fox's
leg and bit it hard, and the fox screamed:
- Ahah! You bit the root of the tree. Go ahead and bite,
the root can take it.
The
wolf, thinking he was biting the root of the tree, stopped
and went for the fox's leg but of course bit into the root
of the tree instead. When the fox saw that, he started moaning:
- Don't, my dear friend, please don't bite my leg so hard.
Save me! I could still be a great help to you if only you'd
spare me.
So the wolf spared him, let go of the tree root and was
once again friends with the fox.
They set off together and went to a pile of wheat to collect
grain. They collected what they could and were making their
last trip to the pile for grain. But the fox still wanted
revenge on the wolf, who had scared him badly when he chased
him. So he started to make a fire, thinking he could burn
the wheat and the wolf at the same time. The wolf said:
- What are you doing now, my little fox?
- I thought this would amuse you.
He finally got the fire started and set the pile on fire.
The wolf got badly burnt; he had had a nice coat of fur
before. So they went off to thresh their grain. The fox
jumped up onto the rafters and looked down. The wolf threshed,
sweating all over. Finally he asked the fox:
- Why are you just sitting there? Aren't you going to come
and help thresh?
- The fox replied "I'm holding up the top, so it won't fall
on us.
- Very well, my friend," the wolf said. Hold it tight, and
I'll be done threshing soon.
The wolf finished and the fox came down from the rafters.
There was quite a pile of grain, but of course an even bigger
pile of chaff.
- I wonder which pile I should give you? The wolf asked.
The fox answered:
- Since you've worked a lot harder, you should take the
bigger one; the little one is good enough for me.
The wolf thought it was a great idea, and we even say when
someone gets very interested in something that he gets excited
like a wolf about a pile of chaff. Each then went off to
grind flour. The wolf's chaff just made a scraping sound
between the stones; the fox's grains made a nice rumbling
sound. The wolf asked the fox:
- Why are your stones going 'dum, dum' and mine 'scratch,
scratch'?
- It is because I put sand in there, too.
So
the wolf threw a handful of sand in the center of the stone
and his stones began rumbling, too. Each then began making
oatmeal from the wheat they'd ground. The wolf's oatmeal
was black, the fox's white, although the wolf didn't see
it. But when the wolf went outside before eating, the fox
took some of the oatmeal from the wolf's pot and put it
in his own.
The wolf came back and they started to eat. The wolf tasted
the oatmeal and said:
- This doesn't taste like anything; let me taste yours.
The fox gave him some oatmeal from his pot, but it was
the wolf's own oatmeal that he'd taken. The wolf tasted
it and when it wasn't any better, said :
- One pleasure in pudding, another fancy in flour.
While eating they heard a horse's bells and thought a little
horse meat would taste good with their porridge. They took
off after the horse and when they caught up with him, the
wolf sunk his teeth into the beast's rump. He must have
gotten them in deep because he couldn't get them out again.
The horse took off at a gallop, dragging the wolf behind
him. The fox shouted after the wolf with a sneer:
- Where's our friend Pekka being taken now?
- Don't trouble yourself any longer about where he's going,
Mikko.
The wolf's lying stiff-legged looking up at the stars.
And that's the end of the story.