THE STORY OF THE LITTLE DEVIL CALLED SNEAKY TAIL

by Volodymyr ChyTay

  Volodymyr CHYTAY

  THE STORY OF THE LITTLE DEVIL CALLED SNEAKY TAIL

  1. The little devil in the forest

  Everything was peaceful and quiet in the Wonder Forest.

  Until a little devil appeared there. Is it possible? Of course, it is. Don’t even say there are no devils!

  Every year, the night before the Midsummer Day, the gate of the Hell opens and all the devil creatures fly out of there, get together, and rush about the world all night. This is how they celebrate their feast.

  This year, as usual, they flew out of the Hell, had a lot of fun, left garbage all around the forest, and disappeared as the sun rose. Devil creatures! They are so afraid of sunlight. This time they lost a little devil. He got tired of making up mischievous tricks, lay on the grass, and fell asleep. He slept soundly until the very morning. And when he woke up he nearly lost the power of speech. His eyes hurt because of the sun and he couldn’t see anything, since it had been so dark in the Hell.

  He hid himself in the shade, looked around and saw that nothing proved familiar to him: no bog, no tar, and no fire. There was nobody crying or moaning. His crafty friends were not there either. The little devil understood that it wasn’t Hell. Nevertheless, he didn’t pull a long face.

  “I am a grown-up devil already,” he thought. “I can stand up for myself even here.”

  A bison known as Judge was strolling around the forest. He was walking sedately nibbling the summery grass. Suddenly, he noticed some tar on the ground.

  “That is weird,” he thought. “Where is this tar from?”

  He followed in the strange wake and saw a little devil sitting under the tree.

  It was very small, jet-black, all in tar and mud, with a long tail that was never calm, always spinning around. It had little hornlets and legs. And it was so stinky that the bison could hardly breathe standing nearby.

  “Who are you?” asked the bison.

  “I am a devil.”

  “What are you doing in our forest?”

  “All the same as other devils.” The little devil burst out laughing. “I’m grazing.” He started making faces, pretending he was a bison: he stood on his four legs and started nibbling the grass. Then he burst out laughing again.

  It hurt the bison’s feelings and he got angry.

  “Don’t make faces, because I can teach you a good lesson with my hoof! You’ll remember it for the whole life.”

  “No, you won’t! No, you won’t! Try to catch me!” The little devil started mocking the bison.

  “Go away! Go back to your Hell! Don’t you dare to set your foot here again!” The bison got very angry. “I am the main judge in this forest. One word – and you will be arrested! You cannot behave like that! Stop it!”

  “I’m not afraid of either dad, or lad!” The little devil kept singing and pulling faces.

  The bison left furious. He called the council meeting and told the animals about the devil in the forest.

  “We should catch him,” he said, “before he commits follies.”

  Everybody agreed. They wanted to get hold of him but the devil was so swift that nobody could possibly do it. He could spin his tail round himself so that dust would rise and then nobody could see anything. When the dust fell, no traces were left. That is why he has been called Sneaky Tail.

  As the night fell, he ran from one place in the forest to another and screamed, looked into hollows and holes on a sly, and made fun of everyone he happened to see. Nobody was sleeping and couldn’t, should they choose, because of his tricks.

  In the morning, when the sun rose and the little devil’s eyesight was getting weak, the fox cub called Justin tracked him down and the boar Giv, who served in the forest security, trussed him up, took hold of his tail and brought the little devil to the bison.

  “Well, here we are again!” Bison Judge knitted his brow and ground his teeth. “We are going to try you for the insult!”

  The forest council gathered again. After all the insulted forest residents reported, they laid their heads together to decide on the punishment for the devil.

  “Don’t judge me guilty!” said the little devil. “I don’t know your laws! Where I come from, in the Hell, we all act like that. Father Devil taught me. The more damage there is, the better it is in the Hell! Don’t you know? I would go back to the Hell right away but the door is closed till the next year!”

  “Really,” says the snake Pharma, “how can we try him if this is how he has been brought up? Let’s better teach him how to behave.”

  “No, he should be punished: he is mean!” Judge argued, “And thrown away from our forest!”

  The animals kept arguing for a long time. They finally decided that the bison couldn’t judge this case because his mind was beclouded by the insult and he wanted to pay him back. The court should be honest and unbiased.

  The little devil was assigned a tutor – the goat Butt: they were very much alike. The goat didn’t have his own children and the council decided to give him the little devil, so that time wouldn’t hang heavy on his hands. The little devil, for his part, was made to give a word to obey the goat and do what he would tell him to.

  2. The goat and the little devil

  Goat Butt lived alone in the mountains. He wasn’t married. He didn’t have children. Neither did he have friends. He wasn’t talkative at all. If he said something though, he did it only once. He never repeated himself. He was strong, strict, and stubborn.

  Goat Butt took Sneaky Tail home.

  “First of all, you need to take a bath,” the goat said. “You are so dirty and stinky! Maybe, there – in your Hell, it is alright to smell like this but it is quite different here – in our forest.”

  “I am not taking a bath! I have never bathed in water. I can only bathe in tar! This is our custom!” The devil started beating off and kicking.

  The goat didn’t care much though, and threw Sneaky Tail into the mountain stream and started beating him with firry branches at full strength. The devil whistled, screamed, and begged the goat to let him go but the latter kept beating him again and again. The tar was getting soaked and little by little started coming off his hair. The little devil crawled out of the water petrified, beaten and wet.

  Butt took a juniper comb and started combing Sneaky Tail’s hair. The latter then cried:

  “You can’t comb my hair! I’m a devil! Devils don’t comb their hair. They are not supposed to!”

  Butt didn’t answer and just leaned the little devil on his knee, wound his tail on his paw and kept combing and combing until all the comb teeth broke off.

  Here fell the evening.

  The goat took a bowl and poured in some fresh milk.

  “Here you are, Sneaky Tail!” He drew the bowl up to the little devil.

  “I won’t drink it! Have you ever seen a devil drinking milk? Devils don’t drink milk! They drink human blood and eat the nerves.”

  Butt didn’t say a word, drank all the milk himself, and went to bed. He trussed the devil so that he couldn’t run away and put him close by.

  Sneaky Tail couldn’t fall asleep. He was used to sleeping in the swamp and smelling the tar. The grass was clean, so he couldn’t sleep.

  Early in the morning, he got up, woke Butt up, and said:

  “Let me go, have mercy, I will bring you gold!”

  Butt didn’t say a word – got up and washed himself. Then Sneaky Tail said again:

  “Let me go! Please! Father Devil will make you the king of the animals!”

  The goat was silent. He took a linen bag and pulled it on the little devil.

  “Hey! What are
you doing? Don’t, don’t kill me!” the devil got scared.

  “Don’t be afraid. It’s just for the sun not to dazzle you and your eyes not to hurt.” He slung the bag over his shoulder and went to the valley.

  “Where are you carrying me?” the one from the bag asked.

  “We are heading to school. You are going to study!”

  The little devil wanted to remind the bison that devils don’t study but didn’t say a word. It wouldn’t make any difference – Butt was so stubborn! Whether you talked to him or not, he would do what he pleased either way. Stubborn! So why waste the efforts in vain?

  3. Sneaky Tail at school

  Near the forest school, Butt opened the bag and let Sneaky Tail out. He untied the bag and said:

  “Go to school and listen to the teachers carefully. Don’t take other’s things without permission, don’t offend other children, don’t fight with them, and don’t run to and fro. Did you get it?”

  “Yes!” The little devil was so glad he was finally released.

  Sneaky Tail came into the classroom and looked around.

  “I am Sneaky Tail,” he said, “And I can play a lot of tricks. Here is what I can!” He spun his tail around himself. In no time, such a dust cloud rose that the sun disappeared from view.

  The animal kids became curious and those of them who had tails also wanted to try them out. But nobody managed to do what Sneaky Tail did.

  “I can also take control over anybody’s mind and body.” He looked at the little elephant Ding-a-Ling, hoofed the ground, spun his tail – and the elephant found himself standing on his ears.

  “Wow! It’s amazing! The elephant has never done anything like that.” The animals were taken aback.

  The little devil looked aside and the elephant got on his feet again.

  “What has just happened to me?”

  “I can do mischief!” In less than no time, the little devil ate up all the chalk, gnawed at all the pencils, and poured the paints all over the place.

  Everyone was amazed and fascinated. The pupils asked Sneaky Tail:

  “Teach us how to do it!”

  “I will. Listen to me well – and you will be in Hell! You want to live – learn how to spin!”

  The kids started bustling around and the little devil was encouraging them: “More, more! Yes, yes!”

  “I will teach bad words!” the devil shouted.

  Suddenly, the school principal raven Caw entered the classroom.

  “Sto-o-op it!” he cawed loudly.

  Everybody calmed down because they knew that Caw was in charge of them just like their fathers and mothers. They immediately remembered the code of conduct at school. It was too late though. They have already messed up.

  Caw looked around, sighed, and shook his head. He called for Butt and complained to him:

  “As for your…” he was about to say “son,” but realized Sneaky Tail wasn’t the goat’s son. “If it continues in this spirit, there will be no school and no pupils left. Don’t let him into the school or do something.”

  Parents heard of Sneaky Tail’s tricks and started complaining that a devil should not be studying under the same roof with their kids. Otherwise, he would teach them nothing but bad manners! They demanded to call the meeting of the forest council again and this time – throw the little devil out of there. Forever!

  The members of the council got together. Bison Judge was heartily glad of it.

  “I told you! We shouldn’t trust him! He is wicked. Hell is the perfect place for him!”

  The animals talked about it for a while and decided to throw out the little devil. As soon as they started voting, goat Butt stood up and faced them.

  “Can I have your attention, please?” He hit a stone with his hoof so hard that the loud sound echoed and re-echoed.

  The animals fell silent. They have never seen Butt having the floor at the forest council meeting.

  “I kindly ask you to let Sneaky Tail stay! He will turn over a new leaf!”

  “What!? You want more?” roared bison Judge. “Maybe you want him to turn our children into devils? You don’t have kids, that is why you are so careless. No, we must kick him out of here! Or will you possibly vouch for him?” The bison burst out laughing.

  “Yes! I will vouch for him. I assure you! If he doesn’t become kind and polite in a week – I will leave this forest myself!”

  The goat’s words surprised the animals. It had never happened before that somebody would have been ready to leave the forest for anybody else’s sake.

  “If he pro-o-omises, then… there is nothing to be done. We should accept the vouch. That is the la-a-aw.” Caw said.

  Bison Judge started teasing them:

  “We’ll see, we’ll see! The little devil will have to leave the forest anyways. Moreover, together with him, we’ll get rid of the stubborn donkey!”

  “You are a donkey yourself! I am a goat!” Butt took Sneaky Tail, threw him into the sack, slung it over his shoulder, and went to the mountains.

  The animals still kept talking for a long time wondering why old Butt stood up for Sneaky Tail.

  4. The goat’s education

  Sneaky Tail sat quiet in the sack. He simply sat and feared to move. “Butt will, probably, beat me since I didn’t obey him.” The little devil thought. He looked back on this day, school, and the forest council and felt ill at ease. He didn’t feel like whistling or making faces anymore.

  They got home when the sun was setting. Butt took the sack off his shoulder and untied it. He didn’t say a word; poured some milk into the bowl and gave it to Sneaky Tail. The latter took it not to irritate the goat… and drank it down in one breath not to feel sick. Besides, he was hungry since he hadn’t touched any food over the past two days.

  Butt went to bed. He put his head on his legs and fell asleep snoring in no time. As for Sneaky Tail – he hadn’t trussed him.

  The devil started getting ready to sleep and noticed that his legs were not tied up. “I have a chance to run away!” he thought. “It is the middle of the night. By the morning, I will be far away from here.”

  He took a run, jumped up and took off. He flew fast, as if on the wings of the wind. It had been a long flight already but suddenly he stopped and stood rooted to the spot.

  “Where am I heading?” he thought.

  He sat down.

  “Who am I fleeing from? From Butt? And why am I running away from him? He has never offended me, never said a bad word to me, and never beaten me. He was the only one who stood up for me at the forest council; otherwise I would have been thrown out and ended up who knows where. He even took a vouched for me.”

  It occurred to Sneaky Tail that if he didn’t become obedient over in a week, Butt would leave the forest himself.

  “How come, if I run away, Butt will pay for it? “

  Sneaky Tail turned the other way round and flew back. Back to Butt. He was there by the sunrise. Not to wake him up, he came up to the goat on tiptoes, lay down, cuddled him, and fell asleep.

  In the morning, Butt poured some milk in the bowl again and gave it to the devil. Sneaky Tail drank it in a couple of gulps and the milk didn’t seem that disgusting this time. It tasted even better than blood.

  “Do you want to live in the forest?” asked the goat.

  “I do.”

  “You have to change then! Forget that you are a devil, get out of your infernal habits.”

  “How can I change if I cannot change! I am a devil, after all! I come from the Hell!”

  “Your desire – this is what matters! If you want, it will happen this way. Imagine, you are no devil, you are a goat!”

  “Alright, I’ll give it a try. But will you help me? My tail won’t leave me in peace. This is why I can’t sit still. Father Devil always told me and my brothers: you want to live – learn how to spin!”

  Butt took a string, wound the little devil’s tail around his waist without a word, and tied a knot. He never untied it again.r />
  “Also, I don’t know what bad words I shouldn’t say!”

  Butt took a thin switch and as soon as Sneaky Tail said a bad word, the goat beat him on the back. Very soon, the little devil learned not to do it.

  Butt taught him many new interesting words, magic words. He taught him when to say “thank you” and “you are welcome,” “hello” and “good bye,” “I’m sorry” and “excuse me.” Sneaky Tail learned fast because he tried hard and was eager to know everything he was being taught. The goat told him what is good and evil, truth and lies, friendship and betrayal, heaven and hell. He taught the way he understood it himself – in his own words and not book-like.

  A week passed. Nobody saw or heard anything from them.

  In the morning on the eighth day, Butt woke Sneaky Tail up and let him know they were going to the forest council on that day.

  The little devil got scared. He remembered that the goat gave a word, vouched for him. If he hadn’t changed, the goat would leave the forest. Bison Judge will only assist in this and be glad.

  He started worrying about the goat more than himself: Butt is advanced in years and there, in the wild forest, either wolves or tigers will tear him to pieces.

  “Bathe me!” the little devil asked. “And comb me well.”

  Butt bathed and combed him well. They hit the road. The closer they were getting to the glade where the council was to take place, the faster the little devil’s heart was beating. His throat was parched. Then the knees started trembling.

  “What is going on with me?” The little devil thought.

  Butt was walking calmly. He was silent, as usual. Sneaky Tail didn’t leg behind a single step.

  5. The forest council

  Finally, they came to the glade. Many animals have already turned out and were curiously looking at Butt and the little devil, who sat still next to him.

  It was strange to see him with his tail tied up on his belly, clean shiny hair, and combed ears. As for his silence – it was strange too.