In every science there are small questions that, however, can have a big impact. In folklore studies, one such question is the question of cumulative tales. The range of problems associated with the study of these tales is very wide. One of them is the problem of scientific classification and cataloging of works of folk prose.

Controversy still reigns on the question of which fairy tales should be called cumulative. A. Aarne did not use this term.

N.P. Andreev, translating Aarne’s index of fairy-tale plots into Russian and supplementing it with new types, introduced one consolidated type under the code 2015 (2016, 2018), entitled it as follows: “Cumulative (chain) fairy tales various kinds"(Andr. 2015 I). Only three examples are indicated, and there are no references to Great Russian collections. Andreev has not seen Russian cumulative fairy tales.

In 1928, the American scientist Stith Thompson translated the index into English and expanded it. There are already 200 issues for cumulative tales (2000-2199, Cumulative Tales). Not all numbers are actually filled, 22 types are indicated. These numbers are retained in the latest edition of this index, published in 1964. Almost all the rooms provided here are already filled.

The Aarne-Thompson Index is useful as an empirical guide to the types of tales available. It has been translated into many languages, and having a single international system makes it easy to navigate. At the same time, however, this index is definitely harmful, since it inspires confused and completely incorrect ideas about the nature and composition of the fairy-tale repertoire.

An elementary logical mistake has been made: the categories are established according to criteria that do not exclude each other, as a result of which a so-called cross classification is obtained.

For example, the category of fairy tales about animals is distinguished by nature characters, a category of fairy tales - according to the nature of the story, according to the style. Among the magical tales there are such tales as “tales about a wonderful adversary” and “tales about a wonderful helper”. But what about fairy tales in which a wonderful helper helps in the fight against a wonderful enemy? This error permeates the entire index.

The appearance in the latest editions of the category of cumulative tales introduces another new principle: these tales are not distinguished by the nature of the characters, they are distinguished and defined by their composition.

I believe that fairy tales should be defined and classified according to their structural characteristics. In the book “Morphology of Fairy Tales,” an attempt was made to identify, based on structural characteristics, the category of fairy tales usually called fairy tales.

It can be assumed that the principle of determining fairy tales by structural features can be used as the basis for a future scientific classification of fairy tales in general; For these purposes, it is necessary to study different types of fairy-tale structures. Cumulative tales in the latest editions of Aarne Lompson's catalog are defined precisely by the nature of their structure. Groped here the right way, but it was only groped. In fact, the question of which tales can be called cumulative remains unclear, and this explains that a large number of cumulative tales are scattered among other sections and vice versa: not all tales included in the category of cumulative actually belong to them.

Aarne's system with its cross-classification does not make it possible to accurately and unambiguously identify and define genres: attempts by translators to make various adjustments to this index are of a compromise nature.

What is needed here are not adjustments, but essentially new system classification based on the study of the poetics of fairy tales. Before getting close to the issue of cataloging cumulative tales, it is necessary to give at least a preliminary definition of what is meant by the term cumulative tale.

There is no unity and clarity on this issue. Aarne's index, as revised by Thompson, includes the term "cumulative tale" but does not define what is meant by this.

Many cumulative tales, as indicated, are scattered among other groups (there are especially many of them in the category of tales about animals) and, on the contrary: many tales placed in the cumulative section are in fact not such. This situation reflects the ambiguity of this issue in modern folklore.

The literature devoted to cumulative tales is quite large, but there is no generally accepted definition of this concept. The history of the study is excellently presented in the book by M. Haavio. How great, however, there is still disparity in understanding the essence of this type of fairy tales, can be seen at least from the article in “Handvv6rterbuch des deutschen Marchens”, where Taylor, the author of the article “Formelmarchen”, says about cumulative fairy tales that they arise on the basis of nightmares seen in dream. And this is despite the author’s enormous erudition in factual material. There is no need to criticize such a point of view.

Before starting to study cumulative tales, it is necessary to give at least a preliminary definition of what will be meant by this. We, however, will not strive for abstract formulations, but will try to give more or less exact description this genre within one national culture.

If this experience turns out to be successful, it can be applied to the study of the works of other peoples, which will create the basis for a comprehensive comparative historical study of this genre and will make it possible to somewhat advance the issue of scientific classification and cataloging of fairy tales.

The main artistic technique of these fairy tales consists of some kind of repeated repetition of the same actions or elements, until the chain created in this way is broken or unravels in a reverse descending order.

The simplest example of a cumulative fairy tale is the Russian fairy tale “Turnip” (you don’t need to dwell on the content of this). The German designation Kettenmarchen - chain tales - is quite applicable to this tale. Overall, however, this name is too narrow.

Cumulative tales are built not only according to the principle of a chain, but also according to the most diverse forms of joining, piling up or growing, which ends in some kind of cheerful catastrophe.

In English, they belong to the category of formula-tales and are called cumulative, accumulative stories, which is associated with the Latin word cumulare - accumulate, pile up, and also strengthen. IN German In addition to the term Kettenmarchen, there is a more successful term Haufungsmarchen - piling up tales or Zahlmarchen - listing tales. In French they are called randounees (actually “circling around one place”).

Not all languages have developed a special designation for these tales. The examples given show that everywhere in in different words there is talk of some piling up. The whole interest and content of such tales lies in the varied accumulation of forms. They do not contain any interesting or meaningful "events" of the plot order.

On the contrary, the events themselves are insignificant (or begin with insignificance), and the insignificance of these events sometimes stands in comic contrast with the monstrous increase in the consequences arising from them and with the final catastrophe (beginning: an egg breaks, end: the whole village burns down).

First of all, we will focus on the compositional principle of these tales. It is necessary, however, to pay attention to their verbal attire, as well as to the form and style of execution. Basically there are two different types cumulative tales. Some, following the example of the English term formula-tales, can be called formulaic. These tales are a pure formula, a pure scheme. All of them are clearly divided into identically designed repeating syntactic units. All phrases are very short and of the same type. Fairy tales of another type also consist of the same epic links, but each of these links can be syntactically formalized differently and in more or less detail. The name “formular” does not apply to them, although they are cumulative in composition.

They are told in an epically calm manner, in the style of fairy tales or other prosaic tales. An example of this type of cumulative tales is the fairy tale “Mena”. The hero exchanges a horse for a cow, a cow for a pig, etc., right down to the needle, which he loses, so that he comes home with nothing.

These tales, in contrast to the “formular” ones, can be called “epic”. The compositional principle (cumulation) is the same in both cases, and this explains that sometimes a “formular” tale can be told epically and vice versa. But in general, it can still be noted that each type gravitates towards one or another performing technique.

It should also be mentioned that formulaic fairy tales can take not only poetic, but also song form. Such tales can be found not only in collections of fairy tales, but also in collections of songs. For example, in Shane’s song collection “The Great Russian in his songs, rituals, customs...” (1898) there are songs whose composition and plot are based on cumulation.

They should be included in the indexes of cumulative tales. Here you can point out that “Turnip” was recorded as a song. The composition of cumulative tales, regardless of the form of execution, is extremely simple. It consists of three parts: from the exposition, from the cumulation and from the finale.

The exposition most often consists of some insignificant event or a very ordinary situation in life: a grandfather plants a turnip, a woman bakes a bun, a girl goes to the river to rinse out a mop, an egg breaks, a man aims at a hare, etc. Such a beginning cannot be called plot, since the action develops not from within, but from without, for the most part completely randomly and unexpectedly.

This surprise is one of the main artistic effects of such tales. Exposure is followed by a chain (cumulation). There are extremely many ways to connect an exposure to a circuit. Let us give a few examples, without attempting any systematization yet.

In the aforementioned fairy tale about the turnip, the creation of the chain is caused by the fact that the turnip sits in the ground very tightly, it is impossible to pull it out, and more and more new helpers are called. In the fairy tale “The Mansion of the Fly,” a fly builds a mansion or takes up residence in some discarded mitten or in a dead head, etc.

But then, one after another, in increasing order of size, animals appear and beg into the hut: first a louse, a flea, a mosquito, then a frog, a mouse, a lizard, then a hare, a fox and other animals. The last one is the bear, which ends up sitting on this tower and crushing everyone.

In the first case (“Turnip”) the creation of the chain is motivated and internally necessary. In the second case (“Teremok”) there is no logical necessity for the appearance of more and more new animals. On this basis one could distinguish two types of these tales. The second one prevails - the art of such fairy tales does not require any logic. However, for establishing the types of cumulative tales, this distinction is not significant, and we will not make it.

V.Ya. Propp. Poetics of folklore - M., 1998

At first glance, it seems that writing down a fairy tale is very easy, that anyone can do it without special preparation.

To some extent this is true. However, for such a recording to have scientific value, certain conditions must be met; one must know what to record and how to record it. In this regard, views on the accumulation (collection) and recording of fairy tales changed dramatically. These views partially depended and still depend on the general level of science about folk art, on the socio-political views of the collector and on the goals that the collector sets for himself.

IN ancient Rus' For example, it never even occurred to anyone to write down fairy tales. Fairy tales were not only subjected to official contempt as something completely unworthy of attention, they were persecuted.

The first trends are coming to Russia from Western Europe and penetrate through Poland. The first compilers of narrative collections were clergy. In Catholic worship, it is customary for churches to preach edifying sermons. These sermons were abstract and boring. To hold the attention of parishioners and make them listen, sermons were equipped with interesting stories, which were given some kind of moralizing or religious-philosophical interpretation. Collections of stories were created for this purpose. They became widespread, were very popular, were translated into European languages and reached us.

In addition to such collections, there are stories of a semi-folklore nature, of Western and Eastern origin.

Cumulative tales

general characteristics

There is a not very extensive type of fairy tales that have such specific compositional and stylistic features that identifying them in a special category does not raise any doubts. These are the so-called cumulative tales.

The existence of cumulative tales as a special type was noticed long ago, but corresponding conclusions were not made either for classification or for the study of fairy tales. Thus, reworking and translating into English the index of Aarne's fairy tales, the American scientist Thompson provides 200 numbers for them. Translating the same index into Russian, Prof. Andreev introduces one summary number for all cumulative fairy tales, entitled “Cumulative fairy tales of various kinds.” Thus, both researchers were faced with the need to somehow highlight this material, but they took opposite paths: one provides for two hundred types of fairy tales, the other - one. At the same time, however, the question of which tales can be called cumulative remains unclear, and a large number of typical cumulative tales are scattered among other categories. There are especially many cumulative tales in the section of tales about animals. The Aarne system does not make it possible to accurately identify them, and attempts to make adjustments to the index are of a compromise nature. What is needed here is not adjustments, but essentially a new classification system, built on the study of the poetics of the fairy tale.

In the Russian fairy tale repertoire one can count about twenty different types of cumulative tales. It is necessary to resolve the question of what, strictly speaking, cumulative tales are. The ambiguity of this issue leads not only to a confused classification, but also to false conclusions on the essence of the material being studied.

So, B.M. Sokolov in his course on folklore devotes a special chapter to the composition and style of fairy tales about animals. This chapter, however, is entirely based on cumulative tales, and the animal tale is not represented by a single example.

The main compositional technique of cumulative fairy tales consists of some kind of multiple, ever-increasing repetition of the same actions, until the chain thus created breaks off or unravels in a reverse, decreasing order. The simplest example of an increase leading to a break in the chain is the well-known “Turnip”; an example of the reverse development of the chain is the fairy tale “The Cockerel Choked.” In addition to the chain principle, other types of gradual growth or accumulation are possible, leading to some sudden comic catastrophe. Hence the name of fairy tales - accumulate, pile up, increase. In German they are called Kettenmärchen, Hüfungsmärchen, Zählmärchen.

This accumulation is where all the interest and content of fairy tales lies. There are no interesting plot events in them. On the contrary, the event itself is insignificant, and the insignificance of this event is sometimes in comic contrast with the monstrous increase in the consequences arising from it and with the final catastrophe.

These tales are of two types in style and method of execution: we call some formulaic, others epic. The first ones are characteristic and typical for cumulative tales, i.e. formulaic.

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For a cumulative fairy tale, it is necessary to connect similar plot links. However, the meaning of the fairy tale does not lie in its composition itself. The contrast of causes and effects, the bizarreness of connections and dependencies, as a rule, indicate irony. The deliberately composed speech in the fairy tale also corresponds to the humorous idea. Phrases become extremely short and, despite their uniformity, acquire the features of a verbal formula. In the fairy tale “The Fox, the Hare and the Rooster,” a dog, a bear, and a bull decide to help the hare, who was kicked out of the hut by the fox, and each one first asks the hare what he is crying about. And the hare tells everyone the same way: “How can I not cry? I had a bast hut, and the fox had an ice hut, she asked to come to me, and kicked me out.” Then the dog, and after it the bear and the bull, go to the hare’s hut and demand: “Get out, fox!” And the fox threatens everyone with the same thing: “As soon as I jump out, as soon as I jump out, pieces will go down the back streets!” The repetition of links in the plot chain is accompanied by an exact reproduction of the finished verbal formula. As the plot develops, more and more details are added to it. The hare tells the bear that a dog chased the fox before him, but did not drive him out, and the bull - that the dog and the bear chased the fox. The hare also told the rooster about everything that happened and in the same words, but the dog, the bear, and the bull are already listed. There is an increase in the verbal formula. Against the background of this similar speech of the characters, the free speech of a rooster sounds outside the template, shouting “Crow!” repeats the threat three times: “I’m carrying the scythe on my shoulders, I want to whip the fox!” Only after these words does the same formula follow: “Get out, fox!” The most expressive remarks of fairy-tale characters were expressed in a verbal formula. Verbal repetitions often turned into proverbs that became part of our everyday speech. Researchers consider the most common type of cumulative fairy tales to be those that contain a reference to the heroes: the victim sends someone for help, the first person he meets refuses to help, sends to the second, the second to the third, etc. This type includes a fairy tale about a cockerel choking on grain. The next type of cumulation is based on a chain of episodes in which heroes make attempts on the lives of other characters (eat them). These include “Kolobok”, “The Clay Guy”, etc. The third type of cumulative tales is characterized by exchanges: for example, a fox demands a strap in exchange for a stripe, a chicken in exchange for a strap, etc. The action in the fourth type of cumulative tales is based on a repeating episode, when someone asks to go into a hut or, on the contrary, is expelled from it. This is the “Teremok” and the already named “Lubyanaya and Ice Hut”, etc. There are other types of cumulation. They are discussed in detail in the collection of V. Ya. Propp “Folklore and Reality”. This classification is useful in highlighting the types of fairy tales, but it is characterized by a formal understanding of cumulation as a principle of the structure of fairy tales. According to the scientist, the interest of a cumulative fairy tale lies in the accumulation of episodes: “They do not contain any interesting or meaningful “events” of the plot order.” This, however, is not the case. Each cumulative tale contains a certain thought. Cumulation is not meaningless. Despite their diversity, all cumulative fairy tales have one invariable property - their pedagogical orientation. Fairy tales with repetitions promote understanding and memorization. For this reason, such tales about animals are called children's tales: they meet the spiritual needs of the child. In all fairy tales about animals, there is generally a lot of action, movement, energy - that is, what children love. The plot in the fairy tale unfolds rapidly and quickly. The chicken runs headlong into the water: the rooster swallowed the grain and choked. The river did not give water, and asks to give her a leaf of sticky. The hen goes to the sticky, the sticky doesn’t give it, asks to bring a thread from the girl, etc. In the end, the chicken brought water, the rooster was saved, but to how much does he owe his salvation! (“Bean Seed”). It began to hail and the hen and rooster decided: “They’re shooting, they’re shooting, they’re killing us.” They rushed to run, taking with them everyone they met. They run without taking a breath, there is no time to even answer why they are running. They ran until they fell into a hole (“Beasts in the Pit”). The comic content of fairy tales about animals develops a child’s sense of reality and simply amuses, activating the child’s mental strength. However, fairy tales also contain sadness. How contrasting are their transitions from sad to cheerful! The feelings expressed by the fairy tale are as vivid as the emotions of a child. A child may be upset by a trifle, but it is just as easy to console him. A bunny is crying at the threshold of his hut. He was driven out by the goat-dereza - Unfortunate-shen he is in grief. A rooster came with a scythe: I’m walking in boots, wearing gold earrings, carrying a scythe - I’ll blow your head off right up to your shoulders, get out of the oven! The goat rushed out of the hut. There is no end to the hare's joys. It’s fun for the listener too (“Goat Dereza”). A sharp distinction between light and shadow, positive and negative is also in the nature of a children's fairy tale. A child never has any doubts about how to relate to certain characters: the rooster is a hero, the fox is treacherous, the wolf is greedy, the bear is stupid, the goat is deceitful. This is not the primitiveness of the presentation of life material, but the necessary simplicity that is learned through child before he is ready to accept complex things. It remains to be noted that tales about animals in Russian folklore consist of a relatively small number of plots. They occupy a tenth of the fairy tale repertoire. Some other peoples (North African tribes, the peoples of Australia, Oceania and North America) have much more such tales. It has been suggested that the lower the people stand on the steps social progress, the more of these fantastic stories he has, coming from antiquity. This theory, which has become widespread abroad, is deeply erroneous: the quantitative wealth of fairy tales about animals does not depend on the stage social development people, but is explained by the uniqueness of its historical development and artistic culture. Tales about animals of every nation bear the stamp of that uniqueness, which is mostly explained by the historical time of their emergence as a phenomenon of art. Thus, according to experts, Polynesian fairy tales are imprinted with features that already distinguish them from totemic myths. These fairy tales have not yet acquired those moralizing tendencies that are characteristic of creativity when it comes close to a fable. Russian fairy tales about animals arose in another historical time, under other historical circumstances - this is where they originate artistic originality in content and forms. Chapter FiveMAGICAL TALES It is not always easy to distinguish a fairy tale from other types. There was an attempt to accept as the main thing in fairy tales that the “central subject of the narrative” in them is a person, and not an animal. But it turned out to be difficult to use this feature as a criterion, since the specifics of fairy tales have not been identified. Not a single fairy tale is complete without a miraculous action: sometimes an evil and destructive, sometimes a good and beneficial supernatural force intervenes in a person’s life. A fairy tale is replete with miracles. There are also terrible monsters: Baba Yaga, Koschey, the fiery son; and wonderful objects: a flying carpet, an invisible hat, walking boots; miraculous events: resurrection from the dead, the transformation of a person into an animal, a bird, into some object, a journey to another, distant kingdom. Wonderful fiction is the basis of this type of fairy tale. We need to understand the origin of this fiction.

Origin of fiction

The narration of supernatural power in fairy tales, it would seem, should lead to the appearance in them of mythical creatures characteristic of Russian demonology: goblins, field warriors, middays, water creatures, mermaids, brownies, ovinniks, baenniks, beaners, barns, cagers and other inhabitants of the peasant yard and estate. However, in the fairy tale there are almost no such creatures, just as there are no evil spirits personified in the shakers, evil spirits, kikimoras and other evil spirits. If in fairy tales you sometimes find goblins, mermans, and kikimoras, it is because they have replaced the real characters of the wonderful story. So, for example, in one of the versions of the fairy tale “Morozko”, instead of the omnipotent master of the winter elements, Frost, a goblin is presented, who gave his stepdaughter everything that a peasant girl could wish for. The world of fairy tales is genetically more ancient than the developed anthropomorphic thinking that created the goblin and kikimora, mermaids and shakers. In demonological ideas about the goblin, the merman, the evil spirits and the noon day, there is a connection with the natural basis. The image of the goblin, undoubtedly, personifies the dense forest wilderness, the image of the merman - dangerous river and lake depths, and midday - the heat of the day, which could destroy careless person. The vital basis of magical fairy-tale fiction is different. The fiction of Russian fairy tales is not connected with demonology. It is not a fairy tale that originates from demonology, but special genre folk oral prose - a tale that is not like a fairy tale. It is here that we are talking about goblins, brownies, water creatures, various evil spirits, cage dwellers and barns. A large number of images of fairy tales developed in ancient times, in the very era when man’s first ideas and concepts about the world arose. Of course, this does not mean that every magical fantasy originates from the depths of centuries. Many images of fairy tales developed in the relatively recent past. Every new era The fairy tale contained certain fantastic material, which was passed down by generations from old people, preserving and developing previous oral and poetic traditions. From ancient fantasy, storytellers perceived that them was necessary to create new fairy tales. Changes in the lives of workers determined the form of change and further development fantastic stuff. The fantasy of later fairy tales retained the grains of fantastic fiction in fairy tales of ancient times. In a report at the First All-Union Congress Soviet writers A. M. Gorky, defending a materialistic view of the origin of human culture, expressed the idea that the fantasy of fairy tales reflected a dream primitive people, the thought of long-vanished generations of times long past. This is how old the fantasy of fairy tales smells! What in a fairy tale belongs to antiquity and what was included in the fairy tales of subsequent historical times? In a traditional work, passed down from generation to generation, there is always vital material that is less influenced than the rest by new historical conditions. Let's try to establish ancient layers. Let us take for analysis the fairy tale “The White Duck”. One prince married a beautiful princess. I didn’t have time to talk to her, I didn’t have time to listen to her enough, and I already had to leave. “The princess cried a lot, a lot prince persuaded her, commanded her not to leave the high tower, Not go to conversation, don’t mess around with bad people, don’t listen to bad speeches.” The prince left. The princess locked herself in her room and did not come out. Whether long or short, a certain woman came to her. “So simple, so heartfelt!” - adds the fairy tale. “What,” he says, “are you bored? If only I could look at God’s light, if only I could walk through the garden, it would relieve melancholy and refresh my head.” The princess made excuses for a long time, she didn’t want to listen to the stranger, but she thought: it wouldn’t be a problem to take a walk in the garden - and she went. The day is so hot, the sun is scorching, and the water is “cold” and “splashes.” The woman persuaded the princess to take a swim. The princess threw off her sundress and jumped into the water; she had just plunged into the water, and the woman suddenly hit her on the back: “Swim,” she said, “like a white duck.” And the princess swam like a duck. The dirty deed has been accomplished. The witch took on the image of a princess. The prince returned and did not recognize the deception. In the meantime, the duck laid eggs and hatched babies, not ducklings, but boys: two good ones, and the third was a runt. The children began to walk along the shore and look at the meadow where the prince’s courtyard stood. The mother duck tells them: “Oh, don’t go there, children!" But they didn't listen. The witch saw them and gnashed her teeth. She called the children, fed them, gave them something to drink and put them to bed, and she herself ordered them to build a fire, hang the cauldrons, and sharpen the knives. The older brothers sleep, but the little ones don't sleep. At night, a witch came to the door and asked: “Are you sleeping, children, or not?” Zamoryshek replies: “We are sleeping - we are not sleeping, I think that they want to cut us all up: they put red-hot fires, the cauldrons hang boiling, they sharpen damask knives!” “They’re not sleeping,” the witch decided. She came another time and asked the same question, and heard the same answer. The witch thought and entered. She circled her brothers with her dead hand - and they died. In the morning the white duck called and called the children: children Not are coming. Her heart sensed an evil deed, and she flew to the prince’s court. She looks - her children are lying next to each other, lifeless: “white as handkerchiefs, cold as sheets.” The mother rushed to them, rushed, spread her wings, grabbed the children and screamed in a mother’s voice: Quack, quack, my children! Quack, quack, little pigeons! I nursed you with need, I fed you with tears, I didn’t get enough sleep during the dark night, I didn’t get enough sweets! “Wife, do you hear, this is unprecedented? The duck is condemning,” the prince addresses the witch. “You’re imagining this! Get the duck out of the yard!” They will drive her away, and she will fly around and again to the children: Quack, quack, my children! Quack, quack, little pigeons! An old witch destroyed you, an old witch, a fierce snake, a fierce snake, under the well; She took away your dear father, My dear father - my husband, Drowned us in a fast river, Turned us into white ducks, And she lives and is proud! "Hey!" - thought the prince and ordered to catch the duck. It was not given to anyone. The prince ran out into the yard - she fell into his arms. He took her by the wing and said: “Stand, White birch, behind me, and the red maiden in front! The white birch tree stretched out behind him, and the red maiden stood in front; the prince recognized her as his wife. The magpie brought them living water. They sprinkled the children - They came to life. And the witch was tied to a horse’s tail and “washed out” across the field. There is not a trace or memory left of her! This is the tale about the black witchcraft of a witch and the punishment that befell her. The fairy tale protects straightforwardness and innocence, punishes deception and deceit. The fantastic fiction of a fairy tale is subordinated to the expression of precisely this idea. One might wonder: is fiction here only free play imagination or reflects some archaic ideas and concepts? A definite answer is impossible here. The mother's heartfelt lamentation over her murdered sons conveys her endless suffering. The fairy tale illuminated the meek, devoted and trembling heart of the mother with the wondrous light of poetry. This is high and pure poetry, characteristic of fairy tales at the stage of developed poetic consciousness of the people. At the same time, the fairy tale brought to us very ancient beliefs. Part of the story in the fairy tale, which talks about a witch and her black magic, comes from ancient ideas, far from purely artistic fiction. Ancient magic and the words of the witch reek of witchcraft: “Swim like a white duck!”, from the story of how she slaps her victim on the back. The witch knows a magical means to convert all living things to the dead: All she has to do is circle the victim with her dead hand. A. N. Afanasyev explained this episode of the fairy tale, using ethnographic observations in the Kursk province. “There is a belief,” writes the researcher, “that thieves stock up on the hand of a dead man and, when they come to hunt, they deceive their sleeping owners with it in order to put them into deep sleep.” The prince’s words sound just like in a conspiracy: “Stand, white birch, behind me, and the red maiden in front!” And according to his word everything comes true. Thus, we can say that a fairy tale preserves ancient misconceptions of people about the possibility of turning a person into an animal, beliefs about witches, about witchcraft. The fairy tale clearly speaks of ritual actions accompanied by a conspiracy. Such rituals were supposed to neutralize black forces and subordinate them to the will of man. This is the ancient layer that the fairy tale has brought to us since time immemorial. Back in the 19th century. Beliefs and magical rituals, about which the fairy tale about the white duck tells us, were widespread among the peasants. The strength of superstition firmly held among the people can explain the preservation of ancient cultural and historical remnants in fairy tales. Ethnographic researchers tell us that the peasants maintained their belief in witchcraft until very recently. Court cases of the 17th century. indicate that in the Middle Ages witchcraft was still in its heyday. Beliefs attributed to sorcerers and witches the ability to separate spouses, destroy crops, cause damage, turn people into animals, birds and reptiles: magpie, frog, pig, cat, etc. Having endowed the sorcerer and witch with supernatural abilities, people strive To protect themselves from the influence of spells and black witchcraft, they furnished their lives with many magical rituals. Magic is the same sorcery and the same magic, these are rituals associated with faith in a person’s ability to counteract supernatural forces and find support and protection from them. Magic wanted to subjugate a person to the will of other people, conquer animals, nature, and also act on imaginary masters, spirits and gods. The birth of magical rituals dates back to primitive times. The appearance of ritual in everyday life became possible due to man’s ignorance of true connections and relationships in real world. Man depended on nature. His constrained consciousness sought means of protection in the fight against the elements of nature and social ills. Remnants of ritual magic are accurately reproduced in the content of many fairy tales. Unfortunately, there is no work yet in the research literature that would systematically compare all magical actions in fairy tales with ritual magic. This makes it difficult to figure out the origins of magical fiction. The only thing that can be done for now is to confirm the closeness of the magical fairy-tale action to magical rituals by pointing out the frequent coincidence of objects that formed an integral part of the ritual actions with those objects that are endowed with miraculous properties in fairy tales. Among the items that magical rites among the Eastern Slavs they served as wonderful amulets, including a ring, an ax, a scarf, a mirror, a belt, a broom, coal, wax, bread, water, earth, fire, an apple, grass, a branch, a stick. Of course, this does not exhaust the list of objects and substances to which a person attributed miraculous powers under certain circumstances, but these objects and substances were especially often included in the ritual. .The ring in fairy tales is endowed with a wonderful property. The Tale of the Three Kingdoms speaks of copper, silver and gold rings, each containing a special kingdom. In the fairy tale about the wonderful shirt, a ring placed on a finger turns the hero into a horse. Wedding ring, thrown from hand to hand, makes twelve young men appear with the words “What do you order?” The hero “orders: “Move me from this mountain.” And the fellows carried him. The ax in all fairy tales cuts myself. Emelya the Fool says at the same time: “But pike command, and according to my request, well, now, chop the wood, and you, the logs, put yourself in the sleigh and tie yourself up!” And the ax got to work. The scarf in fairy tales has a wonderful property. It is enough to throw it or simply wave it, and a lake and even a sea will form, spreading widely around. “Ivan Tsarevich heard a noise, looked around - his sister (the witch) was about to catch up. V. A.); waved a hustochka (handkerchief.- V.A.), and the lake became deep. While the witch swam across the lake, Ivan Tsarevich went far away.” Water, a frequent accessory of ritual action, works miracle after miracle in fairy tales: it restores sight, gives youth, heals diseases, revives, deprives of strength, and makes the hero stronger than the most terrible monsters. There is also such water that can turn a person into an animal, a bird, but there is also another that returns people to their human form. Of course, later storytellers gave free rein to the poetic imagination and endowed objects and things with properties that the ritual does not know. They included among the miraculous objects that had never been part of the rite, into the magical ritual. A wonderful box where it is hidden military strength: regiments of soldiers marching with music and under banners - this is an invention of some serviceman. This fiction. The same can be said about the wonderful bag from which young people jump out, ready to take on any task. But, speaking about the nature of the miraculous in fairy tales, it is necessary to note the preservation in the later fantastic fiction of fairy tales of some properties coming from magical rituals. These are the wonderful “youthful” apples, “which in a fairy tale return youth, strength and health to a person. It can be assumed that the penetration of this wonderful object into the magical narrative did not occur without the influence of ritual and magical ideas and concepts that lived among the people. Until the very last pre-revolutionary years In some Russian villages, a wedding custom was preserved: the newlyweds ate an apple upon returning from church after the wedding. The eaten apple, according to the people who performed this ritual, was supposed to ensure fertility and well-being. new family. In the same time magic items lost in fairy tales those magical properties, which were learned from ancient rituals. In the fairy tale about the wise maiden, the heroine received an order from the king to appear “not on foot, not on a horse, not naked, not dressed, not with a gift, not without a gift.” The virgin exactly fulfilled the royal will. She arrived on a hare: not on foot, not on horseback. In her hands the wise maiden held a quail, which the king took in his hands and let go: not with a gift, not without a gift. Instead of clothes, the maiden threw a net over herself: not naked, not dressed. The king recognized the wisdom of the maiden and married her. The intricate storytelling in a fairy tale undoubtedly has no other purpose than entertainment. The ritual-magical moments contained in it have almost lost their properties, although they have connections with ancient magical actions. IN late XIX V. Ethno-graphers noted the existence of an unwritten everyday rule: “When you go to get married, you will gird yourself with a fishing net and then go with God: no one will spoil you, the sorcerer will not approach you.” Scientists explain the nature of this magical act in different ways, but most are inclined to think: since there is a loop and a network primitive weapon in the fight against the enemy, in the fight for life, including against blacks, supernatural powers it is necessary to act in ways that helped a person in everyday practice. Thus was born the motif that speaks of a maiden who threw a net over herself. The fairy tale became detached from the ritual, but the ancient connection was still traditionally preserved in the form of a ritual-magical rudiment. The connection between fairy-tale fiction and magical action is also revealed in fairy tales when it comes to a magic word, after the utterance of which the world must submit to the will of a person who knows a lot about verbal magic. In all folk conspiracies, accompanied by a certain action, the verbal text was given great importance. Here it was important to know the order itself and the exact verbal formulations, otherwise the miracle would not take place. How many fairy tales are based on this belief in the magical power of the human word! The charmed young Sagittarius threw himself into the boiling water, plunged, jumped out of the cauldron - and became so handsome that you couldn’t take your eyes off him. The hero of the fairy tale “Happy Child” calls disaster on the head of his enemy: “According to my request, by God’s will, be you, scoundrel, a dog.” And at that very moment the enemy turned into a dog, the boy put an iron chain around his neck. The fairy tale about the enchanted princess says that her betrothed, the hero-soldier, drunk with a magic potion, fell into a deep sleep, and when trouble came, the princess could not wake him up: she began to pinch him, prick him in the sides with pins, pricked, pricked - he and he doesn’t feel pain, as if he were lying dead. “The princess got angry and said a curse from her heart: “May you, the worthless sleepyhead, be picked up by a violent wind and carried into unknown countries!” She barely had time to speak when suddenly the winds whistled and rustled - and in an instant the soldier was picked up by a violent whirlwind and carried away from the princess’s eyes. The princess came to her senses late, to her misfortune she said a bad word, cried bitter tears, returned home and began to live alone. Whole fairy tales are built on the use of the motive of correcting a misfortune caused by a carelessly torn out word. But with a single word, golden palaces are erected and crystal bridges are built, roads are paved, cities are erected, huge carpets are woven. The magic word creates many other miracles. The nature of magical actions in a fairy tale will cope with the types and types of folk magic. Science has identified the following types of magic: healing, harmful (Damage), love, ho; Special attention on the magic of pregnancy and birth. All types of these magical ritual actions are found in fairy tales. They tried to treat people with the help of magical rituals and verbal formulas. And in fairy tales, heroes and heroines find relief from torment by resorting to herbs. In some fairy tale kingdom such grass grows that if you “rub the grass here” with your eyes, the blind will see. Washing with a decoction of a wonderful herb makes the hero invulnerable. A serious illness struck the royal daughter. The illness began with a trifle. She began to eat the malt and dropped a crumb into the floor. The frog picked up that little one and ate it. The princess fell ill. The hero of the fairy tale heals the princess through a magical ritual. On Trinity Day, he took the skin of an ox, anointed it with honey and put it underground. The frog crawled onto the skin, licked the honey, she began to feel sick, and she dropped the crumb she had eaten. That baby was washed in water and fed to the princess. The princess recovered. This fairy-tale episode can easily be compared with a magical ritual described by scientists: a live green frog was released onto the patient’s back.

Every person has an idea of what a fairy tale is. We meet her in childhood, preserving the charm and beauty of these magical stories for the rest of our lives. Children at a very early age are introduced to such fairy tales as “Teremok”, “Turnip” and “Kolobok”. They can listen to them endlessly and try to repeat the plot of the story. At the same time, the child learns to speak, be surprised and empathize.

As adults, we begin to pay attention to the fact that such simple and beloved stories for us are not so simple. They are based on an amazing technique that involves repeated repetition. The characters and actions of such fairy tales form a kind of chain, as if strung on top of each other. It is precisely such narratives that are called cumulative.

Definition of the concept

A chain, or cumulative, recursive or chain-like tale is one in which all actions or dialogues develop or repeat as the plot develops. The effect of such a narrative is most often based on the characteristic rhyme.

Most cumulative tales are relict, that is, very ancient works of folklore. Moreover, you can find them at different nations. Regardless of country or continent, all cumulative tales are stories that have a similar structure.

Most often they are told to the youngest children. After all, the main goal of such stories is to develop speech in children just starting to speak. Many folklorists believe that the creators of chain-like plots were people with a childish (youthful) consciousness. In other words, they were members of the most primitive society. It is also believed that the cumulative structure of the narrative corresponded to archaic thinking.

Scientific research

Yakovlevich, a famous Russian folklorist, was interested in issues of cumulative fairy tales. He described the construction and features of stories with a chain plot in his works. In one of his articles, the author pointed out that in each scientific field there are small questions of great importance. There is something similar in folklore. This is a question about cumulative tales. The fact that they exist was noted by experts long ago. However, cumulative narratives have not been previously studied or classified. Thus, when translating the index of Aarne's fairy tales into Russian, Professor Andreev entered all the chained narratives under one consolidated number.

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp noted that among Russian fairy tales there are approximately 20 different types of cumulative stories. What are their distinctive features?

Features of the composition

Cumulative tales are narratives that have a very simple life description. Often such a story tells us about some insignificant event or situation that is often encountered in everyday life and is commonplace. An example of this is the chain fairy tale “Turnip”. It begins with the grandfather planting turnips. Everyday situations can be observed in other cumulative Russian folk tales. This is a woman who bakes a bun, and a girl heading to the river to rinse a rag, and an egg that breaks, and a man who aims at a hare. It’s hard to even call such an exposition a start. In a chain fairy tale, it is completely unclear where the action will begin to develop. It appears completely unexpectedly, which is one of the main artistic effects of such a narrative.

In the fairy tale “Turnip,” the chain is created by the fact that the grandfather cannot pull out the grown root vegetable. Other heroes of the story come to his aid.

And the story of “The House of the Fly” begins with the fact that the tskotuha decides to settle in an abandoned mitten. This is how a cumulative tale about animals arises. Then the animals approach the mitten. Moreover, they do this in order of increasing magnitude. The animals beg to live with the fly. The bear comes last. This is where the fairy tale ends. After all, this big beast lands on the tower and destroys it.

And if in the fairy tale “Turnip” the creation of a chain is caused by internal necessity and is motivated, then in “Teremka” the appearance of more and more new animals is not necessary for the fly at all. Based on this feature, two types of cumulative tales are distinguished. These are those in which there is a narrative logic, as well as those where it is not required.

Principles of creating a chain of events

In some recursive tales, the composition is built on the sequential appearance of certain uninvited guests. There are also stories in which a whole series of exchanges take place. Moreover, newly acquired items gradually go either from worse to better, or, conversely, from better to worse.

In some cumulative fairy tales for little ones, all actions are based on endless comic dialogues of various types.

The chain along which the plot builds up can be very diverse. For example, when reading the story “The Cockerel Choked,” we see a number of references. First, the chicken runs to the river for water. The cockerel sends her there. The river sends the chicken to the linden tree for a leaf. The tree sends her to the girl for thread, and she sends her to the cow for milk, etc. In this fairy tale, there is no logic of which characters and for which objects will send the chicken next. Actually, such a tale does not require any explanation. No one is looking for logic in it and no one is demanding it.

Sometimes the chain of events of cumulative tales is built on a series of exchanges. Moreover, some of them occur from worse to better, while others, on the contrary, from better to worse. As proof of this, one can cite the story “For a Chicken, a Duck,” which tells the story of how the fox demanded a goose in exchange for a supposedly lost chicken (she ate it herself). After that, she decided to exchange the goose for a turkey, and so gradually she got to the horse.

In the fairy tale “Mena,” a man makes an exchange from better to worse. For the gold bar he earns, he first receives a horse. Afterwards he exchanges it for a cow, etc. As a result, a needle remains in his hands. And even then, when he comes home, the man realizes that he has lost her.

In cumulative tales, the exchange may take place in reality or in dreams. So, a man who is just taking aim with a gun at a hare is already starting to think about how he will sell it, and with the money he can buy first a pig, then a cow, a house, and even get married. As a result, the hare simply runs away.

There are also cumulative fairy tales in which the entire plot is built on the appearance of companions or uninvited guests one after another. So, a hare begs to go to a woman and a man in a sleigh, and after him a fox, a wolf. Last uninvited guest- bear. He destroys the sleigh. The opposite case is described as an annoying goat that took over the hut little bunny, the boar and the wolf, the bull and the bear were driven out. As a result, a mosquito, a bee and a hedgehog managed to do this.

A special type of cumulative tales are those that are built on the creation of a chain of human or animal bodies. So, wolves stand on top of each other in order to eat a tailor sitting on a tree. At the same time, the cunning person threatens that the bottom one will get the most from him. The animal got scared and ran away. The wolves standing on it fell.

There is also a group of cumulative fairy tales in which there is a chain of people grieving over trifles. An example of this would be a broken testicle. Grandfather and grandmother begin to cry about him. They are joined by the mallow and the sexton, as well as the priest. And they not only raise a howl. These heroes of cumulative fairy tales begin to express their despair with some ridiculous actions. For example, they ring bells, tear books, etc. As a result, the matter ends with either the church or the entire village burning down.

Those tales whose actions are based on endless comic dialogues are also considered cumulative. For example, in the story “Good and Bad”, it is said that it is bad because peas are rare. At the same time, it’s good that he’s a pod, etc. There is no special connection between the links here.

The meaning of a cumulative tale

Similar plot links in chain narratives are necessarily connected to each other. Nevertheless, the meaning of such a tale is not at all in its composition. The listener's main attention is drawn to the amazing contrast of causes and their consequences, as well as the quirkiness of dependencies and connections. All of them, as a rule, have ironic notes.

The humorous concept of the tale emphasizes the deliberateness of its smooth speech. All phrases spoken by the characters are extremely short and have the features of a verbal formula. So, in a fairy tale called “The Fox, the Hare and the Rooster,” the fox drives the bunny out of his hut. A bull, a bear and a dog are called to help him. Each of these animals first asks what the bunny is crying about. His answers are the same for everyone. The bull, bear and dog take turns approaching the hut and trying to drive the fox out. At the same time, each of these animals pronounces the same phrase. This is the demand “Get out, fox!” To which she answers them in the same way, that their scraps, as soon as she jumps out, will fly through the back streets.

The repetition of each link in the plot chain in a fairy tale is accompanied by a verbal formula, to which new details are gradually added. So, the bear hears from the hare that the dog could not drive the fox out before him, and the bull learns that the dog and the bear tried to free the house from the red cunning one. The increase in the verbal formula also occurs when the rooster appears.

Animal Tales

In all stories where animals are present, there is a lot of energy, action and movement. Children really like all this. Plots in fairy tales about animals develop quickly and rapidly. At the same time, their comic content helps develop a child’s sense of reality. It simply amuses children, activating their spiritual essence.

However, there is also sadness in cumulative tales. Moreover, their transitions from sad to happy are quite contrasting. The emotions of children are just as vivid. Sometimes a child gets upset over a trifle. But the baby is just as easy to console.

Sharp boundaries between positive and negative, between light and shadow are often present in children's fairy tales. Kids always understand how they should relate to this or that character. So, the rooster is a hero, and the fox is an insidious beast. The bear is stupid, and the wolf is greedy. Moreover, this is not at all explained by the primitiveness in the presentation of vital material. This is simplicity that is acquired by the child even before he perceives more complex things.

Style Features

So, cumulative fairy tales-chains have their own clear system of composition. But besides this, they differ from other fantasy stories in other ways. What is unusual for such tales is the style, verbal “outfit” and form of execution. Described above amazing stories for children they are told slowly and calmly. They can be called cumulative only by the composition that underlies them.

However, there is another type of similar narrative. The growth of events in them goes in parallel with the accumulation of words. Such tales are called formulaic. It is impossible to draw a clear boundary between these two types of stories. U different masters the same type of narrative can be performed in one way or another. However, the general attraction of a fairy tale to a certain type can still be observed in any case. Thus, when events increase simultaneously with the accumulation of words, the addition of each of the subsequent links in the chain is accompanied by a repetition of all previous phrases. Such repetition is the special charm of a recursive fairy tale. After all, the meaning of the story lies in the colorful artistic skill of its narrator. When performing such fairy tales, sometimes it is necessary to pronounce the text in the form of tongue twisters, and sometimes it is simply sung. The whole interest of the listener lies in the accumulation of words. That is why the cumulative plot in fairy tales is framed in verse and rhyme. In this case, assonance and consonance are often used.

Such features of cumulative fairy tales lead to the fact that children really like them. Kids love bright and sharp new words, tongue twisters, etc. That is why the genre of cumulative fairy tales can rightfully be called children's.

Origin

At present, there is not even an approximate list of those fairy tales that could be classified as cumulative. But the very principle of constructing their plot can be attributed to the relic. Certainly, modern reader I'd love to hear stories like this. At the same time, he will admire the verbal fabric available in the works. However, such tales cannot in any way correspond to our forms of artistic creativity and consciousness. They, as mentioned above, were created with the primitive thinking of the author. After all, it is not familiar with space as a product of abstraction, and also does not know generalizations. Stringing one action and event onto another in such tales is not only an artistic device. It also points to a form of thinking that takes place not only in folklore, but also in the phenomena of language.

It is worth noting that the principle of cumulation can be attributed not only to chain fairy tales. It can be seen in the plot of other stories. This is, for example, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish.” In her story, the old woman's desires constantly increase. This is cumulation.

The meaning of chain tales

Stories from simple plot, which parents tell their children at the age of 1-2, sometimes cause some bewilderment in adults. Why do kids need “Turnip”, “Kolobok” or “Teremok”? All of them are examples of a cumulative tale in which a speech formula is repeated. Do children need to listen to phrases such as “grandmother for grandfather” and other repetitions five times?

Parents must understand that their children simply need cumulative fairy tales. Their place and role in raising a child is quite large. Such narratives are necessary for children to develop speech and thinking.

Let's take a closer look at the composition of a cumulative fairy tale. Examples of the plot of such a story clearly indicate to us that with each repetition in such a story, intended for the youngest listeners, a certain complication occurs with the inevitable addition of a new element, but using the same formula. This type of composition allows children to develop algebraic logic. For example, in the fairy tale “Turnip” the formula “someone for someone” is taken. New values of the variable are placed in it. The result is “a bug for a granddaughter” or “a mouse for a cat.”

A similar example is the cumulative fairy tale “Kolobok”. It contains the formula “I left someone.” In this case, “someone” is considered as a variable. She is successively replaced by those animals that Kolobok met on his way, that is, a hare, a wolf, a bear.

Characters in chain tales are also introduced sequentially. For example, in “Turnip” this happens from larger to smaller. In “Teremka” it’s the other way around - from smaller to larger.

The fairy tale “Masha and the Bear” is also structured. In each of its parts, the girl gets acquainted with a set of objects. And always the first goes big, then medium, and finally small. By the middle of the story, children begin to help adults present the plot. At the same time, they certainly associate the size of things with the size of bears. Thus, cumulative fairy tales help develop logical thinking in children. Kids begin to learn cause-and-effect relationships and sequencing. At first, these are the simplest models, but children can already use them in other situations that will be more difficult for them.

Visualization

For educational purposes, as well as for the development of their child, parents can act out a fairy tale for him. This will help the baby adapt faster, understand the action more easily and become interested in it.

Visualization options for modern parents huge. It can be done using ready-made voluminous books. They are not only colorfully designed, but also equipped with sound. Parents can attach pictures of fairy tale characters to the surface, creating their own small puppet show. The main condition for this is the colorfulness and volume of what is happening.

Children younger age They still can’t hold attention for long. In this regard, the production of a fairy tale for children under 3 years old should not last more than 20 minutes. Parents can return to enjoyable reading after a break.

Gradually the child should be involved in the implementation of the action. For example, he may be asked to find out which of the heroes will go to help his grandfather pull a turnip, or which animal will be next to ask to enter the mansion or will be encountered along the way at Kolobok.

At 2-3 years old, a cumulative fairy tale can be turned into a game that allows you to compare characteristics. The most successful plot for this would be the story of “Masha and the Bear.” Pictures of objects belonging to the bear are placed in front of the baby, and he must collect those that belong to dad, then mom and their son. Such a game will allow the child to form cause-and-effect relationships. Gradually the tasks can become more complicated. For example, a child must group all things not only by size, but also by color.

Kolobok

Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. And they had no bread, no salt, no sour cabbage soup. Then the old man went through the barns of revenge, to scrape the bottom of the barrel. I collected 2 handfuls of flour and decided to bake a bun.

The old woman kneaded flour with sour cream, baked a bun, fried it in oil and put it on the window to cool...

Kolobok lay there for half an hour, took it and ran away - from the window to the bench, from the bench to the floor, then to the door, over the threshold - and onto the porch, from the porch to the yard, from the yard through the gate, Kolobok rolled further and further.

And so he rolls along the path, and a hare gallops towards him, stops and says:

Kolobok answers him:

Don't eat me, hare, I'll sing you a song!

I'm sweeping the barn,

Scratching the bottom of the barrel,

Mixed with sour cream

Yes, fried in oil.

I left my grandfather

I left my grandmother

And I’ll leave you, hare, too!

He noticed Kolobok and said:

Kolobok, Kolobok, I will eat you!

Don't eat me, Wolf, I'll sing you a song:

I'm sweeping the barn,

Scratching the bottom of the barrel,

Mixed with sour cream

Yes, fried in oil.

I left my grandfather

I left my grandmother

I left the hare

And from you, from Gray Wolf and I’ll leave even more so!

And he rolled along the path - only the Wolf saw him!

Kolobok is rolling, rolling, and a Bear comes out of the forest to meet him:

Kolobok, Kolobok, I will eat you!

Where can you, clubfoot, eat me! Don't eat me, I'll sing you a song.

I'm sweeping the barn,

Scratching the bottom of the barrel,

Mixed with sour cream

Yes, fried in oil.

I left my grandfather

I left my grandmother

I left the hare

I left the wolf

And I’ll leave you, Bear!

And he rolled again - only the Bear saw him!

Kolobok is rolling, and then the Fox meets him:

Kolobok, Kolobok, where are you going?

I'm swinging along the path, walking.

Kolobok, Kolobok, do you know any songs?

Sing me a song, dear Kolobochek.

Kolobok was delighted and sang:

I'm sweeping the barn,

Scratching the bottom of the barrel,

Mixed with sour cream

Yes, fried in oil.

I left my grandfather

I left my grandmother

I left the hare

I left the wolf

I left the bear

And I’ll leave you, Lisa!

And Lisa says:

Oh, the song is so good, but I can’t hear it well. Dear Kolobok, you’d better sit on my nose and sing one more time, louder.

Kolobok sat right on the Fox’s nose and sang the song louder, as she asked.

Kolobok, Kolobok, I can’t hear anything at all, sit on my tongue and sing one last time.

Kolobok sat on the Fox's tongue, and the Fox - ah! - and ate it.

Tower of flies

A man was driving with pots and lost a large jug. A fly flew into the jug and began to live and live in it. One day lives, another lives. A mosquito has arrived and knocks:

I, the hype fly; and who are you?

And I'm a squeaky mosquito.

Come live with me.

So the two of them began to live together. A mouse came running to them and knocked: