Do you know why there are so many stones in our river? Old people say that the river used to be much deeper and full-flowing.
When the devil was expelled from Heaven, he roamed the world looking in vain for a perfect sanctuary. In one place he did not like the clearing; in another the mountains were too high; in yet another the swamp gave off a foul stench.
Once he stopped beside our river. This place reminded him of the garden in Paradise: beautiful and neither too hot nor too cold. Green forests, low mountains, the swirling river sounding like an angel’s song... The horned one grew fond of the place and decided to settle here.
He dug deep caves to hide from prying human eyes. He called these caves the Halls of Heaven. He probably wanted to show God and the heavenly host that although he had been expelled from their midst, he could still obtain that heavenly feeling down here.
He planted rye on the hill slopes to make the special ergot bread that the evil ones enjoy so much. The devil is only too happy to offer some of it to people, too. Having eaten the bread, the person will become drowsy and easily succumb to evil influences.
Of course the devil could not take such devious rye to any mill, so he built one for himself. He chose a suitable spot on the riverbank, laid the cornerstone and began to gather stones for the walls. While digging the caves, he had cast a lot of stones into the river. Now he wanted them for the mill, but he was not very keen on hauling them out. The devil certainly had the strength, but he was ever so lazy. He decided to make a boat, like the ones people use. Surely that would be a more pleasant way of taking all those stones to his mill.
The devil chose a huge aspen and tore it out of the ground like it was a mere blade of grass. He then gnawed out the tree core, left it out to dry and the boat was ready!
He carried the boat upstream and loaded it with stones. The evil one was good at doing all sorts of naughty things, but he was not used to doing decent work and was rather slow-witted as well. He filled the boat with stones to the brim and then climbed on top it.
A whirlwind loved to fly back and forth in this lovely place. There it was again, spinning. The whirlwind did not like the new settler at all. When it saw the devil on his boat, it rushed down and overturned the vessel, with all of the stones ending up at the bottom of the river. By the time the horned one reached the riverbank and shook all the sand out of his coat, the whirlwind was long gone.
The devil could not have anticipated that someone would have the audacity to play such a cruel joke on him. He again began loading the boat with stones and got so carried away that he ended up with a towering pile. The boat was of course nearly drawing water. The whirlwind descended on the devil’s vessel in the middle of the river and sent a mighty gust of wind. The boat sank and its passenger ended up in the water once more.
It took him a while to salvage the boat. Having loaded the boat with stones for the third time, the devil piled them up even higher.
The whirlwind was quick to thwart this new attempt and predictably sent the boat to the bottom of the river.
The devil spat at the whirlwind and persisted in his obstinacy, going upstream for another batch of stones.
We do not know how long the whirlwind played that game with the frustrated devil on the river, but it was probably quite a long time, because the river is now teeming with stones.
Eventually the evil one lost patience, abandoned the boat at the bottom of the river, spat high and far and retreated into his cave to sulk. He had failed to complete the mill, and soon afterwards moved out of the area.
Sometimes, when the wind is blowing strongly, you can hear mysterious laughter in the forest. This is the whirlwind, flying in the river valley and recalling how he played with the devil… and won.
© NPA TAEVASKOJA
