The cock and the peacock

The cock and the peacock

Once upon a time when the world was just arisen the cock and the peacock were bosom friends. The cock had much more beautiful plumage than the peacock. People admired his golden yellow tail glittering with its bright colours in the daylight. All birds envied him for the beauty that hurt their eyes. Birds sitting in trees sang sadly, asking themselves why they did not have as beautiful feathers as the cock’s. As to the cock, he became sure of his beauty and became proud and lofty; he talked only to the peacock and did not talk to other birds at all. The cock strutted, went around proudly and scratched for grains so proudly as well.

The cock and the peacock were very good and close friends; they were like relatives.

Once it happened that the peacock had to go to a very far foreign land to pay a visit. Having realised that his own plumage was not beautiful, the peacock became very upset; sad thoughts occurred to him and he looked at the cock:

“If my plumage were as beautiful as the cock’s, how beautiful would I be? What do I have? What do my feathers look like? How will I go to the foreign land to pay a visit with such a poor tail? Why not ask the cock for the feathers? Will he not give them to me?” the peacock talked to himself.

Having thought in this way, the peacock came up to the cock:

“May I borrow your plumage till tomorrow?” he asked the cock.

The cock thought a little and answered the peacock:

“Well, I will lend you my feathers. But what will I do if you do not give it back till tomorrow morning?” he said.

Then the peacock replied to the cock:

“If I do not come back till dawn gleams, call me in the morning. I will hear you and certainly come back. If I do not come back in the morning, call me in the evening. And I will certainly come back later in the evening”.

Then, having believed the peacock, the cock took off his feathers, gave them to the peacock and put on the peacock’s. The peacock put on the cock’s feathers and became very beautiful, much more beautiful than other birds. The peacock was very glad to have such a tail and flew far away.

Dawn gleamed, day came and passed and night fell. The peacock did not return. The cock waited for him, but the peacock did not get back. So the cock suffered and could not help crying:

“Cock-a-doodle-doo!” he cried.

He cried again; he cried twice but the peacock did not return. The cock suffered very much because of the loss of his feathers. Noonday came. The cock cried again. The peacock did not come. The cock waited for evening. Evening came. The peacock did not come. The cock cried again. The peacock did not come. Not even a piece of news was heard about him.

So the peacock did not come. As the peacock did not come back, the cock lost his tail feathers.

Since that time till nowadays a cock cries three times a day: at dawn, at midday and at midnight, calling the peacock to get his magnificent tail feathers back.

Translated from Kalmyk into English by Danara Balayeva-Kokayeva
Перевод с калмыцкого на английский Данары Балаевой-Кокаевой

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