A fairy tale about the merman to the chapek reader's diary. A tale about mermen. A Tale of Moonlight Nina Gernet

If you guys think that there are no mermen, then I’ll tell you that there are, and what others!

For example, even if we, when we were just born, already had one merman living in the Upa River, under the dam, and another in Havlovice - you know, there, near the wooden bridge. And another one lived in Radechsky Stream. He just once came to my father’s doctor to pull out a tooth and for this he brought him a basket of silver and pink trout, arranged with nettles so that they would be fresh all the time. Everyone immediately saw that it was a merman: while he was sitting in the dentist’s chair, a puddle began to flow under him. And there was another one at my grandfather’s mill, in Gronov; he kept sixteen horses underwater, at the dam, which is why the engineers said that in this place there were sixteen horsepower in the river. These sixteen white horses kept running and running without stopping, which is why the millstones were turning all the time. And when one night our grandfather died, the waterman came and slowly unharnessed all sixteen horses, and the mill did not work for three days. On large rivers there are watermen who have even more horses - say, fifty or a hundred; but there are also such poor people that they don’t even have a wooden horse.

Of course, a great waterman, say, in Prague, on the Vltava, lives as a gentleman: he probably also has a motor boat, and in the summer he goes to the sea. But in Prague, even with other sinful swindlers, sometimes the chickens don’t peck at the money, and he rolls it out in the car - tu-tu! - only dirt flies from under the wheels! And there are also those seedy water creatures whose only good thing is a palm-sized puddle, and in it there is a frog, three mosquitoes and two swimming beetles. Others vegetate in such a meager ditch that not even a mouse could wet its belly in it. Still others, for a whole year, have only the income of a couple of paper boats and a baby diaper, which the mother will lose during the wash... Yes, this is poverty! But, for example, there are at least two hundred thousand carp in the Uratiborzh water and, in addition, tench, carp, crucian carp and, lo and behold, a huge pike... What can I say, there is no justice in the world!

Mermen generally live alone, but once or twice a year, during a flood, they gather from all over the region and organize, as they say, district conferences. In our region, they always gathered during high water in the meadows near Kralov Hradec, because there is such a beautiful surface of water, and beautiful pools, and bends, and backwaters, lined with the softest silt of the highest grade. Usually it is yellow mud or a little brownish, but if it is red or gray, then it will no longer be as soft as Vaseline... So, having found a suitable place for themselves, they all sit down and tell each other the news: let’s say that in Sukhovershich people lined the shore with stone, and the local waterman... what's his name?.. old Irechek, must move from there; that ribbons and pots have become more expensive is just a disaster: in order to catch someone, a waterman has to buy ribbons worth thirty crowns, and a pot costs at least three crowns, and even then it’s defective, just quit your craft and take up something else! And then one of the watermen says that the Jaromerzh waterman Faltys... well, the red one!.. has already gone into trade: he sells mineral waters; and the lame Slepanek became a mechanic and repairs water pipes; and many others also changed professions.

You see, kids, a merman can only engage in a craft that has something of water in it: well, for example, he can be a submariner or a guide, or, say, he can write introductory chapters in books; or be a ringleader or a tram driver, or pretend to be a manager or the owner of a plant - in a word, there must be some kind of water here.

As you can see, there are enough professions for mermen, which is why there are fewer and fewer mermen left, so that when they count each other at annual meetings, sad speeches are heard:

“Again, there are five fewer of us, guys! So our profession will gradually die out completely.”

Well, says old Kreutzmann, the Trutnovsky waterman, “it’s no longer what it was!” Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, many thousands of years have passed since the whole Czech Republic was under water, and man - or rather, ugh, a merman, because then there were no people yet, it was not the same time... Ah , fathers, where did I stop?

Because the whole Czech Republic was under water, the Havlovice waterman Zelinka helped him.

Yeah,” Kreutzmann said. - Then, therefore, the whole Czech Republic was under water, and Žaltman, and Red Mountain, and Krakorka, and all the other mountains, and our brother could, without drying out his legs, walk beautifully under water even from Brno all the way to Prague! Even above Mount Snezhka there was an elbow's worth of water... Yes, brothers, that was the time!

It was, it was... - said the Ratiborg waterman Kulda thoughtfully. “Then we, the mermen, were not such desert hermits as we are now. And we had underwater cities built from water bricks, and all the furniture was made from hard water, feather beds were made from soft rainwater, and were heated with warm water, and there was no bottom, no banks, no end to the edge of the water - only water And we.

“Yes,” said Lishka, nicknamed Leshy, a merman from the Zhabokvak swamp.

And what kind of water there was then! You could cut it like butter, and mold it into balls, and spin threads, and draw wire from it. It was like steel, and like flax, and like glass, and like a feather, thick, like sour cream, and strong, like oak, and warmed like a fur coat. Everything, everything was made of water. What can I say, is this water now? - And old Lishka spat so hard that a deep pool formed.

Yes, it was, but it floated away,” Kreutzmann said thoughtfully. - The water was good, as if it had been recently, but it was there and floated away. And on top of that, she was completely mute!

How is this possible? - Zelinka, who was younger than the other merman, was surprised.

Well, she’s dumb, she didn’t speak at all,” Lishka-Leshy began to tell. She didn't have any voice. It was so quiet and silent, as it happens now when it freezes or when snow falls... And then it’s midnight, nothing moves, and everything around is so quiet, such a quiet silence that it’s downright creepy: you stick your head out of the water and listen, but your heart and shrinks from this terrible silence. It was so quiet at that time when the water was still silent.

“But how,” asked Zelinka (he was only seven thousand years old), “how did she then cease to be mute?”

It happened like this,” said Lishka.. “My great-grandfather told me this and said that it was already a good million years ago... So, at that time there lived one merman... What was his name?” ? Rakosnik is not Rakosnik... Minarzhik? Not either... Gumpl? No, not Hampl... Pavlishek? No either... My God, what was his name?

Arion,” suggested Kreutzmann.

Arion! - Lishka confirmed. - It was right there on the tongue, his name was Arion. And this Arion had, I tell you, such a wondrous gift, such a talent was given to him by God, well, he had such a talent, understand? He could speak and sing so beautifully that your heart either jumped for joy or cried when he sang - he was such a musician.

“Singer,” Kulda corrected.

A musician or a singer,” continued Lishka, “but he knew his business, my dears!” Great-grandfather said that everyone roared when he sang. He had it, that Arion. there is great pain in my heart. Nobody knows which one. Nobody knows what happened to him. But it must have been a great grief, since he sang so beautifully and so sadly... And so, when he sang and complained like that under water, every drop of water trembled, as if it were a tear. And in every drop something of his song remained, while this song made its way through the water. Therefore the water is no longer silent. It sounds, sings, whispers and babbles, gurgles and gurgles, purrs and rumbles, makes noise, rings, murmurs and complains, groans and howls, seethes and roars, cries and thunders, sighs, groans and laughs; sometimes it sounds like a silver harp, sometimes it strums like a balalaika, sometimes it sings like an organ, sometimes it blows like a hunting horn, sometimes it speaks like a person in joy or sadness. Since then, water speaks in all the languages ​​in the world and tells things that no one understands - they are so wonderful and beautiful. And people understand them least of all. But until Arion appeared and taught the water to sing, it was completely silent, just as the sky is silent now.

If you guys think that there are no mermen, then I’ll tell you that there are, and what others!
For example, even if we had, when we were just born, there already lived one merman in the Upa River, under the dam, and another in Havlovice - you know, there, near the wooden bridge. And another one lived in Radechsky Stream. He just once came to my father’s doctor to pull out a tooth and for this he brought him a basket of silver and pink trout, arranged with nettles so that they would be fresh all the time. Everyone immediately saw that it was a merman: while he was sitting in the dentist’s chair, a puddle began to flow under him. And there was another one at my grandfather’s mill, in Gronov; he kept sixteen horses underwater, at the dam, which is why the engineers said that in this place there were sixteen horsepower in the river. These sixteen white horses kept running and running without stopping, which is why the millstones were turning all the time. And when one night our grandfather died, the waterman came and slowly unharnessed all sixteen horses, and the mill did not work for three days. On large rivers there are great watermen, who have even more horses - say, fifty or a hundred; but there are also such poor people that they don’t even have a wooden horse.
Of course, a great waterman, say, in Prague, on the Vltava, lives as a gentleman: he probably also has a motor boat, and in the summer he goes to the sea. But in Prague, even with other sinful swindlers, sometimes the chickens don’t peck at the money, and he rolls it out in the car - tu-tu! — only dirt flies from under the wheels! And there are also those seedy water creatures whose only good thing is a palm-sized puddle, and in it there is a frog, three mosquitoes and two swimming beetles. Others vegetate in such a meager ditch that not even a mouse could wet its belly in it. Still others, for a whole year, have only the income of a couple of paper boats and a baby diaper, which the mother will miss during the wash... Yes, this is poverty! But, for example, there are at least two hundred thousand carp in the Uratiborzh water and, in addition, tench, carp, crucian carp and, lo and behold, a huge pike... What can I say, there is no justice in the world!
Mermen generally live alone, but once or twice a year, during a flood, they gather from all over the region and organize, as they say, district conferences. In our region, they always gathered during high water in the meadows near Kralov Hradec, because there is such a beautiful surface of water, and beautiful pools, and bends, and backwaters, lined with the softest silt of the highest grade. Usually it is yellow silt or a little brownish, but if it is red or gray, then it will no longer be as soft as Vaseline... So, having found a suitable place for themselves, they all sit down and tell each other the news: let’s say that in Sukhovershich people veneered the shore is like a stone, and the waterman there... what's his name?.. old Irechek, must move from there; that ribbons and pots have become more expensive is just a disaster: in order to catch someone, a waterman has to buy ribbons worth thirty crowns, and a pot costs at least three crowns, and even then it’s defective, just give up your craft and take up something else! And then one of the watermen says that the Jaromerz waterman Faltys... well, the red one!.. has already gone into trade: he sells mineral waters; and the lame Slepanek became a mechanic and repairs water pipes; and many others also changed professions.
You see, kids, a merman can only engage in a craft that has something of water in it: well, for example, he can be a submariner or a guide, or, say, he can write introductory chapters in books; or be a ringleader or a tram driver, or pretend to be a manager or the owner of a plant - in a word, there must be some kind of water here.
As you can see, there are enough professions for mermen, which is why there are fewer and fewer mermen left, so that when they count each other at annual meetings, sad speeches are heard:
“Again there are five fewer of us, guys! So our profession will gradually die out completely.”
“Nah,” says old Kreutzmann, the Trutnovsky waterman, “it’s no longer what it was!” Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, many thousands of years have passed since the whole Czech Republic was under water, and man - or rather, ugh, a merman, because then there were no people yet, the time was not right... Ah, priests , where did I stop?
“The fact that the whole Czech Republic was under water,” the Havlovice waterman Zelinka helped him.
“Yeah,” Kreutzmann said. “Then, therefore, the whole Czech Republic was under water, and Žaltman, and Red Mountain, and Krakorka, and all the other mountains, and our brother could, without drying out his legs, walk beautifully under water, even from Brno all the way to Prague!” Even above Mount Snezhka there was an elbow-length of water... Yes, brothers, that was the time!
“It was, it was...” said the Ratiborg waterman Kulda thoughtfully. “Back then, we mermen were not such desert hermits as we are now. And we had underwater cities built from water bricks, and all the furniture was made from hard water, feather beds were made from soft rainwater, and were heated with warm water, and there was no bottom, no banks, no end to the edge of the water - only water And we.
“Yes, indeed,” said Lishka, nicknamed Leshy, a merman from the Zhabokvak swamp.
- And what kind of water was there then! You could cut it like butter, and mold it into balls, and spin threads, and draw wire from it. It was like steel, and like flax, and like glass, and like a feather, thick, like sour cream, and strong, like oak, and warmed like a fur coat. Everything, everything was made of water. What can I say, is this water now? - And old Lishka spat so hard that a deep pool formed.
“Yes, it was, but it floated away,” Kreutzmann said thoughtfully. “The water was good, as if it had been just recently, but there it was, but it floated away.” And on top of that, she was completely mute!
- How is this possible? - Zelinka, who was younger than the other mermen, was surprised.
“Well, she’s dumb, she didn’t speak at all,” Lishka-Leshy began to tell. “She didn’t have any voice.” It was so quiet and silent, as it happens now when it freezes or when snow falls... And then it’s midnight, nothing moves, and everything around is so quiet, such a quiet silence that it’s downright creepy: you stick your head out of the water and listen, and your heart just clench from this terrible silence. It was so quiet at that time when the water was still silent.
“But what,” asked Zelinka (he was only seven thousand years old), “how did she then cease to be mute?”
“It happened like this,” said Lishka.. “My great-grandfather told me this and said that it was already a good million years ago... So, at that time there lived one merman... What was his name?” Rakosnik is not Rakosnik... Minarzhik? Neither... Gumple? No, not Hampl... Pavlishek? No either... My God, what was his name?
“Arion,” suggested Kreutzmann.
- Arion! - Lishka confirmed. “It was right there on the tongue, his name was Arion.” And this Arion had, I tell you, such a wondrous gift, such a talent was given to him by God, well, he had such a talent, understand? He could speak and sing so beautifully that your heart either jumped for joy or cried when he sang - he was such a musician.
“Singer,” Kulda corrected.
“A musician or a singer,” continued Lishka, “but he knew his business, my dears!” Great-grandfather said that everyone roared when he sang. He had it, that Arion. there is great pain in my heart. Nobody knows which one. Nobody knows what happened to him. But it must have been a great sorrow, since he sang so beautifully and so sadly... And so, when he sang and complained like that under water, every drop of water trembled, as if it were a tear. And in every drop something of his song remained, while this song made its way through the water. Therefore the water is no longer silent. It sounds, sings, whispers and babbles, gurgles and gurgles, purrs and rumbles, makes noise, rings, murmurs and complains, groans and howls, seethes and roars, cries and thunders, sighs, groans and laughs; sometimes it sounds like a silver harp, sometimes it strums like a balalaika, sometimes it sings like an organ, sometimes it blows like a hunting horn, sometimes it speaks like a person in joy or sadness. Since then, water speaks in all the languages ​​in the world and tells things that no one understands - they are so wonderful and beautiful. And people understand them least of all. But until Arion appeared and taught the water to sing, it was completely silent, just as the sky is silent now.
“But it was not Arion who lowered the sky into water,” said old Kreutzmann. - It was already later, under my father - eternal memory to him! - and the watery Kwakwakoaks did it, and all for the sake of love.
- How it was? - asked young Zelinka.
- It was like that. Kwakwakoaks fell in love. He saw Princess Cuacuacunca and burned with love for her, croak! Cuacuacunca was beautiful. Imagine: a golden frog’s belly, and frog’s legs, and a frog’s mouth from ear to ear, and she was all wet and cold. What a beauty she was! Now there are no such people...
- What next? - Zelinka, the merman, asked impatiently.
- Well, what could have happened? Cuacuacunca was beautiful, but proud. She just pouted and said “croak.” Kwakwakoaks is completely mad with love. “If you marry me,” he told her, “I will give you everything you want.” And then she told him: “Then give me the blue of heaven, croak!”
“And what did Kwakwakoaks do?” - Zelinka asked.
- What was he supposed to do? He sat under the water and complained: “Kwa-kwa, kwa-kwa, kwa, kwa-kwa, kwa!” And then he decided to take his own life and therefore threw himself from the water into the air to drown himself in it, croak! No one had ever thrown himself into the air before - Kwakwakoaks was the first.
- And what did he do in the air?
- Nothing. He looked up and there was a blue sky above him. He looked down, and below him there was also a blue sky. Kwakwakoaks was terribly surprised. After all, no one knew then that the sky was reflected in the water. And when Kwakwakoaks saw that the blue of heaven was already in the water, he exclaimed “quack” in surprise and rushed into the water again. And then he put Kuakuakunku on his back and emerged into the air with her. Kuakuakunka saw the blue sky in the water and exclaimed with joy: “Kwa-kwa!” Because, it turns out, Kwakwakoaks gave her the blue of heaven.
- What happened next?
- Nothing. Then they both lived very happily, and they had many frogs. And from then on, the mermen sometimes crawl out of the water to see that they also have a sky at home. And when someone leaves his home, no matter who he is, he looks back, like Kwakwakoaks, and sees that there, at home, is the real sky. The most real, blue and beautiful sky.
- Who proved this?
— Quakquacoax.
- Long live Quakwakoaks!
- And Cuacuacunca!
At that moment one person was walking past and thought: “Why are the frogs croaking at the wrong time?”
He picked up a stone and threw it into the swamp.
Something gurgled and splashed in the water; the spray flew high and high. And it became quiet: all the mermen dived into the water and now only next year they will gather for their conference.

If you guys think that there are no mermen, then I’ll tell you that there are, and what others!
For example, even if we, when we were just born, already had one merman living in the Upa River, under the dam, and another in Havlovice - you know, there, near the wooden bridge. And another one lived in Radechsky Stream. He just once came to my father’s doctor to pull out a tooth and for this he brought him a basket of silver and pink trout, arranged with nettles so that they would be fresh all the time. Everyone immediately saw that it was a merman: while he was sitting in the dentist’s chair, a puddle began to flow under him. And there was another one at my grandfather’s mill, in Gronov; he kept sixteen horses underwater, at the dam, which is why the engineers said that in this place there were sixteen horsepower in the river. These sixteen white horses kept running and running without stopping, which is why the millstones were turning all the time. And when one night our grandfather died, the waterman came and slowly unharnessed all sixteen horses, and the mill did not work for three days. On large rivers there are watermen who have even more horses - say, fifty or a hundred; but there are also such poor people that they don’t even have a wooden horse.
Of course, a great waterman, say, in Prague, on the Vltava, lives as a gentleman: he probably also has a motor boat, and in the summer he goes to the sea. But in Prague, even with other sinful swindlers, sometimes the chickens don’t peck at the money, and he rolls it out in the car - tu-tu! - only dirt flies from under the wheels! And there are also those seedy water creatures whose only good thing is a palm-sized puddle, and in it there is a frog, three mosquitoes and two swimming beetles. Others vegetate in such a meager ditch that not even a mouse could wet its belly in it. Still others, for a whole year, have only the income of a couple of paper boats and a baby diaper, which the mother will lose during the wash... Yes, this is poverty! But, for example, there are at least two hundred thousand carp in the Uratiborzh water and, in addition, tench, carp, crucian carp and, lo and behold, a huge pike... What can I say, there is no justice in the world!
Mermen generally live alone, but once or twice a year, during a flood, they gather from all over the region and organize, as they say, district conferences. In our region, they always gathered during high water in the meadows near Kralov Hradec, because there is such a beautiful surface of water, and beautiful pools, and bends, and backwaters, lined with the softest silt of the highest grade. Usually it is yellow mud or a little brownish, but if it is red or gray, then it will no longer be as soft as Vaseline... So, having found a suitable place for themselves, they all sit down and tell each other the news: let’s say that in Sukhovershich people lined the shore with stone, and the local waterman... what's his name?.. old Irechek, must move from there; that ribbons and pots have become more expensive is just a disaster: in order to catch someone, a waterman has to buy ribbons worth thirty crowns, and a pot costs at least three crowns, and even then it’s defective, just quit your craft and take up something else! And then one of the watermen says that the Jaromerzh waterman Faltys... well, the red one!.. has already gone into trade: he sells mineral waters; and the lame Slepanek became a mechanic and repairs water pipes; and many others also changed professions.
You see, kids, a merman can only engage in a craft that has something of water in it: well, for example, he can be a submariner or a guide, or, say, he can write introductory chapters in books; or be a ringleader or a tram driver, or pretend to be a manager or the owner of a plant - in a word, there must be some kind of water here.
As you can see, there are enough professions for mermen, which is why there are fewer and fewer mermen left, so that when they count each other at annual meetings, sad speeches are heard:
“Again, there are five fewer of us, guys! So our profession will gradually die out completely.”
“Well, yes,” says old Kreutzmann, the Trutnovsky waterman, “it’s no longer what it was!” Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, many thousands of years have passed since the whole Czech Republic was under water, and man - or rather, ugh, a merman, because then there were no people yet, it was not the same time... Ah , fathers, where did I stop?
“The fact that the whole Czech Republic was under water,” the Havlovice waterman Zelinka helped him.
“Yeah,” Kreutzmann said. - Then, therefore, the whole Czech Republic was under water, and Žaltman, and Red Mountain, and Krakorka, and all the other mountains, and our brother could, without drying out his legs, walk beautifully under water even from Brno all the way to Prague! Even above Mount Snezhka there was an elbow's worth of water... Yes, brothers, that was the time!
“It was, it was...” said the Ratiborg waterman Kulda thoughtfully. “Then we, the mermen, were not such desert hermits as we are now. And we had underwater cities built from water bricks, and all the furniture was made from hard water, feather beds were made from soft rainwater, and were heated with warm water, and there was no bottom, no banks, no end to the edge of the water - only water And we.
“Yes, indeed,” said Lishka, nicknamed Leshy, a merman from the Zhabokvak swamp.
- And what kind of water was there then! You could cut it like butter, and mold it into balls, and spin threads, and draw wire from it. It was like steel, and like flax, and like glass, and like a feather, thick, like sour cream, and strong, like oak, and warmed like a fur coat. Everything, everything was made of water. What can I say, is this water now? - And old Lishka spat so hard that a deep pool formed.
“Yes, it was, but it floated away,” Kreutzmann said thoughtfully. - The water was good, as if it had been recently, but it was there and floated away. And on top of that, she was completely mute!
- How is this? - Zelinka, who was younger than the other merman, was surprised.
“Well, she’s dumb, she didn’t speak at all,” Lishka-Leshy began to tell. - She didn’t have any voice. It was so quiet and silent, as it happens now when it freezes or when snow falls... And then it’s midnight, nothing moves, and everything around is so quiet, such a quiet silence that it’s downright creepy: you stick your head out of the water and listen, but your heart and shrinks from this terrible silence. It was so quiet at that time when the water was still silent.
“But what,” asked Zelinka (he was only seven thousand years old), “how did she then cease to be mute?”
“It happened like this,” said Lishka.. “My great-grandfather told me this and said that it was already a good million years ago... So, at that time there lived one merman... What’s his name, I mean, what was your name? Rakosnik is not Rakosnik... Minarzhik? Not either... Gumpl? No, not Hampl... Pavlishek? No either... My God, what was his name?
“Arion,” suggested Kreutzmann.
- Arion! - Lishka confirmed. - It was right there on the tongue, his name was Arion. And this Arion had, I tell you, such a wondrous gift, such a talent was given to him by God, well, he had such a talent, understand? He could speak and sing so beautifully that your heart either jumped for joy or cried when he sang - he was such a musician.
“Singer,” Kulda corrected.
“A musician or a singer,” Lishka continued, “but he knew his job, my dears!” Great-grandfather said that everyone roared when he sang. He had it, that Arion. there is great pain in my heart. Nobody knows which one. Nobody knows what happened to him. But it must have been a great grief, since he sang so beautifully and so sadly... And so, when he sang and complained like that under water, every drop of water trembled, as if it were a tear. And in every drop something of his song remained, while this song made its way through the water. Therefore the water is no longer silent. It sounds, sings, whispers and babbles, gurgles and gurgles, purrs and rumbles, makes noise, rings, murmurs and complains, groans and howls, seethes and roars, cries and thunders, sighs, groans and laughs; sometimes it sounds like a silver harp, sometimes it strums like a balalaika, sometimes it sings like an organ, sometimes it blows like a hunting horn, sometimes it speaks like a person in joy or sadness. Since then, water speaks in all the languages ​​in the world and tells things that no one understands - they are so wonderful and beautiful. And people understand them least of all. But until Arion appeared and taught the water to sing, it was completely silent, just as the sky is silent now.
“But it was not Arion who lowered the sky into water,” said old Kreutzmann. - It was later, under my father - eternal memory to him! - and the water Kwakwakoaks did it, and all for the sake of love.
- How it was? - asked young Zelinka.
- It was like that. Kwakwakoaks fell in love. He saw Princess Cuacuacunca and burned with love for her, croak! Cuacuacunca was beautiful. Imagine: a golden frog’s belly, and frog’s legs, and a frog’s mouth from ear to ear, and she was all wet and cold. What a beauty she was! Now there are no such people...
- What next? - the merman Zelinka asked impatiently.
- Well, what could have happened? Cuacuacunca was beautiful, but proud. She just pouted and said “croak.” Kwakwakoaks is completely mad with love. “If you marry me,” he told her, “I will give you everything you want.” And then she told him: “Then give me the blue of heaven, croak!”
- And what did Kwakwakoaks do? - Zelinka asked.
- What was he supposed to do? He sat under the water and complained: “Kwa-kwa, kwa-kwa, kwa, kwa-kwa, kwa!” And then he decided to take his own life and therefore threw himself from the water into the air to drown himself in it, croak! No one had ever thrown himself into the air before - Kwakwakoaks was the first.
- And what did he do in the air?
- Nothing. He looked up and there was a blue sky above him. He looked down, and below him there was also a blue sky. Kwakwakoaks was terribly surprised. After all, no one knew then that the sky was reflected in the water. And when Kwakwakoaks saw that the blue of heaven was already in the water, he exclaimed “quack” in surprise and rushed into the water again. And then he put Kuakuakunku on his back and emerged into the air with her. Kuakuakunka saw the blue sky in the water and exclaimed with joy: “Kwa-kwa!” Because, it turns out, Kwakwakoaks gave her the blue of heaven.
- What happened next?
- Nothing. Then they both lived very happily, and they had many frogs. And from then on, the mermen sometimes crawl out of the water to see that they also have a sky at home. And when someone leaves his home, no matter who he is, he looks back, like Kwakwakoaks, and sees that there, at home, is the real sky. The most real, blue and beautiful sky.
- Who proved this?
- Quaquacoax.
- Long live Kwakwakoaks!
- And Cuacuacunca!
At that moment one person was walking past and thought: “Why are the frogs croaking at the wrong time?”
He picked up a stone and threw it into the swamp.
Something gurgled and splashed in the water; the spray flew high and high. And it became quiet: all the mermen dived into the water and now only next year they will gather for their conference.

There is a free book posted on this page of the site. Tale about mermen the author whose name is Capek Karel. On the website you can either download the book A Tale of the Mermen for free in RTF, TXT, FB2 and EPUB formats, or read the online e-book Capek Karel - A Tale of the Mermen, without registration and without SMS.

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If you guys think that there are no mermen, then I’ll tell you that there are, and what others!
For example, even if we had, when we were just born, there already lived one merman in the Upa River, under the dam, and another in Havlovice - you know, there, near the wooden bridge. And another one lived in Radechsky Stream. He just once came to my father’s doctor to pull out a tooth and for this he brought him a basket of silver and pink trout, arranged with nettles so that they would be fresh all the time. Everyone immediately saw that it was a merman: while he was sitting in the dentist’s chair, a puddle began to flow under him. And there was another one at my grandfather’s mill, in Gronov; he kept sixteen horses underwater, at the dam, which is why the engineers said that in this place there were sixteen horsepower in the river. These sixteen white horses kept running and running without stopping, which is why the millstones were turning all the time. And when one night our grandfather died, the waterman came and slowly unharnessed all sixteen horses, and the mill did not work for three days. On large rivers there are great watermen, who have even more horses - say, fifty or a hundred; but there are also such poor people that they don’t even have a wooden horse.
Of course, a great waterman, say, in Prague, on the Vltava, lives as a gentleman: he probably also has a motor boat, and in the summer he goes to the sea. But in Prague, even with other sinful swindlers, sometimes the chickens don’t peck at the money, and he rolls it out in the car - tu-tu! — only dirt flies from under the wheels! And there are also those seedy water creatures whose only good thing is a palm-sized puddle, and in it there is a frog, three mosquitoes and two swimming beetles. Others vegetate in such a meager ditch that not even a mouse could wet its belly in it. Still others, for a whole year, have only the income of a couple of paper boats and a baby diaper, which the mother will miss during the wash... Yes, this is poverty! But, for example, there are at least two hundred thousand carp in the Uratiborzh water and, in addition, tench, carp, crucian carp and, lo and behold, a huge pike... What can I say, there is no justice in the world!
Mermen generally live alone, but once or twice a year, during a flood, they gather from all over the region and organize, as they say, district conferences. In our region, they always gathered during high water in the meadows near Kralov Hradec, because there is such a beautiful surface of water, and beautiful pools, and bends, and backwaters, lined with the softest silt of the highest grade. Usually it is yellow silt or a little brownish, but if it is red or gray, then it will no longer be as soft as Vaseline... So, having found a suitable place for themselves, they all sit down and tell each other the news: let’s say that in Sukhovershich people veneered the shore is like a stone, and the waterman there... what's his name?.. old Irechek, must move from there; that ribbons and pots have become more expensive is just a disaster: in order to catch someone, a waterman has to buy ribbons worth thirty crowns, and a pot costs at least three crowns, and even then it’s defective, just give up your craft and take up something else! And then one of the watermen says that the Jaromerz waterman Faltys... well, the red one!.. has already gone into trade: he sells mineral waters; and the lame Slepanek became a mechanic and repairs water pipes; and many others also changed professions.
You see, kids, a merman can only engage in a craft in which there is something from water: well, for example, maybe he is under waterman or about waterman, or, say, can write in books in water chapter; or be for water sludge or water tram owner, or impersonate water teacher or for the owner of the factory - in a word, some water should be here.
As you can see, there are enough professions for mermen, which is why there are fewer and fewer mermen left, so that when they count each other at annual meetings, sad speeches are heard:
“Again there are five fewer of us, guys! So our profession will gradually die out completely.”
“Nah,” says old Kreutzmann, the Trutnovsky waterman, “it’s no longer what it was!” Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, many thousands of years have passed since the whole Czech Republic was under water, and man - or rather, ugh, a merman, because then there were no people yet, the time was not right... Ah, priests , where did I stop?
“The fact that the whole Czech Republic was under water,” the Havlovice waterman Zelinka helped him.
“Yeah,” Kreutzmann said. “Then, therefore, the whole Czech Republic was under water, and Žaltman, and Red Mountain, and Krakorka, and all the other mountains, and our brother could, without drying out his legs, walk beautifully under water, even from Brno all the way to Prague!” Even above Mount Snezhka there was an elbow-length of water... Yes, brothers, that was the time!
“It was, it was...” said the Ratiborg waterman Kulda thoughtfully. “Back then, we mermen were not such desert hermits as we are now. And we had underwater cities built from water bricks, and all the furniture was made from hard water, feather beds were made from soft rainwater, and were heated with warm water, and there was no bottom, no banks, no end to the edge of the water - only water And we.
“Yes, indeed,” said Lishka, nicknamed Leshy, a merman from the Zhabokvak swamp.
- And what kind of water was there then! You could cut it like butter, and mold it into balls, and spin threads, and draw wire from it. It was like steel, and like flax, and like glass, and like a feather, thick, like sour cream, and strong, like oak, and warmed like a fur coat. Everything, everything was made of water. What can I say, is this water now? - And old Lishka spat so hard that a deep pool formed.
“Yes, it was, but it floated away,” Kreutzmann said thoughtfully. “The water was good, as if it had been just recently, but there it was, but it floated away.” And on top of that, she was completely mute!
- How is this possible? - Zelinka, who was younger than the other mermen, was surprised.
“Well, she’s dumb, she didn’t speak at all,” Lishka-Leshy began to tell. “She didn’t have any voice.” It was so quiet and silent, as it happens now when it freezes or when snow falls... And then it’s midnight, nothing moves, and everything around is so quiet, such a quiet silence that it’s downright creepy: you stick your head out of the water and listen, and your heart just clench from this terrible silence. It was so quiet at that time when the water was still silent.
“But what,” asked Zelinka (he was only seven thousand years old), “how did she then cease to be mute?”
“It happened like this,” said Lishka.. “My great-grandfather told me this and said that it was already a good million years ago... So, at that time there lived one merman... What was his name?” Rakosnik is not Rakosnik... Minarzhik? Neither... Gumple? No, not Hampl... Pavlishek? No either... My God, what was his name?
“Arion,” suggested Kreutzmann.
- Arion! - Lishka confirmed. “It was right there on the tongue, his name was Arion.” And this Arion had, I tell you, such a wondrous gift, such a talent was given to him by God, well, he had such a talent, understand? He could speak and sing so beautifully that your heart either jumped for joy or cried when he sang - he was such a musician.
“Singer,” Kulda corrected.
“A musician or a singer,” continued Lishka, “but he knew his business, my dears!” Great-grandfather said that everyone roared when he sang. He had it, that Arion. there is great pain in my heart. Nobody knows which one. Nobody knows what happened to him. But it must have been a great sorrow, since he sang so beautifully and so sadly... And so, when he sang and complained like that under water, every drop of water trembled, as if it were a tear. And in every drop something of his song remained, while this song made its way through the water. Therefore the water is no longer silent. It sounds, sings, whispers and babbles, gurgles and gurgles, purrs and rumbles, makes noise, rings, murmurs and complains, groans and howls, seethes and roars, cries and thunders, sighs, groans and laughs; sometimes it sounds like a silver harp, sometimes it strums like a balalaika, sometimes it sings like an organ, sometimes it blows like a hunting horn, sometimes it speaks like a person in joy or sadness. Since then, water speaks in all the languages ​​in the world and tells things that no one understands - they are so wonderful and beautiful. And people understand them least of all. But until Arion appeared and taught the water to sing, it was completely silent, just as the sky is silent now.
“But it was not Arion who lowered the sky into water,” said old Kreutzmann. - It was already later, under my father - eternal memory to him! - and the watery Kwakwakoaks did it, and all for the sake of love.
- How it was? - asked young Zelinka.
- It was like that. Kwakwakoaks fell in love. He saw Princess Cuacuacunca and burned with love for her, croak! Cuacuacunca was beautiful. Imagine: a golden frog’s belly, and frog’s legs, and a frog’s mouth from ear to ear, and she was all wet and cold. What a beauty she was! Now there are no such people...
- What next? - Zelinka, the merman, asked impatiently.
- Well, what could have happened? Cuacuacunca was beautiful, but proud. She just pouted and said “croak.” Kwakwakoaks is completely mad with love. “If you marry me,” he told her, “I will give you everything you want.” And then she told him: “Then give me the blue of heaven, croak!”
“And what did Kwakwakoaks do?” - Zelinka asked.
- What was he supposed to do? He sat under the water and complained: “Kwa-kwa, kwa-kwa, kwa, kwa-kwa, kwa!” And then he decided to take his own life and therefore threw himself from the water into the air to drown himself in it, croak! No one had ever thrown himself into the air before - Kwakwakoaks was the first.
- And what did he do in the air?
- Nothing. He looked up and there was a blue sky above him. He looked down, and below him there was also a blue sky. Kwakwakoaks was terribly surprised. After all, no one knew then that the sky was reflected in the water. And when Kwakwakoaks saw that the blue of heaven was already in the water, he exclaimed “quack” in surprise and rushed into the water again. And then he put Kuakuakunku on his back and emerged into the air with her. Kuakuakunka saw the blue sky in the water and exclaimed with joy: “Kwa-kwa!” Because, it turns out, Kwakwakoaks gave her the blue of heaven.
- What happened next?
- Nothing. Then they both lived very happily, and they had many frogs. And from then on, the mermen sometimes crawl out of the water to see that they also have a sky at home. And when someone leaves his home, no matter who he is, he looks back, like Kwakwakoaks, and sees that there, at home, is the real sky. The most real, blue and beautiful sky.
- Who proved this?
— Quakquacoax.
- Long live Quakwakoaks!
- And Cuacuacunca!
At that moment one person was walking past and thought: “Why are the frogs croaking at the wrong time?”
He picked up a stone and threw it into the swamp.
Something gurgled and splashed in the water; the spray flew high and high. And it became quiet: all the mermen dived into the water and now only next year they will gather for their conference.