Once upon a time there was an ox that was very big. He was so big that in one day he ate all the grass in the meadows and drank all the water from the stream. But he was still very thirsty. There were eight high mountains around him, one higher than the other. A little grass still grew on the seventh mountain. The ox stretched out and ate it. Then he saw a river behind the eighth mountain. He stretched and drank up all the water in the river.

At that moment, a large eagle flew over the eight mountains and saw the ox. He flew down, grabbed him with his claws and flew away with him. He looked for a place where he could eat the ox in peace, but they were all too small.

Then he finally saw an ibex with very large horns and the eagle perched on these horns and ate the ox until only the bones were left, which he threw down into the valley.

There sat a man herding sheep. The ox's bones hit him in the eye. But the shepherd only blinked once and sat still. When he went home that evening, he said to his mother: "Something's gone into my eye, please pull it out."

The mother looked and said: "It's ox bones. I'll call the strong men in the village to help pull the bones out of your eye."

The men came and pulled the bones out with ropes. "We can build houses out of them!" they shouted. They built beautiful houses out of the bones, lived in them and were happy.

But one night, the houses shook. "What could that be," the people asked. The next night, the bravest men hid and waited. Then they saw that a fox had come and bitten into the ox's bones, causing all the houses to shake.

"We must catch him," they said, but they were afraid because the fox was very big. They asked one hundred and twenty-five Jigits, fighters with horses, to catch the fox. And indeed, they caught the fox the next night.

"It's a beautiful, big fox," they said. "You can make many fur hats from its fur." They took the fox's fur, there was enough for one hundred and twenty-five fur hats and there was still half left.

The next morning, an old woman went to the well with a kettle and a ladle. There she saw the rest of the fox fur. "This will make a nice coat for my grandson," she thought and took the fur with her. At home, she sewed and sewed, but although the fur was so big, there wasn't enough for the sleeves.

Now I ask you: Who was the biggest? The ox, the eagle, the ibex, the shepherd, the fox or the grandson?

Tschetschenisches Märchen, Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: V. Gazak, Das Buch aus reinem Silber, Düsseldorf 1984 , englische Fassung Lysander Jaenike © Mutabor Märchenstiftung