Once upon a time, a camel had twelve separate horns just like deer has now. Moreover, the camel had a thick and spectacular tail. Deer, on the other hand, didn’t have any horn as well as almost didn’t have a tail. With that magnificent horns, the camel was so proud and always make others jealous of their own horns.
One day, the camel came to the river to drink water. Rather than drinking water, he would see his reflection on the water and was enjoying his admirable look proudly. At the time, the deer appeared from the forest and told him while bowing with a bit of sadness: “Tonight, I’m going to come to forest animals’ gathering. How can I go there with this bald/polished forehead? I wish I could have these beautiful horns like you even just for an hour. Hey camel, if you excuse me, would you lend me your horns tonight? I’ll bring it tomorrow at this time when you come here to drink water.”
When looking at the deer, he looked very miserable and had no majesty. Feeling sympathy towards the deer, the camel gave his horns to him saying, “Make sure to bring tomorrow when I come here to drink water”. Grasping the horns, the deer disappeared into the forest immediately.
On the way, the deer met with a horse. The horse looked at him with amazement and asked where he borrowed the horns. Knowing that the horse also came to the camel and asked for his tail. Naïve, kind camel gave him the precious tail also.
Since then, days went on but the camel hasn’t taken his magnificent horns and beautiful tailback. When seeing the animals whom he borrowed the horns and tail and asked them to give back, they laughed. The deer said, “You can have those only when the horn of the wild goat reaches the sky, and (new) tail of you (camel) reaches to the ground.”
Since that time, every time the camel drinks water he would see his reflection on the water and feel disgusted and shake his head with disbelief. After drinking water, the camel would also look at top of the mountains believing the deer would bring his horns back to him soon.
The fact that the horn of deer is extracted once a year is because the horn wasn’t meant for deer naturally and had it from the camel by fraud.
Source: Mongolian fairy tale
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