Not long ago, my grandfather told me a story that he had heard from his great-grandfather. This was a true event.
A long time ago, there existed a small village in a valley beside a mountain. It consisted of only five or six houses. In the middle of the village there was a large plateau leveled with tiny stones. Several times a year there were held celebrations and dancing.
One night there was first heard a bang, then the earth began shaking and all the inhabitants of the village ran out of their houses. It was completely dark and until morning they could not know what had happened.
At dawn, they looked astonished at a big egg which had appeared in the middle of the village. It was half as large as the church and it was of green color with a broad brown line in the middle of it.
The peasants looked with fear at the egg and no one dared to approach it. After a time there was heard the bleating of sheep not far from the village and an old woman said:” Run and call the shepherd, he is the strongest and bravest man in the village, he will know what to do with this egg. “
Then came the shepherd, a huge man with a small head. He approached the egg, knocked with his finger on it and recognized that it was not an ordinary egg because the egg-shell was very hard. He took his stick and with all his strength he hit on the brown line of the egg.
“Woe, woe is me,” they all heard a voice coming out of the egg.
The shepherd was frightened, but when he saw that nothing happened he ran again and hit the egg again.
They heard the voice from the egg again: “Woe, woe, woe! If you hit me once more I will crush you down.”
The shepherd laughed at this words. How could he be crushed down by an egg, when it is impossible to break the shell. He ran and hit the egg the third time.
After that, the egg began to open slowly and out of it came a small bird, even smaller than the smallest humming-bird.
The peasants watched the bird with wonder. After a short time a small boy approached the small bird and pushed on the back with his finger. The Bird turned to the boy and pecked his hand with his bill. The boy ran to his mother screamingly.
The shepherd lifted up his stick in order to hit the bird, but before he succeeded to do that, the bird began to grow quickly and soon it became as great as the village church. It caught the shepherd with the bill and lifted him into the air. The bird bent a large fir-tree with the foot and hung the man on it. She left the fir loose and when it set straight again the poor shepherd flew through the air like a bird.
About one mile far from the village there was large pond. The water had reclaimed and only mud remained. Exactly in that mud fell the shepherd as deep as to his hips. They dragged him out of it a long time after with the help of oxen.
The other peasants began running and hiding in their houses and barns, but suddenly they heard the bird talking. The bird asked them to come back and listen to her explanation. Looking around they gathered around the bird which was again small like a humming-bird.
“I am a bird from the family Aspires and we live on the planet of birds which we call Dactyl. Your planet was discovered by our scientists two thousand years ago. Since then we have sent you our space ships which you call storks, and they have brought you babies. Space storks have done their work precisely and quickly on our planet, on Mars, Jupiter, Venus etc. But sometimes a fault can occur. My stork was to bring me to my mummy on our planet, but the night before it was sitting a long time in an inn and drinking bird milk. So it happened that this morning it got lost in the mist and dropped me down into your village. Please, help me to find my mummy, and in turn, I will tell you a secret, which will change your lives.”
“O.K.”- shouted the peasants. They plucked out the feathers from all the geese in the village and the surrounding area. They limed the feathers with resin around the egg. The bird explained them how to build an electric power plant on the river which was running down the mountain. So they will get electricity the first in the world.
One day a strong wind arose and the egg with the feathers began to turn round quicker and quicker. Suddenly it rose up with great speed and flew away towards the Bird planet.
My great-grandfather flew in the egg, too. He drank bird milk and when he woke up, everybody told him that he had been dreaming and screaming the whole time.