They say that in the old days, evil spirits-divas often flew from the desert to Bukhara villages, ate livestock, and kidnapped people. People no longer have the strength to endure. They went to Aldar Kusa and told him:
- Hey, friend! Everyone knows your courage. Free us from the yoke of divas! There is no life for us from them.
“Okay, I’ll punish the divas,” Aldar Kusa answered with importance and tied his belt scarf tighter.
But it must be said frankly that at the word “divas,” Aldar Kusa flinched and quietly looked in all directions, because in fact he was not at all brave.
The next day Aldar Kusa decided to visit his married sister. He took a jar of sour milk and walked through the mountains. On the road, Aldar Kusa saw a rope in the dust.
“Let me grab you, you’ll come in handy on the road,” he thought.
I took the rope and moved on.
Looks like there is an egg of some bird lying in a camel thorn.
“It will come in handy,” Aldar Kusa said to himself. He grabbed the egg and walked on.
A turtle was crawling towards him along the road.
- Hello! - said Aldar Kusa.
- Hello! - answered the turtle.
- Where? - said Aldar Kusa.
- Here! - answered the turtle.
“So we are satellites,” said Aldar Kusa and put the turtle in his bosom.
Aldar Kusa walked and walked and climbed to the very top of the pass. He looks at something huge, ferocious, terrible moving in the distance, and the earth is already trembling.
Aldar Kusa got scared and buried the jar of sour milk in the ground in one place, the rope in another, but did not have time to bury the egg.
And this ferocious, terrible thing is right there.
- Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! - it laughed.
Out of fright, Aldar Kusa also shouted with all his strength:
- Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!
- Hey stupid! - it said. - Why do you laugh when you should be afraid?
- Why are you laughing and who are you? - Aldar Kusa asked in a trembling voice.
- I'm a marvel! And I laugh because I came across you, son of man. I have something to satisfy my womb.
And the diva laughed even louder: “Ho-ho-ho!”
It was as if thunder had rolled through the mountains.
Aldar Kusa sees that things are bad, we have to dodge.
- Ho-ho-ho! - he laughed. - I am the angel of death Azrael. I came for your soul. It's good that I found you easily!
“I’m not afraid of you,” the diva growled, “I’ll turn over mountains and stones.”
- Don't brag! - said Aldar Kusa. - If you don’t believe me, let’s fight. Which of us is stronger!
- Let's! - said the div.
“The first condition is to hit the ground so that the brains jump out of it,” said Aldar Kusa.
“Okay,” answered the div.
And he hit the ground with his fist so hard that he pressed large boulders into it.
- Where are the brains? I said that you are a braggart - look! - Aldar Kusa shouted menacingly and hit the ground with a stick. From the broken jar, sour milk splashed into the diva's face.
- Saw? - said Aldar Kusa.
- Saw! - stammered the frightened diva.
“The second condition,” said Aldar Kusa, “we will squeeze the oil out of the stone.”
“Okay,” the diva answered timidly.
He took a stone, squeezed it - and the stone turned into sand, but, of course, he did not squeeze the oil out of it.
Aldar Kusa crushed the egg and when the yolk and white of the divas began to flow, he admitted defeat.
“One more condition,” said Aldar Kusa, “make a rope out of clay.”
Div suffered and suffered, but nothing happened.
“It’s my turn,” Aldar Kusa said and pulled the buried rope out of the ground.
“This is how you need to twist a rope out of clay,” said Aldar Kusa.
Div was seriously surprised and scratched the back of his head. He came across a flea the size of a locust.
“Eh,” Aldar Kusa laughed, “I have bigger fleas.” He put his hand in his bosom, took out the turtle and let it fall to the ground.
The frightened diva bowed low to Aldar Kusa and asked him:
- Let's come visit us!
Aldar Kusa completely chickened out, but didn’t show it. Div led Aldar Kusa into a huge cave. There were visible and invisible divas here, and they were all huge, shaggy, and fierce.
After the refreshment, the biggest diva suggested:
- Let's play, let's break rocks. “Come on!” answered Aldar Kusa.
The divas began kicking the rocks. With each blow they smashed entire cliffs as high as the Bukhara minaret.
“Your turn!” said the divas.
Aldar Kusa pretended to choose a larger cliff.
“What are you thinking about?” asked the Divas.
— There are four reasons why I think so. If I hit that mountain, it will roll to the east, block the path to the sunrise and the world will plunge into darkness. If I hit that mountain over there, I will close the path to sunset and the sun will remain in the sky and the world will burn from unbearable heat. If I hit here, the path to the cold wind will be closed and then all the people, animals, stones, mountains and seas will rot. And if in this direction, the path for the warm wind will be closed and all living things will freeze. If I hit the earth, it will collapse and with it all living things, and if I hit the sky, it will fall to the ground and crush everyone. I don’t know what to do.
“No need, let us live, warmed by the rays of your sun,” cried the divas.
- Fine! - said Aldar Kusa. - So be it, I will take pity on you.
The divas arranged another big treat and left Aldar Kusa to spend the night with them.
Aldar Kusa lay down and snored loudly on purpose, and he began to listen.
The divas began to whisper:
— Angel Azrael fell asleep. Let’s wait a little longer and kill him, otherwise he’ll want to take the soul from one of us.
When it became dark, Aldar Kusa quietly stood up, brought from the corner of the cave a huge wooden mortar, in which the divas had pounded wheat into flour, and put it on the bed in his place, while he hid behind the bags.
Suddenly, footsteps were heard in the darkness and there was a sound from such a blow from a club that the poor stupa shattered into splinters. The divas decided that the angel Azrael had been killed and went to bed. At dawn, Aldar Kusa woke up the divas.
The divas were scared.
- How did you sleep, Mr. Angel Azrael? - they asked, bowing.
- Doesn't matter! - said Aldar Kusa. “It was either rain or something else that dripped on me and prevented me from sleeping.
The divas collected rich gifts and said goodbye to Aldar Kusa.
Three divas escorted Aldar Kusa home. Opening the gates wider, Aldar Kusa invited the divas to visit him. Entering the house, he called out to his wife:
- Hey, wife, serve the guests a roast from those divas who came yesterday.
Before Aldar Kusa’s wife had time to say “Okay!” - as if the divas were blown away by the wind.
But I must say that the mullah-rector of the local mosque did not like Aldar Kusa very much.
A mullah was walking along the road and saw frightened divas running towards him.
“Hello, where are you in a hurry?” the mullah asked Divov.
The divas told him everything about Aldar Kusa.
- Oh, you simpletons! Aldar Kusa has outwitted you. He is a liar and a coward, go kill him.
Aldar Kusa is watching, and the mullah leads the divas to his house. Aldar Kusa came forward and said:
- Hey, cunning mullah! A deceiver mullah. You borrow oil and give back some water. A month ago you borrowed ten divas from me for meat for a feast, and now you only bring three divas? Where are the other seven? A?
The divas' souls sank into their heels. They rushed at the mullah, pulled out his tongue and ran away.
Since then, Aldar Kusa has lived peacefully.
The people also found peace, since the divas, in fear of Aldar Kusa, completely fled into the desert.
And the mullah walks around and mumbles, but no one can understand what he wants to say.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru