Together with heaven and earth, Baibarak the hero was created, riding a spotted horse like a leopard.
The moon and stars shone when Ermen-Chechen was born. She grew faster than grass, like reeds. Like a boy, Ermen-Chechen rode around wild horses.
One day the hero Baibarak stood next to her; fell on his right knee and, firmly grasping her hand, said through clenched teeth:
“From now on, we are inseparable forever.”
“We will always be together,” answered Ermen-Chechen. The old father hit his iron-gray horse hard and viciously, but he could not catch up with the young ones.
A year later, the hero Baibarak came to the old camp. He threw the dead leopard off his shoulders.
“If you want, old man, kill me like I killed the leopard.” I stole your daughter Ermen-Chechen.
The father was angry.
“For this, let your son Alyp-Manash sleep for a whole year when he becomes a man!”
Alyp-Manash matured. He never saw his grandfather, he never heard his threats. Baibarak the father and Ermen the Chechen mother found a good wife for their son. They took the girl into the house. Pure Pearl - Kumuzhek-Aru.
Alyp-Manash learned that an evil khan lives across the big river; he has a daughter, Erke-Karachky. Many heroes wooed her, but not one returned home: the evil khan killed them all.
Alyp-Manash went to the big river to fight with the khan and avenge the death of the heroes. The hero did not sleep at night and did not daylight during the day. It’s impossible to count how many rivers he fermented. It is impossible to remember which mountains he crossed. The white horse stretched out like a rawhide belt. The months flashed by. The years crawled like snakes. Alyp-Manash drove up to a stormy river and walked up and down along the bank. There is no quiet ford. On the shore lies upside down a birch bark boat two fathoms wide and ninety fathoms long. Alyp-Manash dismounted, turned the boat over and saw under it an old man as white as a swan.
- Hey, balam, Alyp-Manash! You left your beautiful eyes and smart head at home. What were you missing there? What did you go looking for?
[Balam – child.]
Alyp-Manash did not argue. He shook the old man’s wrinkled hand with his firm hand and kissed him.
- Grandfather, take me across!
The old man could not find words in response. Silently pushed the boat and sat on the bow. Alyp-Manash, without letting go of the reins, jumped to the stern. The horse snorts, gnaws at the bit, does not want to swim. But Alyp-Manash holds the reins tightly. So we went to the middle of the river.
-What are you crying about? – Alyp-Manash asked the old man.
- I feel sorry for you, balam. How many heroes have I transported to the other side! Not one came back.
Alyp-Manash took out a nine-sided arrow from a bag as white as the moon:
“I’m alive or dead, you’ll know by this arrow.” The white-gray horse came ashore and shook itself.
Alyp-Manash saddled his horse, jumped into the saddle and shouted like a hundred heroes shout. The horse stamped like a hundred thunders. The tear hanging on the old man's eyelash did not have time to fall - Alyp-Manash was no longer visible.
The horse walked along the valley, and black lakes filled the tracks of its hooves. The low hills were gently thrown back by the horse. Stepping on the chests of high mountains, he ran easily. As soon as Alyp-Manash sees the sunrise, his horse will carry him by sunset. You can already see smoke from the Ak-kaan camp. The horse stood on four hooves at once. He doesn’t move from his spot, as if his feet have taken tenacious roots into the ground.
- Hey, hey! - Alyp-Manash shouted.
“Alyp-Manash, turn the reins,” said the horse. “There are a lot of tracks leading to the camp, but I don’t see a return track.”
“On the outside you are litter, on the inside you are offal,” answers Alyp-Manash. “I won’t ask you whether I’m destined to die or whether I’ll stay alive.”
In anger, Alyp-Manash was always fierce. He whipped the horse with his whip. The white-gray horse rose like a whirlwind. He flew uphill, downhill like a bird, and ran through the valley like water. The white-gray horse couldn't see the road because of his tears. Alyp-Manash himself doesn’t remember how he stopped, unfastened the girths, put the saddle under his head and fell asleep. The white-gray horse turned into a white star and rose to the sky.
The shepherds of Ak-kaan drove a herd of horses up a high mountain. From a high mountain they saw two large hills in the valley. In the middle of the hills there is a round hill. A whirlwind storm is coming from the hill. A whirlwind wind tears up hundred-year-old trees and drives river water in the opposite direction. The shepherds galloped almost alive to their khan.
“In the middle of the hills,” they say, “a round hill stood up.” From the hill, they say, a whirlwind storm comes.
- You lie, lazy people, slackers! - Ak-kaan shouted.
He raised his sword and cut off three heads with one swing. Even the cannibal Delbegen took pity on the fourth shepherd.
“Let me,” he says, “Great Khan, let me see for myself what happened?”
Ak-kaan could not hold the raised sword. The sword fell on the neck of the fourth.
Dark yellow Delbegen saddled his blue bull.
Even from afar, sensing something bad, the bull became stubborn. The blue bull's chest was covered with furry foam. What happened next, the dark yellow Delbegen does not remember. Together with hundred-year-old oak trees and eternal rocks, a terrible whirlwind pulled the cannibal into a dark cave. The seven-headed Delbegen had all fourteen eyes bulging out of his forehead.
The blue bull, sticking out its tongue, rushed headlong out of the cave. Trees, stones and rocks flew behind the bull. A bull ran up to the icy heights, to the top of all the peaks - only then did Delbegen the man-eater dare to turn around.
He saw: Alyp-Manash was sleeping peacefully in a large valley. His head, like a hill between two hills, lies across the saddle. Alyp-Manash breathes in - trees and mountains fly into his nostrils. When he exhales, the mountains and trees rush back. Alyp-Manash breathed calmly and evenly, and the water in the rivers rose and fell from his breath.
Delbegen ran without memory to Ak-kaan:
- A person, to say, is not a person. A mountain, to say the least, is not a mountain. A terrible monster sleeps in the valley.
Ak-kaan whistled loudly and piercingly. He gathered his entire army. He called together distant and close heroes. He himself, shouting fiercely, rode ahead of everyone. From the top of the black mountain Alyp-Manash is clearly visible. Having covered the valley with sweat, he sleeps with his arms outstretched, like a child. The bare chest is open to all four winds. The well-aimed warriors narrowed their eyes and aimed at Alyp-Manash under the left nipple. As if hitting eternal ice, the arrows slid down. As if they had hit a stone, the copper tips were bent. The warriors drove up even closer and threw heavy pikes at a run. The points of the pikes rang like bees and crumbled like glass.
Alyp-Manash whispered the name of Erke-Karachka in a dream. Because of the wrath of the sun, Ak-kaan did not see. He pulled out a sharpened sword from a leather sheath and slashed Alyp-Manash on the lip. For nine days the heroes chopped down the solid body. Nine thousand swords were broken into pieces. There is not even a pink scratch on Alyp-Manash’s body. Ak-kaan ordered the soldiers to dismount. Instead of bows, they took hoes in their hands. They dug a hole ninety fathoms and pushed Alyp-Manash into it.
Ak-kaan wanted to take the hero’s weapon with him. Not a single warrior could move the pike. There was no strong man to lift the saber.
Alyp-Manash slept for nine months. I opened my eyes and couldn’t see the sky. Nine heavy chains twist his arms. Ninety chains hang from knees to ankles. The weight of chains fell on my heart.
Alyp-Manash sang for the first time in his life. I remembered my father and mother. He remembered his sister Erke-Koo, and took pity on the lonely Kumuzhek-Ara. Alyp-Manash did not forget the white-gray horse in his song.
But no one came to help.
Summer has faded. Autumn has passed. Winter has melted. By spring, in the big Altai, in the blooming wide Altai, there was no animal or bird left. Crowding like at a watering hole, they stood by the pit, greedily listening to the song.
Gray geese were flying high. All the way they cried loudly about Alyp-Manash. Folding its wings, one goose fell onto the hero’s chest. Alyp-Manash sighed deeply with joy. Nine chains broke. Alyp-Manash touched the warm goose with gentle hands. He stroked his rocky wings and sang:
You are a goose, my glorious goose,
You are my faithful friend!
Don't drown in the water
You float through the air.
On your wing I write a letter.
Take it to Father Baibarak,
Tell me about my sadness
Good mother Ermen-Chechen.
Bow to Erke-Koo, dear goose,
Say hello to Kumuzhek-Aru.
Hello hotter than the sun
Tell her - Pearl.
Tell all your friends that Alyp-Manash
Lies in a black hole
He is buried alive in the ground.
Faithful goose, you are my airy horse,
You are my pacer, my merman!
Fly, swim, spread your wing,
Let me read my entire letter.
The white goose flew out of the hole and swam like a cloud to the Baibarak watering hole.
And that night thin Erke-Koo stood above the water and, laughing, caught the reflection of the moon in the water with her palms. Suddenly the moon went out. Erke-Koo looked up and saw a goose. He hung above her head, spreading his white wings.
Fast Erke-Koo caught the bird and brought it home. By the light of the fire, father and mother read the bitter letter. They didn’t know how to help Alyp-Manash.
Pure Pearl remembered before anyone else. In childhood, Alyp-Manash had a faithful friend Ak-Kobon. In his youth, Alyp-Manash went bear hunting with Ak-Kobon. Kumuzhek-Aru sent her brother Kan-Chu-rekei to Ak-Kobon the hero. Without listening to Kan-Churekei to the end, Ak-Kobon galloped to the village of Baibarak. He stroked the goose and read the letter. Ermen the Chechen mother gave Ak-Kobon the best food. When she started kneading cakes for Alyp-Manash, she bit her finger until it bled:
“Let my blood help you, son.” Ak-Kobon raced day and night. He swam across a fast river in a birch bark boat. At the edge of the black pit he reined in his horse.
- You! – he shouted down. - You! I bowed to my father and mother. I remembered my younger sister. I haven't forgotten my wife. You didn’t find one hello for me. Are you expecting help from me now?
Ak-Kobon grabbed a large mountain and crushed Alyp-Manash. He himself sat down on a wooded peak and ate the flatbread that Ermen-Chechen had prepared for her son. This food made Ak-Kobon ten times stronger than before. He rode here as a hero and rode back as a real hero. A white old man was waiting for him in a birch bark boat near the shore. Ak-Kobon jumped into the boat and cried bitterly.
- Alyp-Manash, my friend, why didn’t I find you alive? Your white-gray horse has fallen on its mane and lies dead. You yourself, Alyp-Manash the hero, lowering your face on your sleeve, sleep in eternal sleep!
Gray-haired, like a swan, the old man could not hold back his tears. With a dry hand, he took a nine-sided arrow from his bag. The arrow turned green and rusted.
“Yes, apparently you feel bad, Alyp-Manash,” whispered the old man.
Shedding tears, Ak-Kobon took a copper arrow from his decrepit hands into his white hands and, screaming, dropped it into the black water.
Ak-Kobon came ashore, easily jumped into the saddle and turned the reins towards the Baibarak camp. Ak-Kobon's eyes were swollen from tears. He himself falls out of the saddle, first on one side, then on the other. My legs can barely stand in the stirrups.
“I was one day late to save my dear friend Alyp-Manash. Oh, it hurts! Oh, it's sad!
Baibarak the father and Ermen the Chechen mother mixed their tears with those of Ak-Kobon. Erke-Koo-sister threw a handful of ashes into the fire. Kumuzhek-Aru cried quietly...
A star fell from the high sky and, hitting the ground, became a horse. The white-gray horse neighed loudly and stamped its hoof. The heavy mountain split in half. The loose earth dissipated from his neighing. Alyp-Manash saw the bottom of the sky from the bottom of the hole. The horse lowered its long tail, like the Milky Way, into the hole. But Alyp-Manash the hero could not rise. He tore off the horse's tail with his hand.
The white-gray horse lowed like a bull, like a bear, roared, ran over the stones through the forests like a deer. He hit a tall poplar tree with a running start. The iron tree groaned and fell. The white-gray horse dragged the poplar to the hole and pushed it down.
Alyp-Manash jumped with joy. Ninety chains broke with a ringing sound.
Alyp-Manash climbed out of the hole along the poplar tree. He hugged the horse's neck and cried bitterly.
-You saved me, faithful horse...
From tears, Alyp-Manash became ten times better than before. The horse's fur, washed with tears, quietly shone like silver. The faithful servants ran to Ak-kaan.
Ak-kaan immediately summoned all his troops. He himself flies ahead of everyone on a white roan horse. Next to his father is Erke-Karachky on a fiery red horse.
Lances whistle, swords buzz, arrows ring - Alyp-Manash heard nothing. He sees one Erke-Karachka. She looks at Alyp-Manash.
The hero took out a saber from his leather sheath and cut the iron poplar in half. He thrust Ak-kaan into the crevice astride a white roan horse. Then he squeezed both halves with his hands and turned the tree. The iron poplar stands like a rock.
Alyp-Manash raised his tight whip and drove up very close to Erka-Karachky. He hit her between the eyes with an octagonal whip. Now he turned his face to the brave warriors and said quietly:
– Don’t be afraid of me: Alyp-Manash doesn’t fight with the people, he only beats the khans.
And, having touched his horse, the hero galloped to his native land, to the land where the heart hurts, where the blood beats.
Here he approaches the bank of a stormy river. The white-gray horse turned into a mangy foal. The hero Alyp-Manash became the dwarf Tas-Tarakai. The Adam's apple is in front of the chin, the braid hangs over the eyes. And yet the gray-haired carrier under this scythe saw the eyes and recognized their fire.
- Get into my boat, Tas-Tarakai. I'll take you to the other side. Isn't the hero Alyp-Manash your son?
Tas-Tarakai grinned:
“I know a lot of heroes, but I haven’t heard of Alyp-Manash. I sing a lot of songs, but there is nothing to sing about the exploits of Alyp-Manash.
The white old man raised his eyebrows high, then brought them together and said in a thick voice:
“Now they don’t sing, but later they will.”
He took out a nine-sided shining arrow from his bag.
– Alyp-Manash gave me this arrow. His friend Ak-Kobon sank this arrow in the river. I searched for an arrow for three years. Like new, fished out of the water yesterday.
Tas-Tarakay jumped from the boat onto a scattering of stones and became Alyp-Manash again. Next to him stands a white and gray lucky horse. The old ferryman fell face down to the bottom of the birch bark boat.
- The fire of my eyes, the light of my chest, Alyp-Manash! Your friend Ak-Kobon is celebrating his wedding today. He takes the Pure Pearl as his wife.
Hearing this, Alyp-Manash lowered his eyebrows, his eyes became bloodshot. He again became the dwarf Tas-Tarakai. Astride a mangy foal, he trotted to the Baibarak camp. Young brother-in-law Kan-Churekei rides towards Tas-Tarakai:
- Where are you hurrying, Tas?
- To the hero Ak-Kobon for the great one.
[Toy – feast.]
- Hey! - the brother-in-law shouted, whipping his horse. – After the death of Alyp-Manash, there is nothing great for me. What are you crying about, Tas-Tarakai?
- I'm mourning myself. If I were like all people, I could now look at your sister Kumuzhek-Ara.
– Don’t lag behind, Tas: if we arrive together, we’ll sit next to each other.
Kan-Churekei's horse ran with wide, light steps. And Tas whips the skinny colt with a twig and hits him in the ribs with his short legs. Kan-Churekei flew far ahead. His nine-year-old horse runs at a light trot.
Suddenly Kan-Churekei sees that the thin Tas-Tarakai has gone far ahead with a calm step. So, while playing, one overtook the other. Laughing, they both drove up to the camp of old man Baibarak. There's a mountain of meat there. Araka is like a lake. The people are like trees in a forest, like in a valley of grass. In the white hexagonal ail sits the white Kumuzhek-Aru. Her hair, like pearls, turned grey. Six women braid her blond hair into paired braids. Tas-Tarakai slowly opened the door and sang drawn out and plaintively:
[Ail – here: yurt.]
Pearl braids
You weave in two rows,
Kumuzhek-Aru!
young friend
Did I really find it?
Kumuzhek-Aru?
Kumuzhek-Aru answers with tears:
Pearl braids
I'm not the one weaving
old friend
I didn't quit.
- Get out, lousy Tas! – Ak-Kobon roared and threw Tas out the door.
But Tas opened the door again and sang a new song:
Ak-Kobon will drink from an elegant cauldron, Ak-Kobon will sleep on a soft bed. Alyp-Manash cannot drink from his favorite cauldron, There is no place for Alyp-Manash on a soft bed.
[Cauldron – jug.]
Kumuzhek-Aru answers:
From an elegant cauldron Let whoever wants to drink, A soft bed for Alyp-Manash.
Pushing the women aside, she stood up to her full height. Her hair flowed down like pearly streams of water, like silver mist. Ak-Kobon chased after Tas-Taraka. Tas ran far into the valley, high up the mountain. The fired arrow did not fly off the string, but Tas Tarakai was already here and singing again:
If the white and gray horse is alive, what will happen? What will happen?
Kumuzhek-Aru answers:
I’ll stroke the white-gray horse’s golden fur, I’ll hug and kiss dear Alyp-Manash.
And then the bright hero Alyp-Manash stood next to the Pure Pearl.
Ak-Kobon turned into a crane and flew out of the chimney hole. Alyp-Manash shot a quick arrow after him. The arrow slid across the crown of the crane. Since then, the crane has lived with this mark. Altaians do not eat crane meat.
“This bird,” they say, “although it’s filthy, it’s still of human blood.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru