A long time ago, an old hunter named Abyshka lived in the dense taiga; his home was a hut made of young trees. Anchi Abyshka lived with his old wife, childless and lonely. Having lived their entire century in the taiga, they had never seen people, they did not know that besides them there were many people still living in the world.
Anchi Abyshka hunted at the foot of the Black Mountain: he had forty shergei for animals, forty snares for birds, and in the White Lake he caught fish with thirty muzzles. This is how he and the old woman lived.
One day, Anchi Abyshka went to look at his snares and saw that all the snares had been destroyed. Anchi Abyshka got scared.
“I’ve been hunting in this taiga all my life, such a disaster has never happened,” thought the old man. Having somehow adjusted Silky, Anchi Abyshka went to White Lake to look at the muzzles. He approached the shore and saw that all his muzzles had been thrown out of the water by someone and were broken.
“What a miracle!” the very old Anchi became alarmed. I repaired the destroyed tackle and put it back in the water.
He returned home without any spoils and said to his old woman:
“I saw a great miracle; a great misfortune has come to us.” I have lived in the taiga all my life, such a misfortune has never happened to me. Either some wild beast has appeared to devour you and me, or our death is approaching and we are being hurried to live out the century. Someone destroyed all my gear...
The old woman cried bitterly: apparently she would no longer live in the taiga, apparently she would have to die of hunger. The old people sunbathed together. Three days passed, and again Abyshka went to inspect the snares. Again all the snares are ruined. I went to White Lake - someone again broke all their muzzles and threw them ashore.
Standing on the shore, poor Anchi began to cry, tears falling onto his chest.
“What will I tell the old woman now?” the old man thinks. “We have no food, now we have nothing to hunt for animals and birds.” A great grief fell on my head...”
The old man came out to the ravine, sat down and began to think about his fate.
Suddenly, under the ravine, he heard a quiet voice. Anchi was wary and couldn’t believe his ears: if the voice belongs to a man, where does a man come from here? If any animal is close, Anchi has never heard such animal voices...
Abyshka, holding his gun at the ready, began to descend from the ravine to the water. And then he saw a large hole, similar to the mouth of a furnace. The same voice is heard from the hole. The old man quietly crawled to the hole, looked into the hole - nothing was visible. The unfamiliar voice immediately fell silent. Anchi crawled to the side and began to watch the hole. Again the voice was heard from the hole.
“Perhaps this swindler ruined my snares? Now I’ll deal with you,” Anchi Abyshka thought. Aiming the gun at the hole, he approached and shouted loudly:
- Hey, are you a man or an animal, come out, otherwise I’ll shoot!..
The hole became quiet again.
- Come out, I say again. I’ll shoot now!” Anchi shouted again.
Then something black and furry appeared from the hole - the bear cub crawled out and suddenly spoke like a human.
“Wait, wait, anchi, don’t shoot,” the bear cub said. “Why are you aiming at me?” It’s better to take it with you, maybe I’ll come in handy someday...
The old man, surprised, lowered his gun.
“Since you want to walk with me, go ahead, I will show the way,” Anchi Abyshka said.
When the old man and the bear cub entered the hut, the old woman got scared, screamed and hid in a dark corner.
“Don’t be afraid, old woman,” Abyshka said. “I wanted to shoot him, but he’s asking to be our son, he wants to help us with our work.” There will be help for us old people...
The little bear immediately cheered up and said affectionately:
“Don’t be afraid of me, mom, even though I have a bear’s skin, I was born from a man.” My father cursed me, and I turned into a bear cub, doomed to live among animals. And I have more fun with people. You are childless, I won’t be superfluous in the family, I’ll do whatever you order...
The old man and the old woman agreed to take him as their son.
“Live with us, child,” Anchi Abyshka said. The evening has come. Teddy bear, like a puppy, at the doorstep
fell asleep.
In the morning, just before dawn, the little bear got up, babbled something to himself, then said to the old man:
- Well, father, go take a look around the hut, you will find a black tuesk there, bring it here.
Anchi Abyshka came out of the hut, walked around it and found a black tuesk. This crowd has never been here. The old man brought tuesok to the hut. The little bear says to him:
- Now knock on the container three times, remove the lid and say: “How many dishes are in you, lay them all out.”
That's what the old man did. In the middle of the hut, suddenly a white tablecloth spread out, a lot of dishes appeared on the tablecloth, and all of them were things that Anchi had never tried. Only there is no chicken milk, but there is as much wine and food as you want.
“My father and mother, why are you looking at food, why don’t you take food?” the bear cub says to the old men. “Now, my father, you won’t have to go hunting, there’s no need to throw gear into White Lake.” Eat as much as you like, there will be no shortage of food, there will be enough for your whole life...
The old man and the old woman sat down on one side of the tablecloth, their adopted son sat opposite them. A rich feast began in the hut.
No matter how much all three ate, there was no decrease in food.
“May your life be long, our adopted son,” they say to the bear cub. “You treated us to rich food.” Even though you have the skin of an animal, you still have a human mind. Apparently you have a good heart...
Until nightfall, the old man and the old woman rejoiced and had fun, and without finishing their food, without getting up from their seats, they fell asleep. In the morning, waking up, we started eating again and feasted again until the evening.
On the third day we woke up in the morning and saw that the food was gone, the black cup was tightly closed in a circle. The old people were alarmed.
“Eze, eze, my father and my mother,” the bear cub reassures them, “when you want to eat, the door will open again.” I grew up among animals and birds, I need to see my friends. After eating, close the container, don’t show the container to anyone without me, and don’t feed anyone food from it. I won’t be home for three days; I’ll walk on the land of my own father.
The old man and the old woman were seeing the bear cub off, suddenly before their eyes it disappeared; to say that it ran away, the old men did not hear the sound of steps; to say that it flew away, they did not hear the flapping of wings. Like he fell into the ground.
Having had their fill, the old men came out of the hut and saw a handsome black horse hurrying towards the hut. An unfamiliar man sits on a horse, as wrinkled and gray-haired as the Anchis and the old woman themselves. An old man rides with his eyes closed, barely sits in the saddle, sways, holding his horse’s mane with his hands. The old man is dressed in rich clothes. The old man's face is stern. The horse, as if afraid to drop him, does not run, but swims: the horse’s back does not move. The horseman rode up to the hut, stopped, opened his eyes and said:
“Well, now maybe I’ll stay alive, otherwise I’m about to die.”
The old man sighed heavily and asked Anchi Abyshka:
- Give me shelter in your hut, feed me quickly, I’m dying of hunger...
Having taken the old man off his horse, Abyshka and the old woman led him into the hut, prepared a bed for him and laid the old man on it. The stranger immediately fell asleep, slept a little and, waking up, asked for food.
“For my life I fed myself by hunting,” Anchi Abyshka tells him, “now my luck is changing, I have nothing to feed you, traveler.”
With tears, the stranger began to beg for food. Abyshka was moved by the groans of the old man, and he asked the old woman for advice through his eyes. The old woman's heart could not stand it. From a dark corner of Anchi the magic tuesque pulled out, hiding from the old man, he opened it. He took out various foods from a container and served them to the crying old man. The old man ate for half a day - he was fully satisfied, immediately became younger and happier. Abyshka asks Anchi:
“Who are you, master, that you have so much food?”
“Poor Anchi Abyshka, who lives in the black taiga,” Anchi answers.
“I heard about you, Abyshka,” the old man says. “And I am Chashkan, the owner of this taiga.” I thought about hunting, but I got lost, wandered for six days, and almost died of hunger...
So, speaking about himself, Chashkan does not lag behind Anchi: where does Abyshka get so many sweet dishes, who prepares them for him?
Abyshka does not answer the guest, he remains silent. And Chashkan questions more and more insistently, and begins to get angry.
Anchi could not stand it, the magic tuesok showed the guest:
“Just don’t touch it with your hands.” My son, who gave me the tuesok, strictly forbade me to show the tuesok and did not order it to be given into the wrong hands.
“Why do you, poor old man, need such a thing?” Chashkan says. “Give it to me, Abyshka.”
- The son did not order to give it to anyone; Even though you are the khan of this taiga, I can’t give you the tuesk,” the old Anchi replies.
Then Chashkan became completely angry, jumped out of bed, stomped, and cursed:
“You’d better give back kindly, otherwise I’ll take it by force and deprive you and the old woman of your life...”
Anchi Abyshka did not let go of the tuesok. Chashkan pounced on him, tore out the tuesok, and ran out of the hut. Anchi and the old woman, holding onto his skirts, dragged after him. Khan, pushing the old men away, jumped onto his horse and instantly disappeared into the taiga.
The old Anchi and his wife burst into bitter tears, did not rise from the ground, and grieved all day.
The bear son returned from the taiga and asked:
“What are you shedding tears about, my father and mother?”
“We trusted a rich man, we showed him your suit, and he took it away from us...
“The rich man’s belly is full, but his eyes are not full, this always happens,” the little bear son said. “They shared it with the rich man, and so they are punished.” Stop crying and killing yourself, Chashkan will not go far from me...
Then the bear cub son began to mutter something in his own way, without taking his eyes off the taiga. And then Chashkan appeared from the taiga and dutifully approached the hut. The khan hung his head, unable to lift his eyes from the ground, and asked in a quiet voice:
“I won’t walk along your roads, I’ll never meet you on the way - just don’t take your life.”
Anchi Abyshka unties the tuesok from the saddle and says:
“I didn’t tell you anything about my son, I thought: you’ll find out about my powerful son yourself.”
“Where you came here from, go back there!” the bear son said to Chashkan. “Don’t offend the poor hunters, don’t take a piece from the hungry, otherwise it will be bad for you.”
Chashkan closed his forty teeth, did not utter a word, turned his horse and galloped away.
Anchi and the old woman were delighted and thanked their adopted son. They lived calmly and happily. Anchi doesn’t go hunting, the old woman has nothing to do at the hearth - good food is always at hand, you just have to open the magic pot.
The little bear son is growing and becoming stronger. One day he says to the old people:
“Life is so boring for me, I’ve decided to get married.”
- Pii-pai, our son, if the time has come for you to get married, what happened? It will be more fun for us old people to live with our daughter-in-law. Choose your own bride, yours
The young mind of our old minds is better.” So the old man and the old woman answered.
The bear son tells them:
- Far from us, at the mouth of the Black River, Kara-Kaan lives. Kara-Kaan has a daughter named Kara-Torgu. I want to woo her.
- Let it be your way, son. But will the Khan’s daughter marry you, the son of a poor Anchi?
In the morning, Anchi Abyshka and his adopted son, taking the magic bag, set off on their journey. We walked a lot or a little, we reached the mouth of the Black River, and on the shore we saw a white palace with golden gates. At the golden gates the guard stops them:
-Where are you going and why?
“If Kara-Kaan is at home, I want to see him,” Anchi Abyshka answers.
The guardian opens the golden gate in front of them and shows the way. Anchi and the bear cub entered the palace. Kara-Kaan sits at the golden table and angrily asks:
- What do you want, Anchi Abyshka?
“I heard a rumor about your daughter Kara-Torgu, and I came to woo her for my only son.”
Without allowing Kara-Kaan to utter a word, Anchi Abyshka already released five hundred words. Kara-Kaan, who was angry, did not have time to open his mouth, when the old Anchi knocked on the magic tuesk and said:
“Come on, my black little guy, lay out dishes that even the khans have never seen or tasted...
He opened the anchi tuesok - such dishes suddenly appeared on the table in front of Kara-Kaan that the khan looked at them as if it were a miracle. Only chicken milk is not among this food.
Not surprised by anything, Kara-Kaan opened his mouth in surprise, not afraid of anyone, this time he was afraid: where did such a poor Anchi get such wealth, did evil spirits come with Anchi Abyshka? And the dishes placed on the table made Kara-Kaan salivate profusely. Kara-Kaan could not resist and began to eat. The sweet food made him relaxed, the strong wine made him drunk. Having never agreed, Kara-Kaaya agreed to marry his daughter to the bear cub. For three days Kara-Kaan treated himself to his guests and feasted for three days.
When the bride and groom were left alone, the bear cub asked Kara-Torgu:
- Tell me, Kara-Torg, what you are in the world
do you know?
“What should I, a girl, know,” Kara-Torg replies, “my father Kara-Kaan knows everything for me...
“What can you do, Kara-Torgu?” the bear cub asks.
“Why should I know how to do anything,” Kara-Torgu replies arrogantly, “my father has enough servants who did everything for me, my father Kara-Kaan is rich, everything I need will be obtained for me...
“If you yourself don’t know anything, if you don’t know how to do anything, you rely on your father for everything, stay with him, I don’t need such a friend,” said the bear cub.
Kara-Kaan, having learned about the groom’s refusal, became very angry, and Anchi ordered Abyshka and the bear cub to be driven away.
“It’s okay, my old father, don’t be upset by failure,” the little bear said to the old man when they were returning home. “I don’t need a rich and noble wife, I want to have an intelligent and hardworking girlfriend...”
“It’s up to you, son, you live with your wife forever, choose your own bride,” Anchi Abyshka answered him.
One day the little bear says to the old people:
— Far from here there is Yellow Lake. Saryg-Kaan lives on the shore of this lake, he has a daughter named Saryg-Torgu. I want to woo her. Now I'll go alone...
“It’s not for us to teach you, you know better than us what needs to be done.” That’s what the old people answered.
Taking the magic bag with him, the little bear set off on his journey.
The stingy and greedy Saryg-Kaan angrily greeted the bear cub, wanted to set his dogs on him, hid behind seven doors and reviled the bear cub. However, having heard his human voice, seeing the rich dishes obtained from the magical tueska, Saryg-Kaan instantly became kinder, opened the doors, and invited the bear cub into his home. He greedily attacked the food, quickly ate half of it, and hid half of it in reserve, only then did he show it to his daughter.
“Tell me, beautiful Saryg-Torgu, what do you know in the world?” the bear cub turned to the girl.
“Why should I, a girl, know a lot,” Saryg-Torg answered carelessly, “if I get married, let my husband think for me, what I need to know...
“What can you do, Saryg-Torgu?” the bear cub asks.
“Everything I needed, my parents did for me; if I get married, let my husband do it,” answered the girl.
“No, I don’t need such a girlfriend, such a bride is not suitable for me,” said the bear cub and left Saryg-Kaan’s house, saddened and returned to his old people.
One day the little bear says to the old people:
- Why look for a bride far from your native land, and knock on the doors of the rich and noble? Not far from us, on the shores of White Lake, old Ak-Kaan lives, he has a daughter, Ak-Torgu. Let's go, father, let's try to woo her.
Taking the magic tuesok with them, the Anchi Abyshka and the bear cub went to the shore of the White Lake and entered Ak-Kaan’s house. Old Ak-Kaan greeted the guests warmly, as if he were talking to equals. Ak-Torg came out to the guests and bowed politely. The little bear turned to her:
- Tell us, beautiful Ak-Torg, what do you know, what can you do?
“What I myself don’t yet know, good people will help me find out; what I haven’t learned to do yet, good people will teach me,” Ak-Torgu answered modestly.
The cub liked her answer, and he immediately liked Ak-Torg. Old Ak-Kaan did not become stubborn and agreed to give his daughter in marriage. Then Anchi Abyshka opened the magic tuesok, rich treats appeared. For three days the old men feasted, for three days Ak-Torg and the bear cub walked through the forest.
He who loves his native land misses it, - on the fourth day of Anchi, Abyshka said goodbye to Ak-Kaan and got ready to go home. The bear son and his bride Ak-Torgu followed him.
In honor of the wedding, the old people threw a rich feast, the four of them treated themselves and had fun for nine days. On the tenth day the little bear said:
- My dear father and mother, who sheltered me under their carpet, my glorious wife Ak-Torg, it’s time for me to change my appearance. Now that I live among people again, have found good parents and a nice wife, the time has come for me to have my own name, to regain my human appearance. I will bear the name Kara-Mo-lat.
With these words, the bear cub ran off into the taiga and soon returned as a slender, handsome hero.
It is impossible to tell how the old Anchi Abyshka and the old woman were delighted, looking at their handsome son, they cried with happiness. Young Ak-Torgu cannot stop looking at her heroic husband.
And Kara-Molat immediately set to work - he began to build a tall and white house. There were nine doors and nine windows in that bright house. Kara-Molat gave one half of the house to his father Anchi Abyshka, and settled in the other half with his beautiful wife Ak-Torg. They lived happily.
It’s a pity they didn’t live to this day; looking at them, we would be happy!..
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru