Once upon a time there lived a prince named Naharbey. He was stubborn and cruel, did not listen to anyone and did whatever came into his head. Giving him good advice was as useless as shooting at water. Everyone who knew the prince talked about him;
- He's just like his father! It was in vain that his mother suffered with him!
Naharbey had a daughter. Her name was Hitz. Even when she was a child, everyone knew that she would grow up to be a beauty.
Sometimes Prince Naharbey and his wife took their daughter in their arms and thought and wondered about who could become a worthy husband for Khits, who they could marry her to when she grew up.
“The future husband of our daughter,” said Naharbey, “must be a prince and, moreover, a very rich and intelligent man.”
So they talked about the fate of their daughter.
Once a year, Prince Naharbey traveled around his domain. And his principality was very extensive. One day he went on another detour with his riders, his foster brothers.
They drove for a long time, and in the evening, not finding any other shelter, the prince stopped for the night with a poor peasant. The owner had to slaughter a calf from his only cow for a noble guest. After dinner, the peasant laid the prince on the best bed. All the guests could not fit into the cramped hut, and so some of them went to sleep in the yard, under the trees, wrapped in burkas.
That night the owner's wife gave birth to a son. The prince's companions, who were sleeping in the courtyard, found out about this and fired several shots in honor of the birth of their son: they thought that the prince would approve of their action.
Hearing the shots, the prince woke up and asked:
-What happened?
His companions told him that they were shooting for joy—the owner’s wife had given birth to a son. But Prince Naharbey became very angry. After the shots, he could not sleep; he lay in bed and just tossed and turned from side to side.
At night, the women who came to the aid of the woman in labor gathered in the kitchen and, driving away sleep, talked about this and that. And one of them, the one whose tongue itched the most, joked:
- Let's predict the daughter of Prince Naharbey, our guest, as the bride for our baby, if he has a daughter!
The prince could not sleep, and he heard these words. Prince Naharbey was very angry, but did not know what to do and was impatiently waiting for the morning. As soon as it was dawn, he woke up his companions and ordered them to saddle their horses. Setting off on his journey, he ordered the newborn baby to be taken from the owner and taken with him. Without saying goodbye to the owners, he left the yard. The prince's companions, despite the mother's sobs and the father's grief, wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes and rode off.
They rode all day. When the road went through the forest, Prince Naharbey turned to the Side, bent an elastic branch, tied the boy to it and said:
- Grow up, and then marry the prince’s daughter!
The prince’s action upset everyone, but tell him: “Don’t do that!” or “Why did you do that?” – no one dared.
And some companions even praised him to please him! prince
Night came, and again they had to spend the night with a peasant.
This time the prince was cheerful, told all sorts of news and at the same time remembered with laughter the child he had left in the forest.
This inhuman act greatly upset one of the prince’s companions, young Adzhir, and he whispered:
- How long will he push us around?..
But his comrades, hearing Adzhir’s words, said to him:
- Don't you dare say that! If the prince hears this, he will deal with us all cruelly.
At night, Prince Naharbey slept peacefully, as if he had not done anything bad, and did not even see anything in a dream.
The next day, as if nothing had happened, he continued on his way.
And the boy, left in the forest, cried so much that the stars could shed tears. He was hanging on a branch and screaming, but who could help him in the dense forest?..
The child’s mother lay at home and sobbed so bitterly that her crying could have moved even a stony heart to pity. The father sat silently, with tears in his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. Both of them could not do anything...
That night, a shepherd was looking for a goat that had strayed from the herd in the forest. Suddenly he heard a cry, similar to the cry of a child. The shepherd with difficulty made his way through the thicket to the place where the cry came from. Here he found a newborn boy, took him down from the tree and, completely forgetting about the goat, hurried home. There he gave the child to his wife. They did not have children of their own, and they were both delighted at this find. The boy was given milk and he immediately fell asleep.
The shepherd and his wife began to raise the child with love. Time passed. The boy grew up and matured. They named him Karshv, which means “foundling.”
And in Naharbey’s palace, every day there was a feast. They drank and ate to their heart's content!
The prince had not toured his domain for a long time. But one day he gathered his horsemen and went with them on a detour. Among his companions was Adzhir.
They drove for a day, drove for two, and on the third day the prince spent the night with some shepherd. And Prince Naharbey and his companions noticed that the owner’s son, named Karshv, was a clever and handsome young man. Whatever he undertook, he did everything well and quickly. Every matter was resolved in his hands. Above all, Karshv was eloquent. As soon as he spoke, the hungry man forgot about his hunger, and the thirsty man forgot about his thirst. The prince called the owner and asked:
- How could you give such a good guy the name Karshv?
The owner at first did not want to say why he named the boy that way, but in the end he told the whole story of his adopted son: how he found him in the forest, hanging from a tree branch, how he accidentally saved him and raised him.
“That’s why I gave him the name Karshv!” - finished the shepherd. As soon as the prince listened to him, he immediately realized that this young man was the same child whom he himself had once hung from a tree. The prince felt uneasy, but there was nothing to do. He no longer wanted to eat or eat. He was haunted by one thought: how to get rid of the shepherd's foundling?
Naharbey was burning like he was on fire and could barely wait for the morning. Early in the morning he woke up his companions and ordered them to saddle their horses.
Before leaving, the prince, for no apparent reason, began to find fault with Karshv. Finding some excuse, he ordered his men to seize and tie up the young man. They attacked Karshv, knocked him down and tied him up.
- Put him on a horse and take him to the princess! - said Prince Naharbey.
After this, Prince Naharbey wrote a letter, put it in Karshv’s Circassian coat pocket and said:
- Give this letter to the princess!
The shepherd and his wife cried bitterly and were upset, but Prince Naharbey calmly stroked his mustache and carefully looked at his horses.
Having gathered himself, he went further to the villages in which he had not yet mined.
And the horsemen who were carrying Karshv stopped at noon at the edge of the forest, took Karshv off the horses and laid him on a cloak.
One of those who was carrying Karshv turned out to be Adzhir. He invited his comrades to sit and rest for a while, and he himself began to guard the young man. The tired comrades were delighted, lay down and immediately fell asleep. Karshv also fell asleep. Then Adzhir took the prince’s letter out of the young man’s pocket. He turned it this way and that, but in vain - he could not read.
“Oh, if I could read letters, I would know what is written here! – Adzhir thought. “If something bad is written here for Karshv, I would help him escape and would run away with him myself, but I would not let this dog kill such a good young man!”
Suddenly Adzhir saw a stranger riding up to them on a horse. He noticed people resting in the shade, got off his horse and sat down next to Adzhir. Adzhir talked to him and found out that he was literate. Adjir quickly took out the letter and asked to read it. It turns out that the letter said this: “Princess, give the young man who was brought to you to our servants, whom you especially trust. Let them kill him before your eyes, cut him into pieces, and then bury him in the ground, deeper, and trample that place.”
Adzhir tore up the prince’s letter and asked the literate to write another: “Princess, I am sending you a young man with this letter and informing you that he is very good, that he is handsome - you will see this for yourself; In addition, he is dexterous and smart. They ordered him to be untied and ransomed. Then dress him up in your best clothes and don’t let him leave the house. I couldn't find a better groom in the whole area. He didn’t want to come to us, so I tied him up so that he wouldn’t run away along the road. Hurry up to marry him to our daughter.”
Adjir put this letter in Karshva’s pocket, and the literate stranger went on his way. After this, Adjir woke up his comrades, and they set off again.
They brought Karshva to the estate of Prince Naharbey and gave the princess her husband’s letter.
The princess read the letter and was very surprised, but what could she do? If she had not fulfilled her husband’s will, she would have suffered greatly.
And the princess ordered:
- Untie this young man, bathe him and dress him as best as possible!
The princess's order was immediately carried out, and the next day the wedding took place. After Karshva and the prince’s daughter were taken to the newlyweds’ room, the feast continued for another whole week.
Karshv was surprised that he was so lucky and guessed that something had been set up here, but who did it and why - he could not figure it out.
On the way back, Prince Naharbey stopped at a village that was close to his palace. Everyone who met the prince congratulated him on the happiness of his daughter. The prince was surprised, but considered it beneath his dignity to ask questions.
When Karshv heard about the prince’s arrival, he took his wife and moved with her to a house that stood next to the prince’s palace.
Before the angry prince had time to jump off his horse, he called the princess and asked:
– What have you done, who did you marry our daughter to?!
- It’s not me, but you who are too clever! – the princess exclaimed and showed the letter she had received.
Prince Naharbey read the letter and almost choked with rage. Having come to his senses, he called everyone who accompanied Karshv and asked menacingly:
– Who slipped Karshv this paper? Adjir replied:
“Karshv and I spent five days on the road. At night, of course, we dozed off a little, and during the day we rode without a break. Apart from the letter you put in his pocket, no one gave him any paper.
The rest of the comrades confirmed Adzhir's words.
“When you were spending the night on the road, some scoundrel must have slipped him this piece of paper.” Anyway, you disgraced me! - exclaimed the prince. “And since you have disgraced me, you must wash away the shameful stain from me!” This very night, finish off the hated Karshv!
- Okay, we'll kill him. “Let it be your way,” Adzhir and his comrades agreed.
“But don’t kill him here, but try to deal with him somewhere else.” Lure him away! - the prince warned.
Then Adzhir pretended to be courting the prince and suggested doing so.
“Karshv,” he said, “every morning at dawn he goes to the lake to swim. We'll wait for him there and kill him. And you, if you hear shots at dawn, know that we are already done with him!
“I will listen,” said the prince, “and as soon as I hear the shots, I will come to you myself to see his corpse with my own eyes.”
Adjir and his comrades left.
When night fell, Adzhir secretly made his way to Karshv and said:
– Don’t go swimming tomorrow. The prince's guards will sit in ambush on the lake, and as soon as you go, you will be shot.
Then Adjir told the young man that the shepherd and his wife, whom he considered father and mother, were not his parents. The shepherd found him in the forest, hanging from a branch. Ajir told Karshvu where his real parents live and who they are. Finally he told why he was abandoned in the forest and who took him there.
Karshv asked:
- Tell me, what should I do, how should I behave now?
“Be patient a little,” said Adzhir, “and then you will see for yourself what to do!”
After this, Adzhir went to the lake, where an ambush was set up.
It has already begun to dawn, but Karshv is still not there. The guards were surprised why he did not go to take a bath, and were afraid that the prince would accuse them of treason and disobedience.
And Prince Naharbey did not sleep at all that night. He waited impatiently for the gunshots. The prince sees that dawn has come, and everything is quiet all around. Here he decided:
“Either they failed to waylay Cornice, or they didn’t want to shoot at him!”
He could not resist and went to the lake.
The prince walked carefully, sideways. Adzhir noticed him sneaking through the bushes and warned his comrades to all shoot at once, pointing to the moving bush.
The guards all fired their guns at once and rushed from ambush to the thickets. Then they saw that it was not Karshv who had been shot, but Prince Naharbey. No one except Ad-zhir knew why everything happened this way.
After the death of Naharbey, Karshv began to reign. Without delay, he went to the shepherd, whom he considered his father. He was greeted with such joy as if he had risen from the dead.
Karshv took the shepherd and his wife with him and went with them to his parents. Adjir, whom he made an adviser, was inseparable from him. Karshv’s poor parents were already old and ill, but when they saw their son, they forgot both their old age and their illness.
Karshv took the old people to his place - his father and mother, a shepherd and his wife and settled them in the princely palace.
Soon the wife of Prince Naharbey died, and Karshva’s wife fell in love with her husband’s relatives and became attached to them.
So the son of a poor peasant began to rule the country. And people joked:
The branch itself bends towards the goat, which is not destined to die!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru