One day, a countless army of Chints invaded the Country of the Narts. The Chints moved, devastating the land of the Narts, setting fire to the houses of the Narts, mercilessly exterminating Nart old men and women, wives and children. Anxiety spread to the Nart Country, and people gathered together and entered into battle with the enemy - cunning, cruel and inexorable.
The Narts fought bravely, but there were few of them, and the Chints were darkness. Each sledge had a hundred enemies against it. The losses of the Chints were great, but the Chints did not notice them, and for the Narts, every person was a loss, and the Narts were afraid that if the war continued further, they would disappear from the face of the earth.
But the sledges themselves did not notice how a horseman appeared among them. They say that these were his signs:
On the right are greyhounds, on the left are greyhounds, From above are large eagles soaring. With a snake's neck - a lean horse, Pike blows - akin to thunder. The horseman rushes in light chain mail, - Chinty is in fright, Chinty is in anguish! The horseman destroys the villains, He crushes the army of the enemy.
Everyone asks: “Who is this horseman? Where did he live and fight before? The Narts, having risen up, became cheerful, They are chasing the enemy through the mountain gorges. The Chints are unable to fight with the horseman, - The horseman mowed them down like grass. He struck them with heroic power, He destroyed the Chint army. The last enemy is still breathing, - The horseman waves the banner above him, The sword draws the whirlwind faster and puts a mark on the villain: “You will become a messenger of your destruction, If you come again, you will be killed.” He strikes the chinta backhand, He lets the chinta go home. "How did you appear? Where are you from?" "Who did he become friends with? Who does he know?”
So the sledges asked each other, but no one could answer who this lone rider was. Nasren the Longbeard did not know him, Ashamez had not heard of him, Sosruko was not familiar with him; not a single one of the Narts could say anything about him, not a single one of the Narts dared to approach him. Then a lonely, unknown horseman was the first to approach, the first to ride up to the sledge, and the sledge unanimously proclaimed a toast in honor of his valor. A cunning sled named Tlebitsa-Korotysh ran up to the rider and began to ask where he was from. The horseman answered, and his voice was ringing:
- I, like you, come from the Nart family. Why do you extol me alone beyond measure? Protecting their native land is the duty of all Narts. Now I'll leave. And if trouble happens again, we will recognize each other: after all, friends are known in trouble.
Having said this, the rider rode away. The sleds were left in confusion, because they did not recognize the name of the brave horseman, did not know where he came from. But the cunning Tlebitsa-Korotysh did not calm down. He decided at all costs to find out who this horseman was? He decided that it would be beneficial to have him as a friend.
Tlebitsa galloped after the rider. Both of them, one after the other, reached the mountain gorge in which the house of Nart Badyn stood. Tlebitsa saw how an unknown horseman rode into the courtyard of this house, dismounted, tied his horse to a hitching post and entered the house. Tlebitsa, after waiting for some time, also drove into the courtyard of Badyn’s sledge. The mistress of the house came out to meet him. She was accompanied by female pupils, a cup of light sano was in her hands. She said:
- Be a guest, Nart-companion Tlebitsa, known for his courage. Don’t be angry because a woman is meeting you: there is not a single man in the house, everyone has left. Try the light sano, do not disdain that a woman serves it to you!
- So be it! - answered Tlebitsa-Korotysh and drained the cup.
The mistress of the house ordered seven fattened bulls to be slaughtered in honor of the guest and a large sanitary drinking party to be held. Tlebitsa drank and had fun with everyone, but a secret thought troubled him:
“Where did the unknown horseman go? There is not a single man in this house now, but I saw with my own eyes how a brave man rode in here, surprising all the sledges!”
Tlebitsa-Korotysh went out into the yard. At this time, the women took out the horse and began to clean it. Tlebitsa immediately recognized this horse: it was a lean, snake-necked steed of an unknown rider. Tlebitsa-Korotysh was not so simple as to ask whose horse it was. He returned to the kunatskaya without saying a word to anyone.
In the evening, when the sanitary drinking ended, Tlebitsa went to the stable: he wanted to steal a lean horse with a snake’s neck. But the stable was underground, the entrance to the dungeon was blocked with a heavy abra-stone, and Tlebitsa-Korotysh did not have enough strength to roll away this stone. The cunning man thought: “Perhaps the strength of the unknown horseman lies in his armor?” and began to look for the room where the military armor was stored, but did not find it. Frustrated, Tlebitsa returned to the kunatskaya, lay down, but for a long time tossed and turned from side to side, could not sleep.
At dawn the owner, Nart Badyn, returned. Having learned that he had a high-born guest in his house, Badyn ordered the slaughter of doe, fattened bulls, and fat sheep. Drinking sana in honor of the guest began again, and the mistress of the house again presented Tlebitsa with light sano. When she leaned towards him, Tlebitsa heard the cry of a child: the mistress was pregnant, the child who was in the womb was screaming. Tlebitsa pretended not to hear anything and accepted the horn of the bright sano from the mistress.
The drinking of sanitation lasted for seven days and seven nights in Badyn’s house. On the eighth day, Tlebitsa returned home.
If we talk about Tlebitsa-Korotysh, then it must be said that he was not only cunning, but also angry, not only intrigue-loving, but also power-hungry. He wanted only the weak in spirit and body to live in the Nart Country, so that he, Tlebitsa-Korotysh, would become the ruler of the Nart Country. He even wanted to make friends with the unknown horseman only in order to first use the power of the brave knight and then kill him. And it must also be said, if we talk about Tlebitsa, that he skillfully hid his insidious plans from the Narts - the Narts did not doubt his honor, the Narts trusted his word.
The child, screaming in the womb, seemed to Tlebitsa to be a future rival, and Tlebitsa decided to destroy him. When the Narts gathered on Khasu, Tlebitsa, using a thousand tricks, arranged so that the Narts did not invite Badyn, who was their thamada, and Tlebitsa arranged it so that this time he, Korotysh, became the thamada.
Khasa Nartov opened Tlebitsa and said:
- Narts-companions! I recently visited Psath himself, the god of life. I asked him: “How long will the age of the Narts last?” Psatha answered: “The age of the Narts will soon end. A fetus is ripening in the womb of one Nart woman. If a girl is born, then in the year she gets married, Nart women will stop giving birth. If a boy is born, then in the year when he takes a sword in his hands, the Nart men will die.”
“God of life,” I said, “many Nart women are going to give their husbands a child.” How can you find out which of these women will cause the death of the Narts?
Psatha said:
“Among the Nart women there is one in whose womb a three-month fetus screams. If it is a girl, then she shouts: “Nart wives will be barren!” If it is a boy, then he shouts: “The sledges will die, the sledges will die!”
Yesterday, brother Narts, I was at Badyn’s for a sanitation drink. The mistress brought the horn to me, and from her womb I heard the cry of a child: it was a boy. If we do not kill him, then the end of the age of the Narts will come.
Tlebitsa's speech plunged the Narts into confusion. It was a pity for them to kill the child, but what could they do if they learned from the lying Tlebitsa that when this boy took a sword in his hands, the end of the age of the Narts would come? Khasa decided: when Badyn’s son was born, she would kidnap the boy and kill him.
- But how to steal it? - asked the sledges.
Tlebitsa said:
“We’ll send the gray-haired Warsar to Badyn’s house: she helps women during childbirth.” She is cunning, for she is older than all the old women of the land of the Narts.
When the time came for the mistress of Badyn to be relieved of her burden, the sledge sent the Warsar-midwife to her house. A boy was born, and Warsar stole him and handed him over to the Narts. The sleds looked at the boy, and he smiled at them, and this smile seemed to the sleds as bright as the sun. The Nart horsemen felt sorry for the child with such a bright smile, and they decided to save his life. The sledges cut down a large oak tree, hollowed out a trough from it, put the newborn in the trough, galloped to the remotest gorge and left the child there. And they told Tlebitsa that they had carried out his order, and Tlebitsa rejoiced: his future rival had been destroyed!
At night, a storm blew into the remote gorge, thunder roared, lightning flashed, and under a strong wind it began to rain, so heavy that a river formed in the gorge, and this river carried the trough with the boy into a wide valley. There the old woman was tending the Nart geese. Suddenly the cry of a baby reached her ears. She looked back and saw a roughly hollowed out trough. There was a boy in the trough, and when the old woman looked at him, he smiled, and his smile was like the sun itself.
“This will be a good gift for my old man!” - the old woman thought and took the child home.
At this time, Warsarpovitukha came to Khasa Narts. She said:
- Do you know, Narts, who is the brave horseman who saved our land from the Chints? That rider was not a man. It was Badyn’s wife who defeated the Chint army! There is no man on earth who can match her in strength. Now she is in great grief because her child has disappeared. If she finds out that you Narts stole and killed her child, it will be the end for you. Beware: she is wandering around the Nart Country and looking for her son.
The Narts got scared and left Khasa. Tlebitsa-Korotysh was the first to escape.
In search of her son, the unfortunate mother reached the hut where an old woman lived, herding Nart geese. Badyn's wife said to the old woman:
“I gave birth to a boy, Badynoko, but he disappeared. Have you seen him?
As soon as the mother called Badynoko’s name, the entire flock of geese flew up. Badyn’s wife was delighted and hugged the old woman, and she led her to the trough in which Badynoko lay and smiled. Badyn’s wife cried with happiness, took the boy in her arms and went home with him, calling the old woman and the old man to her - the saviors of Badynoko.
When the old woman told how she found the child in the trough, Badyn’s wife guessed that there were those among the Narts who were plotting against her boy. Badyn's wife, secretly from everyone, dug a dungeon and hid her Badynoko in it. Then she said to the old people:
“I am Badynoko’s mother, and you are his saviors.” He may not be your flesh, but he is not a stranger to you. There are ill-wishers among the Narts who are planning to kill little Badynoko. Now I ask you to settle in a dungeon and, secretly from all the Narts, secretly even from the father of my child, raise Badynoko until he mounts a horse and stands up for himself.
The old people were happy and said:
“We take the blue sky as a witness to our oath!” We swear that we will raise a Nart, strong in spirit, strong in body, powerful in battle - such a knight that every husband considers it a high honor to be next to him in battle. We also swear that we will raise for Badynoko a winged alpa horse worthy of the most glorious rider. We also swear that you are raising brave eagles and strong Samir dogs for Badynoko!
Badynoko's mother said:
- So be it! Take care of the boy. Let no one hear him cry. And if he cries and asks for the breast, don’t worry: I myself know when to come to him.
Badynoko was born when his father was not at home. Badyn arrived, and the wife said, without looking her husband in the eyes:
— Our child was born dead. I buried it at the foot of the mound.
And the old man and the old woman raised Badynoko in a dungeon, secretly from all the sledges. He grew as much in a day as other children grew in a year. It became cramped for him in the cradle. Then the old men dragged a huge oak tree on eight oxen on a dark night, hollowed out a cradle for Badynoko, and made the straps from deer skin. Badynoko’s mother breastfed her seven times a day, and the old woman fed her a meal of golden millet, deer brain, and fallow deer meat. And, rocking Badynoko’s cradle, the old woman sang the following lullaby:
Oareda-reda, oareda-reda! May my word come true soon, Said on a clear, joyful Day. On the battlefield you will be a Nart, Wise as the morning, bright as the day. On a thin-walled alpine you will ride, On a tirelessly fast horse. On the right are greyhounds, on the left are greyhounds, From above are large eagles soaring. In strong chain mail, sparkling with steel, you will jump from edge to edge. You will overcome the vastness of the world, Steppes and mountains, cold and heat. You will cross all the oceans, a thin-bodied man, a brave rider. The Narts will hold on to the stirrup, The Narts will glorify your time. You will behead hundreds of monsters, you will distribute hundreds of treasures to the Narts. You will fight nobly, change spears one by one. You will make your enemies tremble, your shout of abuse will frighten everyone. You will lead military horsemen, stately horsemen, noble horsemen into battle. Your sword will be a thunderstorm for the Chints, and you will pierce everyone with a sharp arrow. With your whip you will whip the powerful alp, with your whip you will scare away the golden birds. Your horse will rush as fast as a bird; the steppe wind cannot compare with it. Sleep, my quick-eyed son, The tall knight’s lot awaits. Sleep, my happiness, my brave lion cub, Glorious and the call will be your way. You will be the light of the human race, Toasts will say a word to you!
One day, when the old woman sang this song, Badynoko stood up, jumped out of the cradle and picked up a sword hanging on the wall. He immediately learned to wield the Nart sword, he tamed the eagles, he tamed the Samir dogs that were raised with him in the dungeon.
So, far from the human eye, Badiyoko grew up. He fed on his mother's milk for seven years.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru