When, in what distant times this happened, no one can say, but it only goes without saying that the Alangasars (giants) were no longer in the world, and the descendants of Ud settled in the forest region in different tribes, and Inmar and Kyldysin did not appear to people anymore. It was then that a tribe called the light-eyed Chud settled on the Kama River. And this tribe lived on a mountain, on a high bank. The people of this tribe loved space and freedom, and therefore did not settle in crowds, did not crowd one another. But they lived together: when they saw that the enemy was approaching one of them, they fired preemptive arrows at their brothers. They will take and shoot an arrow at the mound near the Belaya River, and further, to the Chegandinsky tract. As soon as the arrow landed, they immediately gathered together and met the enemy.
They were very tall in stature, exorbitant in strength, and independent in character. Other tribes called them batyrs.
One day, after an enemy raid, their settlement turned into ashes. Then the surviving mother, three brothers and beautiful sister abandoned him and went to the place where the village of Cheganda is now located and where the bank of the Kama protrudes into the river with three capes. They did not come to these places empty-handed; they brought with them untold riches and drove in countless herds.
This family liked the three steep capes on the Kama, and they decided to settle here and not look for another place.
First, they settled in the middle cape, which was overgrown with a mighty pine forest, built a spacious dwelling here, and surrounded the cattle pen with a fence. But they did not stay together for long, there was not enough peace between the brothers, quarrels and discord began among them, because the three brothers were very different from each other: both in appearance and in character.
Once, having argued in earnest, they came to their wise mother for advice on what to do so as not to quarrel in the future, how to divide fairly and without offending her.
The mother looked at her matured sons and said:
- Apparently, sons, the time has come for you to fly out of the nest. I won't keep you. Choose a place according to your heart and settle there.
The first choice was made by the younger, beardless brother. He was blond and blue-eyed.
“What I love most is plowing the land,” he told his mother and brothers. - Give me the left cape, I would like to live there. I really like the grove on that cape and the nightingales that sing in the spring.
He said and began to wait for an answer, looking at the brothers with caution and anxiety. But the brothers silently bowed to him, and then the mother answered:
“You, son, are not lacking in strength and dexterity; you are diligent in your work and love to plow and sow the land. If you like the left cape, own it, the brothers will give it up in your favor.
Then the middle one spoke:
“I was with my father when he swung his sword and, mortally wounded, bequeathed to me his armor, bow and quiver of arrows. I love hunting and ranching. Give me that middle cape! I will protect all of you. But I won’t let my mother and sister go anywhere, they will remain to live here as they lived.
That's what the middle brother said. His red hair hung down onto his powerful shoulders, his beard, just as red, thickly covered his chin and cheeks, and on his broad chest rested a necklace of bear and boar tusks. He said and flashed his greenish eyes at the brothers. The younger one responded with a bow, and the older one just nodded his head and smiled with his lips only.
- So, you take all of us under your protection? “Thank you,” said the mother. “Your sister and I will remain to live here, in this house.” You love hunting, just as your father loved it, and your arrows also never fail. Not someone else’s, but your arrow pierced the heart of the enemy who killed his father. You are brave and fearless, my son, all the neighbors do not dare to touch your livestock and your home. You will be a good defender. But I warn you: do not offend your sister, brothers, or me. I'm telling you about this because I know your hot temper and rancor. Swear to me that you won't hurt any of us!
He swore.
- Look, son, keep your oath! Otherwise you won’t be able to avoid punishment,” the mother warned again.
Now everyone's eyes turned to the elder. What will he say?
Tall, like his brothers, but black-haired with a firm, piercing gaze of black eyes, similar to his mother’s eyes, he stood in front of everyone, calm and confident. Long straight hair was grabbed on the forehead with a green hoop, a long black beard covered the entire chest.
- The right cape remains nobody's. Then I’ll take it for myself,” he said judiciously.
After this, everyone bowed to him. So the brothers began to live not far from each other, but separately.
Spring has come. The younger one, walking behind the plow, rejoiced at the good weather and sang songs.
His voice merged with the bird's cheerful hubbub and spread throughout the entire area.
The blond beauty sister on the middle cape wove a wreath of flowers and decorated her loose hair with it, listening to her brother and the singing of birds. In the evenings, she also left the dugout to listen to his songs and nightingales in the birch grove on the left cape. Sometimes she started singing herself. Then everything seemed to fall silent, listening to the gentle sounds of her voice.
Her singing reached the right cape, and the elder brother came out to listen to it. The mother also listened to her daughter’s singing with a kind smile. Only one middle brother did not like her songs: there was no thirst for revenge or hatred in them, there was only one pure love. He, interrupting the singing, called his sister home in a thunderous voice. He also didn’t like the fact that his sister often visited his younger brother. He would have completely forbidden her to come to him if he had not been afraid of his mother.
The middle brother built two high earthen ramparts that protected the cattle from attacks by wild animals. All day long he wandered through the forest, hunting game and animals, and in the evenings he went out to the bow of the cape with a bow in his hands and beat flying swans and geese.
The right cape seemed deserted, only the dugout and the path leading to it indicated that someone lived there. Without making a sound or knocking to reveal himself, the elder black-bearded brother left his home early in the morning and went to the ravine, to the nearby forest and collected herbs there. In the evening he returned just as quietly with a bunch of herbs. His mother met him at the door. Without saying a word to each other, they entered the dugout and closed the door tightly so that no one could hear their conversation. The mother loved all the children equally, but decided to pass on her prophetic knowledge and skills to the eldest. Long after midnight, the door opened again, and the mother returned back to her middle son.
Neither the sister nor the other brothers had any idea about these secret meetings between the mother and her eldest son, and they knew nothing about what their brother, whom they had hardly seen since they separated, was doing. Only the sister, who loved to pick flowers, sometimes met her older brother when he walked to the caves. She silently bowed to him and never spoke, timid from his deep thoughtfulness. The sister asked her younger brother about him, but he knew even less than she did. And how could he know, if he never went anywhere from his cape, except perhaps to his mother, and even then rarely.
Of the birds, only owls for some reason settled on the right cape. Their terrible screams in the approaching night frightened her sister when she, listening to her younger brother and the nightingales, sat near her house.
This is how they lived while their mother was alive. But then she was gone. The youngest son, the most cordial of the brothers, mourned his mother bitterly. But the sister cried more bitterly: her mother was gone, there was no one else to stand up for her, no one to protect her from the oppression of her middle brother. The younger brother, although he loved her more than the others, could not ease her fate, because he himself was timid and did not know how to wield a weapon. The elder never interfered in their lives, and it seemed to her that he had nothing to do with her.
The sister knew that the middle brother, at the first opportunity, would deal with the younger one for being her favorite brother.
The middle son also mourned his mother. Only the eldest was still silent and did not show his feelings either with tears or a sigh.
After the funeral, the songs on the left cape fell silent. And the sister did not go there again, so as not to anger her middle brother. Only when the middle brother went far away to hunt did she call to her beloved brother. But one day the hunter returned earlier and heard them talking to each other. In anger, he grabbed the bow, pulled an arrow from the quiver and wanted to shoot it at his brother. He got scared, rushed from the cape into the Kama and swam. The middle one was about to shoot an arrow at the swimmer, but changed his mind: he felt sorry for the arrow. “He’ll drown anyway, he won’t be able to swim across the deep Kama,” he thought.
But he nevertheless swam across the river and settled on the nearest hill.
The sister saw everything and disliked the one with whom she had to live under the same roof even more. And the middle brother, mocking her, said:
“I probably won’t want to sing songs and walk around doing nothing anymore.” Now you will begin to grind grains in a hand mill. And go anywhere: except for me and my older brother, there is no one else on the entire shore. The eldest, you know, is not a hindrance to me, he will not stand up for you. And he doesn't have any weapons.
During the day, if her brother was not nearby, she went to a high mountain above the caves, from where the hill that sheltered the younger brother was clearly visible. She waved her hand, and her brother responded in kind. He shouted something, but the words did not reach her, and she began to cry bitter tears. The tears dripped onto the sand and were so flammable that the sand melted. These caked tears are still found above caves.
One day someone came up to her and gently put his hand on her shoulder. The older brother looked back.
“Don’t hide, sister, maybe I can help your trouble,” he said.
The girl burst into tears more than ever:
“No one will probably help me.” The middle brother is stronger than both of you, and I will live in his captivity forever. Will you help me escape from him? He will kill you too.
- Do you want to run away from him? - asked the older brother. - It's very simple, sister. I'll help.
- You won't be able to. After all, you don’t have a boat, he hid it far in the forest. You don't have the strength to drag the boat to the water.
The brother just smiled at this. After all, she didn’t know him at all. And the sister continued:
“If he sees you dragging a boat, he will shoot an arrow right into your heart.”
Evening twilight was approaching, fog thickened over the Kama River, and owls began hooting in the forest. Dark night descended on the earth, and the sister kept begging her brother not to try to save her.
Then from afar came the cry of the middle brother, who was looking for his missing sister. She shuddered and whispered in fear:
- Run, brother. If he finds us, he will kill you. Run away from here, save yourself!
- Don't be afraid. Now don't be afraid of anything! He took her in his arms and, soaring into the air, flew. They instantly found themselves near the dugout on the right cape. For the first time, the sister entered her older brother’s home. Owls and bats flew in a large dugout, dried herbs hung on the walls, and pots with various potions stood on the shelves.
- Go to bed, sister. “The morning is wiser than the evening,” he finally advised.
And she obeyed.
In the morning, her brother gave her a pot of some infusion and said that if she drinks it, she will turn into a white swan.
- You will fly to the hill where our younger brother lives. There, swim in the spring that flows under the hill, and you will turn into a girl again,” he explained.
The middle brother looked for his sister all night. In the morning I went out to the cape, and a white swan flies above it and shouts:
- Goodbye, hateful brother!
Then he realized that it was not a swan, but his sister, flying away from him, he got angry and shot an arrow at her. But for the first time his arrow missed the target. He began to shoot arrows one after another, but did not even hit the white swan.
Behind Kama, the swan bathed in the spring and became the beautiful girl she had been before.
And the middle brother threw himself on the ground and began to roll around in anger. Having calmed down a little, he rose from the ground and saw his older brother standing on his cape and looking at him reproachfully. Then he grabbed the last arrow from the quiver and shot it at his brother. The arrow immediately returned to the quiver. No matter how many times he let her go, so many times she returned to him. And the elder brother stood there, still standing, looking at his middle brother with condemnation. Then the red-haired man grabbed a spear and threw it at his brother. The spear broke before reaching the target.
The red-haired brother, out of impotent rage, threw himself to the ground again. His body suddenly began to be covered with thick fur, and he himself turned into a huge red wolf, sat down on his tail and howled. The former enemies of the middle brother - the wolves - heard this howl and began to howl at him. Now howling, now growling, the red wolf looked at the black-haired man, he was ready to rush at him, but fear held him back.
The man got tired of listening to the wolf howl, he turned and went into the dugout. Then the red wolf ran to the caves, where countless riches were hidden, left over from his father and mother. There he remained to live as a red giant wolf.
At night, the howl of this wolf struck fear into all living things around.
The elder brother also did not stay on his cape and soon moved to the other side of the Kama and settled on a distant hill.
From then on, the hill where the blond brother and sister lived was called the White Mountain, and the other, on which the eldest, black-bearded one lived, was called the Black Mountain.
They say that even now they find on the middle cape and in the ravine the arrows that the middle brother shot at the white swan. Treasure seekers also met a red wolf guarding the entrance to the caves opposite the mouth of the Belaya River, where the wealth of the Chud tribe brothers was hidden.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru