Three brothers lived in the same house. The eldest of them had a wife. The brothers had many dogs - three teams. The animal was hunted.
One day all the brothers went hunting. The wife was left alone at home. In the evening a bear came down from the forest and attacked their dogs. All night the dogs barked and squealed. The wife got up and went out to look at the dogs. One team of dogs that was tied to a stake disappeared.
In the evening, when the sun had not yet set, a bear came out of the forest and stole dogs all night.” The wife got up in the morning and went out to look at her dogs. Another team of dogs has disappeared.
In the evening, when it was still quite light, the woman folded the belt several times, tied one end to the door, and secured the other to a post. Again the dogs squealed and barked all night. In the morning the woman saw that the last team of dogs had disappeared.
During the day, she tied a belt to the door and secured the other end to a post. When it got a little dark, the puppies outside began to squeal and bark. The bear began to chase them around the house. Then he went to the door and began to scratch it. He grabbed the door with his teeth and pulled. The belt cracked. When he pulled hard, the belt broke, the door was torn off its hinges and he entered the house. The child who was lying in the cradle began to cry. Then the woman took the child and threw him into a corner. The child fell, hit the floor and screamed at the top of his lungs. The bear went to the child. The woman ran out of the house and climbed into the barn. I tied the door from the inside again with a belt. A little later I heard the snow creaking under the weight. The bear is going to climb into the barn. When he jumped, he just managed to catch the porch flooring, but the log rolled down and the bear fell, hitting the ground. He tried to get up again, got caught, fell again, hit himself, and roared. All night until dawn he rose, fell, hit the ground, and roared.
When the sun rose, the woman opened the barn door, looked at the other side of the river, and waited for her family. Her friends only took food until the day before yesterday. She sees that on the other side something small is swimming towards the shore. This woman does not want to come down from the barn to the ground. He sees a man sticking to this shore and looking at the house, and the house stands without a door. This person thinks: What happened? It climbs up the slope along the path to the house. When he got up to the house, he saw bear tracks around the house and the ground was trampled like a skin.
“Oh, oh, what happened,” he says. -Who tormented us like that?
He approached the barn and asked:
-Who is alive here?
- Yes, I’m the only one left alive. The bear killed all our dogs. When he entered the house, I was very scared and abandoned the child. The bear tried to get into the barn all that night and rolled down the porch flooring. Now he will come again.
The sun went down to the mountain. It was already noon. Her husband says:
- I'm hungry. We didn't have food yesterday. That's why I came for food. Feed me some yukola.
Her husband entered the house, lit a fire, and fried one yukolina. I ate all of this yukolina. I began to fry another yukolina. After I took it off and was about to eat some more, the puppies started barking outside. This man took a spear and quickly went outside to the place where the firewood was stacked. When he looked towards the forest, he saw a huge bear. The bear left behind clouds of dust. It was inconvenient for our man to stab the bear, so he jumped back and began to go down. He tripped over a log there and fell on his back. The bear crushed the man under him and lifted him up. Then again, all night long he tried to climb into the barn, clung to the flooring, rolled it down, fell and hit the ground.
When dawn broke, the woman again began to look at the other side of the river. Again a man is swimming to this shore. After this man landed on the shore, he looked at the house. And the house has no door at all. He went up the slope along the path to his house and saw the place where the firewood was stacked, everything was covered in the blood of his older brother, there were bear tracks all around. He approached the barn and shouted:
– Is there a person here who will tell you the news?
- Yes, I’m the only one left alive; - Why, my older brother arrived yesterday!
“Your older brother arrived yesterday, but the bear killed him.”
- Oh, horror! So he tortured you, it turns out. Okay, do you have anything to eat? I from p; Loda was completely weakened.
- Yes, there is yukola. Eat quickly. Soon the bear will come down from the forest. Eat and go up to this barn.
- How so? If I die, let me die. I’ll stay here, let him come down to me.
Our man lit a fire, fried some yukola and ate it. At this time, the puppies began to bark and howl again. He grabbed the spear and quickly jumped out. He stood above the place where the firewood was stacked. The bear immediately saw our man again. He lowered his head and, leaving clouds of dust behind him, rushed to our comrade. The man allowed the bear to come near him, he wanted to prick him, but it was inconvenient. He jumped back, went down to that log, tripped over the log and fell on his back. The bear fell on him and crushed our man. Then again all night he tried to climb into the barn, he clung to the flooring and rolled it down, fell and hit the ground.
In the morning, the woman again began to watch the other side of the river from the window. Someone is swimming again. He sees: a man has landed on this shore and is walking towards the house. One dog is dragging a sledge behind him. A man walks and sees: his house stands without a door. Everything around the house is trampled down, there are bear tracks all around. There are scraps of his older brothers' clothes lying around. Everything is covered in blood. Then our friend understood everything. I walked up to the barn. shouts:
– Is anyone alive?
- Yes, I was the only one left alive.
- Feed me something. I haven't eaten anything for two days.
I let Yukola down from the window.
- Oh-oh, eat faster. The bear killed both of your older brothers. He stole our dogs from all three sleds!
- Oh, horror! Why did he torture you like that?
He brought yukola into the house, fried it, and ate it. When he finished eating, his dog barked dully. The puppies squealed. He grabbed the spear and jumped out. He began to jump up to the place where the firewood was stacked. His dog rushed at the bear, the bear crushed it and killed it. Then he rushed towards our man, leaving clouds of dust behind him. The man let the bear come to him, he wanted to prick him, but it was inconvenient. He began to jump down, tripped over a log, turned over his head, and jumped to his feet. He stabbed the bear from the side with a spear. The bear fell dead. Then our man up to the elder brother’s wife shouted:
- Come down, come down. I've already killed a bear. The woman came out of the barn, lowered the ladder, and got down to the ground. With an ax in her hand, she approached the bear and began to chop off its head. Swears.
“He devoured all our men, children, and dogs.” Now that's enough.
- It’s a sin, don’t say that.
Then they climbed into the barn and ate. They loaded this bear onto a sled and took him along the bear trail. They barely drag the sleigh into the forest. When they climbed a little further into the thicket of the forest, they saw their dogs lying dead head to head. The older brothers are lying dead near the dogs. That woman's child lies with the cradle. Here they threw the bear off the sledge, chopped it into pieces and burned it on fire. Then we went back. We slept in our house one night. In the morning this fellow says: “We need to go to the traps.”
We prepared food, took some yukola, and then set off. This woman rode a sledge a little and walked a little. When it got dark, we arrived at our hunting booth. We slept. The next day this fellow got up early in the morning. Says to the woman:
- Don't go anywhere. I'll go remove the traps. Let's go. Took it off. Then he came back and loaded his traps on the sled. When I arrived at my booth, the woman was not there. He came outside and screamed. Tired of screaming, he began to examine the traces around the booth. Traces of this woman came from the booth, then disappeared. The road is just going on. This man was very sad. He returned to the booth, ate a little, took a little food and left. I went to where the toes of this woman’s footprints were directed. It took so long. Approaches a high mountain. He sees two men dragging this woman by the arms. I followed them. When I came to a high mountain, I saw a large rock. This woman is being dragged into the rock through a hole. When I approached the hole, I saw all their dogs outside, three teams. Entered through the hole. I walked around a bit and found the door. He opened it. Entered. There are bear skins hanging, a lot of bear skins hanging there. Our fellow looked around. An old man sits on a bunk next to the door. I looked further and there were several more old people there. On the opposite side are his two older brothers. They just came in, wet, and are undressing. The older brother's baby is lying in the cradle. His wife is foaming at the mouth; she herself lies motionless. The first old man’s head was completely chopped off, like that bear’s, and tied with white silk. There is also a bandage under the armpit. Our guy immediately recognized all of his friends. He thinks: Aha, it turns out that this is the devil who killed us. Our man stood between two hearths.
The most important old man also stood up and said to the first old man:
- Oh, horror, they did so much that they forced people to come? Were you hungry? He dragged animals and people. I also took these two people. That's why the man got angry and came to us. The ransom is going to be taken. Well, what are we going to do? After all, he came for his own. He came for his older brothers and child.
- Yes, weren’t they killing us enough? Now let’s fight,” says the younger brother.
“Guest, have pity on us,” says the main old man. - We will send you home well, your older brothers and your dogs - take everything with you. The man at the door is my little brother. It was he who destroyed people. Now he will give a ransom for it.
Then our people all came out together. All the dogs were harnessed. The younger brother sat on the last sled. His older brothers each went on their own sled. The eldest brother with his wife and son were on the same sled. Then the main old man says:
– When you cross passes, leave one dog at each pass: first a dog that is black on one side, then a shaggy dog, then a dog with a cataract on its right eye, then a white dog and, finally, a red dog. When you approach your village, you will receive our reward - a small polar bear cub, which we will lower from the sky.
People rushed home on dogs so that the snow swirled behind them. Our guy tied the dogs the old man was talking about behind his sled. His older brothers are driving ahead of him to the house. Our guy left one dog at each pass. When he untied the dogs, they all ran back into the forest and disappeared there. When we arrived close to the village, our guy heard the bear roar. I looked up and a polar bear was falling from the sky. Ahead of him he fell into the snow and was completely drowned in it. Our guy untied his dogs, approached the bear, and pulled him out of the snow by the ears. He brought him to the sledge, laid him on it and tied him tightly. Then he touched the dogs and moved on.
When I arrived at the house, all the older brothers’ dogs were barking and squealing. The older brothers came out to meet him. The elder brother's wife also came out. They laugh and rejoice. The bear was taken off the sled, carried into the house, and tied to the platform.
When three years had passed, a bear festival was held. For the holiday we went hunting in the forest and killed a lot of animals. Residents of all neighboring villages were invited to the holiday. The holiday was celebrated with this polar bear.
Then these three brothers lived happily for a long time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru