Once upon a time there lived a guy in a village. He married a girl and brought her from afar to his home. They began to live together, but the young wife seemed sad. The husband says to her:
-What are you still grieving about?
She answers him:
“I feel good with you, but I can’t forget my home, that’s why I’m sad.” The husband believes her and does not believe her: he has never known melancholy in his life. And the wife no, no, and sighs furtively, her eyes sad. The husband wanted to experience what it is like to be homesick, he says to his wife:
“I’ll go to foreign lands, hire myself as a worker, live and see whether there is melancholy in the world or not.”
And he went to distant lands, hired himself as a worker for a merchant. The merchant gave him new boots and said:
“I will hire you on this condition: you will serve with me until you wear out these boots.”
How long will it take to wear out boots? The young husband agreed and began working for the merchant.
It works, it works, and the boots are still like new. How much or how little time has passed - he began to feel sad. Either he remembers his wife or his home. He looks at the boots: are they worn out? Where there! Everything is the same as on the first day.
He was walking from the field one day, carrying a plow on his shoulder. A man is coming towards you. Looks - fellow countryman! He was delighted and asked about everything: about his wife, and about the house, and about this, about that. I didn’t even think of lowering the plow to the ground. This is what it means to meet a fellow countryman!
He came to the merchant’s house and thought: “So I had a chance to find out what homesickness is. My wife was telling the truth.”
He lived with the merchant for many years. But the boots don't wear out.
One day he was walking through the forest and saw a hut. He knocked, opened the door, and saw an old woman sitting in the hut. And he asked the old woman:
“Do you know, grandma, what kind of boots I’m wearing?” What kind of leather are they made of?
I’ve been wearing them for eighteen years, and they still haven’t worn out!
The old woman tells him:
- Your boots are not simple, but enchanted. But I'll give you some advice. When you come home to your owner, take off your boots and throw them unnoticed into the stove. Get it in the morning. They won't burn out, but they will wear out quickly. Then your service with the merchant will end.
That's what my husband did. I threw my boots in the oven, took them out in the morning, put them on, and they immediately fell apart.
He came to the owner:
- Well, master, my boots are worn out. Now my time is over!
There was nothing to do, the merchant gave him a settlement and sent him home. He walks home, unable to feel his feet under him with joy.
And the day was hot, and thirst began to torment him. Suddenly he saw a stream. He bent down to drink, and the merman grabbed his beard and wouldn’t let him in.
The man begged:
- Father merman, let me go! I haven't been home for eighteen years!
And the merman holds him by the beard and says:
“I won’t let you go until you promise to give me what you don’t know at home!”
The husband was delighted: what a task, he must know everything at home. And he promised the merman something he didn’t know at home.
The merman let him go, and he went home.
He comes home and his wife and daughter meet him. I didn’t know, I didn’t know that while he was serving with the merchant, his wife gave birth to a daughter - the beautiful Nasto.
While he was in a foreign land, Nasto grew up and became a bride. Yes, so beautiful that you can’t say it in a fairy tale or describe it with a pen: neither in the upper nor in the lower world, neither on earth, nor in the underwater kingdom you will find such a thing:
Arms up to the elbows in gold,
Knee-deep legs in silver,
The sun is clear on the top of my head,
There are bright stars on the temples,
There's a pearl on every hair!
The wife and daughter were overjoyed; they didn’t know where to put their husband, where to put their father, or what to treat them with happiness! And he sits sad: after all, he promised his only daughter to the merman!
How the husband and wife were left alone, his wife asks:
- Why are you, hubby, so sad? You should be glad that you returned home, but you are sad!
He told her everything:
- That's why I'm sad. As I bent down on the distant road to a stream to drink water, the waterman grabbed me by the beard. “Promise, he says, that you will give me from home what you don’t even know!” How was I supposed to know that you gave birth to a daughter? That's what I promised.
The wife cried and said:
- Whatever happens, cannot be avoided. I cannot see with my own eyes how the merman will take our beloved daughter away from the yard. Come on, let's leave the house early, and leave Nasto here. It’s a disaster without us, but it’s getting easier to live.
Father and mother left home at night. And the beautiful Nasto was left alone. I got up in the morning and there was no one at home. Nasto went out into the yard, and there was an old goat wandering around.
The girl hugged the goat and cried.
The goat says to her:
- Don't cry, don't grieve. Better harness me, put straw in the sled, and bury yourself in it.
Nasto harnessed the goat and buried herself in the straw. And the goat went, the sleigh took him wherever his eyes looked.
As they drive, suddenly a crowd of mermen comes towards them. They ask the goat:
- Is beautiful Nasto waiting for us?
- Waiting, waiting! - the goat answers. — The tables are set, the samovars are boiling, the candles are burning.
The watermen went on their way, ran to the house where Nasto lived, and meanwhile the goat and the girl went far away.
We arrived in one village, Nasto crawled out of the straw. I asked to stay at the house for the night. People can’t take their eyes off Nasto: they haven’t seen, they haven’t heard of such beauty. After all, she has:
Arms up to the elbows in gold,
Knee-deep legs in silver,
The sun is clear on the top of my head,
There are bright stars on the temples,
There's a pearl on every hair!
The king's son heard about her and rode to that village himself. He liked the girl and fell in love with her. And he decided to marry her. And Nasto told him:
“I love you, prince, and I agree to marry you, but just promise that you will never separate me from my goat.” Where I will be, there she should be.
Where I eat and drink, there this old goat will drink and eat.
The prince said:
- Let it be your way. I’m ready to do whatever you want to do for you!
The prince took the beautiful Nasto to the palace and took the goat with her. They began to live and live.
So much time has passed, and maybe even more, Nasto gave birth to a son of extraordinary beauty, a match for herself.
The sorceress Suoyatar heard about this, turned into an old woman, and came to the palace to hire a nanny.
But the prince didn’t know who she was, so he took her as a nanny.
The nanny took the beautiful Nasto and the child to the bathhouse. And the bathhouse stood on the shore of the lake. She led me to the water and shouted:
- Hey, merman! Here it is, promised, take it!
As soon as she had time to say something, her hands rose from the water, grabbed the beautiful Nasto and pulled her under the water.
And instead of her, Suoyatar brought her daughter to the palace. Tsarevich Syuoyatarov saw her ugly daughter and thought:
“My wife was a beauty, but when she gave birth to a son, apparently she became ugly!”
And the child cries day and night without his mother. What a child - the gardens stopped blooming, the flowers withered, the birds fell silent.
Suoyatar's daughter disliked the beautiful old goat Nasto. He says to the prince:
- Get her out of my sight! Or better yet, kill it!
The prince wonders: what happened to his wife? Either she doted on the goat, she just didn’t sit her at the table, and now she’s asking to be slaughtered. The goat said to the king's servants:
- Don't cut me, good servants! First, let them go into a wide field to graze on a green meadow, and only then kill them.
The royal servants took pity on the old goat and released it into a wide field, onto a green meadow.
And the goat came to the shore of the lake and shouted:
- Vodyanoy, vodyanoy, let go of the beautiful Nasto! Let me say at least one word to her goodbye!
He tied a gold chain to Nasto’s leg and released the beauty to the shore. Nasto hugged her old faithful goat and they both cried. And then the goat said:
“I came with you, Nasto, to say goodbye.” They'll kill me soon!
They would have cried some more, but at that time the water man pulled the chain, and Nasto disappeared under the water.
The goat came home in tears, in deep sadness.
And Suoyatarov’s daughter says again:
- Why are they keeping her, the mangy goat? Kill her!
The servants took the goat to slaughter, and she said to them:
- Servants, servants, wait until you cut me up! Let me go, old one, before I die, into a wide field to graze on a green meadow!
The servants took pity on her and let her go into a wide field, to walk on a green meadow, to graze.
But the prince is still surprised and doesn’t understand it at all: yesterday his wife doted on the goat, but today she asks to be slaughtered. He sensed something evil, secretly followed the servants, and when they released the goat, he sneaked after it, wanted to see where the goat was going, why it was asking to be released. He hid behind the rocks and waited.
The goat came up to the water and shouted:
- Water, water! Let the beautiful Nasto go to shore! Let me say three words to her!
The beautiful Nasto came ashore, her golden chain ringing. She hugged the old goat, and both Nasto and the goat began to cry. And then the goat said:
- Farewell, my beloved Nasto! Shuoyatar's daughter will kill me today!
As soon as she said it, the water man pulled the golden chain and dragged the beautiful Nasto into the lake.
And the goat on the shore remained crying.
The prince approached her and said:
- Don't cry, faithful goat! Go home calmly, and I will come after you.
The prince follows the goat, thinking how he can save his wife, and how he can save Syoyatar and his daughter from the world. He went to the forge and forged a hammer to suit his hand—big, heavy. The next morning the goat said:
- Go, goat, into a wide field, onto a green meadow!
And he followed.
A goat came to the shore, approached the water, and shouted:
- Water, water! Let the beautiful Nasto go to see me one last time, to say goodbye before my death!
The beautiful Nasto came ashore, her golden chain ringing. The prince jumped out from behind the stone and grabbed the hammer so hard that the gold chain shattered into small pieces.
He said to the beautiful Nasto:
- My beloved wife! I'm here, your husband!
And Nasto rushed to him and cried:
“We won’t have life, we won’t see happiness!” You freed me, but the evil Suoyatar will still destroy me!
And the prince said to her:
- Don’t worry about it - I know what to do.
They went home together. The prince hid his wife and her faithful goat in the barn. He himself went and ordered the servants to flood the bathhouse, and under the threshold to dig a cauldron with boiling resin into the ground and cover the path from the house to the bathhouse with red cloth.
When everything was ready, he went into the palace and said to Suoyatar and her daughter:
- It's Saturday, it's time to go to the bathhouse. Everything is ready, the bathhouse is heated. Come, both of you, on red cloth to the hot regiment!
Suoyatar and her daughter went to the bathhouse. They walk on the red cloth, pace, turn their heads in all directions, laugh:
- Hehe! Ha ha! Only we have such an honor - on the red cloth and on the bath shelf!
As soon as they crossed the threshold of the bathhouse, they both fell through and fell into a cauldron of boiling resin. There they cooked.
And the prince and the beautiful Nasto lived happily. This would have been the end of the fairy tale, but Nasto became sad and melancholy. And the prince took her to distant lands, to where her parents lived - father and mother. They just arrived, and their parents meet them by the road.
Nasto says:
- Either you were waiting for me, or you weren’t?
And her father answers:
“How can I not wait, daughter, if I knew that there is no force stronger than longing for one’s home.”
They hugged and cried in joy.
That's the whole fairy tale.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru