A long time ago, no one knows when, there lived a Shah in Margelan. He had three sons and one daughter. No one had such lush and thick hair as the princess. She braided them into many, many braids, which is why she was affectionately nicknamed Khazor-geisu - Princess of a Thousand Braids.
The Shah loved his daughter very much, but did not pay any attention to his sons. The princes did not like this, they once secretly took away their sister and sold her in the mountains to a mullah for fifteen rubles.
The girl grew up quickly, she learned to ride a horse, shoot a bow, and wield a saber.
Soon Khazor-geisa became very beautiful. He opens his eyes and the dark room becomes light. And the young men could not stand on their feet from her gaze.
The fame of the beauty of Khazor-geysu reached the Kashgar Sultan.
“I miss such a beauty in my harem,” he said and stroked his gray beard.
Without hesitation, he ordered twenty camels to be loaded with gold and sent his first vizier to the mountains to buy a girl.
The vizier arrives in the village where Khazor-geisa lived and sees that a lot of people have gathered around one house.
The vizier asks:
- What happened here? And they answer him:
— This mullah has a beautiful daughter, Khazor-geisu. So everyone wants to look at her at least out of the corner of their eye, but they are afraid to go into the house, because at one glance the girls all faint.
The vizier went to the mullah and offered twenty loads of gold in payment for the beauty.
Mulla did not want to sell Khazor-geisa for any money, because he had long ago decided to marry her himself, even though he was already in his old age.
Poor Khazor-geisu knew about this, but she couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the sad fate that was preparing for her to become the wife of an old toothless mullah.
The vizier gave a treat in the evening, got the mullah drunk and again began to sell the girl to him. The mullah thought no more, was seduced by the sight of gold and agreed.
And that was all the vizier needed. At night he put the girl on a horse and rode through the mountains and valleys.
The mullah woke up and the beauty was gone. He gathered his fellow villagers, gave chase and soon overtook the vizier's caravan.
The mullah began to demand the beauty back, but the cunning vizier invited him to have breakfast. He spread a carpet on the edge of the abyss and set out food. But as soon as the mullah sat down, the vizier’s servants grabbed the mullah by the arms and legs and threw him into the abyss.
And Khazor-geysu just shouted:
- Serves you right. Look for another beauty at the bottom of the abyss - death.
Khazor-geisa was afraid to leave her native country, but willy-nilly she had to go to Kashgar with the vizier.
The Kashgar Sultan saw the beauty and was immediately overcome by an insane passion.
He set the wedding day, and he himself just admired the beauty of Khazor-geisa.
One day, shortly before the wedding, Khazor-geisa was sitting on the golden iwan and sadly looking at the distant mountains... There was her homeland.
The beauty was sad; she did not want to marry the old Sultan.
Suddenly he looks - a rider on a hot horse is prancing down the street. He came closer. A beautiful young man sees Khazor-geisa riding. The eyes of the young man and the beauty met. The young man staggered and could barely stay in the saddle.
But the arrow also struck the heart of Khazor-geisa. It began to beat quickly.
The girl ran into the room in excitement and asked her servant:
-Who is this young man?
The servant bowed low and answered:
- His name is Sherali. He is the son of the Kashgar Sultan. She only said to Khazor-geis: “Ah!” She ran out onto the ivan, but Sherali was no longer there.
From then on, Khazor-geisa became even more homesick, and Sherali completely disappeared.
The wedding day was approaching.
The Sultan of Kashgar once asked:
-Where is Sherali?
It must be said that the Kashgar sultan was so blinded by the beauty of Khazor-geysu that he forgot about his state, and about his subjects, and even about his beloved son and heir.
The Sultan was told that his son Sherali was very sick.
The Sultan began to beat himself in the chest and cry.
The beautiful Khazor-geisa found out about his grief, came to his half and said:
— When I lived in the mountains, mountain women taught me to collect various herbs and treat the most difficult diseases. Let me, Sultan, see and treat your son Sherali.
The Sultan agreed. He ordered a palanquin to be called and Khazor-geisa was taken to the Sherali palace.
I saw Sherali Khazor-geisa and his illness immediately disappeared. One look from the beauty instantly healed the prince.
On the same day, Sherali and Khazor-geysu agreed to flee.
Khazor-geisa returned to the palace, dressed in a man’s dress and slipped out through the gate of the palace garden into the street. And there Sherali was already waiting for her with fire horses.
The Sultan woke up in the morning, and they reported to him that the beauty had disappeared. He asked about Sherali, but they told him - and the son left. The Sultan realized that it was impossible to allow Khazor-geis to meet with Sherali, but it was too late.
The Sultan sent in pursuit of them, but the steppes are wide, the mountains are high, and the rivers are deep. Where to look for lovers?..
Sherali and Khazor-geisu rode on fire horses day and night, fearing pursuit.
Tired and thirsty, they drove up to a well in the steppe.
The bucket at this well was so large that it alone could fill a whole reservoir. Only forty strong men could pull this bucket out.
Sherali tried to pull the bucket out of the well, but could not. I didn't have enough strength. Khazor laughed and with her gentle hand immediately pulled out a bucket and filled the reservoir to the brim.
“It’s not for nothing that I grew up in the mountains,” said the beauty. Sherali began to prepare dinner, and Khazor-geisu decided to go and swim in the pond.
The fugitives were followed by forty robbers who lived next to the well. They were surprised how one young man could pull out such a bucket, which all forty of them always pulled out with difficulty.
But when Khazor-geisu began to bathe in the pond and her braids scattered over her white shoulders, the robbers saw that it was not a young man, but a girl.
Ataman fell in love with Khazor-geisa, called ten of his robbers and ordered:
- Go to the well, grab the girl and bring her to me.
The robbers galloped up to the well and, drawing their swords, shouted to Sherali.
“Give me the beauty, otherwise you’ll be finished.” Sherali got scared, trembled and said to the girl:
- What should I do? There are ten of them, and I am alone. Alas, isn’t it better to obey, otherwise they will kill us.
Khazor-geysu was indignant.
“Stand to the side so that I don’t hit you with my sword,” shouted the girl Sherali, jumped onto her horse with a drawn sword and rushed, like a tigress, at the stunned robbers.
Not even a minute passed before ten robbers were killed.
The rest, the robbers, got scared, mounted their horses and galloped off in all directions, but Khazor-geisu, with a sword in her hands, caught up and cut them down. The ataman saw that he could not escape death, deliberately fell from his horse and, smearing himself with the blood of the dead, pretended to be dead.
Khazor-geisa returned to Sherali, smiled at him and said:
— It’s not for nothing that I grew up in the mountains.
The fugitives drove on, and the chieftain of the robbers, stealthily followed them.
Soon Khazor-geisu and Sherali reached a lonely hut and stopped here to rest the horses and rest themselves.
Night fell, and the chieftain crept up to the hut. Sherali's horse neighed.
The chieftain got scared and climbed a tree.
Sherali left the hut, looked in one direction, looked in the other, saw no one, returned to the hut and went to bed.
Then the robber climbed down from the tree and again crept up to the door of the hut.
The horse neighed again. Sherali went out into the yard and, not seeing anyone, began to beat his horse with a whip.
Hearing this, Khazor-geisu ran out and said:
- Why are you beating the horse? They don't do that in our mountains. She looked where the horse was looking and saw that he had turned his head towards the nearest tree. Khazor-geisa noticed a man sitting in the branches, grabbed a bow and shot an arrow. The robber fell dead.
In the middle of the night, a mountain diva arrived with a terrible noise.
Khazor-geisa woke up and shouted:
- Sherali, help!
But Sherali, at the sight of the terrible diva, fell face down on the ground and began to read a prayer.
He grabbed the beautiful diva and took her away.
Sherali raised his head and looked around, but it was too late.
He cried for a long time and finally set off on his way.
Sherali rode for many days and reached the mountain where the div lived.
The diva's dwelling was surrounded by a high iron wall, without a gate, because the diva himself flew and did not need a gate.
I climbed over the Sherali wall and found myself in a magnificent garden. Fountains flowed everywhere, flowers bloomed, birds of paradise sang in the trees.
Sherali went to look for Khazor-geisa and found her sleeping in a gazebo made of emeralds.
He woke up the beauty.
“We need to hurry up and leave,” she said, “now a diva will fly in and it will be bad for you, my poor thing.”
They climbed over the wall, mounted their horses and rode off.
Suddenly thunder roared, a terrible diva flew in and began shooting fiery arrows at the fugitives.
Sherali got scared and hid behind a stone. But Khazor-geisa was not at a loss. She grabbed Sherali's saber and rushed at the mountain spirit, swung and hit him. It immediately became dark, thunder roared, and Sherali and Khazor-geisu fainted.
When they woke up, it was light again, and a beautiful young man stood next to them.
He bowed to the girl and said:
“Oh beauty, it’s been many years since the fierce Almauz-kampyr bewitched me and turned me into a terrible, hairy diva. I fell in love with you at one glance and stole you from the hut. But alas, in the disgusting form of a diva, I did not dare to approach you. With a blow of the sword in your tender hand, you, beauty, broke the spell from me. Now I have become a man again. Marry me. Be my wife.
Khazor-geysu lowered her eyes bashfully, her cheeks blushed and she extended her tender hand to the hero-diva.
They mounted their horses and rode away.
- Eh, Sherali? - you ask.
Sherali went to Kashgar to beg forgiveness from his father, the Sultan.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru