Thin-browed Satanya was rinsing her laundry in the river. She rinsed it where she usually cleaned her chain mail. On the other, meadow bank of the Psyzh, a shepherd from a Nart village was tending cows. Seeing Satan, the shepherd at first froze in amazement, and having come to his senses, he quickly approached the river. Satanay was beautiful. Her face was white and her eyebrows were thin.
- Hey, Sataney, beauty, incomparable with other beauties! Raise your eyes, look at me for once! - shouted the shepherd. And Satanya raised her eyes.
The shepherd caught fire. Thin-browed Satan was also overcome by passion, and with such force that she sat down, exhausted, on a coastal stone.
In confusion, she somehow collected her wet clothes and got up to go home. A shepherd from the Nart village told her:
- Hey, Sataney, beauty, incomparable with other beauties! Your feminine intelligence surpasses your male wisdom. Why did you leave the stone on the shore? Take it with you.
Satan listened to the shepherd. She took home that coastal stone on which she sat down when passion took possession of her.
At home she put the stone in the bran chest.
Some time passed and Satan heard a noise in her house. "Where is this noise coming from?" - thought Sataney and began to look into all corners. And a strange thing: when he comes closer to the stone, the noise is louder; when he moves further away, the noise is quieter.
- An unheard of miracle! - exclaimed Sataney and put her ear to the stone. It was boiling inside the stone: that’s why the noise was heard. To muffle this noise, Satanei wrapped a woolen thread around the stone. Three days later the thread broke. Again Satan wrapped the stone, and again the woolen thread broke.
- God of life, Psatha, my happiness! - Satanei shouted. “Yes, this stone is getting bigger and bigger!” And she put the stone in the warm hearth.
The stone lay in the warm fireplace for nine months and nine days, and every day it became larger and hotter. He was heating up, he was blazing with fire. Sataney ran to Tlepsh, the blacksmith god.
“Can I trust you with a secret, God?” - asked Sataney.
“Is this why I help people with my craft so that they don’t trust me?” Isn’t this my hammer, these my pincers, for the joy of people? Isn't the blow of the hammer my life? Am I not serving a good cause?
So asked Tlepsh, and there was resentment in his loud voice. Satanei was ashamed of her distrust. She said quietly:
“I have a matter that you can’t remain silent about, but if you talk about it, no one will believe it.” What should I do, Tlepsh?
“Hey, woman from the human race!” answered the blacksmith god. “Where they seek advice, but do not take anything for advice, there will be no trouble.” Tell me your secret: I will help you.
“I won’t say anything, because I don’t want to talk and blush with shame.” Come with me and I will show you a miracle.
“A man will not go back on his word,” thundered Tlepsh. “A man’s word is his deed.” You said: “let’s go” - and now I’m ready.
And Tlepsh collected the tools of his craft and left the forge. Satanei brought him to her. The blacksmith god was surprised when he saw the flaming stone.
- God of the sky Uashkho, what kind of miracle is this? - he exclaimed. “I’ve seen a lot in my time, I’ve heard a lot, but this is the first time I’ve seen this!”
Tlepsh took the flaming stone to the forge. Satanei followed him. Her heart was beating fast. Tlepsh hit the stone with his hammer with all his mighty strength. The blacksmith god worked for seven days and seven nights, and it seemed to Satan that every blow of his hammer on the stone was a blow to her heart, and her heart squeezed and trembled. Finally the stone cracked, the fragments scattered and a flaming child fell out of the core of the stone. Yes, this boy’s body was on fire, sparks were flying from him and steam was swirling above him. Satanei, as every mother does, wanted to press her newborn to her chest, but suddenly she screamed loudly: she burned her hands. The child fell on the hem of her beshmet, burned the hem and rolled to the ground.
Tlepsh grabbed the child by the hips with huge pincers and plunged him into the water. The water hissed and steam swirled. Seven times the blacksmith god dipped the red-hot child into water, and seven times the water boiled. So Tlepsh tempered the child, tempered him until his body turned into damask steel. Only the thighs remained unhardened because they were caught in pincers.
“Now take your damask boy,” said the blacksmith god to the happy Satan.
From that day on, a child began to grow in Satan’s house, and began to grow quickly: in a day he grew as much as other children did in a month. It was a miracle, and a miracle is the source of many rumors. There was a lot of gossip in the Nart village about the fact that Satan had a child. The news of this also reached the old woman Barymbukh. The old woman was angry, so much so that, although the path was not close, she immediately went to the village where Satanei lived.
Entering her house, the old woman noticed a boy sitting by the fireplace and playing with coals: he threw burning coals into his mouth and spat out the extinct ones.
Barymbukh attacked Satan with abuse:
- Aren't you a slut? You don’t have a husband, where is this boy from? You gave birth to him from the first person you met!
“If you had such a son, you wouldn’t swear,” Satanei answered calmly. - He is my adopted son.
- If he is your adopted child, then tell me who gave birth to him? - Barymbukh shouted. Satan's calmness infuriated her.
“He was born differently from other children,” said Sataney. - He was born from stone, and tempered by Tlepsh. That is why it is called Sosruko, which means: Son of the Stone.
Barymbukh shouted, shaking with anger:
- He was born from evil spirits, he will destroy the entire Nart family! I swear by Uashkho, the god of the blue sky: the beginning of his life will be the end of many lives!
And the old woman left the house of Satan, muttering:
- Hell's spawn, it would be better if you weren't born, and if you were born, it would be better if you didn't grow up!
So in the house of Satan, people say, a child named Sosruko, the Son of Stone, appeared.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru