Bogatyr Cedar Kernel from the lower Ob side has a wife. My wife cannot forget the Light Ob, everything strives for the lower side. One day spring has come. The woman went into the forest and tore up birch bark. At the 6herest, she drew all kinds of birds, all kinds of animals*53, made patterned chumans and tueski*54 from birch bark. She placed tueski and chumans in front of her husband, and so she said to him:
- Bogatyr Cedar Kernel, I prepared the dishes for you. For light fish oil - Ob food, for light fish oil - lake food - these are good chumans!
The hero grabbed the tueski and chumans, tore them to shreds, and threw them away. Says:
- Light fish oil is Ob food, light fish oil is lake food, not food for me. It was not on this food that my bones grew, my body became stronger. I have been eating animal fat since childhood, my bones have grown on animal fat, my body has become stronger.
Although he tore up the tueski and chumans, as soon as another spring came, his wife made dishes from birch bark more beautifully than before. I made it and placed it in front of my husband. All kinds of birds and various animals are depicted on the dishes. She says to her husband:
- Bogatyr Cedar Kernel, I made tueski and chumans for you. Light fish oil - Ob food, light fish oil - lake food - it’s so good to pour into them!
The hero grabs the chuman, tears it to shreds and throws it away.
- Light fish oil is Ob food, light fish oil is lake food, not my food. It was not on this food that my bones grew, my body became stronger. Since childhood, I ate animal fat, my bones grew on animal fat, my body became stronger.
The wife went away, crying and sobbing:
“If only I had come to the Lightwater Ob, I would have found a good comrade there!”
Even though Chumana’s husband broke her up, his wife doesn’t want to listen to him. Spring has come again, the woman has again torn up birch bark, again she is making patterned chumans, and making decorated tueskas. She placed them in front of her husband and said:
- Bogatyr Cedar Kernel, I made tueski and chumans for you. Light fish oil - Ob food, light fish oil - lake food - pour it, this is a good dish!
Her husband succumbed to her persuasion.
- Well, if you want it, then have it your way.
Bogatyr Cedar Kernel calls his comrades, orders the boats to be prepared and to get ready for the journey. He sends for his younger brother. The younger brother doesn’t go and doesn’t agree to go.
We loaded up, pushed off from the shore, and drove off. When the boats sailed past Cape Vankr-nel, either the sun rose on the cape or the moon floated out. It was not the sun, not the month, but the heroic Cedar Kernel, the younger brother came out to meet him. He stood on the edge of the cliff and said to his daughter-in-law:
“If trouble happens to my brother in the lower part, you’d better not show your face to us!”
“Why are you talking in vain,” the daughter-in-law replies, “my husband is not going to war, what a disaster will happen to him!”
Then we went. Day and night everyone floats. One day, when we had already reached the Ob, my wife said:
- How many days have we been traveling without sleep, we need to spend the night.
They moored to the shore, got out of the boats, and lit a fire. We ate and got ready to sleep. The hero says to his comrades:
- Lie down, I'll guard you.
People fell asleep. The hero sits by the fire, guarding.
His wife tells him:
- Lie down, you've been rowing all the time, you're tired. I'll keep watch.
“You’ll probably fall asleep, and the enemies might attack us.”
- Lie down, if the enemies come, I’ll wake you up right away.
The hero decided to lie down, his wife said to him again:
- Take off your chain mail, you wear iron on yourself day and night. Take it off and have a good rest.
The hero took off his chain mail, lay down and fell asleep. Then the wife took the chain mail and sewed up her collar so that she could not put it on. I cut the onion in the middle with a knife. Slowly she got up and left.
There was a town below that place of the Russian hero. A woman came to that town and said to the Russian hero:
— Tite River people have come. Get ready, go see them.
While the Russians were getting ready, she ran back to her husband’s camp. When the Russian boats came close and moored to the shore, she began to wake up her husband:
- Get up, the enemies have attacked, they will kill us all!
The hero Cedar Kernel jumped up, grabbed the chain mail, threw it on himself, but couldn’t put it on - the collar was sewn up. So I quit. He grabbed the bow. When I began to pull it, the bow broke in half at the cut place. The Russian hero killed him here. Russian soldiers killed his squad. Only the woman with the baby remained. The woman says to the hero:
- Kill the boy too; When he grows up, he will start looking for his father.
- He is still small. When he grows up, he won’t know who his father was; will not take revenge.
The Russian hero tore off the skin and hair from the head of the Cedar Kernel *55, hung it on the top of a larch, and said:
- The hero Cedar Kernel walked along the upper reaches of the Tait River! Let the wind blow around the skin of your head on the top of the larch. Let the rain wet your scalp, let the rain wet your mother’s skin, let the wind blow around you!
Then he took the woman and the child and went back to his own town. The woman stayed to live with him.
How much time has passed, the boy has grown up and become stronger. His arms are strong, his legs are strong.
Plays with the sons of the Russian hero, throws a ring. That ring will be thrown, it flies weakly, and falls close. The boy throws it - he flies with a whistle, disappears from sight.
The sons of the Russian hero say:
“Your legs are strong, your arms are strong.” Why does your father’s scalp hang on the top of a larch tree on Ob Island? You are strong, but where was your strength when your father was killed?
The boy ran to his mother and asked her:
- So they say: “You are strong, but where was your strength when your father was killed?” Is it true or not that my father was killed? Who was he, tell me.
- Your father, here he is - the Russian hero.
The boy calmed down, thought - and that’s true. The next day they started playing again. They throw the ring. He throws it - the ring flies with a whistle and disappears from sight. Others will throw it - it flies weakly, falls close. The sons of the Russian hero felt offended, they say:
“You are strong, but why is the wind blowing around your father’s scalp on the island of Obsky at the top of a larch tree?” Where was your strength when your father was killed?
The boy went to his mother and asked:
- Why do they say to me: “Where were you when your father was killed?” Who was my father?
“Don’t listen,” the mother replies. - Your father is a Russian hero.
They began to play for the third time. The sons of a Russian hero throw a ring - it flies weakly. The boy throws it and the ring disappears from his eyes. The brothers felt offended, they said to the boy:
- Where did you put your strength when your father was killed? Your father's scalp dangles on the larch tree, blown by the wind.
The boy did not answer and walked away. He left the town behind the palisades, crying, walking around sadly.
Behind the city palisades, in a small yurt, an old man and an old woman live. They don’t have a piece of their own; they keep them out of mercy. “I’ll go to the old man and the old woman,” the boy thinks, “I’ll ask them. Maybe they’ll tell me.” A boy entered the house and asked:
“Grandmother, grandfather, people tell me: “You are strong, but where was your strength when your father was killed? Your father’s scalp on the Ob Island hangs on a larch tree, blown by the wind.” Is it true that my father was killed?
The old man answers:
- Eh, grandson, tomorrow the breath of a good man will fade away. The Russian hero wants to kill you. He found out that you visited your father. Your father is Bogatyr Cedar Kernel. The Russian hero killed him, and hung his scalp, his mother’s skin, on a larch tree.
- Do I have a family, no?
- Your family lives at the top of the Tait River at the mouth of the Kos-ya-River*56.
The old man took out the chain mail that he himself had worn in his youth and gave it to the boy.
- Here, put it on.
The boy put it on and it fit. The old man measured his hands and gave him a sword. Then he took him to the river, gave his boat there, and said:
- Go up the Ob. You will see on the right side with dark water the river has fallen out. Send your boat into this river. This will be the Tite River. Stop this night, they will overtake you! Go quickly!
The boy said goodbye to the old man and swam up the Ob. Whether he swam for a long time or for a short time, he reached the mouth of the river with dark water, and rowed up this river. He doesn’t stop anywhere, he drives without rest.
One evening I looked and saw a boat floating on the river above. The boy turned his boat towards the shore, drove it into the kuria, and he jumped out onto the shore and hid in the forest. He hears a conversation on the river:
- Let's dock. There was just a boat. The man apparently disappeared ashore. Let's look.
They landed and began to search. They soon found him, captured him, and brought him to the boat. Some person started asking:
- Who are you, who is your father?
- My father is Bogatyr Cedar Kernel.
-Where did you come from? I am your father's younger brother. Where is your father?
- The Russian hero killed him.
-Where is your mother?
- She lives with the Russian hero.
The boy got into a big boat, and everyone went to the Ob River together. They moored to the town, the younger brother of the Cedar Kernel said to the squad:
“What are the people supposed to do here? I’ll go alone.”
He took the oar and ran to the shore. He destroyed half the town with an oar, killed all the people and threw them into the water.
He hit the Russian hero, his eyes popped out and hung on the tree. Such a person is a heavy hand! The old man and the old woman ran up to him: “Don’t kill us!” - they ask.
“I won’t touch you,” he answers.
He beat everyone, then he ordered his comrades to go around the town. They walked around and saw that seven people had run away. Cedar Kernel's younger brother says to his nephew:
“You’re younger, run after two, and I’ll chase five.”
He said and followed the trail. The nephew of the two fugitives began to track them down. Soon I found them: the Russian hero’s two sons huddled in a boat under the shore out of fear.
They saw him, cried, and began to beg for mercy.
“When my father was killed,” the boy answered, “no one cried!”
He pulled the bow, shot an arrow, and killed both of them at once. He tore the skin off their heads and went back to his own people.
They began to prepare to go home and began to decide what to do with Cedar Kernel’s wife. Uncle says:
“I won’t kill her myself.” I’ll kill you, and maybe when you later say, “You killed my mother,” you’ll go against me.
They carried the woman alive into the boat, laid her on the bottom, nailed her by her arms and legs to the bottom of the boat. We got into the boat and went home. A woman lies at the bottom and people walk on her. So dear one died. When she died, they threw her into the water. They themselves came home to the mouth of the Kos-ya-river and began to live.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru