There was once a strongman in Ossetia named Dombay. His strength was immeasurable. As they said, there was no one stronger than him. One day, near the village where Dombay lived, a giant buffalo died. It was summer time, and the body of the buffalo began to decompose. The stench could be felt several miles away. The poor people did not know what to do, and in despair they turned to Dombay so that he could somehow save them from such trouble. Dombay went to the body of the buffalo, took it by the tail and threw it with such force that no one even saw where it fell.
This elevated Dombay even more in the eyes of the people. Everyone and everywhere talked about him: men at nikhas, children when they played alchiki. But the wife of Dombai himself, a capricious and proud woman, spoke most of all about Dombay’s strength.
One day she was sitting with her friends and, as usual, praised her husband.
“Let you run around with your husband,” one witch suddenly interrupted Dombai’s wife, who was finally tired of boasting. “There are many stronger people in the world than your husband.”
Dombai’s wife was very offended by this and immediately went to complain to her husband. Dombay listened to her and said:
“I won’t rest until I find someone stronger than me.” Now I’ll go look for my opponent.
Having said this, Dombay immediately got ready, said goodbye to his friends and went.
How long or short he walked like this is unknown. But then one fine day he saw some giant. The giant caught fish with a fishing rod that was the size of a tree. When Dombay saw this giant, his spirit froze. “So there you go,” he thought, “and I was still going to look for the enemy; after all, this mountain can destroy me with just one breath!” and he wanted to hide unnoticed. But the giant had already noticed him and shouted:
- Hey, mountain bird, where is God bringing you from?
“I’m going to look for an opponent,” Dombay said, approaching, “to measure my strength.”
“Listen, little bird,” the giant laughed, “I would love to compete with you, but I can’t do this without the permission of my older brothers.” So go up the river and tell my brothers about your business.
Dombay went, cursing both his wife and the witch, by whose grace he had gotten into such trouble. Soon the giant actually appeared. Only this one was twice as tall as the first.
-Where are you coming from, mountain bird? - this one also shouted, seeing our Dombai.
Dombay told.
- Well, then go to your older brother, let him allow it. Dombay went to his older brother. This one was twice the average. Dombay explained to him the purpose of his coming.
“Ay-ay, little bird,” the giant laughed, “we are afraid to fight you.” Go ask our mother what she recommends.
Poor Dombay sighed and went to the mother of the giants. Soon he saw in the middle of the steppe a woman twice as tall as the elder giant. The woman was sitting and sewing. One of her fangs touched the sky, the other went underground, one breast lay on the ground in front, the other was thrown back. When Dombay saw her, he completely chickened out. “Well,” he thought, “say goodbye, dear Dombay, now to the white light! These giants simply left me for dinner. We must resort to cunning, otherwise there is nothing to do - you cannot escape!”
And so Dombay slowly crept up to the giantess’s breast, which was thrown back, grabbed it and began to suck. The mother of giants looked back, and he shouted:
- Oh, mother, save me!
- Well, my son, you’re lucky that you did this, otherwise you wouldn’t have been lucky! * Now tell me how you got to our region.
Dombay confessed everything sincerely.
“Well, you’re as stupid as I can see,” the giantess grinned. “Where are you going to look for opponents with your strength?” You know, my son, my sons took care of you for dinner: we make kebabs from human meat. And you would not have escaped the skewer, but you turned out to be more cunning than us. There is nothing to do, now I will save you.
Having said this, the giantess covered Dombai with her thimble. In the evening the giant brothers came.
“Well,” the eldest son turned to the giantess, “where is that mountain bird that we sent to you?” Give it here, we'll have a barbecue.
“Leave it for breakfast,” said the giantess, “there will be enough fish for dinner.” I put him under a thimble, he won’t run away for anything.
The brothers agreed and, having dined on fish, lay down. When they fell asleep, the giantess released Dombai from under the thimble.
“Well, my son,” she said to Dombay, “run as fast as your strength allows, and try to be away by morning.” If you fall into the hands of my sons again, I will hardly be able to save you.
Dombay thanked the giantess and started to run.
Dombay ran all night. From time to time he stopped and listened to see if there was a chase. But there was no chase. Only in the morning, when the sun appeared in the east, Dombay heard the chase. Despite all the efforts of Dombay, the giants were getting closer every minute. Despair took possession of Dombai.
Suddenly he sees some old giant climbing a mountain, dragging twenty carts of salt behind him with one hand. Dombay exerted his last strength and soon caught up with the old giant.
- Oh, father, save me! - Dombay shouted.
The giant felt sorry for Dombai. He picked it up and put it in the hollow of his damaged tooth *. Meanwhile, the giant brothers came running and began to demand the extradition of Dombai. The old man did not pay attention to them for a long time, but when they began to bother him, he tore a hair out of his head and bandaged the three brothers. Then he pulled Dombai out of his tooth and began asking him how he got here. Dombay told everything. The old man laughed.
- Go home, my son. Now you have seen who is the strongest.
Dombay thanked the old giant for his salvation and headed to his homeland. On the way, he began to think: “This old man who saved me,” he thought, “is stronger than anyone on earth, if he tied three giants with one hair. But I noticed that he is one-eyed. The other eye was probably lost in the fight. This means that the one who knocked out his eye is stronger than him. I’ll go and ask where the old man lost his eye.”
- Oh, may God punish you! — the old man answered him. “You have opened my old wounds.” But there is nothing to do, sit down, and I will tell you how I lost my eye: “We were twelve brothers. We were young: the blood played in us, and so all twelve of us decided to look, like you, for someone to measure our strength with. We prepared our war horses for this so that instead of grain they ate only nails, and we set off. Night overtook us, and we stopped in a cave to spend the night. In the morning, when we woke up, to our greatest surprise, we saw that we were not in a cave, but in a human skull. We saddled our horses and wanted to ride out of the skull, but at that moment some huge black dog came running, grabbed the skull in its teeth and ran. Near some mansion, she threw the skull on the ground and began to gnaw on it. At this time, a giantess girl came out of the mansion and, seeing the bone, cried out:
- This damned dog is just tired, he collects bones from anywhere and drags them here!
With these words, she walked up to the skull and kicked it. I don’t remember what happened next. When I woke up, I saw that my skull was broken and all my brothers were dead. I was the only one who survived. That's when my eye disappeared.
“Well, go now,” the giant finished, “and be glad that in your area you are the strongest.” And there are many stronger people in the world.
Dombay then went home and has not boasted of his strength since then.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru