There lived a large family in heaven: a mother, a father, twelve sons, a daughter and an old grandmother.
The girl was beautiful and so strong that no one could compete with her strength. Grooms came and left with nothing. The girl said that she would take as her husband only the one who would defeat her.
Once upon a time the good Sun comes to woo the beauty. The girl's father said:
- It would be better if you didn't touch her. She might kill you. Grandma says:
- Who knows? The sun warms the earth, gives light, and maybe it will defeat the granddaughter. Go to her canopy!
And the girl asks:
- Groom again?
- Yes!
As soon as the young man had time to say this, he flew out of the canopy head over heels. He flies and thinks what Sokholylan would do in his place? Came home limping.
The old woman's father got angry, called his twelve sons and said to them:
“I’m ashamed to live in heaven!” How many suitors did the daughter destroy—some she crippled, some she killed. You have to run away from here out of shame. Get your kayaks ready, let's sail to land!
The hero-Sun saw that the old man’s family was floating to earth. He quickly descended into the tundra and said to Uncle Raven:
- Uncle, look who they are?
Raven looked and saw that the old man was going to earth. Sokholylan heard the conversation and climbed out of the yaranga.
“Here, Sokholylan, the bride is coming, will you go to the match?” asks the Sun.
- Hmmm, we need to look at it again!
One evening Sokholylan went to see the girl. He walks across the tundra, and the girl’s brothers stand near their yaranga and praise him:
- What a good guy is coming to us! - says one of the brothers.
- How slim and beautiful! - says another.
- What elegant clothes he’s wearing! - says the third.
- Probably the groom again! - says the fourth. - It's a pity for such a guy! - said the fifth brother. The old father came out and said:
- This is probably Sokholylan, the son of Raven. Grandma gasped:
- Oh, kids, something will happen!
Sokholylan came. The old man told him:
- I’ve arrived!
- Yeah! - Sokholylan answered.
-Are you Sokholilan? - Yes.
- Why did you come?
“I want to see your daughter and marry her.”
“Don’t touch her, she’s bad, she’s killed a lot of people.”
- I want to see her.
- Well, go to her!
Sokholylan entered the canopy. There stood a girl dressed in white fur, her chest and shoulders were as white as her clothes.
- Groom? - the girl asked.
“Yes,” said Sokholylan and immediately flew out of the canopy like a piece of wood. Sokholylan stood on his feet, but when he returned home, he felt that his arm was very sore.
- Father, make me marry her! - Sokholylan asks his father.
- No, Sokholylan, get married yourself, I don’t want to interfere in this matter!
Evening has come. Sokholylan went to the girl again. He enters the canopy. The girl sits sewing and says to him:
- Go away.
- No, I won’t leave until you agree to marry me!
Then the girl jumped up, tore Sokholilan’s fur clothes like a rotten rag, and threw him naked into the street. The old grandmother saw this and said:
- Well, now expect trouble!
Sokholylan is walking, staggering. Old Raven saw him and laughed: some groom was coming, tattered and plucked. - Oh, but this is my son! - Raven suddenly found out.
Raven got angry.
He went into the tundra and shouted to the sky:
“Let my nephew come to me now in a high-speed canoe for a walrus skin.” Let the girl-bride want to be his wife, but he will not want her. And let the petrified devil take her in Khilylgin, not far from Aikat, in a petrified yaranga. May she be punished with the power she seeks!
Raven came home. The son asks him:
- Father, don’t do anything bad to her!
In the morning there is a canoe. The beauty lifted the edge of the tent and ran along the seashore. The canoe landed on the shore. The girl was the first to come running to meet her.
-Have you arrived?
- Yeah.
-Where are you going?
— I came to my uncle for a walrus skin.
-Will you come to us?
- No, I don’t have time, I’m in a hurry.
Then the girl grabbed Raven’s nephew in her arms and carried him home - straight to her canopy. Grandma shook her head and said: “Did you see it?” The brothers were surprised. Nephew says:
- Let me go, I can’t marry you, I have a wife.
- Well, I will be the second wife!
The nephew, seeing that he could not escape, began to deceive:
- Well, okay, I'll pick you up in the morning. The girl agreed.
The nephew went to his uncle. And in the morning, as soon as the light was already far away, his canoe disappeared behind the cape. Beauty
I didn’t sleep all night, I kept watch over the groom. She saw it and ran along the shore:
- Wait for me, take me! - she shouted.
That morning, the petrified yaranga again became a tent, and the first to wake up was the brother, the good devil. He left the yaranga, sat down on the grass, and began to bask in the sun. Suddenly he hears a voice: “Wait, take me!” “We need to run and get the woman out of here!” - he thought. At this time his brother, the evil devil, came out and asked:
-What are you saying? About what woman?
- No, that's me.
At this time, a voice was heard again: “Wait, take me!”
- I'll go!
- Eh, brother! How many centuries have you and I stood petrified) you - for cannibalism, and I - for the fact that I could not do anything with you! You're back to your old ways again!
- No, I will be different now. Just make me smaller, I won’t be able to do anything!
- Well, okay, you will be small and your instrument will not work.
The evil brother became small and looked like Raven's nephew.
Here the canoe went beyond the cape, the girl fell to the ground and began to cry. An angry man approaches her. The girl jumped up, hugged him and asked:
-Are you back?
“I felt sorry for you, my heart ached!” - the devil answers.
- Oh, that's good! - and the girl grabbed the evil one in her arms and brought him home.
He lived a little angry and it seems to him that these are not people, but sea animals. So the gray-haired grandmother approached the fireplace, and he saw that it was a white seal moving its mustache and fingering its flippers. The evil one dug a deep hole, filled it with grass and threw his wife's brothers into it.
The girl saw this and told her father, and the father replied:
- You are so strong, he is so weak. Why are you carrying him in your arms - kick him out!
At this time something thundered and the earth began to hum. They ran out of the yaranga and saw that the evil one had brought from
tundra, a bundle of firewood as high as a yaranga and threw it to the ground. Just then the girl screamed:
- Not him!
The next day the evil spirit brought a whole whale and also threw it near the yaranga, and the earth began to tremble again. At night the evil one said to the girl:
- Get ready, let's go to my place! - Go away, I won't go.
Then the evil one squeezed her hands, and the girl fell. The evil spirit scooped the brothers out of the hole, put them on the sledge, put the girl on top and dragged the sledge.
A girl was driving past Sokholylan’s yaranga, remembered him and sighed bitterly: “Why did I need strength? Well, now there is power, am I happy?” - And the girl began to cry.
The good brother saw what kind of luggage the evil brother was traveling with, and became angry. The evil one entered the yaranga, and the good one blocked the exit with a stone.
The angry one got scared and shouted:
- Let me go, I won’t do it again!
- These are all empty words. It’s better to sit, so you really won’t do evil.
And he said to the girl:
- Go. Maybe you can correct your mistake. Go have children!
The girl came home. Father asked:
- Well, are you going to get married?
Sokholylan comes in the evening, goes to the girl’s canopy and stays there.
Many years passed, Sokholylan had twelve sons and the same number of daughters.
Here the Raven comes for the first time to the yaranga of the celestials and asks the old man:
-Are you tired of being on earth?
“I’m tired of it, I’d like to go back where I came from!” And Raven said:
- Go.
The old man ordered his grandchildren:
- Make as many canoes as there were and load them!
Sokholilan's wife says:
- Sokholylan, don’t offend me - give me the children, I’ll leave calmly!
Sokholylan answered his wife:
- Take it, and let your heart be in the right place!
Early in the morning, when the fog rose from the sea, kayak after kayak sailed into the clouds. Only the Sun saw this, and Sokholylan stood on the ground, following his family with his eyes.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru