Behind a kind of curtain, as if woven from golden mackerel scales, there was a large, light-filled dungeon. On a transparent bench, sword of multi-colored lightning, sat an ancient old woman, wrinkled and hunched over!
In her hands was a white stick, which she turned this way and that, as if playing with it: she tied what was untied, twisted what was unraveled, in a word, she spun her yarn.
“Mistress,” said the shadow accompanying the gaucho, “that’s who came to you!”
“Well, since you came, you showed up, then ask for what you want,” she answered.
The withered old woman stood up, straightened up, and her joints crackled; She raised her wand, and immediately the magic wand poured out a whole rain of rays on her, just as rain pours from heavy clouds in a storm.
“You passed all seven tests in the Zharau cave, and therefore I allow you to choose one of the seven joys,” said the old woman. - Choose! Do you want to be happy in a game, for example, in cards that are shuffled by hand, in dice that are ruled by fate, at horse races, in the lottery... do you want?
“No,” answered the gaucho, instantly changing his face - his gaze began to resemble the gaze of a sleepwalker who sees what others do not see... or the gaze of a cat, which follows with its eyes something passing invisibly in the air...
- Maybe you want to play the guitar and sing, charming women who will listen to you... and dream about you, and follow your call, as obediently as birds, enchanted by the gaze of a snake, and surrender to your kisses, your desires, melting in your arms?
“No,” the lips said in response to this.
– Maybe you want to know the secret of herbs, roots, plant juices? Having learned this secret, you will be able to heal the illnesses of those you love, or send illnesses to those you hate... you will be able to give people dreams, drive them crazy, satisfy hunger, calm blood, cover the skin with cracks, destroy bones... unite those who are separated, find losses, discover envy... do you want?
- No!
- Or maybe you want your enemy not to escape your gun, spear or knife, not to escape even in the dark or at a long distance, even if he is very agile or if he is warned, even if he is stronger or more cunning than you?
- No!
- Do you want to command in your land so that everyone obeys you without complaint?.. Or do you want to learn foreign languages so that all strangers understand you?
- No!
- Or maybe you want to become a rich man, get land and cattle, herds of horses and herds of cows?
- No!
“Or maybe you’ll take up painting, write sonorous poems, stories of suffering, funny plays or music that pleases the ears, mint gold items, carve statues from marble?”
- No!
“Well, since you don’t want anything, since you didn’t choose anything from what I offered you, the conversation is over, you’re free.” Go!
Complaining at himself in the depths of his soul, the gaucho did not move from his place; he thought about what he wanted to ask for, but could not.
- I want to get you, magic lizard, because you are everything!.. You are everything that I don’t know, although I guess that it exists outside of me, around me and above me... I want to get you, magic lizard!
Then pitch darkness, incomparable even to the darkest night, fell on everything around, on the reigning silence, and some force pushed the stranger into the wall.
Gaucho took a step, two, three and suddenly went back; he turned first to the right, then to the left, went up and down, and finally came out to the entrance to the cave through which he had entered.
He saw that his horse was standing calmly, tied to a tree; all around are the same thickets, in the distance are the same open spaces where livestock grazed on one side: bulls, cows; on the other, the silver-white waters of a stream flowed between the bushes.
He remembered that he had not just seen, heard, or spoken: he was sleeping, but fear did not deprive him of consciousness.
He remembered what was offered to him, but he did not choose anything, because he wanted to get everything... and in a fit of blind rage he decided to try his luck again...
He returned to the place where the entrance to the cave was... but came across a wall, or rather a mountain. Solid ground, impenetrable forest, tall grass... and no cracks, no cracks, no holes, no caves, no dungeons, no grotto - not even a child could hide here - where could an adult man get through!
Saddened and dejected, the gaucho untied the horse, jumped into the saddle, and when he touched the reins, it seemed to him that where the horse was tied, he saw the sacristan, saw his sad pale face, outstretched hand and heard his words:
“You didn’t wish for anything, you are strong in spirit and pure in heart, that’s true; but you don’t know how to control your thoughts and hold your tongue!.. I won’t tell you whether you did good or bad. But since you are poor, and poverty is a burden, accept a gift from me. This gold coin was touched by a magic wand, now it will give you as many coins as you want, but ask only for one, no more, and keep it as a memory of me!
And the enchanted sacristan disappeared into the shadow of the trees. Gaucho put the coin in the pocket of his guaiaca belt (Guayaca is a wide lacquered belt with pockets for money, weapons, etc., worn by the Brazilians) and touched the reins.
The sun was already setting, and Mount Zharau cast a long shadow that lay over the swampy meadow and thickets at its foot.
On his way home, the gaucho passed a small rancho that stood on a sloping bank; the door of the house was replaced by a skin; The gaucho dismounted and entered a shop where the surrounding residents bought strong drinks in exchange for clothes, skins or livestock, and since the gaucho’s throat was dry and his head was noisy, he ordered wine to be served to him.
He got drunk, took a coin out of the guayaca and paid; the expense was so small, and there was so much change that he was surprised: he was not used to seeing so much money, and even his own... He poured the money into the guaiac, feeling its weight and hearing its dull tinkling sound, silently jumped on his horse and rode on.
On the way, he thought about what he needed to buy. He thought about harness, weapons, clothes, scarves, boots, about a new horse, about spurs and about various decorations, he thought about how he would go around the neighborhood, handing out golden cruzados with a generous hand, and asked himself whether a magic coin could give him a lot of money with which he could buy everything he wanted...
He arrived at his village and, as a cautious man, did not tell anyone where he had been or what he had done today, he only said that he had lost the brown bull that he was herding; and the next day, before dawn, he left, wanting to check whether the promise would be fulfilled.
He bought a smart suit from a merchant, and also a dagger, and even a trouser hem with silver rings, and even a whip on a large ring.
And all purchases cost him three coins.
The blood began to pound in his temples; He clenched his teeth painfully, blinked his eyes, he even lost his breath: still not believing himself, he stuck his hand into his guayacu under his patched poncho... a coin fell into it, then another, then a third, then a fourth... Exactly four coins!
But they fell not in twos, not in threes, not in fours, but one after another, and each time one at a time...
The gaucho returned to the ranch with a packed suitcase, but, as a prudent man, he did not tell anyone about what had happened.
The next day, the gaucho went along a different road to another, larger merchant, who had more different goods. This time he made a list of everything he needed to buy, and demanded the things he needed in order, making sure that he had to pay one coin at a time and so that he had time to return the purchase if the item cost more than one coin. This is of course awkward, what is true is true, but you won’t have to pay extra. In total he paid fifteen coins.
And again he put his hand into the guayacu under his patched poncho, and immediately a coin fell into it... another... a third... a fourth... a fifth and a sixth... and so, one at a time, all fifteen coins!
The merchant took the coins and placed them on the counter as he received them from the hands of the buyer; when he paid, he said mockingly and suspiciously:
- Well, well! Each of your coins is like your pine nut: you need to peel off the shells from it with your fingernails!
On the third day, a herd of horses was driven along the road; The gaucho stopped him, took a fancy to the party, agreed with the herdsman to sell the horses, and, since he did not bargain, the deal took place.
Together with the driver, they entered the middle of the herd - this was the only way they could select the horses; The gaucho chose first one whose head he liked, then another whose eyes or ears he liked; he rotated a thin lasso with a small sliding loop at the end and threw it at the stallion he liked; If he liked the hooves of a horse and it was without flaws, he would take it to his cattle pen.
The shepherd's trained eye never made a mistake, and thirty magnificent horses were brought out of the herd, forty-five coins had to be paid for them.
And while the horses drank and grazed the green grass, the gaucho and the herdsman retreated into the shade of a fig palm that grew on the edge of the road.
Not fully believing in the miracle, the gaucho put his hand into the guaiacu under his patched poncho... and immediately one coin after another fell into it: one, three, six, ten, eighteen, twenty-five, forty, forty-five!..
Surprised by such an unusually slow method of payment, the horse trader could not resist remarking:
- Friend, your coins are like zherin nuts: they fall one by one!..
Having thus subjected the magic coin to tests, the gaucho finally believed in it.
Then he rented a field and bought ten thousand head of cattle.
This purchase cost him more than three thousand coins in cash.
The poor fellow spent the whole day taking them out of the guayaca one by one.
His arm hurt, his body ached; no one laid a finger on him, and he felt as if he had been beaten; Not once did two coins fall into his guayacu at the same time.
While waiting for the gaucho to collect the required amount, the merchant went out, drank mate and had a snack; when, late in the evening, he returned under the canopy, the gaucho was still laying out coin after coin!..
The money was paid when it was already dark.
People started talking about the wealth of the Gauchos. Everyone was amazed that just yesterday he was almost a beggar, walking around in pitiful rags that made rich people turn away, but today... They also started talking about his strange way of paying: after all, he always pulled one coin out of his pocket, and never, never paid even two coins at once.
It happened that he was offered to buy something at an inexpensive price, but every time the same thing was repeated. Miracles, and that’s all!
It was a miracle for himself too... he was rich... very rich... but he received only one coin each: they fell like nuts from a zheriv tree - one at a time... Just like pine nuts are husked one at a time...
A miracle, a real miracle for him too... he... is rich... very rich... But all the money that he received, getting it from transactions or from selling something, disappeared from the iron chest where he kept it, disappeared, as if dissolving into thin air...
He was rich... very rich, and he always had enough money to buy what he liked: all he had to do was stick his hand into the guaiacú, and the coins would begin to fall... but never a single coin remained in his pocket or chest, they evaporated like water on a hot brick...
And then rumors spread... people began to say that the gaucho had made a pact with the devil, that his money was cursed, because those who dealt with him, and the one who received money from him, subsequently made unprofitable deals and lost exactly as much as they received from his hands.
He bought and paid in front of everyone, that is true, it is true, the merchant presented him with an invoice and received the money, this is true, but the transaction undertaken was obviously unprofitable.
He himself also sold and received money, and this is true; but the money that he folded and kept seemed to be carried away by the wind, no, no one stole it and the gaucho did not lose it, but it disappeared as if carried away by the wind.
And the rumors kept creeping and creeping; now they were already talking about the fact that, of course, there was witchcraft in the Zharau cave, where the gaucho often visited, and that it was there, apparently, that he sold his soul for this money...
And so they hurried to the Zharau cave: the hotheads at dawn, the more cunning ones at nightfall, and the brave ones either at midnight or at the first rooster.
And since people set off on this journey secretly, they, like shadows, scoured the shadows of the trees, but never found the entrance to the cave, nor the wall blocking the path, and loudly called out to the saints...
The Gauchos, however, began to be shunned by everyone like a mad bull.
He didn’t even have anyone to talk to: he ate fried meat alone, drank mate alone, and the only company he had was dogs, which howled sometimes alone, sometimes all together.
The day laborers left him and went to work for others; merchants refused to either buy from him or sell to him, and passers-by walked around only to pass his canopy.
Here the gaucho thought, and deeply, about the reason for his loneliness, which began to torment him and plunge him into despondency.
He got on a horse and rode into the mountains. And having approached Mount Zharau, he heard a noise both from the swampy meadow and from the thickets on the river bank, but, thinking that these must be wild horses, he began to climb the mountain. But these were neither disturbed wild horses, nor a fleeing wolf, nor an armadillo prowling in the mountains; they were people, people hiding from each other and from him.
He drove up to the trees that were so familiar and memorable to him, and when he arrived, he saw the pale, sad face of the enchanted sacristan. And he was the first to speak, as he should have, and said the same thing as last time:
- Blessed be the Lord our God!
- And now, and forever, and forever and ever, Amen! - answered the sad sacristan.
Then the gaucho, without getting off his horse, threw a gold coin at his feet and said:
- Take her! I prefer poverty to the wealth that this coin brought me; she is irreplaceable, it’s true, but it seems to me that there is a curse on her, for she is always alone, and the one who gets her is doomed to loneliness!.. Farewell! God bless you, Sacristan!
- God bless! - said the sacristan and, falling to his knees, folded his hands as if in prayer. “For the third time you have called on the name of the Lord, my friend!” It broke the spell!.. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
And at the same moment, when the name of the Lord sounded for the third time, the gaucho heard a roar, a terrible roar that resounded throughout the entire area; Mount Zharau shook, shook from top to bottom. And immediately, in the heights, on the top of the mountain, a tongue of flame, tall as a pine tree, flared up, rose, sparkled and went out, and when it went out, black smoke poured out of the mountain, which the wind carried into the distance, carried away in all directions of the wide plain; the smoke swirled, its clouds rushed in the air, like a wild herd of animals that do not understand the roads, then it stratified, spread, and dissipated.
The sacristan said that it was the treasures hidden in the cave that were burning.
There was a noise and roar above the collapsed mountain: the evil forces nesting in the dungeon were making noise, making noise and scattering like frightened partridge chicks.
Now the gaucho saw right through the mountain, as if it were transparent. He saw everything that happened in its depths; its inhabitants: wrestlers, jaguars, skeletons, dwarfs, beautiful girls, a rattlesnake - all intertwined in one depth, all spinning, all writhing in the red flame, which flared up and went out in all the underground corridors, from which smoke came, it came thicker and thicker; roars, screams, squeals, howls, groans merged into a roar that stood over the ridge of the mountain.
The wrinkled old woman turned into a lizard, the lizard into a Moorish princess, the Moorish princess into a beautiful Indian woman from the Tapuyas tribe. And immediately the pale and sad face became the face of the sacristan from the Church of St. Thomas, and the sacristan, in turn, turned into a fearless resident of the Rio Grande...
And so, when the spell that hung over the people of the past, from distant lands, was broken, this couple, united by Fate itself and becoming its playground - Fate, which controls us all, this couple, holding hands, like lovers, turned away from the place of their imprisonment and descended onto the plain, onto a clean, level, green meadow, warmed by the clear sun, all strewn with yellow daisies, purple irises, white marigolds, inviting you to step on the path of happiness, good luck, peace...
Gauchaut also did not want to see what would happen next; He made the sign of a wide cross first on himself, then on the horse, then he touched the reins and slowly, with a light heart and a singing soul, went down the mountainside.
And although he again became a poor man, now he ate meat with a clear conscience, drank mate, rested after dinner - in a word, he lived with a clear conscience!
This was the end of the cave in Mount Zharau, which existed for two hundred years - it arose at the same time as the Seven Villages; That's when this whole story began.
Since then, no one has seen the evil spirit Anyang-pitan again. They say that he is hiding out of anger, because the power of the lizard, who turned out to be a woman, did not pass to him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru