there were eight brothers. Seven in one dugout, and the eighth brother – separately.
The elder brother was so big and strong that he could not fit in the canoe. He sits on the stern - the bow rises, he sits in the middle - the middle sinks, the bow and stern rise. Therefore, he did not go anywhere, stayed at home and only hunted in the tundra in winter. For beauty, he had holes made in his cheeks, into which he inserted jewelry made from walrus tusk: in the right - a whale's tail, in the left - a walrus's head.
The youngest brother, still a teenager, stayed at home with his older brother.
And six brothers went to sea to fish. And then one day in the fall a small whale came up from somewhere and began to play near the shore. Six brothers sat in a canoe. The younger one began to ask the older one to allow him to go to sea.
The elder looked at the sky - it was clear all around, and there was a whale near the shore, and said: - Well, go!
...The canoe approached the whale. Just as one of the brothers was about to throw a harpoon, the whale dived and moved away from the shore. The brothers swam after the whale, and the whale dives, splashes and lets out fountains. As soon as they swim up and throw a harpoon, the whale dives and swims further and further from the shore. And so the shore disappeared. A whale surfaced right next to the canoe. One of the brothers hit him with a spear, and the whale began to turn upside down, and suddenly a cold wind blew in.
The brothers looked back at the Bering Strait and saw white, heavy snow clouds floating, almost touching the water.
“Oh,” said one, “ice is coming from the strait!” There was no time to take the whale. They cut off the breastbone and put it in a canoe and headed to the shore. And the wind is getting stronger and stronger. Now the shore is visible, now the brother is visible on the shore, but then such a wind blew that it became dangerous to hold the boat against the wind, and they rushed downwind.
For three days and three nights the canoe raced across the sea, and on the third night they reached an island.
– Do they live on the island? - asked the older brother. “We’re lucky if they don’t live.” It will be bad for us if there are people here!
They found an earthen cave, knocked out by the wind on the north side and covered with plant roots, hid and pulled their canoe into it.
The next morning we saw an old man pass by, holding his hands under his kukhlyanka, and then every day we saw strangers. They ate the brisket and fins, but the weather didn’t improve, and you can’t go out - they’ll kill you! They began to eat the straps from the kayaks.
The younger brother is crying and wants to go home. Senior says:
“We need to show ourselves to people, we’ll die of hunger anyway!”
But the others did not agree to this.
Winter has come and a snowstorm has blown. The eldest of the brothers came out of his hiding place and began to wait to see who would pass by.
The old man whom the brothers saw on the first morning came up, greeted him and asked:
-Where are you from?
- Yes, I’m not alone, we are seven brothers. The younger one was completely frozen. They ate the straps from the canoe.
“Hide until night,” says the old man. “I’ll come at night and talk, but now they see me and they’ll kill me!”
An old man came at night, brought hot meat and said to the brothers:
“The owner of our island kills everyone who comes here.” He also kills all those who are more beautiful, smarter and stronger than him. The owner wants to be the first on the island. My son ran well - his owner stabbed him. Come to me, maybe you will be able to live until spring, and in the spring I will help you leave.
The brothers came to the old man. The brothers began to live in a hiding place underground - sleeping during the day and staying awake at night. One day, early in the morning, before the eldest of the brothers had time to go to his hiding place, a woman suddenly looked into the dugout, looked and disappeared. The old man said:
- Well, the trouble is, now wait for the owner’s invitation to dance! Wife, feed them to their full with the best we have.
All seven brothers sat down and began to eat brains, eggs, fatty pieces of meat and whale flippers. A messenger came here and said:
- The owner is inviting you to dance! The brothers got up and left.
They approach a large dugout with a high pole. We entered. The dugout is large, rectangular, with a grease pit in each corner, and the owner’s wife sits near each grease pit. There is an earthen seat around. In the middle of the dugout is a pillar covered in blood. A whale's shoulder blade hangs from the ceiling, with a hole in the middle of the blade.
- Sit down! - says the owner. Seven brothers sat down next to each other. The elder took the younger one on his lap.
Then all the people started singing, and the owner came out to dance and invited the second to last brother, and they began to dance...
They danced and danced, and suddenly the lights went out at once in all four corners, something knocked, someone groaned, then the fire flared up at once, and the brothers saw that the sixth brother was lying on the earthen floor without a head.
The owner said:
- That's enough for today!
Everyone stood up, including the brothers. But the owner said:
– You will live under my dugout!
The next evening we gathered again. The owner brought the brothers out. They sat down next to each other. The elder brother took the younger one on his lap, and the fifth went to dance with the owner. They danced and danced - the fire went out, again someone groaned, something knocked. The fire was lit. The fifth brother is lying headless.
And again the people went to their dugouts, and the brothers went down into the dungeon.
On the third night the brothers were taken out again. The fourth brother went to dance. They danced and danced... The fire went out, but no one groaned and nothing hit. The fire flared up, the fourth brother stood clinging to the post with his hands and feet. The owner took a breath and said:
- That's enough for today!
Again the brothers were taken to the dungeon. The fourth brother said:
“When the fire went out, the owner grabbed me by the legs, but I managed to grab onto the post with my hands. The owner was dragging me, trying to lift me up somewhere. It’s no wonder that a whale’s shoulder blade is hanging from a pole on the ceiling... But the next night I won’t come back - they break my bones, bite me, tear me to pieces!..
And so it happened. And as soon as the fire went out again, someone groaned, something knocked, and when the fire was lit, the fourth brother lay headless.
Meanwhile, at home, the elder brother, the hero, does not drink, eat or sleep; he either runs along the shore or across the tundra. Whatever animal he comes across, it will catch up, kick him, and the animal will scatter into dust. The brothers' wives were afraid to show themselves to him. And then one day a fox comes towards him. He rushed towards her, the fox stopped, bared his teeth and said:
- Well, hit me! Why did you stop? I came to tell you about your brothers! Instead of beating and tormenting animals, you’d better think about how to save your brothers!
The elder brother began to cry. The fox rubbed against a stone, its skin slid off, and a little old woman stood in front of him. The old woman told where his brothers were and how the owner of the island killed them: he would lift them up, stick his head into the hole in the whale’s shoulder blade, pull him by the legs, and his head would fly off his shoulders.
– How can I help them? - asks the elder.
– Take the shoulder blades of a bowhead whale, tie them to your soles and go to sea. On the island, you will go into the first dugout to the old man, where your brothers were fleeing - he will help you! Your third brother is dancing. His body turned black, like a Chukchi cauldron over the flame of a fire. He won't last long!
The elder brother drilled holes in the bowhead whale's shoulder blades, left the house, tied the shoulder blades to his legs and walked across the sea. He walked all day and only reached the island late in the evening. I took the shoulder blades off my legs and saw my canoe in the earthen cave. “The old woman said it right!” He went into the old man's dugout.
“I am the eldest brother of those seven brothers.”
“I came in vain,” said the old man.
– Are all my brothers killed?
– Yesterday the owner killed the third one. He held on for a long time, he was strong.
- I'll go there myself.
They went to the owner. The old man entered the dugout. The older brother stayed outside, tore open the walrus gut that was stretched over the frame in the window, and watches. The middle brother dances, the eldest holds the younger one on his lap, and he is afraid to look at the dance and looks up. The elder brother put his decoration - a whale's tail - to the hole. The younger one saw it and nudged his brother with his elbow:
- Look, our eldest is here!
He also looked. up and saw the tail of a whale and the head of a walrus. He sat the boy on a bench, jumped into the middle of the dugout and shouted:
- Well, master, today we will dance for real!
The door opened and the hero brother entered. The owner saw him and backed away. He had never seen such a powerful Eskimo before.
“Well, master,” said the hero, “so I came to dance with you.”
The owner stands there and cannot say a word.
- Well, why are you silent, why don’t you sing? – the hero addressed the singers. He took the owner, led him to the post, knocked him, lifted him, stuck his head into the whale’s shoulder blade, pulled him by the legs, and the owner’s head flew off his shoulders.
An old man jumped out of the dugout and shouted to the whole island:
- Hey, people, the old master has been killed! Now the youth will live! Everyone will live in peace, everyone will be masters!
The hero-brother executed four wives of the owner and his assistants. Only those who had suffered grief before remained on the island.
In the spring, when the ice blew away, the brothers repaired their canoe, took the old man and the old woman and came home. Everyone began to live together. The old man became their father, and the old woman became their mother.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru