Far away in the tundra lived Ememkut with his younger brother. The brothers decided to get married, but there were no brides. We thought and thought and came up with an idea. They took it and hid the river on a high, high hill and began to wait. So they sat for a day, they sat for two days - no one was there, but on the third day they saw someone approaching. Closer and closer, and the brothers saw two girls - they were two musk deer. Ememkut said to his brother: “Let go of the water!”
The younger brother released the water and it sparkled in the Sun. The girls saw the water, rushed to the hill, and when they reached it, the stream of water became very thin, and then only drip-drip-drip! — the girls could not scoop up even a handful of water. They looked at the hill. The elder sister said:
- Let's get out of here quickly, I'm scared here! And the youngest says:
- I'm thirsty. There must be a mountain lake there!
- Let's go, let's get out of here! - said the eldest and dragged her sister by the hand. The younger sister pulled out her hand and shouted:
- Don’t go, stay here, I’ll climb the hill alone!
But the elder sister was afraid to let her sister in and followed her. And then they saw water. The sisters rushed to the water and began to drink greedily. The brothers crept up to them and caught them.
The girls got scared and asked to let them go home. The brothers don't even want to listen. The elder sister begged:
“In the name of your brotherhood, release my younger sister and leave me in captivity!”
- Let go of the girl! - said the older brother. - You forgot the law that the older brother gets married before the younger!
The younger brother let the girl go.
A musk deer girl lives in the yaranga of Ememkut, cooks tea, meat and sews clothes from skins for her husband, brother-in-law and little son.
One winter, the brothers were returning from hunting and saw a female mouse walking across the tundra, wearing a long, holey coat, getting tangled up and stumbling.
- Whoever takes me on a sledge, I will be his wife! - says the woman.
“No,” the younger brother answers, “I don’t like women, but my brother does.”
- Ememkut! Ememkut! - says the Mouse. - Take me on the sled, I will be your wife!
And from then on Ememkut’s two wives lived in the yaranga.
The Mouse began to offend Musk deer and her son. The Mouse began to pluck the wool in the canopy and make holes in the yaranga, and Ememkutu said that all this was being done by the eldest wife and her son. Ememkut began to get angry with Musk deer. Ememkut forced his eldest wife to repair the entire tent and beat out the plucked wool from the skins.
She stopped loving her husband Musk deer, but she remained silent, thinking that Ememkut would see her injustice.
The brothers went to play with a woolen ball and called the women. Mouse says to Musk deer:
“You’re tired, go play and I’ll cook dinner.”
She was surprised by the kind words of the Musk Deer, did not believe the Mouse, but was afraid of her husband and went to play. Meanwhile, the Mouse grabbed the bag with the elder wife’s handicrafts, pulled out the wolverine skins from there, stuffed them under the tent, shook out the bone needles and sinew threads, and threw the bag to the threshold.
The brothers and Musk deer returned to the tent. The older wife asked the younger:
- Why is my bag lying empty on the floor? The eldest wife collected threads and needles and asked the Mouse:
- Where are the skins?
The Mouse lifted the curtain and said: “What is that under the tent?” Ememkut got angry and shouted:
- Let's eat quickly!
“I made tea,” says the Mouse, “but I couldn’t find any meat.” Musk deer probably hid him, every night I hear her and her son slowly eating!
Ememkut rushed to look for meat and found it in the sleeping bag of his eldest wife. Ememkut became even more angry and drove her and the child out of the tent.
- Ememkut, Ememkut! - says Musk deer, - at least take pity on your son, leave him under the tent, look how dark the night is, how strong the wind is, how much rain it’s pouring!
The Mouse threw three small skins out of the yaranga and closed the entrance.
Musk deer made a small yaranga from three skins for her son. And she lay down next to him on the wet ground and hugged her son. There was nothing to feed his son, Musk deer searched for roots and young shoots in the tundra all day long, and the son kept crying and asking for food.
Ememkut found a whale on the seashore, and he had a lot of food. Then Musk deer sent her son to his father to eat hot meat. The son came to his father. A mouse sits near a cauldron of meat. She called the boy to her and asked:
- Do you want some hot meat?
And when the boy stretched out his hands to the meat, the Mouse put the hot neck of a whale on them. The boy screamed in pain, he couldn’t take it off, and Ememkut didn’t even look at him. The child ran away to his mother.
All night the mother sewed clothes for her son, like those of a mountain ram - she sewed on the hooves and horns - and the boy became a mountain ram, and the mother and son went to the top of a high hill.
Ememkut came out of the tent, grabbed a bow and shot an arrow. An arrow fell near a small ram. The mother grabbed her son and ran as fast as she could. She had been running all day and was tired. The son cried and asked for food. In the evening, my mother saw a light not far away and went towards it. She put her son on her shoulders.
She approaches the dugout. An old woman sits near the fireplace and dozes. She saw a mother with a child:
- She’s here! - Yeah!
The old woman put the child in the canopy and gave the mother something to eat. The next morning Musk deer asks the old woman:
-Is there anyone around here?
- Yes, the Wolf and his sister. One day's walk from here! Musk deer rested and moved on, and gave her son to the old woman. She comes to the Wolf's yaranga. The wolf's sister is sitting, sewing a kukhlyanka. She saw a woman and said:
- It’s good that you came, otherwise I don’t have time to cook meat, my brother will come back from hunting soon!
The musk deer was delighted, grabbed the dishes, ran down the water, lit a fire, hung a cauldron of meat over the fire, and poured the kettle. Sister Wolf looked out of the yaranga and said:
- Hide, brother is coming!
The musk deer hid behind the canopy and covered itself with a kukhlyanka.
The Wolf came, threw the dead wild deer off his shoulders and began to change clothes. He took off his wet clothes and went behind the curtain to look for dry ones. He took the kukhlyanka from Kabarga’s head, saw it and said:
“There were two of us living in a yaranga, and now there will be three of us!”
And they healed - all together.
The boy grew up, the old woman made him a bow and arrows, and he began to go hunting further and further from the yaranga. At first he brought home birds and small animals, and the further he went from the yaranga, the more prey he brought. One day he killed a large deer on a jay, ran home, took a sled and ran for meat. An old woman came out of the dugout and shouted after him:
- Don’t go into the tundra at night, boy. Tomorrow you will bring meat!
But he didn't even look back.
As soon as the hunter climbed up the hill and put meat on the sledge, the snowstorm began. The entire earth was covered with snow, and the boy did not see the familiar tops of the hills along which he could find his yaranga. Night came, the snowstorm did not subside, the boy, barely holding on to the sled, went to the light. He walked and walked and came across a yaranga with sparks flying from the chimney.
He enters the yaranga, and there are two men and a woman.
- I’ve arrived! - The owners said. “Yeah,” the guest answered them.
“Sit down and drink tea with us, we’ll eat together.”
- Take it and cook my deer! - said the boy. The woman cooked the meat and everyone ate to their fill.
“Well,” one of the men said to the boy, “you treated us well.” Maybe you can tell us a story so that the night will pass quickly.
- Okay, I'll tell you my mother's fairy tale. Two brothers lived in the tundra; the time had come for them to get married, but there were no brides. The brothers hid the river on a high hill...
The hosts listen to the guest and do not take their eyes off him.
— Two goats came running to quench their thirst, their brothers caught them. The elder sister begged and told her elder brother Ememkut...
- But this is about us, brother! - whispered the younger master.
- Shut up, shut up! - the elder tells him.
“Let my little sister go in the name of your brotherhood,” the goat told him. They released the younger one, and took the older one into custody. The goat was a good wife to her husband, a kind mother to her son, and a caring sister to her brother-in-law.
- True, true! - the younger brother whispers to the older master.
- Shut up, don’t disturb me to listen!
“One day the brothers met a ragged slob in the tundra, and she became Ememkut’s second wife. The ragged slob decided to destroy the older wife and child, and the younger wife began to pour bitterness into her husband’s heart.
Then the Mouse lifted the curtain of the canopy and extinguished the grease.
- Turn on the light quickly! - the elder ordered.
- There’s no fat, it’s time to sleep!
— Bring some seal fat as quickly as possible and turn on the light! - said the elder.
And the woman turned on the light and closed her eyes, ears and heart.
The boy continues:
“The husband doesn’t see how the younger wife spoils the tent, and the eldest repairs it at night, while the younger wife warms herself at her husband’s side. The husband does not see how the younger wife threw his wife and child into the dark night, he did not see how the younger wife put the hot neck of a whale on the hands of his son.
Here the boy stretched out his hands. The men saw burns on his hands. The elder fell at the boy’s feet and said:
- Let's go, let's quickly go from here to your mother! - and began to get dressed.
Then the Mouse laughed:
-Where will you go in a snowstorm? For a fairy tale?
Then her husband sent her away.
And the brothers and the boy went into the tundra to look for the Wolf's yaranga. They approached the dugout. The boy saw the old woman and said to the men:
“Father and uncle, go on looking for my mother without me, but my grandmother needs me.”
The brothers came to the Wolf's yaranga. Wolf's sister says to her daughter-in-law:
- Sister, cook tea and meat, guests have arrived! The musk deer is silent and does not move.
Then Sister Wolf said:
- Sister, have you forgotten the law of the tundra, hospitality?
“It was not guests who came to us, but enemies,” answers Musk deer. - Ememkut came with his brother!
Ememkut's brother at this time told Wolf's sister. - Do you want to be my wife?
“I want,” she answered.
- So I'll come for you?
- Okay, I'll wait.
Ememkut spent a long time trying to persuade his wife to forget everything and return to her yaranga.
- Get out of my sight, I don’t want to see you!
The brothers went to a high hill, they saw that the Wolf was coming home with good prey. The brothers pulled the strings of their bows, shot two arrows and killed the Wolf.
The women were waiting for the Wolf to come home, they waited a day, they waited two, and on the third day they cried. Sister Wolf said:
“My brother has never left the yaranga for three days.”
And Musk deer said:
- Ememkut, my husband, killed him!
The brothers came for the women. Wolf's sister went with joy, and Musk deer fought with her husband for a long time while she had strength. And then Ememkut grabbed her in his arms and took her home.
They came to pick up their son, but he told his parents: “I won’t leave my grandmother, just as she didn’t leave me.”
Musk deer began to cry, and the son said:
- Mother, I will come to you when my grandmother does not need my help.
All.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru