There lived one guy in the Zaksor family, named Chungu. The guy is like a guy, everything is like people: two ears, two eyes, one nose, two legs, two arms, one head. They just said about Chungu that his head was completely empty. Chungu worked little, ate a lot. I didn’t think much, the guy Chungu believed everything. That's how he lived. He ate, slept, sat on the shore, scratched his head, did not go anywhere.
The father tried to teach his son to hunt. I was planning to take it with me to the taiga.
They dressed Chungu in full hunting attire. They put on high fur boots with silk embroidery. The embroidered knee pads were pulled on. Pants made from the best rovduga. The robe is white, embroidered with reindeer hair. They belted Chunga with a belt made of duck heads. They put a bandage sewn with silk on their heads and a cap made of musk deer skins with a squirrel tail. They gave me a spear with notches. They hung a bow and arrows on the side, and two knives on the belt: one curved, the other straight.
The handsome guy became Chungu.
He liked the outfit. Chungu stands there, patting his robe with his hand. Laughs with joy.
His father tells him:
- That's enough, Chungu. Let's go.
Chungu shook his head: he didn’t want to go, spoil his joy. The father says to him again:
“Beauty is not in a man’s attire, but at the end of his spear!” Let's go, son!
But Chungu doesn't listen. He is happy with himself. He started dancing. He is marking time, patting himself on his pants and his robe. He dropped the arrows, the spear is poking in all directions: he’s about to mutilate someone.
The father got angry here. He hit his son on the head. Chungu's head began to roar like a copper cauldron. The father was scared.
- Oh-ya-ha! - speaks. “My son’s head is probably empty... This is turning out badly!” What will I do?..
He did not take his son hunting with him. With an empty head, how many animals can you get?
Chungu sat down on the bank. I found something to do for myself: looking into the water, admiring my outfit and tapping my head. It created a noise throughout the whole village.
Nani came running from everywhere - they thought someone had started a game on the musical logs at the wrong time. They look - and it’s Chungu who’s beating his empty head! They laughed and parted ways.
That's how things went.
Chungu's father either goes hunting in the taiga or fishes on the Amur.
The mother salts the fish, tans the skins, cooks the food, feeds her son and husband.
And Chungu is good for nothing. Everyone sits on the shore, scratching his head.
I don't know how long it's been like this. The strength of the elderly began to weaken. The mother began to get tired from work. It's hard for her to do everything alone...
She says to the old man:
“I can’t work alone anymore... My father and mother smoked and thought. Father says:
- We need to marry Chung. You will have an assistant.
- How can Chung get married? - asks the mother. - His head is empty. Who would give his daughter for him?
“There will be a good ransom - they will give it back,” the father answers.
The old Tory old man and woman began to collect the ransom.
They took a large copper cauldron, an overseas saber, three silk and three fur robes, a copper mirror, twelve pairs of earrings, a spear with a silver notch, three pieces of silk fabric, chain mail from distant islands - made of bamboo, with copper clasps, a bowstring the size of a hunter, and a battle bow with bone trim. A rich ransom has been collected!
Only in this village no one will marry Chungu.
And in the neighboring village there lived an old woman with her daughter. The old lady was very poor. Her daughter's name was Anga. Anga had no dowry except a team of dogs. The old woman and her daughter lived so poorly that they didn’t even have blankets in the house.
So they wooed Anga. Anga cried, but there was nothing to do - she agreed. I thought that now my mother’s life would be easier.
Anga knocked out the pipe at the threshold so that the fire would not be carried away from her parents’ house, so that the happiness would not be taken away from it. She stepped on her cauldron. Co
her cauldron stepped onto the groom’s cauldron, which was placed outside the threshold, as custom required, and took Chungu Angu to his house.
They arrived at Chungu's house. The guy sat down on the bunk. I've eaten enough meat. Began to brag:
- You know, wife, what kind of guy I am! There is no other guy like him anywhere! You know what kind of head I have! No one else has a head like this!
Chungu hit himself on the head. My head began to hum like a dry larch on a windy day.
Anga was scared: “Oh, my husband’s head is completely empty! How can I live with someone like that?” And Anga cried.
Chungu doesn’t understand why his wife is crying. Sits, silent. Then I fell asleep.
Anga looks at him. The guy has a good face, like all people: two eyes, two ears, one nose... Anga got angry: how can it be that a man with an empty head has a good face, like all people! She got angry and decided: “Let you have a bad face so that you don’t deceive people with your appearance!”
I took red clay from the hearth. I took black soot from the fireplace. Dissolved the clay and soot. She now had two colors: black and red.
Anga painted Chungu's face with red and black streaks. She painted it so much that even she got scared.
...Chungu slept and slept, and finally woke up. I wanted to drink. He took a bottle of water and began to drink. Out of habit, I looked into the water. And his reflection is visible in the water. Chungu didn't recognize himself. Asks:
- Hey, who are you? What do you want in my crazy?
He looked around - everything was familiar: his hearth, his house, his wife sitting on the bunk. But the face is not his. Called Chungu:
- Anga, come here! Someone got into the crazy place. Some kind of erysipelas...
Anga asks:
Who's calling me?
“It’s me who’s calling you,” says Chungu. - It's me, Chungu, your husband.
Anga shook her head:
-Are you Chungu? My husband has a good face, but you have a scary face!
“That’s true,” says Chungu, “I have a beautiful face, I’m a handsome guy, I’ve seen it myself...
Chungu thought and thought and said:
- What a bad thing it turned out to be! Apparently I lost my face somewhere. I'll go look.
Chungu got up from his bunks. Left the house. He walks along the road, looking at his feet. He hit me on the head and it was buzzing... Chungu was happy:
- It's me! - speaks. He looked into the water and was saddened: a strange face. “No,” he says, “it’s not me.”
Chungu walks and bumps into people. Asks everyone:
-Have you seen Chungu? People laugh at him.
“No, we haven’t seen it,” they say. Chungu is scratching his head.
“Apparently,” he says, “there is no Chungu in this village.” I'll go further.
And Chungu went to look for himself. He left the village and never returned. He still can't find himself. And no one regretted it.
What use is a lazy person and a fool to people?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru