One day Nart Soslan went hunting. Towards evening he saw a roe deer on a rock, shot an arrow, and the roe deer rolled down.
Soslan lit a fire under the rock, cut up the carcass of a roe deer and began to fry himself kebabs from the liver and heart. He ate shish kebab and thought: “What if I meet someone in the morning - I won’t treat him to raw meat. I’ll cook a barbecue for the person you meet.”
He cut off a thigh from the carcass and put it on a spit, and covered the rest of the meat with a cloak. Soslan holds the meat over the coals, and now it is almost ready; suddenly he looks - the roe deer jumped up and started running.
Soslan clasped his hands and exclaimed:
- These are miracles, such miracles! I ate her entrails, I’m frying a kebab out of her leg, and she jumped up and ran!
The roe deer stopped, turned around and said:
– This is not a miracle, Soslan. If you want to hear about real miracles, find Bat, the son of Kazdyg, he will tell you what a miracle is.
“I won’t rest until I find him,” Soslan thought.
In the morning he returned home and began to get ready for the long journey, and when he got ready, he left the house, not knowing where.
He rode and rode, for how long, not for long - who knows, but in the evening he saw herds of horses in the steppe. Soslan drove up to the herdsmen and said hello:
- Good evening!
- Live in health, good traveler!
– Would you like to shelter me for the night?
- How not to shelter! The guest is God's guest.
They invited him to the house. Soslan asks:
- Could you tell me whose herd you are?
They answer:
“We are the herdsmen of Bat, the son of Kazdyg.
Soslan says:
- I'm going to visit him. Show me the way in the morning.
“We would die for you,” the herdsmen answer, “but we ourselves don’t know where he lives.” When he needs horses, he sends for them, but we have never seen him himself.
They treated Soslan to dinner, put him to bed, and when dawn broke, they sent him on his way with the words:
– Further in the steppe herds of cows graze. These are also Bath cattle. Maybe the shepherds will know where to find him.
Soslan went further. I rode all day and by evening I reached the shepherds.
- Good evening, shepherds!
- Hello, good traveler!
– I’m going to visit Batu, the son of Kazdyg. Would you like to host me for the night?
- The guest is God's guest! Get off your horse.
The shepherds treated Soslan to everything they had, put him to bed, and in the morning Soslan said to them:
- Show me the way to Bath's house.
“We don’t know where he lives,” the shepherds answered, “but if you go further, you will meet shepherds tending his sheep.” Maybe the shepherds know where Bata's house is.
Soslan went further and by evening reached the shepherds.
- Good evening, shepherds!
- Hello, good traveler!
– I’m going to visit Batu, the son of Kazdyg. Would you like to host me for the night?
- The guest is God's guest!
The shepherds brought Soslan into their home, slaughtered a sheep for him, treated him to dinner and put him to bed.
In the morning Soslan said:
“Now show me the way to Bath’s house.”
The shepherds sent a boy to show Soslan the way, and by noon they reached the place.
Bat, the son of Kazdyg, was threshing grain on the threshing floor. Soslan drove up to him.
- May your current be full!
- Live in health, good traveler!
- I am your guest.
Kazdyg's son Bat approached Soslan, took him by the hand, helped him get off his horse and said:
- Wait a little, now let's go into the house.
He brought a donkey and a donkey, loaded sacks of grain on them, and they headed towards the house. There Bat, the son of Kazdyg, drove the donkeys into a dirty barn and tied them to a post with their muzzles up.
After that, he brought Soslan into the house, sat him down in a place of honor, and he himself went to slaughter the ram.
When dinner was ready, the host and guest sat down at the table. Soslan sits and doesn’t take a bite into his mouth. Bat asks him:
- Why don’t you eat, my guest?
“I was looking for you to ask you something, and if you don’t answer me, I won’t touch the food.”
– There is no question that I would not answer for a guest.
Ask.
– Recently I was hunting in the mountains and shot a roe deer there. The roe deer rolled off the cliff, I lit a fire, made a kebab from the entrails and ate it, and then thought: “What if I meet someone on the way - I won’t treat him with raw game!” I cut off a thigh from the carcass and began to fry it over the coals. The meat was almost ready when the roe deer jumped up and started running. I was amazed and exclaimed: “Oh miracle! I ate the insides of this roe deer, its meat is roasting on the fire, and it jumped up and ran away!” Then the roe deer stopped, turned to me and said: “This is not a miracle. If you want to hear about real miracles, find Bat, the son of Kazdyg, he will tell you about them.” And I said to myself: “I must find Bat, the son of Kazdyg, and find out what these miracles are!”
“Let’s eat for now,” said Bat, “and then I’ll tell you.”
They finished dinner, and Bath said:
- Now, guest, listen to everything from beginning to end.
When the time came for me to get married, my father married me to a beautiful girl and arranged a rich wedding. After the wedding feast was over and the people had left, I entered the room of the young wife. Suddenly, someone outside the door shouted: “Bat, son of Kazdyg, meet the guests!”
I opened the door, went outside and saw a young horseman in a black cloak, holding a felt whip in his hand. He hit me with a whip and I turned into an ox. At night they drove me somewhere, harnessed me to the same team with a buffalo and forced me to carry stones from the river bank until the morning.
When dawn broke, this horseman hit me with a felt whip, and I turned into a man again. I returned home. I had to go to work; I worked all day until the evening, and in the evening, after dinner, I went to my room.
Before I had time to undress, someone shouted outside the door: “Bat, son of Kazdyg, meet the guests!” I ran out the door, and the same rider hit me again with a felt whip and turned me into a red mare. This man put a saddle on me, sat on horseback and rode off to some large village. There they loaded rock salt on me - twelve stones on each side, and I carried the salt on me all night, and at dawn the horseman lashed me with a felt whip, and I again turned into a man, and the horseman galloped away.
I returned home and went to work again, and in the evening, after dinner, I went to my room, dreaming of getting some sleep - after all, I had not slept for two nights. But before I had time to undress and lie down, a familiar voice shouted outside the door: “Bat, son of Kazdyg, meet the guests!”
And I considered it beneath my dignity to hide in the room, and, taking the weapon, I went to the door. As soon as I opened the door, the horseman whipped me with his whip and turned me into a dog, and then drove me out of the yard.
I ran along the roads for a long time, not knowing where to go, until I finally found myself in a large village. In this village there was a butcher shop, and I was hungry and stopped near the shop in the hope of getting some food. At this time a buyer came to the store. He paid with counterfeit money and began to leave. I rushed after him, grabbed his pants and dragged him back. There was a scream, the butcher swung a stick at me to drive me away, but I pointed with my paw at the money left by the buyer. The butcher took a closer look at the money, realized that it was fake, and took his meat back and threw the money over the threshold. After this the butcher left me in the shop, looked after me and fed me, and I lived with the mind and feelings of a man in the form of a dog.
After some time, a woman whom I had known since childhood came into the shop. I was very happy with her and, not lagging behind, walked behind her. So I followed her all day, and when it was getting light, I came to her house. She let me into the house and fed me well, and I stayed with her. I knew her, but she had no idea who I was. She treated me very well and fed me what she ate, and I guarded her day and night and did not allow any uninvited people or animals to approach her house, so my fame soon spread throughout all the surrounding villages.
And then one day the shepherds came to my mistress and said: “We heard that you have a good dog, give it to us. Wolves have gotten into the habit of stealing our cattle, and if your dog helps us, we will pay you well.” The woman replied: “I’ll give you a dog, just don’t hurt it.”
The shepherds tied me around the neck with a hair rope, mounted their horses and dragged me along. When we got there, they poured me some slop and sat down to dinner. After that, they didn’t even give me scraps and tied me to a fence at the edge of the pen.
I sat there until midnight, and at midnight thirteen wolves appeared. They stopped at a distance, not daring to come closer, and I told them: “Come here and help yourself and feed me.”
They entered the fold and began to slaughter the sheep, killing half of them. The wolves had eaten their fill, and I got my share.
In the morning, the shepherds, seeing the damage they had suffered, took stakes and began to beat me and break my bones. I barely escaped from them and somehow crawled home. The hostess began to treat me, I was sick for a long time, but eventually recovered.
One day other shepherds came to the owner and said: “We heard that you have a good dog. Give it to us, otherwise wolves will come to us. If your dog helps us, we will pay you."
“No, no,” answered the hostess, “I will never give it to you.” One day I lent her to the shepherds, and they beat her half to death.”
The shepherds began to swear by the earth: “We will not touch it. If she can help us, good, but if she can’t, we’ll bring her back.”
Then the hostess told them: “Okay, take her, just don’t try to offend her.”
The shepherds tied a silk cord around my neck, mounted their horses, and one of them took me into his saddle. When they arrived at the place, they slaughtered a lamb and began to feed me, and I ate as much as I wanted. The shepherds laid a soft mat for me at the edge of the pen and said: “All our hope is in you,” and I thought: “Well, now we’ll see,” I lay down and waited.
And again at midnight thirteen wolves appeared and stopped at a distance, not daring to approach, and I said to them: “Come here, poor creatures, you are probably hungry. Eat yourself and leave me a share.”
So I lured them closer, and when they approached, I rushed at them and began to kill them. I killed twelve of them, and the thirteenth ran away. I chased after him and almost caught up, when suddenly he stopped and said: “I know that you are not a dog. You are Bat, son of Kazdyg. Don't kill me and I will teach you how to become human again. The one who bewitched you and now lives with your wife is holding a wake for his mother tomorrow. Get there and start stealing meat and pies from the tables. They will beat you, but you continue your work. Finally, your enemy will not stand it anymore and will hit you with a felt whip, and you will instantly become what you were. Then don’t get lost, be clever and snatch the felt whip from his hand. If you manage to do this, your suffering will end; If you fail, it will be even worse.”
I let the wolf go, went back and put the dead wolves in a pile near the pen.
In the morning, when the shepherds arrived, their joy knew no end. They again slaughtered a lamb for me, and then took forty sheep from their flock and drove them to my mistress.
And I went to the house of the one who lived with my wife, and saw that they were really preparing for the funeral there. The tables had already been set, and then he began to act as the wolf taught me: he began to steal pies from the tables, grab pieces of meat, and stick his tail into cauldrons. They persecuted me and beat me, but I continued my work. When they no longer knew how to get rid of this scourge, the man who turned me into a dog took his felt whip and hit me, and I immediately became myself again.
I rushed at my enemy, tore the felt whip out of his hand and hit him the same way he hit me, and he turned into a black donkey. Then I went into the house, found my wife there, who had betrayed me, hit her with a whip - and she turned into a donkey.
You saw them: the same donkey and donkey on which we transported grain - my wife and her lover. All day long they work for me, and in the evening I drive them into a dirty barn and tie them with their muzzles up - and thereby quench their thirst for revenge.
Nart Soslan listened and was surprised, and how could he not be surprised: he had never heard of anything like that.
And in the morning Soslan thanked the owner and returned to the Nart village.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru