It was a warm spring day. Heisaku went to the mountains to cut some hay for himself. The sun was warmly warm, and lazy Heisaku wanted to rest and warm his back. He sat down on a stump, began to look at the high blue sky and listen to the chirping of the sparrows. I listened and listened and completely forgot about work. And when he got tired of sitting, he took the dice out of his pocket and began tossing them. The bones fell onto a large flat stone, which lay right next to the stump, and Heisaku said:
“Bones, bones, Lie down, bones, White bones.” Suddenly, from behind, from a tall pine tree, a thin voice was heard: “Heisaku, what are you doing?” Heisaku was scared. He looked around and saw right in front of him on a pine branch a big-nosed devil - Tengu, a real Tengu, as he is depicted in pictures:
His long nose sticks out above his head, and in his hand is a fan. Heisaku fell to his knees, trembled and cried: “Spare me, Tengu, don’t touch me!” “Don’t be afraid!” - Tengu said affectionately. “I’m not going to kill you at all.” I just want to know what you are throwing up and why are you muttering some words? What's in your hands?
- This? These are dice. You see, there will be one point, or two, or three, or four, or even six. You can win a lot of money playing craps.
Tengu didn’t understand anything, but still thought that dice were a funny thing. And he really wanted to get them.
“Heisaku, give me your dice.” But Heisaku did not agree: “How can I give you the dice?” It’s the same as giving up your head.” Nosy Teng wanted to get the bones even more. “I’m not asking you for them for nothing!” “I’ll give you one very good thing for them,” he said as kindly as possible.
“What will you give me?” “Here’s what.” And Tengu showed him the fan he was holding in his hand. “That’s all?” What do I need such a shabby fan for? - How! Don't you know what a Tengu fan is? I'll explain it to you now. If you tap on the painted side of the fan and say three times: “Nose, grow! Nose, grow! Nose, grow!”—Then the tip of the nose, yours or someone else’s, as you need it, will begin to grow upward. If you want your nose to grow even higher, knock harder. If you want it to grow slowly, knock gently. If you want your nose to become shorter again, this can be done: just tap on the back of the fan and say three times: “Nose, shrink! Nose, shrink! Nose, shrink!” - and the nose will gradually begin to become smaller. You see what a wonderful thing this is, the Tengu fan. Well, tell me, do you believe me or don’t believe me? Otherwise I’ll pull your flat nose higher than your head.
Heisaku got scared and covered his nose with his hand: “I believe, I believe!” Have mercy! Have mercy! How will I live with such a long nose! - Well, let's change. Here's your fan, and I'll take your dice.” “Okay,” Heisaku answered. He was very happy, but pretended that he was only obeying the Tengu out of fear.
Heisaku gave Tengu the old, cracked bones, received a magic fan for them and, satisfied, went home.
...Lazy Heisaku walked along the road and thought: “Who could I try the magical power of the fan on?”
Suddenly he saw a solemn procession: four servants were carrying a beauty on a bamboo stretcher under a silk canopy, and a whole crowd of servants and maids was walking in front, behind, right and left.
This beauty was the daughter of the richest prince in the area. “Come on, I’ll try to pull out her nose! It’ll be funny!” - Heisaku thought.
He quietly intervened in the crowd of servants, made his way to the very stretcher, lightly tapped the fan on the painted side and whispered three times:
- Hoc, grow! Hoc, grow! Hoc, grow! And so the beauty’s nose bent slightly, and then began to stretch upward a little - it grew an inch, then two inches, then three. And Heisaku was so scared that he quickly ran home.
Two or three days later, a rumor spread everywhere that the prince’s daughter fell ill with an unprecedented disease: the tip of her nose grew upward and she began to look like Tengu. Neither the medicine of doctors, nor the prayers of monks, nor the spells of healers - nothing helps her. The poor beauty locked herself in her castle, covered her face with her wide sleeve and cried all day. And the parents completely lost their heads from grief.
Finally, a large announcement was posted in front of the gates of the prince's castle: WHO WILL CURE THE PRINCESS OF AN UNEXPECTED ILLNESS. HE WILL GET HER AS A WIFE. When the lazy Heisaku saw this announcement, he immediately ran home, took his magic fan and hurried to the castle.
- I can cure the princess! - Heisaku said as soon as he was allowed into the castle.
The servants took him to the princess's chambers. Heisaku bowed deeply to the beauty, and then tapped the back of his fan and whispered three times:
- Nose, squeeze! Nose, squeeze! Nose, squeeze! And now the beauty’s nose began to shrink - first by one inch, then by two, then by three. The tip straightened out, and the nose became as beautiful as it was before. And the beauty herself became even better than she was.
There was nothing to do, she had to marry Heisaku. So, with the help of the magic fan Tengu, the lazy Heisaku became the richest man in the village. He could now eat fried eels with white rice as much as he wanted, he could lie in bed all day or walk in the mountains, and most importantly, do nothing. That's how he lived. One day he ate to his fill, the next day he slept without waking up, the third day he wandered around his possessions, and then started over.
But he soon got tired of all this, doing nothing was very boring. One day, Heisaku was lying in the garden and yawning from boredom. To have some fun, he pulled out his fan from his belt, looked at it and thought:
“How far can my own nose stretch?” And then he immediately became more cheerful. He sat down, knocked on his fan and said three times:
- Nose, grow! Nose, grow! Nose, grow! Now the tip of Heisaku’s nose bent upward and began to grow. He grew an inch, two, three. Heisaku knocked again. The nose has grown by six inches, by a whole arshin, by two arshins, by three. So he grew taller than the house, taller than the tallest tree. He stretched out so high that Heisaku himself could no longer see the tip of his nose from below. Heisaku was completely amused. He drummed on the fan as hard as he could. The nose stretched and stretched, grew higher than the clouds, reached the very sky and pierced the sky right through.
And at that time Thunder was sitting in the sky. Suddenly he sees: something thin, red and sharp has pierced the sky and is climbing upward. Thunder was surprised.
"It looks like a carrot. But I've never seen a carrot grow on the sky, and even with the tip up!" - thought Thunder.
And he grabbed the carrot tightly with his hand. “Ay!” - Heisaku shouted below on the ground. Although the tip of his nose was far away from him, it was still the tip of his own nose, and poor Heisaku felt pain. He immediately turned the fan over, drummed on the other side and spoke quickly:
- Nose, squeeze! Nose, squeeze! Nose, shrink! And in fact: the nose immediately began to shrink - by an inch, by two, by three. But Thunder held the tip of his nose tightly in his hand, and Thunder, of course, was stronger than Heisaku. The nose became smaller and smaller, and its tip still remained in the sky. And since the tip of the nose could not fall from the sky to the ground, Heisaku himself had to rise from the ground to the sky. First he had to stand on his feet, then rise to his tiptoes, then completely get off the ground. The smaller the nose became, the higher Heisaku rose. He was lifted higher than the house, higher than the tallest tree in the garden, higher than the clouds and, finally, pulled up to the very sky. But the hole he poked through his nose was so small that Heisaku himself could not fit through it. And he was left hanging on the tip of his own nose under the very sky.
It still hangs like that.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru