One man went hunting. For a long time he wandered through the forests and swamps - he did not kill anything. Finally I noticed it on one island of the tour. It stands there, beautiful, just like in the picture. The hunter fired, the tur jumped and ran into the bushes. The hunter is after him. He ran and ran and didn’t notice how he got into a quagmire.
He gets out of the quagmire with all his might, but where is it! The quagmire pulls him in, sucks him in. It’s already sucked in up to the waist... The hunter sees that death has come. He began to call for help.
Suddenly a puny gray old man with a long beard and bast shoes a fathom long stood up in front of him.
- Save me, man! - the hunter asks him.
“Okay,” says the old man, “I’ll save you, but not for nothing - give me what you didn’t leave at home.”
The hunter thought and thought - why didn’t he leave it at home? I couldn't remember anything. And then the quagmire had already sucked him in almost up to his neck: only his head and his hands on top. Well, this is no time to bargain...
“Take,” he says, “for yourself what I didn’t leave at home, just save it quickly!”
“No, that’s not all,” the old man chuckles. “Now you agree, but then you’ll refuse.”
- I won’t refuse...
- And so as not to refuse, give me a receipt. The grandfather took a piece of cowhide and a knife from his pocket and gave it to the hunter;
“Cut your little finger,” he says, “and sign your blood on this skin.” This way it will be more reliable.
The hunter signed the cowhide, the grandfather picked him up and carried him to a dry place, and he disappeared.
The hunter came to his senses after the dashing misfortune, wiped off the dirt and went home. And so, along the way, his soul began to feel uneasy, even if he cried: his heart sensed trouble.
As soon as he crossed the threshold of the house, they said to him:
- Where have you been for so long: your wife gave birth to a son!
When the hunter heard about this, he was stunned:
my head was spinning and my vision was blurry. He was a childless man. And here it is for you! I finally waited for my son, but not for myself, but for the bald devil!
Guests have gathered to their homeland. They drink and have fun. And the father sits like a black cloud, and keeps crying. And whoever asks him why he is crying does not say anything to anyone. At first they thought that he was out of joy - of course, he got his son! And then they stopped asking.
Meanwhile, the boy is growing by leaps and bounds. And he turned out so handsome and intelligent! His name was Yanka. His parents sent him to school. And he immediately overtook all his peers. He was capable of everything - both for work and for learning.
People admire Yanka and envy the hunter. And his father keeps looking at him and crying.
Yanka grew up, became a slender guy, even if he married him, but the further he went, the more sad he became. So one day his son asks him:
“Tell me, Tata, why are you so sad?” Why are you still crying looking at me? Am I not your son?
The father wiped away his tears and answered:
- Yes, son, you’re not mine... That’s why I’m crying.
And he told his son how he sold his gray-haired grandfather.
The son listened and said:
- If so, father, then goodbye! Either I’ll lay down my head, or I’ll take your receipt back from the evil spirits. I don't want you to cry all your life!
Yanka got ready, took his bow, arrows, bread and set off on his way.
How long did he walk, how short did he get to the river? And the places around are so beautiful that you don’t want to go any further. “Well, I’ll rest here for a little while and admire it,” Yanka decided. He lay down on the bank, behind a bush, and took bread out of the bag. And just as he was about to eat, suddenly a flock of ducks flies: eleven are ahead, and the twelfth is catching up with all its might, and a kite is circling near it. It's about to hit her with its sharp beak.
Yank grabbed his bow and shot an arrow at the kite. He looks - the kite falls like a stone into the swamp, scatters its feathers, and the duck descends straight towards him.
The duck landed near Yankee, hit the ground and became a girl in front of him, so beautiful that it could neither be said in a fairy tale nor described with a pen.
The beautiful maiden bowed to Yanka and said:
- Thank you, good fellow!
“You’re welcome,” Yanka answers in embarrassment.
- How come you’re not welcome? - the girl is surprised. “You saved me from death.” Who are you and where are you going?
Yanka told her everything about himself.
The girl looked at him with fear and said:
- So it’s you, apparently, going to my father.
- Who is your father?
- Sorcerer.
“No,” says Yanka, “my father sold me to some old man with a long beard, wearing bast shoes a fathom long...
- This is him! My father will turn into whoever you want. Now he walks like a gentleman.
Yanka frowned, and the girl said:
- Don't worry, darling! You will disappear without me, as more than one has already disappeared, but together we will come up with something. Goodbye!
- Tell me, what is your name?
- Kasya.
The girl turned into a gray duck, stood up and flew after her sisters.
Yanka went in the direction where the ducks had flown, and soon approached the master's estate. Knocked on the gate.
- What do you want? - the servants ask.
- I want to see the owner.
The owner came out - a fat gentleman in expensive overseas clothes.
- What do you say?
“Well,” says Yanka, “I’m looking for my owner.”
- Which one?
- The one to whom my father sold me when I was first born.
- So I am your master.
“Sorry, punk,” says Yanka, “do you have a receipt from my father?”
- Well, yes, there is.
“Then give her back to me, sir, otherwise my father is still grieving and crying that it turned out so badly.” I'll take it to him, and he'll calm down.
- Look, you are so quick! - the gentleman laughs. “You first serve my allotted time, then I’ll pay you back.” And if you don’t want to serve, then I’ll skin you alive.
“So give me a job,” says Yanka, “I will serve.” I am no stranger to working. The gentleman took a thimble out of his pocket and handed it to Yanka:
- By morning, scoop out my lake behind the house with this thimble, take all the fish out of it, and sprinkle the bottom with yellow sand. This work is not difficult.
Yanka went to the lake and began to scoop up water with a thimble. I scooped and scooped until the evening, I was exhausted, but to no avail. He cried out of grief and went to look for Kasya to get advice on what to do.
I came to the yard, walked around - no one was visible. I went to the very end of the yard. Lo and behold, there is a building standing in the distance: a hut is not a hut, a stable is not a stable... He approached that hut, and suddenly he hears a familiar voice calling him through the window:
- Hey, Yanka! You, I see, have completely forgotten me. He looked out the window, and Kasia was standing there! Yanka entered the hut, greeted her and told her what an unimaginable job her father had given him. And the girl says:
- Nothing, the morning is wiser than the evening. Go to bed and I'll think of something.
I obeyed Yanka and went to bed.
At midnight Kasya went out onto the porch, waved a magic twig, and instantly thirty young boys appeared to her - one after the other.
- What do you order us, lady?
- Drain the lake by morning, pick out all the fish and sprinkle the bottom with yellow sand!
- OK! — the fellows answered and rushed off to do the work as quickly as possible.
In the morning the girl woke up Yanka.
“Go,” he says, “and tell your father that everything is done.” Just don’t admit that I helped you, say: I did everything myself.
Yanka went and reported to the sir. He looked - and indeed, everything was done as he ordered. And the work is clean - you won’t find any flaws.
- Well done! - the gentleman praised. - I see you are a good worker. If you try so hard, then I will give you a receipt and marry my daughter to you. I have twelve of them, choose any one you like. The only problem is: I don’t have a separate palace for you and your young wife. But you, I see, are a hard-working guy. So here's your job: build a palace overnight so that it has as many rooms as there are days in a year, and so that the ceiling shines like the sky, and the sun, the month and the stars shine on it, and around the palace so that a river flows, and over it there is a bridge - a golden bridge, a silver bridge, and so that a rainbow hangs over the bridge and rests its edges on the water...
In a word, it would be nice to see it for yourself and show it to people. If you build such a palace, I’ll give you a receipt and a daughter in addition, but if you don’t build it, I’ll flay you alive. Now go.
Yank lowered his head. “And let you disappear, evil spirit!” he thought to himself. “The further, the more difficult the tasks he comes up with. How can I build such a palace? Apparently, I need to go to Kasya again, maybe she will help?”
He came to the girl and told her what kind of work the pan-sorcerer had given him again.
“This work is, indeed, harder than the first,” says Kasia, “but we’ll come up with something.” You go and walk around the yard for now, as if you were choosing a place for a palace, and when it gets dark, come back here.
So he did. He walked around the yard, and when it was evening, he returned to the hut. He had dinner and asked Kasya:
- Why are all your sisters living with their mother in the palace, and you in this hut on the outskirts?
- Because I don’t have a mother, but a stepmother. She doesn't want me to live with her daughters.
“You know what, Kasya,” said Yanka, “your father promised to give me his daughter as a wife if I built a palace... So I’ll ask him to give you to me.” What do you say to this?
Kasia frowned and shook her head:
- You don’t know my father, dear! He won’t give me up so easily, but will line us all up in a row and ask you to choose, but you won’t recognize me...
- I’ll find out! - says Yanka. - How is it possible that I don’t recognize you?
- Hardly! - Kasia sighed. - We are all sisters one in one - hair in hair, and voice in voice. And if you really want to choose me, then remember this sign: I will have a white flower in my hair. And if my father asks me to choose for the second time, then a fly will fly over my head, and the third time there will be a green thread tied on my right little finger. Will you remember?
- Yes, what is there! I want to choose only you and no one else.
“Now,” says the girl, “go to bed, otherwise night is already upon us.”
Yanka lay down in a soft bed and fell asleep like the dead. And Kasya went out onto the porch, waved a twig - and instantly thirty young boys appeared to her.
- What do you want, lady?
- Build a palace overnight so that it has as many rooms as there are days in a year, so that the ceiling shines like the sky, and the sun, the month and the stars shine on it, and a river flows around the palace, and a bridge is thrown over it - a golden bridge, a silver bridge, and so that a rainbow hangs over the bridge and rests its edges on the water...
“Okay,” the fellows answered and rushed off to get the job done as quickly as possible.
One is sawing, the other is amusing, the third is planing, the work is in full swing!
The next day Yanka went out into the courtyard, and lo and behold, there was a new palace, its roof supported by the sky. A rainbow shines above the palace, a silver-golden bridge glitters above the river.
Yanka entered the palace, looked up, almost went blind: the sun was shining, the moon was shining, the stars were sparkling...
Yanka stood on the bridge, waiting for the master.
The gentleman came out and admired the new palace.
“Well,” says Yanke, “I see that you are a master no worse than me.” Well, you can’t say anything if you did it all yourself.
“On my own,” says Yanka. - Who did it for me?
- It’s good if you do it yourself. I tried, but not for anyone else, but for myself. In the meantime, while we’re celebrating the wedding, I’ll give you one more job. I have a horse, there is no price for it, but there is only one problem: it is unridden. Take him around before the wedding...
Yanka cheered up:
- Okay, sir, I'll go around tomorrow.
And he thinks to himself: “Well, this job is the easiest for me!”
Meanwhile, the stepmother and her daughters came out to look at the new palace. They liked him. And when the daughters found out that their father had promised to marry one of them to such a noble master, they all wanted to marry him.
Yanka talked with the gentleman and went, whistling, to Kasya.
He came and boasted that soon she would become his wife: now his father had given him work according to his strength!
“No,” Kasya tells him, “don’t rejoice ahead of time.” Do you think your father will give you a simple horse? He's not that kind! It will be himself, not the horse. You know, father doesn’t believe that you yourself dredged up the lake and built the palace. So he wants to test you.
He brushed Yank behind the ear.
- So what should I do? How the hell can I get around it?
- Don’t grieve prematurely, but go to bed. Tomorrow we’ll know better,” Kasya reassured him. In the morning I woke up Kasia Ianka.
“Go,” he says, “to ride around the horse, since you agreed.”
“I’m afraid,” Yanka thinks, “you scared me with that horse.”
- Nothing. You can't handle it alone, but together we can.
And Kasya gave him an iron rod.
“Here,” he says, “you won’t be lost with him.” As soon as the horse begins to struggle, hit him with all your might between the ears.
Yanka came to the stables. There is a horse standing there covered in dapples: its eyes are bloodshot, flames are blazing from its nostrils, smoke is pouring out of its ears - you can’t even get close to it!
Yanka approached the horse and wanted to jump on its back, but it reared up, flew up to the ceiling and neighed so hard that the whole stable shook.
“Hey,” says Yanka, “that means you really are a damn horse!” Okay then. I have a cure for you!
He crept up to the horse from the side and lashed him with a rod between the ears. The horse fell to his knees like a sheaf. Meanwhile, Yanka jumped on him! The horse reared up again and almost threw Yanka off. But Yanka got the hang of it and started lashing him between the ears with all his might with a rod. The horse snores and dances under him like mad. And Yanka keeps whipping him.
The horse spun and spun around the stable like a snake, then he saw that nothing could be done: he broke out into the yard and rushed into an open field. He flies, barely touches the ground with his hooves and tries to throw everything off Yanka, crush him under him.
The horse flew and flew across the fields, through the mountains, rose higher into the forest, descended into deep holes and finally gave up: he turned back and walked.
Yanka arrived at the stable, parked his horse, and, joyful, ran to Kasya.
“Well,” says Kasia, “it’s obvious that you gave my father a good bath if you returned alive.”
- Right! - Yanka laughs. - I tried my best. Almost broke your twig.
And, without having supper, Yanka fell into bed like a sheaf and fell into a heroic sleep.
In the morning Kasya wakes him up.
“Now go to your father and ask him to give you the receipt.”
Yanka had breakfast and went to the master. Comes. Pan sits in a chair, cheerless, with his head bandaged. “Aha,” thinks Yanka, “you will remember Kasin’s twig!”
“Well,” says the master, “I am the master of my word - as soon as you become my son-in-law, then I will give you a receipt.”
“So be it,” Yanka agreed. - Show your daughters.
He took Mr. Yanka into another room. And there are twelve girls standing there, all of the same face, and voice to voice, and hair to hair, and the same height. And on the side the old lady is pacing...
Yanka walked around the girls once, twice, and noticed a white flower in the hair of the last girl. He approached her, took her hand and led her to her father.
“Here,” he says, “I liked this one.”
“Well, this one is just this one,” the master answers, “all my daughters are the same.” Take the one you like.
And the lady turned green with anger: it was not her own daughter that the noble master chose as his wife, but her unloved stepdaughter!
“No,” she stamped her feet, “I don’t agree: let him choose again!” Pan says:
- Let it be your way.
He blindfolded Yanka with a handkerchief, and then untied it and said:
- Choose a second time!
Yanka walked around the girls and saw that one of them had a fly flying over her head. “Ah,” he remembered Kasya’s words, “that’s what she is!”
He took her hand and led her to the master.
“Well,” says the sir, “take this one: I have all the same ones.”
And the lady stomped again and shouted:
- I don’t agree! Let him choose up to three times! He blindfolded Pan Yanka with a handkerchief, and then untied it - and again twelve girls stood in front of him, all as one.
Yanka began to look closely at her hands and noticed one of the girls had a green thread on her right little finger.
“Let this one be my wife,” he says to the master.
There was nothing to be done - the sorcerer had to give him the receipt.
“We’ll have a wedding tomorrow,” says the master, “and you will live in a new palace.”
The newlyweds went to Kasin’s hut to prepare for the wedding. Kasya says to Yanka:
“We will celebrate the wedding not at my father’s, but at yours.”
- Why? - asks Yanka. - This is where our palace stands!
“We need to escape from here, otherwise the evil stepmother will destroy us,” says Kasya.
At midnight, as soon as everyone in the palace was fast asleep, they jumped out of the hut and ran to Yankee’s father and mother.
The next morning the gentlemen and ladies got up and were waiting for the newlyweds: it was time to celebrate the wedding. Yes, young people sleep for a long time.
They sent servants to wake them up.
The servants approached the hut. They called and called, but no one answered. We looked into the hut - it was empty. The servants returned and told the master about this.
The pan became angry, and the lady shouted:
- Hey, messengers, catch up with them! Alive or dead, bring it back!
The messengers jumped onto their horses and flagged at full speed. They fly through forests, fly through forests - they are on the trail.
- Well, now they won’t leave us! - say the messengers.
And Kasia fell to the ground at that time and listened.
“The earth is thundering, the wind is rustling,” he says, “it’s us being chased...
- What should we do? - asks Yanka.
“I’ll turn into a lamb, and you’ll be a shepherd.” If they ask you if you saw a guy with a girl on this road, say, “I didn’t see you.”
Kasya waved the twig, and everything happened as she had planned.
Messengers fly up;
“Hey, shepherd boy, have you seen a boy with a girl on this road?”
“No,” the shepherd boy answers, “I’ve been grazing here since morning, but I haven’t seen anyone.”
The messengers circled around in place - there was no trace. They turned back and said to the gentlemen:
- We didn’t catch up with anyone. We only met a shepherdess and a sheep. They asked him, and he said that he had been grazing since the morning, but had not seen anyone.
- So it’s them! - the lady shouted. - Hurry up and catch up!
The messengers rushed back. “Well,” they think, “now we’ll catch the shepherdess and the little lamb!”
And Kasya and Yanka run and run with all their might.
And now they sense that they are being chased again. Kasya waved her twig and turned into a green garden, and Yanka turned into a gardener.
The chase took off:
“Hey, gardener, have you seen a guy with a girl on this road?”
“No,” says the gardener, “I didn’t see it.” I’ve been taking care of the garden for ten years now, but I’ve never seen a guy with a girl.
- And the shepherdess with the lamb?
- I didn’t see it either.
The messengers returned.
“Apparently,” they say, “we have lost our way.” On the way we only met a gardener near the garden, but he said that he had been taking care of the garden for ten years, but had never seen a boy with a girl, or a shepherdess with a sheep.
- Oh, you scoundrels! - the lady shouted. “You should have cut down both the garden and the gardener - it was them!” No, I don’t have much hope for you, we’ll have to run in pursuit ourselves.
The master turned into a wolf, and the lady into a she-wolf, and they ran to catch up with the fugitives. They rush, the dust smokes in a column, and the wind is already whistling.
Kasya heard a new chase and said:
- These are my father and stepmother flying. And they are not easy to deceive. But let’s try: I will spill into a deep lake, and you will be a drake on it. Swim around the lake, but be careful not to fall into anyone's hands.
She waved the twig and became a lake, and Yanka became a drake.
A wolf and a she-wolf run up to the lake.
- The lake is her! - the she-wolf screamed. “We can’t do anything about her now.” And we’ll catch the drake - after all, it’s Yanka himself! Then she will follow him too.
The wolf and she-wolf rushed into the lake and started catching the drake. And he will either dive or fly high above the water...
The wolf and she-wolf chased and chased the drake, got tired and went to the bottom. This is where the end came for them.
And Yanka and Kasya became the way they were again. They held hands and went calmly to Yankee’s father and mother to celebrate the wedding.
It was a noisy wedding. Everyone drank, ate, and everyone was having fun. And Yankee’s father was having fun along with everyone else.
I was at that wedding, I drank honey and wine, it flowed down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth. They gave me glass boots, a wax cap and a paper caftan. And I went dancing home. He walked and walked and tripped over a stone, and his boots - ding, ding! - and crashed. The rain poured down and my caftan got wet and fell off my shoulders. And then the sun got hot and the hat melted. I went home empty-handed. He came, sat down on the rubble and told you this tale.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru