A peasant and his wife lived in the mountains. They planted a garden around the house, and it was their only joy until they had children.
When their son was born, they named him Safar. The parents loved the boy very much. His mother did not want to part with him for a minute. She either carried his cradle behind her, or went up to the cradle herself, looked at the boy and smiled tenderly at him.
And the father, returning from the field, approached his son and lifted him into his arms. Safar grew up quickly and was a healthy and strong boy. In the evenings, he went out to meet his father, took the rod from his hands and himself drove the cattle into the barn.
Suddenly Safar's mother fell ill. Lying in bed, the patient spoke only... about her son, worried about his fate.
“If I die, don’t offend your son, take care of him, feel sorry for him,” she repeated to her husband.
A few days later she died.
After her death, Safar's father soon married the widow, who also recently buried her husband. She had a son older than Safar.
The stepmother did not feel sorry for Safar. In the morning she woke him up very early and sent him to graze cattle high on the mountain. She gave him bran cake, and this was his food for the whole day. Safar was thin and weak.
One day Safar drove the herd to the mountains, sat down on a stone near a spring, soaked a flat cake in it and began to eat it. But then he remembered his mother and cried bitterly.
Suddenly he felt someone pulling his sleeve. He wiped his tears and looked back. A mountain chamois stood in front of him and looked at him with kind motherly eyes.
Safar was surprised because mountain chamois are shy and run away from people. And the chamois came closer to him, finished his cake, lay down next to him and fed Safar with her milk.
From then on, Safar became stronger and more beautiful day by day, and the stepmother’s son lost weight, turned pale and completely withered.
The stepmother looked at her stepson with envy and decided to find out who was feeding him. She hid behind a stone to which at noon Safar drove the cattle to rest, and saw how the chamois fed Safar. The stepmother was very angry and wanted to catch the chamois.
But the chamois put Safar on her back and rushed off with him far, far away. She brought him to a lushly blooming garden, gave the boy a reed and said:
“If anything happens to you, blow on this reed, and wherever I am, I will immediately come running to your aid.”
Safar made himself a hut under an elm tree and went to bed.
In the morning, the padishah's daughter Sadbarg went for a walk in the garden with her maids. She noticed Safar's hut, looked into it and saw a handsome young man whom she liked. She entered the hut and began to talk with Safar. He told her about himself, and the girl felt sorry for him. They felt so good with each other that they didn’t want to part.
“However, I need to go home,” said the girl. “Father will look for me.” And if he finds us together, he will order both of us to have our heads taken off. I'll come to you tomorrow.
The next day, when Sadbarg came to Safar, the padishah was walking in the garden. He saw a hut, entered it and found his daughter with an unfamiliar young man. In anger, the padishah ordered Safar and Sadbarg to be thrown into prison.
Then Safar remembered the chamois, which promised to help him in trouble. He took out a reed from his bosom and blew softly into it.
A chamois suddenly appeared. With her hooves, one after another, she broke through the doors of the dungeon. But the last door was cast iron. Chamois hit her so hard that, breaking through the door, she broke her hooves and fell at the entrance.
Sadbarg joyfully started to run, but Safar did not want to leave the chamois. He lifted her onto his shoulders and carried her. Sadbarg walked behind, holding Safar with her hands.
Not a single guard moved as they left, and no one stopped them.
So they left the city. Then Safar felt that his burden was becoming lighter and lighter with every turn of the road. And suddenly the chamois disappeared.
But Safar and Sadbarg were already far from the padishah and could live in peace.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru