On the sunny side of a peaked mountain on the shore of a milky lake there lived a boy. He was as tall as a kid. The boy sewed himself a spacious hat from two squirrel skins. His feet were shod in goat fur tassels. The boy had a round face like the moon, and he never cried.
One day Ak-Kaan came to the milk lake on a white horse. I heard a gentle ringing.
- What's happened?
He leaned over the saddle. With the handle of his whip he parted the bushes and saw a round-faced boy. The baby sat on his haunches, blew into the dry stem of a flower, and the stem sang like a golden pipe.
-What is your name, child?
- My name is Rystu - Happy.
- Who are your parents?
My father is a mountain, my mother is a lake.
- How do you know this?
“The mountain feeds me with flower tubers, the lake gives me water.”
Ak-Kaan really liked the kid’s answer.
- Do you want to be my child, dear Rystu? I will sew you a silk fur coat, feed you delicious food, and give you an agile horse.
Rystu jumped onto the horse's croup, hugged Ak-Kaan, and they rode to the palace. Then the khan grabbed the baby by the collar and put him on the ground:
- You will herd my white cattle!
In winter, Rystu drove his herds from the mountains to the valleys. In spring and autumn, day and night, he drove cattle. Snow and rain did not spare him. The wind blew angrily. The boots on my feet began to sag. The fur coat had dried to the shoulders. The eyes* learned to cry. The mouth began to sing plaintive songs. But no one wanted to see him cry. No one wanted to hear him cry. Rystu tripped once. fell into the grass and didn’t notice how he fell asleep. In his dream, a wrinkled old man approached him.
- You. My son, when he lived alone on the mountain, did not know how to cry. I didn’t know sad songs. Why are you moaning so bitterly in your sleep?
— My legs hurt. My arms are tired. My stomach is cold. I can't run after cows day and night!
The old man stroked his crutch and straightened his mustache; his eyes became very narrow.
- And you, son, when you want to lie down, tell the cows: “Poop!” If you want to run, tell the cows: “Tap-Tazhlan”
Rystu opened his eyes and saw the sun overhead.
“Moo...” the cows mooed and wandered in different directions.
- Poop! - Rystu shouted. The cows immediately lay down.
Now the baby is cheerful again. He sat all day on the river bank and teased the birds. And the cows lay and even
didn’t dare to moo. But lying down they could not hiss the grass and began to lose weight. Ak-Kaan noticed this.
- You're lazy, you don't know how to herd cows! Are you a boy? Now I’ll make you beat me like a girl!
And Ryst began to stir the sour chegen with a long stick day and night. The boy's hands did not rest. The eyes did not close. Ak-Kaan's wife drove araku from Chegen and treated everyone. who came to the palace. Guests and servants were always lying around drunk. And the boy Rystu stood and worked.
- What kind of work is this! - the drunken Khansha grumbled. - Is it really that much of a hindrance? Now I’ll take a knife and cut your head open! I’ll take a pike and gouge out your heart!
The khan had two children. They always squeaked like blind puppies. That's when the girl began to take away from her brother
goat grandmothers. The boy held the bones tightly and hummed. The girl scratched and screamed.
- Poop! - Rystu shouted, and the girl’s hand stuck to her brother’s head.
The Khansha saw this.
- What's wrong with you, my children? - she cried, hugging her son and daughter. “It would be better if this happened to someone else’s boy!”
- Poop! - Rystu whispered.
And the Khansha stuck to the children.
“Are you drunk, or what?” asked Ak-Kaaya. He raised his hand and hit the Khansha. Rystu had his say
“Puff!”, and the khan’s palm stuck to his wife’s shoulder.
And Rystu cut off his pipe and began to play like a bird fluttering in the sky.
- You dirty, wormy Rystu! Run and call the best Kams,” the khan wheezed.
Rystu brought all the Kams from all the camps, and each took a fat mare for the sacrifice. The Kams slaughtered a lot of cattle and drank all the araka, but they could not cure the khan’s family.
All the kama, shaking their heads and belching fatty food, sat silently around the glued family. Finally the most
old said:
“Where the earth merges with the sky, it is on this line that the great Teldekpey-kam lives. He alone can cure the khan.
Rystu ran after Teldekpei.
The Great Teldekpey arrived at the Khan's court on a blue bull. He spat through his teeth.
- If I can’t cure such a disease, then where is mine?
glory?! I won’t have time to finish my pipes before they’re gone.
Thus boasting, Kam Teldekpei dismounted, sat down on the green grass, took a flint from his belt to strike a spark for the pipe, but then little Rystu said:
- You, such a big man, why sit on the damp grass? Better sit down on a warm stone.
Kam Teldekpei slowly stood up and sat down importantly on a white stone.
- Poop! - Rystu said quietly.
Teldekpei-kam lit his long pipe. Everyone looks at him breathlessly.
“I’ll smoke this pipe, and you, Khan, will be healthy and happy.”
But he smoked both the second and third pipes, and the khan and his family sat, stuck to each other, as before.
Kam Teldekpei stood up, and a white stone rose from the ground with him. Teldekpei-kam immediately sat back down. The Great Kam was ashamed to stand with a stone stuck to the place where people were sitting. Teldekpei's eyes nearly bulged out of their lids.
- What kind of stone is this, my child Rystu?
“An ordinary stone,” the kid answers. - Stone from the mountain. Bow down to the master of the mountains. Teldekpei pressed his forehead to the ground.
- Poop! - Rystu shouted.
And people saw that Kam could not raise his head.
- Ah, so this is your joke, shameless Rystu? - the khan howled. - Now I’ll kill you!
Rystu raised his right hand. His moon-like face turned red.
- Tap-Tazhlan! - he said, and the khan’s family rolled off in different directions.
The Great Teldekpey-kam lifted his forehead from the ground, jumped from the stone into the saddle, and no one saw him again. Little Rystu approached the freed khan.
- Well, now kill me! You wanted.
Khan was trembling like a mouse clutched in the palm of his hand. Hansha stood there like a big frog. The children hid.
And young Rystu stepped through the golden threshold and boldly sat down on the golden throne. I sat for a while and shouted to myself:
- Tap-Tazhlan!
The throne jumped, and Rystu, flying off the throne, ran to the milk lake, to the flowering mountain.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru