Two brothers were hunting deer.
“Both of you look in the same direction,” the father said to the brothers. And the younger brother Indiga follows his brother and keeps looking around: Indiga was very quick-eyed, he didn’t like to look in one place.
The brothers walked and walked. Indiga looks around. Suddenly he hears some noise. He turned around - and from behind a dead tree a tiger was jumping at his older brother! He didn’t even point the spear, and didn’t have time to take out the knife. Indiga was next. He should throw a spear at a tiger! And Indiga’s heart became like a hare: his younger brother was afraid. He fell to the ground, folded his hands together, and asked the tiger to pass by, not to touch him and his brother.
Indiga lay there for a long time, then he raised his head and looked - there was no tiger or brother. Both are missing. Indiga's heart sank. He began to call his brother. He screamed and shouted, but no one responded. Indiga sat down and began to think. I thought for a long time: I have purged all the tobacco, I have purged all the moss around. His heart hurts. Indiga thinks: “I’ve lost my brother. It’s a bad thing to lose a brother. My heart hurts. If you lose the tube, you won’t rest until you find it! And I lost my brother... However, I’ll go look for Solomdiga. If I find him, my heart will stop hurting! If I’m lost, my heart will stop hurting!”
Indiga went to his mother. He knelt down. He told me everything. He told how he got a hare's heart. His mother kissed him. He tells him, crying:
— Your father taught you to look forward. You didn’t listen - you lost your brother, you found a hare’s heart. Go look for a man's heart. Go look for your brother. Because of your fear, he disappeared. Only with courage will you bring him back now!
Indiga took a pipe, a knife and a spear. He went, but Indiga didn’t know where to go. I went into the sunset...
I met a crawling snake and asked where to look for my brother. He doesn't really know. I moved on. I met a mouse running on the ground. He asked if he had seen Solomdiga. Didn't see the mouse. Indiga went further. I saw a squirrel climbing trees. I asked. No, I didn’t see my brother’s squirrel. I approached the river and saw fish swimming. I asked the fish if they had seen Solomdiga. We didn't see any fish. Indiga moved on. I asked the jumping toad. The toad didn't see it. I saw a flying warbler and asked. The warbler replies that she hasn’t seen Solomdiga - she’s flying low. The crane, taller than the flying one, asked. The crane did not see.
Says:
- Ask the eagle, the highest flying one.
Indiga the eagle began to ask if the eagle had seen where the tiger had taken his brother Solomdiga.
Eagle says:
- Your brother is far away! You can find it if you endure seven fears. Now you have the heart of a hare. When you have the heart of a brave man, then you will find your brother! “The eagle dropped one feather and said: “I’ll help you.” Wherever my feather flies, go there!
An eagle feather flies. Indiga jumped over six streams, climbed over six hills, and crossed six rivers.
So he went out into the swamp. The feather flies straight, what should Indiga do? He began to throw those branches into the swamp. I began to walk on those branches. Branches are immersed in swamp water. The swamp is bubbling. Blue lights flutter across it. Indiga reached the core of the swamp. There is a hunchbacked little man standing on the road. That man has one leg, he has one arm. Indiga was frightened: his heart began to beat, his arms and legs trembled. Indig recognized that man, even though he had never seen him before. That man's name is Boko. He only harms people. He drives through the swamp until the quagmire sucks him in.
Boko says:
-Where are you going, boy?
“I’m looking for you,” Indiga answers (what does he have to lose!)
“Here I am,” says Boko. -Why do you need me?
“I heard from people,” Indiga says then, “that your one leg is stronger than two... I can’t believe it.” I came here to have a look. Let's see who can jump the highest. Nobody jumps better than me.
“You jump,” says Boko.
Indiga jumped. He jumped higher than the tree. He flew down, spread his legs, and stood on the branches. He went into the swamp up to his waist. Those bitches didn't let him drown.
Boko laughed:
- Is that how they jump? - speaks. - That's how it should be!
He sat down on his one leg, straightened up - and how he jumped! He flew up to the clouds, turned upside down, and flew back.
And Indiga, let’s continue to move the branches and get out of the swamp...
Boko fell and went into the quagmire. While I was getting out and rubbing my eyes, Indiga came out onto solid ground. It stands on level ground. Now Boko is not afraid of him.
I went further.
Indiga jumped over nine streams, crossed nine hills, nine lakes, walked through nine forests. He walks barefoot, his feet ground to the bone on the stones. And he went out into the stone gorge.
This is where he became most frightened: there were living stones all around! They turn around, look after him, sway, and speak to each other in stone language. The feather flies on. Indiga is behind him.
Suddenly Indiga sees a man standing among the stones. He is not an ordinary man: his head is like a radish, his legs are crooked, this man is so tall that you have to lift your head up to see his face. I had never met such an Indiga before, but I immediately recognized who was standing in front of him: Kakzamu, an evil mountain man. Poor Indiga stood, his heart was beating, his arms and legs were shaking, his hair stood on end from fear. However, the guy says to himself: “This is not fear yet. Fear is ahead.” He bowed to Kakzam.
He asks: . - What do you want here?
Indiga tells him, already considering himself lost:
- Hey, neighbor, you say you have great power!
“What they say is true,” Kakzamu answers. - Do you see stones lying around? These were all people, but I turned them into stones. Let my cliffs and everything below them be guarded. And now I’ll turn you into stone!
He touched Indiga's hand. Indiga's hand became stone. Indiga cannot move her hand, she cannot lift it. The hand became black. Indiga almost died of fear.
But he plucked up his courage and said:
- Uh, my grandfather knew how to do this! But this power is not great - to make a stone out of living meat. Make living meat out of stone! My grandfather knew how, but he died long ago! Now no one can.
He answers Indiga:
- My strength, my power: I will do what I want! He touched Indiga's hand. The hand became alive again.
Hot blood ran through her, and her hand began to move.
- Uh, that's not all! - Indiga shouts. “Come on, bend over to me and I’ll tell you in my ear what my grandfather knew and took with him!”
The mountain man bent down to Indiga. He lent his ear. He rolls his eyes. The nostrils are big enough to fit a whole fist. Indig pulled out the tobacco pouch and all the tobacco from his belt and poured it into Kakzam’s nose.
Kakzamu began to sneeze. Sneezed, sneezed... All
the strength came out through his nose. When the power comes again, time will disappear... And Indiga will run away. Escaped from Kakzamu.
The feather flew into the sunset - Indiga followed it.
I don’t know how long it took. Crossed three streams. A feather flies ahead. Indiga looks forward, as his father taught. Indiga walks, having lost his brother.
The guy reached the river. An eagle feather flew across the river. Indiga made a boat and threw it on the water. The river began to foam, seethe, rustle, and boil. Like water boiling in a cauldron... Steam rose from the water. The fog rolled across the valleys. Indiga's boat shriveled, warped, and sank. The fish in that river were boiled, swimming with their bellies up, looking at Indigo with white eyes. The guy felt scared, but he had to do the job, otherwise he would forever have a hare’s heart. He says to himself: “This is not fear yet. Fear is yet to come.”
Indiga pointed his bow between two trees. He pulled the string and caught it with a branch. He placed the arrow on the bow. He grabbed the arrow with one hand and broke the twig with the other. The twig bounced off. The bowstring broke. — The bow bent. The arrow flew. She flew across the boiling river. Steam billows around Indiga and burns. Indiga endures... The river was wide. While the guy was flying, he got burned all over. “Nothing,” he says, “it will heal.”
An arrow landed on the other side. Indiga stood up. He sees that the eagle feather is waiting for him. As soon as the guy stepped on the ground, the feather flew further. Indiga is behind him!
He jumped over one stream, ran around six lakes, walked through nine forests. He erased his legs to the bone.
Indiga walked and walked and saw a stone wall standing. You can’t go around that wall, you can’t climb over that wall: to the left, to the right - the wall stretches across the entire earth, the clouds cover its top.
An eagle feather hit that wall and scattered into dust, as if it had never been there.
This is where it has become. Indigo is scared. It’s so scary that there are no words to describe it. You can’t take that wall by force! You can't take that wall with cunning! Indiga began to cry and looked at himself. The legs are worn down to the bones. Hands are burned. Clothes are in tatters. My stomach stuck to my back from hunger. Indiga suffered a lot of fear, but his brother was nowhere to be seen! Indig pulled out a knife and said:
“I won’t go back - none of my relatives went back.” I will cut out my hare heart...; Shame from the face of the morning...
He put a knife to his chest. Suddenly he sees a door appearing in the wall. What other fear is behind it?
Indiga overcame himself: “How can I be afraid! I’m a man.”
He suddenly hears a man’s heart beating in his chest. He took the spear in his hand. He hit as hard as he could with his spear. The door swung open. Ready for anything, Indiga jumped through that door... A tiger runs out to meet him. And suddenly... What is it?
The guy sees him standing in the place where he lost his brother. And there is no wall.
There is a flower around the saran, burning with a red flame, birds chirping...
And right in front of Indiga stands his brother Solomdiga. A brother is standing, holding a beautiful girl by the hand. I have never seen Indiga so beautiful. The girl’s eyelashes are like reeds, her eyes are yellow, like the sun shining. The girl is wearing a yellow wedding robe. There are black stripes on the robe, like on a tiger skin.
Solomdiga says:
- Thank you, brother! You weren't afraid of anything for me!
The girl smiles at Indige. Says:
- I am a tiger kind of person. I fell in love with your brother. That's why she took him to her place. I just see that you can’t live without your brother. I asked the Tiger Master to visit ordinary people. I will now live with you. I can live with you - you are brave people!
They held hands and walked together. The mother was delighted. She took their father’s coin and handed it to Indiga.
- Take the spear, son. Your father received this spear from Dedea... Now you are worthy to wear it, because you have the heart of a true brave man.
Solomdiga and the girl became husband and wife. And Indiga learned to look forward - and he never had a hare’s heart again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru