Once upon a time, a long time ago, a son was born into a peasant family. The guy grew up strong, healthy, and smart. And when he grew up, his parents decided to marry him. The guy took it all - his intelligence, his stature, his beauty, and they married him to the daughter of a rich man. The bride's parents gave as a dowry seven horses, seven cows and countless sheep.
The young people have healed well. But less than two years later, his wife died. The widowed young man grieved, suffered, and then married again. As a dowry and for this wife, he received seven horses, seven cows and countless sheep. But the young man, a peasant son, was again unlucky: soon this wife also died.
So he married seven times and for each new bride he received as a dowry seven horses, seven cows and countless sheep.
The hapless husband's seventh wife also died. And after her, the young man’s old parents also died. He remained the owner of a whole herd of horses, a herd of cows and a countless, uncountable number of sheep. However, happiness still passed him by. And then more troubles and adversities rained down on his head one after another.
Somehow, unexpectedly, a pestilence attacked the cows and horses, and after a short time all the sheep were strangled by wolves.
All the wealth of our young man disappeared like dust in the wind. All he had left was a large house with outbuildings and a garden with a lake in the middle. Behind the garden - what else to do? - He began to court.
How much time has passed, the owner noticed that three gray doves began to fly into his garden at dawn. He decided to watch for the pigeons and see what they were doing in his garden. One day, in the evening, he hid in the bushes, waited for the birds to arrive, and saw that the doves had turned into girls, thrown off their dresses and began to swim in the lake. The fellow quietly crept up, took the dress of one of the girls and carried it into the bushes.
After swimming, the girls came out of the water. Two of them got dressed, turned into doves and flew away, and the third, not finding her dress, prayed:
- Give me back, good fellow, my dress!
“You are bathing in my lake and, who knows, maybe you have enchanted the water,” the owner of the garden answered the girl. “And we drank this water ourselves, and we also fed the cattle with it.” Was it because of this that my wives died and pestilence struck my cows and horses?
“No, we are not witches,” said the girl. “We fly here because the place here is too beautiful.”
The young man believed the girl’s words and asked:
“Then don’t you know why my wives don’t live and why I don’t have any cattle?”
“I don’t know,” answered the girl, “but my mother, perhaps, knows.”
“Okay, I’ll let you go,” the young man said and gave the dress to the girl. “But where and how will I see you later?”
“You take the splint off the young sticky girl and give me a knife,” the girl answered. “I will cut the splint off into small pieces and throw it on the road.” Using these pieces you will find our home.
The owner of the garden cut down a young linden tree, removed the bark from it and gave it to the girl along with the knife. She cut off one piece of splint, then another, and disappeared from sight.
The peasant son set off along the agreed trail on the little path and only seven years later he arrived at the place.
It turned out that the girls who flew like doves to the lake to swim were the sisters of the Sun himself. And now their old mother came out to meet the young man.
The peasant's son told the old woman why he came here. She listened to him and answered:
- I don’t know, I don’t know. Son, the Sun probably knows, but you can’t wait for him:
if he appears, he may destroy you.
Here the daughters intervened in the conversation:
- Come on, mom, let’s hide this man before his brother arrives. We will first tell our brother why he came to us, and if the brother does not get angry, we will show him. If my brother is not in a good mood, we will ask him everything we need, and then, when he leaves again in the morning, we will tell our guest.
And so they did.
Late in the evening the Sun appeared, tired after a hard day's work.
“It looks like some man came to us,” said the Sun. “How dare he, because I can burn him like a simple straw!”
His mother and sisters began to persuade him:
- Why do you need to burn a guest, he is already heartbroken and came to you for wisdom, for reason.
“Well, if so,” the Sun had mercy, “then prepare the food as quickly as possible and invite a guest - we’ll have dinner together.”
The sisters prepared dinner. The sun placed the peasant's son next to him, and they spent the rest of the evening in a good feast.
Apparently, the Sun looked at the good fellow, the peasant son, for something, because the next morning it said to him:
— Yesterday was a hard day, I was very tired. Maybe today you will walk across the sky instead of me? The peasant son agreed:
- Why not walk around? Looks like it. The sun dressed him in his dazzling clothes, put him on his horse and punished him:
“Don’t rush the horse, he himself knows what step to take.” At the time of early breakfast, you will meet Pihambar (the Chuvash god, the patron saint of livestock) with a green bowl in his hands filled with a well-fed (honey drink). Don’t stop near him and don’t drink your fill, but just bow to him and follow on. By late breakfast, you will meet Pyulehse (the deity who distributes blessings) with the same cup in his hand, filled with food. Don’t stop near him and don’t drink your fill, but bow and continue. At noon the Torah himself will meet with a green cup in his hand, filled with food. And don’t drink your fill from him, just bow and follow on. Finally, you will see food for the horse. The horse is at least a little, but you need to feed it and only then you can set off on the journey to home. The peasant son listened to the Sun, took on his form and, dazzlingly shining with golden clothes, set out on the road.
Then he met Pihambar with a green cup in his hand. He stood by the road and patiently waited for the Sun to approach him. A young man in the image of the Sun caught up with him, took the outstretched cup in his hands, drank his fill, threw the empty cup over the god’s head and rode on.
Everything repeated itself when meeting with Pyulehse. Well done Sun drank his fill, put the empty cup on the god’s head and moved on.
But the great Torah himself appeared by the road. But the peasant’s son treated him just as disrespectfully as he treated his younger gods: he drank his fill and placed the empty cup on the head of the Torah.
Finally we came across a place with food for the horse. The young man fed the horse and turned towards the house.
Tora, after meeting him, thought: “What happened to the Sun? It allowed itself unheard-of insolence! Something is wrong here. I’ll go ask Pyulehse.” But when he began to tell Pyulehse about his meeting with the Sun, he also complained that he was covered with an overturned bowl.
They went together to Pihambar. But Pihambar also said:
The Sun also hit me on the head with an empty bowl!
After this, there was nothing left to do but go to the Sun with all three of us and demand an explanation from him.
The peasant's son had not yet finished his workday, and the Sun, suspecting nothing, slept at home. Tora woke him up and said:
“How have we angered you, if today you hit each of us on the head with a bowl?”
The sun, from his sleep, did not immediately understand what he was talking about, then he answered:
- Yesterday I had a hard day, I was very tired and asked my guest to walk for me. But I didn't punish him to do anything bad!
While they were talking like this, the peasant’s son returned riding on a sunny horse. And as soon as he managed to show himself, the gods began to reprimand him for his unheard-of insolence.
“Pikhambar should have been hit harder for not stopping his dogs: the wolves strangled all my sheep,” they heard in response.
“Okay,” said Pyulehse, “why did you cover me with a bowl?”
- Don’t you understand? - answered the peasant son. - Because it was not written in my family to live a century with one wife. I married seven times, and not a single wife is left alive - is this really the case?
“I see,” Tora said. “But with me, how dare you treat me like that?” Why didn't I please you?
- And because he didn’t destined me for a happy life. My parents lived like people, but you condemned me to spend my life in misery.
The gods listen to the peasant son, but they don’t know what to object to his words: after all, everything he says is the absolute truth. They began to consult with each other, began to think about what the good young man should do so that he would quickly get rich and live happily.
Tora said:
- Let him engage in theft - the surest and shortest path to wealth!
Pihambar and Pyulekhse agreed with the Torah: let the peasant's son steal.
And he, having heard the decision of the gods, came out of the palace of the Sun, saw the saddled horse of the Torah, instantly took off the silver saddle from it and was off.
Thora, who came out after the young man, immediately discovered the loss.
- What miracles - there was a saddle, and there is no saddle! - Tora was indignant. - And from whom it was stolen - from the most important god! Otherwise, this is the work of a swindler who worked for the Sun. Let's catch up with him and take away the saddle.
The gods of goodness caught up with the young man and asked:
“Why, you impudent one, did you steal Tora’s saddle?”
“So the Torah himself determined that I should live by stealing,” the peasant son answered very simply. “I thought: if the Torah is not angry for the loss and does not look for it, then people will not be angry with me either.” That's why I decided to steal from the Torah first.
- How can people not be angry with a thief? - Tora could not stand it. “Everyone feels sorry for his own good!”
- And if so, why did you send me on the path of theft? — the young man objected quite reasonably.
Once again the peasant's son baffled the gods. They thought and thought about how they could get rid of him, and this is what Pyulehse suggested:
“One king has a beautiful daughter, but she is blind from birth. And in the same kingdom-state there is an area where grass does not grow even along the banks of the river. We will do whatever it takes! - so that grass will begin to grow in that area. We will make dew fall on the grown grass for three mornings in a row, and let the blind princess be taken to the grass these three mornings, collect dew from it in a bowl and wash her eyes with that dew. Then the princess will see the light, and the king will marry her to our young man. Well done, the guy will immediately become rich and happy!
- I should have said that a long time ago! - Tora grumbled. “And then we’re racking our brains as to why, but everything, it turns out, can be arranged very simply.”
And he punished the peasant son:
— Did you hear what Pyulehse said? Look, do everything exactly. And don’t even think about hitting the Tsar on the head with a cup, otherwise we have nothing to do with you!
Advised by the gods, the peasant son went to the thirtieth kingdom, in which the blind princess lived. And having arrived at the capital of that kingdom, he began to wander around the taverns and loudly boast:
“If the king gave his daughter for me, I would cure her of blindness!”
For such boasting, for the fact that he once again reminded of the grief of the royal family, the guards grabbed the young man and, just in case, put him in jail. However, the rumor that a man had been found who could cure the princess of blindness reached the royal palace. The king called the young man to his place and asked:
“Is it true what they say that you boasted of curing my daughter?”
“If you give her in marriage to me, I will cure you,” answered the peasant son.
- If only he could cure it, I’ll give it back! - the king promised.
The peasant son, together with the princess, went to the bank of that river where the grass did not grow. Following them, many people came there to see the miraculous healing of the king’s daughter from blindness.
When the young man and the princess came to the river, not a single blade of grass was visible on its banks. But then the banks began to sprout with thick grass, and by evening they were completely covered with greenery. And by morning heavy dew fell. They collected the dew in a bowl and washed the princess’s eyes with it. The princess said that she was beginning to see. Meanwhile, the grass rose higher and thicker. The next morning the dew fell even more heavily. They collected it again in a bowl and again washed the eyes of the king’s daughter. The princess almost completely regained her sight and became cheerful and joyful. And the grass keeps growing and growing. On the third morning the dew fell and was completely unprecedented. She was collected again and again given to the princess to wash. The girl completely recovered and became even more beautiful than she was.
The peasant son returned with his bride to the royal palace. The king asks his daughter:
- Do your eyes see now?
“When we approached the city, I saw you seventeen miles away on the balcony,” answered the daughter.
The father didn't believe it. He went out with his daughter to the courtyard, deliberately dropped a needle among the wood chips and hay dust and began to look for it. The daughter asked:
- What are you looking for, father?
“I dropped the needle and I can’t find it,” said the king.
“Yes, there it lies!” said the daughter, seeing the needle from afar. She immediately picked it up and handed it to her father. “This one?”
The father had no choice but to answer:
- This one is the same.
The king kept his word, married his daughter, who had regained her sight, to a peasant son and threw a feast for the whole world. And after his death he left the kingdom to his son-in-law. They said that a peasant son ruled the kingdom-state well. This is understandable: if he could work for the Sun, then even more so for the Tsar.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru