“Sosruko, let’s go hunting,” Badynoko said one day.
Ever since they became friends, they began to hunt together. Their horses were not inferior to each other, their greyhounds, their eagles were equal in strength and agility, not a single doe escaped their arrow.
The hunters saw a black fox on the forest edge. Both of them at the same moment shouted to the dogs, and the dogs rushed towards the fox: Sosruko’s dogs on the left, Badynoko’s dogs on the right, they chased the black fox.
The Narts shot arrows at once, and both arrows hit the target: Sosruko’s arrow in the fox’s left eye, Badynoko’s arrow in the right eye. At the same moment the sledge drove up to the fox: Sosruko on the left, Badynoko on the right. Both of them grabbed the fox: Sosruko - by the front legs, Badynoko - by the hind legs.
- My fox! - said Sosruko.
- My! - Badynoko objected.
“Look: my arrow hit her left eye,” Sosruko exclaimed.
“And mine is in the right eye,” said Badynoko.
The hunters began to argue. Mazitha, the cheerful god of forests and hunting, heard them. He jumped from the oak tree. He wore a turkish skin and held a walnut bow in his hand. He approached the sledge:
- Happy hunting, hunters!
- May your animals multiply, may your forests grow! - the sledges greeted him.
-What are you arguing about? - asked Mazitha.
“We can’t divide the fox,” said Sosruko. “I say: “My fox,” and Badynoko says: “My fox!”
Mazitha placed the dead black fox in front of him and said:
“I will give this fox skin to someone who needs it most.” Do you agree, Narts?
“We agree,” answered the hunters. Mazitha asked:
- Sosruko, tell me: what do you need the fox skin for?
And Sosruko began his long story:
“I was a frequent guest of a certain girl. I did not come to her empty-handed, but one day the hunt was unsuccessful, I came to my beloved without a gift.
“Why didn’t you bring me anything, Sosruko?” she said. - If you love me, give me a black fox. Until you find a black fox, don’t come.
What could I do? I went in search of a black fox. I traveled across the steppes and mountains, but did not find a black fox. Saddened by my failure, I was returning from hunting and suddenly a gray fox jumped out of the bushes. “Black and gray are the same thing,” I thought and killed the gray fox.
I came to my beloved, brought her the skin of a gray fox, and she said:
- I demanded a black fox, I don’t need a gray one! You didn’t fulfill my order, so turn into an old dog!
And she hit me with a bronze whip, and I became an old dog.
What was I supposed to do? I was a dog, I lived in my beloved's yard. And other Narts came to her - Shauey, Khimish, Imys, Uazyrmes, they came, drank sano, sang songs, walked until the morning. What was it like for me to watch this? I couldn't stand it and ran away.
Wandering around the world, I met a shepherd: he was driving a flock from the pasture. I stuck to this flock, and the shepherd did not drive me away. We arrived at the village. The Nart shepherd Kuitsuk lived in this village. When I passed by him, he looked at me, and from his eyes I realized that he recognized me...
The wife of my shepherd owner suffered from a serious illness. I was sick for seven years and couldn’t walk. Not a single medicine, not a single potion could help her.
In the evening Kuitsuk came to the shepherd and told him to lock me in the room where the sick woman lay for the night. And so they did. I crawled under the bed and lay down. Suddenly I heard a noise in the fireplace. A witch entered the room through the fireplace. She began to suck blood from the shepherd's wife. Could I stand it? Smart Kuitsuk knew that I couldn’t stand it, that’s why he gave his advice. I grabbed the witch with my teeth. She begged:
- Sosruko, let me go, someday you will need my help!
“I’ll let you go, but first heal the sick woman,” I said.
The witch poured all the blood that she had sucked from the shepherd’s sick wife into the cup and said:
- In the morning, wash the patient with this blood.
I let the witch go. In the morning, when the shepherd came to visit his wife, I dipped my paw in the blood and stroked the sick one with my paw. The shepherd guessed what needed to be done and bathed his wife in a bowl of blood. The patient recovered immediately.
The rumor about the miraculous healing of the shepherd’s wife spread throughout all the yards: and how could the shepherd keep silent about it! Both old and young came to look at me. I didn’t like that they were looking at me like it was a miracle, and I ran away. The road led me to my beloved's house. The sledges were sitting next to her, drinking sano, drinking and saying:
- Poor Sosruko, he’s somewhere now!
- He would writhe with jealousy when he found out that we are feasting here!
Hearing these words, I got angry and barked. What was I supposed to do? I was a dog and could only bark. So I barked.
My beloved recognized me. She came out to me with a bronze whip, hit me and quietly, so that the guests would not know about her witchcraft, said:
- Turn into a rooster!
I became a rooster and, flapping my wings, flew up the fence.
“I won’t tolerate the Narts feasting on my girl, and me being a rooster!” - I shouted. But instead of screaming, it turned out to be crowing: after all, I was a rooster.
Suddenly I looked at the neighboring yard and saw that a woman was winnowing millet. I recognized her: it was the witch who tormented the shepherd’s wife. I jumped off the fence and began pecking at the millet. The witch told me:
- Sosruko, wait until the morning. I will help you because you helped me.
At midnight the witch snuck across the hearth to my beloved and stole the bronze whip. In the morning she entered the chicken coop, hit me with a bronze whip, and I again became a sled.
“If you wish, punish your beloved,” said the witch and gave me a bronze whip.
I entered the house and saw the owner. Imys slept next to her.
- Become donkeys! - I shouted and hit both of them with a bronze whip. My beloved turned into a donkey, Imys into a donkey. O Mazitha, and you, Badynoko, you can see them in my field: every day I harness them and plow.
Now you know, Mazitha, why I need a black fox: I will put the skin on my shoulders so that my donkey, her former lover, will see this skin, so that she will understand: when Sosruko wants to get the black fox, he will get it!”
After listening to Sosruko, the god of forests and hunting said:
- Now tell me, Badynoko: why do you need the skin of a black fox?
Badynoko said:
“In my village, next door to me, there lives a poor woman, the mother of three boys, who lives on what the sledges give her. Her boys are good, no worse than other Nart children, but they walk around in rags, they don’t even have a hat. So I want to take this fox skin to three boys - I’ll make a hat for each of them.
And the god of forests and hunting gave Badynoko the skin of a black fox.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru