Kuitsuk lived in poverty with two older shepherd brothers. The elder brother, taking with him his only goat, went to seek his fortune. On the way, he met an inyzh plowing on two black bulls.
- Good harvest, inyzh! - said the shepherd.
- Good health, baby! - answered the one-eyed giant.
- Is there any work? - asked the shepherd.
- There will be work. The only agreement is this: you will work while the cuckoo crows. If you do everything I command without getting angry, I will give you an ox as payment. If you get angry, I will cut three straps from your back and let you go with nothing. And if I get angry, I’ll also give you a bull.
“Okay, we agreed,” said the shepherd.
“Then take the plow and plow, and I’ll take the goat.” You will plow until the evening, and in the evening follow my black bulls - they know the way, - said the inyzh and went home with the goat.
Kuitsuk's older brother plowed all day. In the evening, he harnessed the bulls to the cart and, singing, rode to the inizha's courtyard. He opened the doors of the house just as he was removing the smoking cauldron from the fireplace. There lay the shepherd's boiled goat.
“Find a bench that is not wooden, not stone, not clay, and sit down at the table,” said the foreigner. While the shepherd was looking for a bench that was not wooden, not stone, or clay, he ate his goat.
- What a tasty goat! You should have brought in more of them so that you could eat one every day for lunch,” said the foreigner.
- You ate my goat! - exclaimed the angry shepherd.
“Aren’t you ashamed to be angry over such a trifle,” the foreigner said calmly.
- He ate my goat, and he even reproaches me! - the shepherd shouted.
“We agreed that you won’t be angry!” - said the inyzh and, having cut three belts from the shepherd’s back, he released him.
When Kuitsuk's elder brother, bent over, was walking home, the middle brother's wife looked in his direction and said to her husband:
“There’s the elder one coming, dragging away the good he’s earned by force, and you’re sitting at home!”
Then the middle brother, taking with him his only goat, set off on the journey. He also hired himself out as a farm laborer to the foreigner and, like his elder brother, returned home bent over because the evil and cunning foreigner cut three belts from his back.
And Kuitsuk’s wife, glancing sideways in his direction, said to her husband:
- Here comes the middle brother, dragging away the goods by force! And you're sitting at home!
Then, taking with him his only goat, Kuitsuk left the house. Having met an inyzha who was plowing with three black bulls, he, following the example of his older brothers, hired himself out to him.
“If you work without getting angry until the cuckoo crows, you will get a bull.” If you get angry, I’ll cut three straps from your back. “And if I get angry, then you will get a bull from me,” said the foreigner.
When Kuitsuk unharnessed the oxen from the cart and entered the house, he took the cauldron with Kuitsuk's boiled goat from the fireplace.
“Take a bench, not wooden, not stone, not clay, and sit down at the table,” said the other, starting to eat goat meat.
Without hesitation, Kuitsuk took his hat off his head and sat down on it. While Inyzh swallowed a piece, Kuitsuk swallowed three. So they ate the goat.
- We had a great lunch! “We should have brought in more of these goats so that we could eat one every day,” said the foreigner, wiping his mouth.
- I brought as many as I had! - Kuytsuk answered calmly, but Inyzh remained silent.
The next day it was time to sow.
“When you cross the river, stand in the middle and don’t move,” he ordered his black bulls. “Kuitsuk will get angry and come to me to scold me.”
He loaded two full sacks of millet onto a cart and sent Kuitsuk to sow. When they crossed the river, the bulls reached the middle and began to drink water. No matter how much Kuitsuk urged them on, they did not budge.
“The stupid foreigner overloaded the front of the cart and rubbed the bulls’ necks,” said Kuitsuk. He shifted the bags of millet back and sat down on them. Because of this, the yoke squeezed the bulls’ necks so much that they, almost suffocating, hurried to set off.
Kuitsuk sowed millet and returned home in the evening.
The black bulls told others what Kuitsuk had done to them: in those days, people and animals understood each other.
The next day, Inyzh sent a farm laborer into the forest to chop wood, and he himself ordered the bulls:
- As you go up the mountain with firewood, stand and don’t move: Kuitsuk will get angry and come running to me to scold!
Kuitsuk chopped wood and loaded the cart. The bulls reached the middle of the mountain and - no move! Kuitsuk left them alone and lounged on the mountain slope, looking at the sky. At this time, a school of cranes flew by. Kuitsuk shouted at the top of his lungs:
- Hey, cranes, cranes, there is an old cow standing in our yard. When she calves, when the calf grows into a bull, and a rope is woven from unsown hemp, then we will drive the bull and drag the cart up the mountain!
The black bulls got scared: “Doesn’t he really want us to die here?” - and they quickly pulled the cart.
When Kuitsuk drove into the yard, the bulls told the other how it had happened.
The new farm laborer did not suit the court. The next day, he put his one-eyed mother on a tree so that she could cuckoo: he wanted to get rid of his worker as quickly as possible.
Kuitsuk knocked her out of the tree with a stake, and she fell dead.
- Because of you, I was orphaned! - Inyzh shouted, jumping out of the house.
“I thought that the cuckoo had crowed prematurely, so I threw a stake at it!” Is it worth getting angry over such trifles! - said Kuitsuk.
- I'm not angry! - answered the foreigner.
Inyzha's mother was carried to the cemetery. The lid of the coffin had to be trimmed, and Kuitsuk deliberately did not take an ax from the house. Inyzh sent Kuitsuk for him, and he sat outside the cemetery fence and returned, assuring that Inyzh’s wife refused to give him an axe.
“An ax to her forehead!” I should hit her head off! - said the foreigner. - Go and get it yourself under the bench!
Kuitsuk entered the house, took an ax from under the bench, and, having broken the head of the inyzha’s wife, returned to the cemetery.
The coffin was nailed down, lowered into the grave and covered with earth. People began to go home.
- Hey, don't leave! - shouted Kuitsuk.
- What else happened? - asked the alarmed foreigner.
“You said you need to break her head.” That's what I did! — Kuytsuk answered.
“You made me unhappy, you drove my wife and mother to the grave!” You are an evil spirit! - the foreigner shouted.
“Are you really angry over such a small thing?” - said Kuitsuk.
“No, I’m not angry,” the foreigner said and buried his wife.
The black bulls were rolling around in the mud.
- Hey, Kuitsuk, go and clean the carpet thoroughly! - Inyzh ordered his farmhand.
Kuitsuk, having sharpened his knife, drove the bulls to the river and slaughtered them, washed the meat with water and wrapped it in skins.
- Let's go and bring the bulls! - he turned to the foreigner.
“Can’t they come on their own?” — the foreigner was surprised.
“You told me to clean them.” So I cleaned it outside and inside,” Kuitsuk explained and added: “Aren’t you angry?”
“No, I’m not angry,” said the foreigner and went to bring the oxen.
In the evening another foreigner came to visit him. The owner sent Kuitsuk to the sheepfold:
- Go kill the ram that throws its head back.
Kuitsuk entered the sheepfold and shouted:
- Hey, which one of you throws your head back?
All the sheep raised their heads. Everyone knows that if a person enters a sheepfold and says a word, the sheep will raise their heads.
Kuitsuk slaughtered the entire herd and brought one carcass home.
“Now let’s go get the others,” Kuitsuk turned to the foreigner.
“I told you to slaughter only the ram that throws its head back,” said the foreigner.
- That's right! But when I entered the sheepfold and shouted: “Hey, which one of you is throwing his head back?” - everyone raised their heads. So we had to kill everyone,” Kuitsuk explained.
“You deprived me of my cattle: you slaughtered the bulls, killed the rams!” - the foreigner shouted.
“Are you angry with me over something so small?” - Kuitsuk asked.
- No, I'm not angry! — the foreigner answered:
The guest was fed lamb and shown off on his way. It's already dark. There were no livestock in the yard, and in the house, except for Inyzha and Kuitsuk, not a living soul remained. Inyzh, sitting by the fireplace, was digging in the ashes and sneezed so much that Kuitsuk was thrown into the attic. Kuitsuk began to flounder in the attic.
- Hey, what are you doing there? - asked the foreigner.
And Kuitsuk answered him:
“I want to deal with you in my own way for eating my goat.” I’ll just close the windows and doors so you don’t run away!
Inyzh, hearing such words, began to run.
Kuitsuk set off in pursuit, shouting:
- Hold him!
Out of nowhere - a fox. She rushed across him and called out to him:
- Hey, stupid, stop! Can such a kid defeat you?
“Dear little fox,” shouted Kuitsuk, “persuade him to stop, then he won’t leave my hands alive!”
Hearing such words, he began to run even faster and never returned to his house.
So all the goods of the Inyzha went to the shepherd Kuitsuk.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru