In ancient times, there lived a man named Polopadang.
One day he was working in a corn field and suddenly saw a woman of great beauty, slender, with white skin. Her name was Deatanna. She descended from the sky along a rainbow, like a ladder. Polopadang Deatanna saw, ran up and grabbed her. Deatanna got scared and screamed:
“What are you doing to me, man, I’m from the land of the gods!”
“I want to marry you, you are so beautiful,” Polopadang answered passionately.
“I don’t want it for you, because you are only a man, and I am a goddess,” Deatanna repeated, fighting back, but Polopadang held her tightly.
She begged and persuaded him for a long time, but he never let her go. Finally she said:
- Okay, I will be your wife, but on one condition: you will never say a bad word in front of me.
Polopadang completely lost his head with joy. He swore not to swear and swore that he would allow Deatan not to leave him if he cursed even once.
Deatanna heard Polopadig's promise, believed and agreed to enter his house. They became husbands and wives.
The time came, and Deatanna gave birth to a boy. They gave him the name Pairunan. When he grew up a little, his father bought him a golden top. One day, Pairunan was fiddling with his top, and got so carried away that he forgot everything in the world. So he launched it with all his might, the top jumped and hit his father right on the knee. In pain, Polopadang forgot about his promise and cursed in his heart:
– Bondok tiboyong! - and these are words that are offensive to a woman’s honor.
Deatanna heard, called her son and said:
“Son, my father cursed with a black word, now you and I will leave this house and leave the earth.”
She finished speaking, a rainbow spread out in the sky, and Deatanna and Pairunan began to rise into the sky. Polopadang ran after them, wanted to climb onto the rainbow, but fell to the ground.
He was very sad, it’s hard to tell how he reproached himself. No matter how hard he tried to find his wife and son, nothing came of it. Every now and then he looked at the sky - even his eyes turned white, but Deatanna and her son were not visible there. He thought that they hid behind the clouds and would soon come back down, but that was not the case!
Polopadang began to look for another way. Is it possible to ascend to the land of the gods along the edge of the sky? Only this didn’t work out for him. He reached the seashore, and there was nowhere to go further. He squatted down and cried in grief.
Then a white buffalo named Tedong Bulan approached him. People were hunting him in the forest, they threw a bamboo spear at him, and it lodged in his back. The buffalo asked Polopadang:
- Why are you crying, sir?
Polopadang replied:
“I’m looking for my wife and son, they live in the land of the gods, but I can’t reach the edge of the sky.” Then the buffalo said:
“Get this spear out of my back and I will take you there.”
“Okay,” Polopadang said and pulled the spear from Tedong Bulan’s back. It was then that he made a promise not to eat white buffalo meat and bequeathed this to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren: whoever eats their meat will get scabies. Then the buffalo took Polopadang to the ends of the earth.
But no matter how hard Polopadang tried, he could not climb onto the edge of heaven - it was very steep. Then he sat down on the ground and began to cry. At this time the sun rose.
- Why are you crying? – it asked.
Polopadang replied:
- I'm looking for a wife and son. They live in heaven, and I want to take them back to earth, but I just can’t get into heaven.
The sun says to this:
“I want to help you, but I’m very hot.” You'll burn if I touch you. Soon the month will rise - my younger brother, he will help you rise.
The sun set and Polopadang began to cry again. It seemed like a month.
- Why are you crying, man? - he asked, - I’m looking for my wife and son, but I can’t get into heaven with them! - Polopadang answered.
The month took pity on him and helped him ascend to heaven.
Polopadang ascended to heaven and sat down at the well. Soon a slave came across the water. Polopadang asked him:
-Who are you taking the water for?
“For Deatanna and her son,” he answered.
“Let me drink a sip of water from your tabun-ga,” Polopadang asked.
“Drink,” answered the slave.
Polopadang got drunk and quietly put his son's golden top in the tabung. The slave returned home and began to pour water so that Pairunan could wash himself, when suddenly a golden top fell out of the ta-bung.
- Top, my top! - the boy shouted.
- It can’t be! “You forgot your top on the ground,” said the mother.
But then she took a good look at the toy and saw that it was really her son’s top. She called the slave and asked:
-Who did you see at the well? He told about everything that happened.
“Perhaps it was Polopadang who climbed into the sky?” – thought Deatanna.
The next morning Polopadang came to his wife's house.
-What do you want here? - asked the servants.
“I need a wife and son,” answered Polopadang.
The servants went and hid Deatanna and said:
“You will see your wife and son only when you have carried water for the whole day with this basket.”
Polopadang tried to scoop up water with a basket - nothing worked. As soon as the basket filled with water, he pulled it up, but along the way all the water flowed out. Polopadang sat down on the river bank and began to cry.
Suddenly an eel swam out of the depths and asked:
- Why are you crying? Polopadang replied:
“I need to fill this basket with water and drag it home, but the basket is all thin.” And if I don’t get water, I won’t see my wife and son.
The eel took pity on Polopadang, swam into the basket and began to spin and rub against the walls, so that all the cracks in it were filled with fish mucus.
Polopadang brought a full basket of water to his wife’s house and said:
- Take me to my wife.
And the servants answer him:
“You will get a wife and a son if you can bring the water of the stream into the garden.”
He began to dig a ditch and saw that he did not have enough strength to finish the job alone. He sat down and cried. And a crab ran past, saw a man crying, and asked:
-What are you crying about?
Polopadang told him everything. The crab felt sorry for him, and he promised to help Polopadang. At night he brought his comrades, they began to dig and dig and dug a ditch from the stream to the house.
The next morning everyone was surprised - a channel had been built from the stream into the garden! But Polopadang was still not allowed to see his wife and son: they wanted to test how much he loved them.
They told him to sprinkle corn grain by grain until four baskets were filled to the top. Polopadang was exhausted and began to grieve and cry again. Luckily, a flock of mice came running to help him. Soon all four baskets were full.
Only this turned out to be not enough. They tell him to eat all the sweet potatoes from the field alone. Polopadang got down to business and saw that he would never eat all the sweet potatoes. He cried bitter tears. Then a herd of wild boar came out of the village and started digging for sweet potatoes - soon they picked up every single one, there was nothing left.
Then they gave Polopadanga a final test. At night, people from all over the heavenly village gathered in the big house of Deatanna: men, women, children. They all sat down, and Polopadang was ordered to look for his wife among those gathered.
“You can only choose once,” they told him, “and if you make a mistake, you will return to earth with nothing.”
And in that house it was dark, dark, and you couldn’t see your own nose. Polopadang sat down in front of the house, thought and cried with grief.
Then the cat and the firefly saw him and wanted to help him. And this cat knew Deatanna. She promised to find her, sit next to her and meow, and in the meantime the firefly was supposed to get tangled in Deatanna's hair.
And so Polopadang went, and there was darkness all around, you could only see the firefly flying. Looks Polopadang-firefly sat on someone's head, and the cat meowed nearby. Polopadang realized that this was his wife. He hugged her and shouted:
- My wife Deatanna, little wife!
Everyone jumped up from their seats; - Light the lamp, let's see whether he guessed right or not!
When the house became light, everyone saw Polopadang hugging his wife. Now he could take her with him - the heavenly inhabitants no longer prevented him. Polopadang called his son, and they all descended to the ground together. Since then, they lived happily in a beautiful land near the Sadan River.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru