Imys and Uazyrmes were brothers. Imys recently married a beautiful but contentious woman. The slender, young, unmarried Uazirmes fell in love with his brother’s wife, and one day, when Imys went on a campaign, she began to seek the love of her relative. Uazirmes at first admonished her, but seeing that the woman would not calm down, he took his ringing wheat and left his home.
- As long as you live in this house, I will not return to it! - he said.
Uazirmes settled in a dense forest, where hunters rarely visited, made a hut from animal skins, and lived by eating the meat of the animals he killed. He killed no more than was necessary for food, and in the evening he played on his sonorous pishina.
Time passed. Imys returned from a long and distant campaign. He asked his wife:
- Why don’t I see my brother?
“What brother is this?!” she shouted. “The dog would be a better brother to you than this libertine.” As soon as you left, he immediately began to seduce me and persuade me to debauchery. I threatened to tell you everything when you get back. He was afraid and swore an oath: “As long as you, my brother’s wife, are in this house, I will not enter it!” I haven't seen him since then.
Imys believed the liar.
And Uazirmes lived and hunted in the forest. One evening, when he was cooking game stew over a fire and, while waiting for dinner, was playing on the millet, he heard a terrible noise and saw from the hut that a monster was moving through the forest. It uprooted huge trees and drove their tops into the ground, hitting ancient oak trees with their trunks; Rocks crumbled from the noise and roar, forest animals ran away in all directions in fear.
Uazyrmes peered at the monster: it turned out to be a giant with the head of a man and the body of a beast. The forest giant entered Uazyrmes's hut, holding a sharp sword in his hands, but Uazyrmes calmly met him, playing the millet and singing an ancient Nart song.
Having finished it, he took the brew off the fire, took out the meat and put it on a tripod table. Silently he pointed to the stump, inviting the newcomer to sit down, silently cut him a piece of meat and shared his dinner with him.
And the forest giant came with evil intentions: he wanted to kill Uazirmes and take his weapon and ringing wheat for himself. It was only out of fear that he did not immediately attack the lone sled.
After eating, the forest giant stood up and before leaving said to the owner:
“We’ll be friends, we’ll visit each other, we’re both forest dwellers.”
Uazirmes did not say a word to him - he understood that the guest did not come with good intentions and that he must be wary of him.
From his hut the Nart heard that the monster was walking back without making any noise.
“Probably this monster will not openly fight with me, but will treacherously attack me at night when I am sleeping. I’ll try to outwit him,” Uazirmes decided.
No sooner said than done. He placed a stump on his bed, covered it with a cloak, and he hid with a bow at the ready, waiting for the treacherous guest. Exactly at midnight, the forest giant looked into the hut. Mistaking a stump covered with a cloak for a sledge, he pierced him with a sword.
He began to look for Uazirmes’s sword and wheat, but he instantly fired from his bow and immediately pierced the monster’s eyes, which glowed like swamp lights, with two arrows.
- You are mistaken, uninvited guest! - the sled shouted to the forest giant running away with a roar and went after him.
The blinded monster ran and screamed. And Uazirmes followed - he wanted to see where the enemy would hide.
Early in the morning, the forest giant reached the cave along a narrow gorge, but was unable to enter it and fell to the ground dead. Suddenly a girl came out of the cave and looked at the forest giant. She pushed the corpse with her foot, turned around and, seeing the knight, joyfully rushed to him:
“Did you kill him, my savior?”
“I am,” answered Uazirmes. - Tell me, who else is here from the genus of monsters?
- He has neither clan nor tribe, he is the son of evil, the father of deceit, he sowed grief and tears everywhere, robbed, killed everyone.
- What family are you from, why do you live here?
“I’m from the Nart family,” said the girl, “my name is Dadukh.” I went with my friends to pick berries, got lost in the forest and ended up with this monster. I've been languishing here for a year now.
“Let’s live together, like brother and sister, I will take care of you,” said Uazirmes and brought the girl he saved to his hut.
They began to live in the forest: Uazyrmes hunted, the girl prepared food.
One day the named sister said to the Nart:
“I want to ask you something, but I ask you, don’t be angry with me and don’t say: “It’s none of your business.”
“No, Dadukh, I won’t get angry and I won’t tell you: “This is none of your business,” answered Uazirmes.
“I’m an orphan,” Dadukh continued, “I have no relatives, no one to take care of me, that’s why I live wherever I have to, but you have a brother and you are a brave knight of a noble family.” What misfortune drove you out of your home and forced you to live here, in the thicket of the forest, in a hut?
“My brother’s wife,” answered Uazirmes, “pursued me with her love, that’s why I left my native village.” If you are tired of living in the forest, I will take you to the sledges, you will be called my sister or daughter-in-law, but I myself swore an oath not to appear in my home until they come for me.
Beauty Dadukh, not knowing what to decide, did not answer him. They lived for a long time in the forest, like brother and sister.
But by chance the Narta hunters saw Uazirmes. They found out where he lived and came to visit his hut made of animal skins.
The Narts marveled at the beauty and homeliness of Dadukh, who treated them to the meat of a deer killed by Uazirmey.
—Where have you gone, Uazyrmes? - said the sledges. “Everyone in the village grieves for you, everyone remembers you kindly—come back home!”
Instead of Uazirmes, the beautiful Dadukh answered the Narts:
- Let Imys and his wife come for his brother, then we will return to the village.
The Narts agreed, and after some time they came to Uazirmes along with Imys and his wife. For three days and three nights there was a feast in a forest hut. Although the deceit of Imys’s wife instilled confusion in the heart of her husband, he rejoiced at meeting his brother. He also noticed the beauty of the chaste Dadukh.
And so the girl came up to his wife, stood next to her and said:
- Look at us, Narts, and tell me, which of the two of us is more beautiful?
The Narts were surprised, but answered:
- You are more beautiful, thin-browed.
- Sledges! - the girl continued. “You think that I am Uazirmes’s wife, but believe me: we have lived under the same roof for a long time, like brother and sister.” Not a single bad thought occurred to Uazirmes. And since he treated me like his sister, could he insult his brother’s honor and seduce his daughter-in-law? But I’m more beautiful than her!
The Narts realized that Imys’s wife had slandered his brother.
“Even a bad woman is more worthy of honor than the best archer,” they said, “we will not punish her, but will send her to her parents’ home, because she is not worthy to be the wife of a Nart.”
The deceitful woman was sent to her relatives, and Imys married the named sister of Uazirmes. The Narts celebrated this wedding magnificently and drank a lot of white sano in honor of the brave knights. And Dadukh and Imys began to live in love and advice.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru