Once upon a time there lived a hunter. Every day he went into the forest, brought home game and fed his family.
One day a hunter descended into a small ravine, and suddenly a white deer appeared in front of him. The fur on it sparkles and shimmers.
- Shoot me! — the deer says to him in a human voice. “If you’re lucky, you’ll hit, but if you miss, you’ll die.”
The hunter shot an arrow and missed. He returned home gloomy.
“My time to die has come,” he says to his wife. “I was aiming at a white deer and didn’t hit!”
The hunter said these words and died. This hunter had a son.
One day a boy was playing on the street, shooting arrows from a small bow with his peers. People walked by, looked at the hunter’s son and said: “If only he had his father’s bow, he would become a noble hunter!” The boy ran to his mother and asked where his father’s bow was. The mother was afraid that her son would also become a hunter, and did not give him a bow. The son asks, begs.
The mother could not stand it and told her son the truth:
— Your father was a hunter and died hunting. I don’t want your death, son. That’s why I hid the bow and arrows, but if so, go up to the upper room, you will find there a bow and a quiver of arrows.
She gave her son the key to the upper room. The boy unlocked the door and froze in place: stuffed birds, hares, foxes, shakas were looking at him from all sides.
fishing Finally, he noticed his father's bow on the wall. I tried to remove the l smog. He ran out crying to his mother.
“Don’t cry, you will be strong, like your father,” his mother reassured him. “Go to the gorge behind the village, there are two streams: one muddy, the other transparent.” First, swim in the muddy stream, then in the clear one.
The boy took a bath and became so strong that his bow and arrows seemed like feathers to him. He shot three arrows at a tree that stood far out in the field. All three arrows stuck side by side - one next to the other.
After this, the hunter's son decided to go hunting. He walked through the forest until evening and found himself in a small hollow. And suddenly a white deer appeared in front of him. The fur on it sparkles and shimmers.
- Shoot me! - says the deer. “If you’re lucky, you’ll hit, but if you miss, you’ll die!”
A well-aimed arrow hit the deer right in the heart.
The boy brought the skin home and hung it on the wall. The white skin glows, illuminating the room with radiance. Pearls and diamonds shimmer on the hairs.
The rumor about the wondrous skin spread throughout the kingdom. She also reached the king. The king sent a servant to check whether people were telling the truth. The servant didn’t have to look for long to find the hunter’s house: a bright, very bright light poured from his window! The servant crept up to the window, looked into the room and almost went blind - the white deer’s skin sparkled and sparkled so much!
He ran back to the palace and reported to the king about the pearl and diamond skin.
“Sir, it is not proper for a commoner to be richer than you,” they say.
Zir-vizier to the king. - Take the skin from him.
The Tsar would be glad to take it away, but how? Don't break into the house! What will people say?
“What is there to think about, sir,” says the chief vizier. “Invite the hunter’s son to a feast.” He is uncouth and will not be able to behave properly. Then we will say that he is not worthy to own the magic skin, and we will take it away.
The king immediately invited the hunter's son to a feast.
The boy's mother was a wise woman. She immediately guessed why her son was being called to the palace.
“Look, son, behave politely,” she punished. “Until the king laughs, don’t laugh.” He won't talk to you, don't open his mouth. Do not leave the table before the king and viziers. When they start serving food, take just a little from each dish, don’t eat a lot. After the feast, the king will go for a ride on horseback, so don’t get ahead of the king and don’t lag behind him if he is driven
horses gallop.
In the palace, the hunter's son behaved as his mother had punished him. The king marveled at the courtesy of the hunter's son. He was angry with his nazi viziers and shouted at them when the hunter’s son went home.
- Brainless boobies! You can't give any smart advice! If you fail to take the skin, I will skin you yourself!
The Nazir Viziers are silent, trembling with fear. They sit and think about how to carry out the king’s order. And they thought of it.
“Tell, sir, the hunter’s son to build you a palace from the bones of the Veshapi,” said the chief vizier to the king. “The Veshapi will swallow the boy, and you will get the skin of a white deer.” And if he builds it, you order the skin to be hung in the palace. You will say that it is not appropriate for a magic skin to hang in a simple house.
The king liked the advice of the viziers. He called the hunter's son and ordered him to build a palace from the bones of the Veshapi.
- Have mercy, great sir! I am not a carpenter, not a mason, I don’t know any craft, how can I build a palace? - the boy begged.
- I don’t know anything! If you don't build it, your mother will cry for you! The hunter's son returned home dejected and told his mother what kind of work the king had given him.
- Go back to the palace, son. Ask the king to give you seventy carts and cart drivers. Let them forge arrows weighing fifty pounds for you, and all this with the money of the viziers. Go to the land of Kajeti. There in the dense forest
Veshapi lives. Leave Arobshchikov at the edge of the forest, and spend the night in the thicket. You can kill the Veshapi only at dawn if you approach it from the direction from which the sun rises.
The son did everything as his mother ordered.
The king gave him seventy carts and arobs. They forged fifty pounds of arrows for him. And the viziers paid money for all this.
The boy went to the country of Kadzheti. He spent the night in the forest where the Veshapi lived, and as soon as it was dawn, he crept up on the monster from the east.
He lies down with his tail thrown behind his head. He heard a man’s steps, turned his head towards him, but saw nothing - he was blinded by the rays of the ascending
sun.
The brave boy shot three arrows and killed the monster. He returned to the arob workers, woke them up and sent them to inform the residents of Kadzheti that he had delivered
them from veshapi.
The Kajis came running and started dancing around the killed monster. We are glad that we got rid of the insatiable veshapi. Then they took the hunter’s son to the king of Kadzheti. He thanked the boy and asked how to reward him.
“I don’t need anything,” answered the hunter’s son. “Help me cut up the veshapi and load its bones onto the carts.”
The Kaji got down to work and instantly fulfilled the boy’s wish, then they went with the boy and helped him build a palace of bones
hang up.
The son of the hunter invites the king and the viziers to admire the palace. The huge palace was scary! The king looked at him and fell without
memory.
The king did not soon wake up. And when he came to his senses, he praised the boy for
zeal and courage and ordered to remain with him.
“You will accompany me on the hunt,” says the king. “And you will transfer the skin of the deer to the palace from the bones of the Veshapi.” This magical skin should only hang in such a palace.
The viziers frowned; they did not like the fact that the king brought the son of a simple hunter closer to him. They had to spend so much money because of the boy, and now hunting will be an eyesore. The viziers conspired to destroy the hunter's son. They found out that the Iron Dev had a golden pillar, and they said to the king:
“And your palace is outlandish, sir, and the skin of a white deer is unprecedented.” One bad thing is that the skin does not shine equally in all directions. It would be nice
hang it on a golden pillar in the middle of the palace.
- That would be good, but where can I get a golden pillar?
- From the house of the Iron Deva. Tell the brave son of the hunter to move
that pillar to your palace.
The king did not think whether it would be easy for the young man to cope with such a matter.
— You will bring a golden pillar from the house of the Iron Deva. If you fail, woe to your mother!” said the king to the hunter’s son.
The boy went to his mother for advice. Who else should you go to in difficult times? His mother helped him with advice this time too:
“Ask the king for a cart with an arrow and a stronger arrow.” The Iron Deva lives behind three high mountains. On Fridays he goes hunting, then you will take the golden pillar. Remember, you cannot defeat that Iron Deva in open battle.
The king ordered the viziers to give the hunter’s son a cart, an arob-maker and an arrow. The viziers used their own money to forge an arrow weighing fifty pounds. The hunter's son bent it and broke it. They forged another arrow weighing seventy pounds. The boy broke it too. They brought him an arrow weighing ninety pounds - the arrow neither bends nor breaks.
The hunter's son prepared for a long journey. He crossed one high mountain, another, climbed to the highest third and saw below, at the foot of the mountain, the house of the Iron Deva.
It was just on Friday. A boy shot an arrow from the top of a mountain into the house of the Iron Deva. The bowstring buzzed, the arrow sang, and the house collapsed. The golden pillar supporting the roof fell.
The hunter's son and the hunter descended into the valley. They loaded the golden pillar onto a cart and brought it to the king.
The king rewarded the hunter's son and sent him away to see his mother, and he himself ordered the viziers to erect a golden pillar in the palace from the bones of the veshapi. They hung a luminous deer skin on a pole. The king admires her and cannot stop admiring her.
Meanwhile, the Iron Dev returned from hunting and saw: his house was destroyed, the golden pillar was gone.
The Iron Dev became furious and rushed in the footsteps of the people. The mountains trembled from his stomping. The Iron Dev burst into the palace made of Veshapi bones, and there was the king and his viziers. The Iron Dev tore off the luminous skin of a white deer, grabbed the pillar and let's destroy everyone and everything around! He demolished the palace - the bones of the Veshapi scattered.
The Iron Dev took away the golden pillar and also took the pearl-diamond skin with him.
And the hunter’s son stopped going hunting and killing animals from then on. He lived a calm, peaceful life with his mother.
Veshapi is a winged dragon.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru