Hunter Kazn was pshitl. Every day he went hunting. He wandered through the forest from morning to night, and had to give all the spoils to the millet. He was cruel, and how greedy! Kazi will bring all the prey for the day, the pshi will choose the best part, and give the rest to the hunter - this will be the dinner for his sons.
One day Kazi went hunting. He wandered through the forest all day, he was tired, but it turned out to be a bad day; he didn’t shoot anything. There is nothing to do - he returns home empty-handed. He walks along a forest path and suddenly sees a large beautiful bird on the top of a tree. Kazi fired, missed, and broke the bird’s wings. She fell to the ground. Kazi picked it up, and the bird suddenly spoke in a human voice:
- It’s a pity for me to die, but what can I do? I want me to help people even after death. Know, hunter: the one who eats my heart will become a famous warrior, and the one who gets my head will become a padishah.
Kazi wanted one of his sons to become a padishah, and the other to become a famous warrior, he took the bird home, gave it to his wife and said:
“Don’t touch the bird until I return, and I’ll go into the forest one more time, maybe I’ll shoot something for the prince.”
Evening came, and Pshi had not yet received his share from Kazi. He got angry and sent an unaut to him: “Where is Kazi, why didn’t you bring anything today?” Kazi’s wife said that her husband returned with one single bird - it was sitting in a cage.
Unaut returned and conveyed these words to Psha.
Pshi became even more angry than before and now he himself went to Kazi’s house. He saw a strange bird, and he wanted to become a padishah. He ordered the servant to kill the bird and forced Kazi's wife to roast it.
She fried the bird and gave its head and heart to the children, saying: “Psha will not eat the worst.” The boys ate and went to play, and Kazi’s wife laid the pan for the psha and served him a dish with dichyo.
He greedily attacked the food, first of all he decided to eat the head and heart of the bird, but he did not find them.
He called the hunter's wife and demanded the head and heart of the bird. The woman replied that she gave them to her sons. Pshi ordered to bring the boys.
The woman was afraid that he would kill her children, found them and told them to run anywhere, just to get out of the eyes of the psha. The boys ran out of the village, running wherever they looked. They ran for many days and nights, and a snowstorm overtook them. A strong wind blew, thick snow fell, the children lost each other and ran away in different directions.
The eldest of the brothers ended up in an unfamiliar village. He walks along a strange street, looks around, doesn’t know what to do next.
A padishah lived in that village. He saw a boy walking down the street, looking around like a cornered dog, and crying bitterly. The padishah ordered the boy to be brought to him.
They brought the boy to the padishah, and he asked whose he was, where he was coming from and how he got to this village. The boy told what happened to him.
The padishah did not have a son. He really wanted to have a son, and he decided to keep the boy, raise and marry his daughter to him. Before his death, the padishah did just that - he bequeathed his daughter to his adopted son as a wife and his throne.
And what happened to the younger brother, Kadir? When the snow storm subsided, he saw that he found himself in a vast steppe. In the distance stood a large white house. The boy walked towards him.
I entered the house and saw the sleeping foreigner. Kadir huddled in a corner, sitting, trembling: something will happen next. Soon the foreigner woke up. He was glad that lunch came to him on its own. But then he saw that the boy was still very small - not even enough for a snack - and decided to first feed him properly, and only then eat him.
Kadir lived for a long time with the inyzha: the giant fed him well, hoping to have plenty of food later. And the boy turned into a tall, slender, brave in raids and battles, a handsome young man. It was then that I decided that it was time to eat it.
The Inizh had a rule: before eating his victim, he fried it in a special copper tower. To do this, he brought seven carts of firewood, laid them around the tower and lit a huge fire. And the one he wanted to eat, he threw into the tower.
This is what he did this time too. When the fire flared up, he said to Kadir:
- Hurry up into the tower and take out a bag of millet.
- Will I be able to climb there?
Then Inyzh began to persuade him to climb into the tower - it’s not scary at all! Kadir asked him to show him how to... climb the stairs.
As soon as he got up and looked into the tower, Kadir pulled the ladder, the giant fell into the red-hot tower and burned.
Thus Kadir escaped certain death. He went to inspect the Inyzh’s possessions and approached the stables, where the Inyzh had never allowed him to go. Kadir broke open the door and entered. There were three horses in the stable. One is white, the other is brown, and the third is black with white legs. Suddenly one of the horses spoke in a human voice:
- Free us, glorious young man; if you need us, you will find us at any moment; just pluck out one hair from our manes and, when you need help, bring them to the fire.
Kadir tore out a hair from the mane of each horse and set him free.
What was Kadir to do? Do not remain in the possessions of the foreigner. He set off on a journey, began to look for where people lived, and came to the village where his elder brother was a padishah.
When the brothers got lost in the steppe, they were just little boys. Now they have turned into glorious horsemen. The brothers did not recognize each other. Kadir came to the padishah and hired himself as a groom.
No one knows how much time passed, but one day news spread through the village that the neighboring padishah had decided to attack the one for whom Kadir served, to make him his pshitl, his wife his wife, and his daughter his second wife. He sent two messengers to convey his words: “Surrender while you are alive, otherwise I will destroy you and destroy your village.”
What was the padishah to do?
He prepared for battle. The next day a huge army approached the aul. Kadir saw that his padeshah was facing certain defeat, and decided to help him. He went out into the steppe, brought a hair of a black horse to the fire, and at the same moment the horse galloped up to him. Full equipment for the rider was strapped to his saddle.
That day, Qadir inflicted great damage on the enemy army.
The padishah was greatly surprised when he saw an unfamiliar warrior and decided to find out who he was and where he came from?
And on the second and third days Kadir fought fiercely with the enemy, and the padishah still did not recognize the name of the valiant young man.
On the third day, when the battle was already coming to an end, Kadir was wounded in the arm, and the padishah himself bandaged his wound with his silk scarf. Kadir did not leave the battlefield until he destroyed the last enemy.
So Kadir helped the padishah defeat the enemy and save the army. And he returned to the stable. His wounded arm hurt, and he lay down, covering himself with his old cloak.
The next day Kadir could not work - his arm hurt even more. For the entire day he did not even get out of bed or touch food.
The padishah was surprised why the groom was not working, and asked the servants what had happened. They replied that Kadir was ill and that his hand was bandaged with a beautiful silk scarf.
Then the padishah remembered the brave young man whose wound he had bandaged on the battlefield. He decided to visit him. When the padishah saw that the brave man who had saved his country and army was lying in the stable, he ordered him to be taken to the house, dressed in expensive clothes, appointed senior in the army and gave his daughter to Kadir.
They played a rich wedding.
Kadir lived happily with his young wife, wisely commanded the army, and always won victories.
And he decided to punish that psha, because of whom he and his brother were forced to leave their native village. He told the padishah about this, and he allowed him to go on a military campaign. When the army was ready to march, the padishah decided to take part in the campaign himself.
Unnoticed, Kadir's army approached his native village and took the Pshi by surprise. Before he even had time to come to his senses, Kadir killed him and killed his entire retinue. He took all the psha's property and distributed it to the poor.
And when Kadir and the padishah came to the house of his parents, who had grown old from grief and were almost blind from tears, they recognized the padishah as their eldest son, and in Kadir their youngest.
The old hunter and his wife were delighted to meet the children, whom they considered lost forever, and threw a feast for the whole world.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru