It was a very long time ago. There lived a man in a mountain village, and he had a hundred sons. The youngest was called Kichi-batyr.
When the sons grew up, the father decided to marry them and went to look for a man who had a hundred daughters. On the way, he met a hunched old man.
- Hello, good man! - said the old man. -Where are you going?
“Yes, so and so,” answered the father of a hundred sons, “I’m going to look for the father of a hundred daughters in order to marry my sons.”
Then the old man said that in his village there lived a man who had a hundred daughters.
The father was delighted. He asked how to get to this village. And the father of a hundred daughters, when he found out why this man had come to him, was glad to see such a guest.
“Let your sons come to us as soon as possible,” he said, “and we’ll have a wedding here.”
The fathers agreed and exchanged gifts.
...Returning home, the father of a hundred sons told his wife and his sons everything. And they began to prepare for a long journey. They consulted among themselves and decided to leave their youngest brother, Kichibatyr, to protect the house from thieves. It was too early for him to get married.
Before leaving, Kichibatyr said to his brothers:
– Make three large koloboks from butter and three large ones from felt. On the way you will meet two closely standing rocks. Throw one stick of butter at the foot of the rocks, another in the middle, and a third at the top. The rocks will rejoice at the koloboks, part and let you through. And on the way back, you throw them three felt balls. They will think that the koloboks are made of butter, will be delighted and will let you through again.
Once you get past the rocks, another challenge awaits you. You will feel the cold piercing through you, and it will seem to you that you are dying... Here you will see a fire, but do not approach it: it will be bad for you!.. Very bad!..
And so, on the appointed day, the ninety-nine brothers took guides with them, took rich gifts for the brides and set off on the road.
On the way they encountered two rocks pressed closely together. The brothers did as Kichibatyr taught them: they threw three koloboks of butter, the rocks parted and let them through.
Grooms with rich gifts arrived at the place. Here they were solemnly greeted by the parents of the brides and soon got married. Then the ninety-nine brothers and their wives went home.
On the way back they again came to the same rocks. The brothers threw them three felt koloboks, as Kichibatyr had taught. The rocks thought that the koloboks were made of butter and parted to let travelers through.
The wedding caravan moved on, and very soon such freezing cold set in that their arms and legs completely froze, and it seemed to the travelers that they were dying from the cold.
It was so cold that the brothers forgot Kichibatyr’s order and drove up to the fire.
There was no one near the fire. Tablecloths are spread out on the grass around, and there is a lot of food and drink on them. And then there are soft beds.
“Come what may,” the brothers decided and began to warm themselves, drink and eat. And then they lay down on the soft beds and fell asleep.
And when they woke up in the morning, they saw that there was no fire, and an unknown monster lay in front of them.
“So this is what Kichibatyr warned us about,” they remembered. The brothers understood that it was just as impossible to run as it was impossible to clap your hands with one hand. And they were silent in fear.
“How dare you come here without my permission?” - the monster roared. – Now I’ll eat you!
Everyone trembled and began to beg the monster to let them go, promising a large ransom for this.
“I will let you go only on one condition,” growled the crocodile monster, “let one of you, no later than three days later, bring Kichibatyr to me.” If the messenger is delayed, I will eat you all.
The brothers consulted and decided that the eldest of them would follow Kichibaty.
“Kichibatyr will listen to him and come to the rescue,” they decided.
And indeed, not even two days had passed before Kichibatyr appeared to the monster.
“You did a bad thing by not listening to me,” he said to the brothers, “but now you can’t change anything.”
“I’ll see what else fate has in store for me!” he thought.
And the monster, releasing the brothers with their wives, said to Ki-chibatyr:
“You must do everything I tell you, and if you don’t, I will find you and eat you.” I'll eat your brothers too. So: a khan lives by the very blue sea. He has a beautiful daughter. Woo her for me. I want to get married!
- How can I woo the khan’s daughter? – Kichibatyr was surprised.
“It’s your business, decide for yourself: either you woo, or I will eat your brothers and swallow you,” answered the monster. – To become the groom of the khan’s daughter, you must fulfill three conditions. Firstly, you need to shoot in such a way that you hit the eye of a needle at a distance of a hundred steps. Secondly, you must be able to catch a hundred out of a thousand running chamois. And the third condition is this. The khan has an iron house, which is heated red-hot. You must spend the night in this hot house. Whoever fulfills all three conditions, the khan will give his daughter as his wife. And whoever fails will have his head cut off. So you try to do all this. You will receive the Khan's daughter and bring her to me.
“What should I do?” thought Kichibatyr. “You can’t block the air with your chest, and you can’t touch a mountain with your head. I’ll have to try my luck...” And he went to the blue sea. On the way, he met a man who, carefully aiming, was shooting.
-Who are you shooting at, good man? – Kichibatyr asked him.
“Well, you see,” answered the shooter, “my father hit the eye of a needle at a distance of two hundred paces.” And I only get there at a distance of a hundred paces.
“Don’t worry,” said Kichibatyr, “when you reach the age of your father, you will shoot even better than him.” Now be my traveling companion.
The man agreed and they set off.
They walked and walked and met a man leading several chamois.
“Hello, good man,” said Kichibatyr. – Where are you going and what are you doing?
“Well,” the man answered, “my father catches all of the thousands of fleeing chamois, but I manage to catch only a hundred.”
“It’s okay,” Kichibatyr reassured the hunter, “when you reach the age of your father, you will catch chamois just like your father.” Now come with us, be our traveling companion!
“Okay, so be it,” answered the chamois hunter. And the three of them moved on.
Soon they saw a man drinking water from the sea.
- What are you doing, good man? - they asked.
– Oh-oh, don’t ask!.. My father drank all this sea at once, but I just can’t: I leave some water at the bottom.
- Don’t worry, by the time your father is old, you will also drink up the entire sea along with sand and silt. Now come with us. It's more fun together!
“That’s true,” the man answered, “it’s better together.”
And they, now the four of them, moved on.
Dear Kichibatyr told his companions how the crocodile monster wanted to eat his brothers and released them on the condition that Kichibatyr would woo the khan’s daughter and bring her to the monster as his wife. He also spoke about the conditions that he must fulfill in order to become the groom of the khan’s daughter.
“If I don’t bring the bride,” said Kichibatyr, “the monster will eat me and my brothers.” And if I fail to fulfill three conditions, the khan will cut off my head.
“Don’t worry,” said Kichibatyr’s companions. - Someone will untie every knot! We will go with you to the khan and try to help you.
The travelers walked for a long time and finally reached the Khan’s palace, which stood near the blue sea. The servants greeted them with a bow and led them to the khan.
– Who are you, good people, and why did you come to me? - asked the khan.
Kichibatyr came forward and bowed to the khan.
“We came to woo your beautiful daughter, and these are my friends,” he said.
– Do you know what conditions you must fulfill in order to become my daughter’s fiancé? - asked the khan.
“I know,” answered Kichibatyr, “and I’m ready to fulfill them!”
The Khan grinned. No one has ever been able to fulfill his conditions. He ordered the guests to be fed and put to rest, and scheduled tests for tomorrow.
The next day, before the start of the tests, Kichibatyr turned to the khan:
- Let me take my friends with me.
Khan was so sure that Kichibatyr would not stand the test that he willingly agreed to his request.
“So be it,” he said, “only if you do not fulfill my conditions, I will execute you all.”
And then the hunter-shooter helped Kichibatyr. He shot from a distance of a hundred paces and hit the eye of the needle.
For the second test, Kichibatyr again asked for an assistant to hold the caught chamois. Khan agreed this time too. Kichibatyr and the chamois hunter climbed into the mountains, and the hunter caught a hundred running chamois. Together they drove the chamois to the Khan's palace. Khan was surprised. But the last condition remained to be fulfilled.
The servants heated the iron house, which stood in the palace garden, red-hot, and called Kichibatyr there.
“I will spend the night in this house with my friends,” said Kichibatyr.
And the four of them entered the red-hot house.
Here the traveler, who drank the sea, released water onto the hot walls and floor. The iron walls instantly cooled down, and the friends remained alive and unharmed.
In the morning the khan ordered the servant:
- Go to the iron house and clear it of the bones of the burnt brave men!
When the servant saw the living guests, he decided that he was dreaming all this.
The servant reported everything to the khan, but he did not believe it, thought that the servant was deceiving him, and ordered his head to be cut off.
He sent a second servant. And he confirmed what the first servant had seen. Khan ordered his head to be cut off.
Finally, the khan’s wife went and saw with her own eyes that the guests were alive and unharmed. But the khan again did not believe it and went to the iron house himself and only then was he convinced that nothing had happened to the groom and his friends. There was nothing to do, the khan had to announce to his subjects that a worthy son-in-law had been found for him - Kichibatyr - and the khan was giving him his daughter.
The Khan was preparing to celebrate his daughter’s wedding magnificently, but Kichibatyr was in a hurry to leave. He announced that he was in a hurry to visit his parents, celebrate the wedding at home and the next day he and his bride would go on the road. The khan's daughter was surprised at such haste.
“Is he up to no good?” - she thought.
The girl became sad. She went into the garden and suddenly heard someone calling her. I looked around - there was no one. I walked along the path - they called me again. And it seemed to her that this voice was heard from the well. She bent over the well - and in fact someone was calling her and asking in a human voice:
- Save me, save me!
- How can I save you? - says the girl. “The well is so deep, you can’t see the bottom.”
And the voice answers her:
- Lower the rope into the well and pull me out! The girl took out a rope and lowered it into the well. And when she pulled it out, she screamed in fear: a black snake wrapped itself around the rope. The girl threw the rope and wanted to run. And the snake says to her:
- Don't be afraid of me, beauty! Take it with you on the road: you will need me.
The girl thought, thought, and took the snake with her.
The next day, Kichibatyr set off with his bride and his friends.
On the way, the girl asked him:
-Where are you taking me?
“Wait,” Kichibatyr answered, “now is not the time to tell.”
They drove on and soon arrived at a village where a man who drank the sea used to live. But then it turned out that the water in the sea had all dried up and the man would have died of thirst.
- What should I do now? - he asked Kichibatyr. And he answered:
- Turn over that big stone and you will see that clean water will flow from under it.
The man did as Kichibatyr said, and beautiful water flowed from under the stone. The man was happy and remained to live in his village. And Kichibatyr thanked him for his help and moved on.
Soon the travelers arrived in the village where the chamois hunter lived.
It turned out that in his absence someone had stolen the chamois, leaving only two.
The hunter was very upset.
– I don’t know how to preserve even these chamois? - he grieved.
“And you move that big rock here,” Kichibatyr pointed out to him, “on its top the chamois will be completely safe.”
But the hunter could not lift the rock. Then Kichibatyr carried it over. The hunter was very happy and remained to live in his village.
Kichibatyr thanked him for his help, and then moved on with his bride and the hunter-shooter.
They soon arrived at the shooter's village. But it turned out that while the shooter was away, the eye of the needle he was shooting at had rusted.
The shooter was very upset. Then the khan's daughter took a needle from her things and gave it to him. And the shooter was happy.
Kichibatyr thanked him for his help and moved on with his bride.
-Where are you taking me? – the bride asked again.
“Now the time has come to reveal the whole truth to you,” said Kichibatyr, sighing heavily. “I must give you to the monster as his wife.” “And Kichibatyr told the bride everything that happened to him and his brothers. “I myself fell in love with you and would like to marry you,” he said. “But I don’t know how we can get rid of the damned monster.”
The girl was frightened and cried, but the snake, which was hiding in the folds of her dress, whispered to her:
- Don’t be afraid, go boldly to the monster, and let Kichibatyr hide nearby and wait for you. I will help you escape.
So they did. Kichibatyr gave the girl to the crocodile monster, and he let him go. But Kichibatyr did not leave, but hid in the rocks, not far from the monster’s cave.
Then the snake said to the girl:
- When dusk comes, tell the monster that you want to take a walk, and give him a chain, let him chain you if he is afraid that you will run away.
- Where can I get the chain? – the girl was surprised.
- Don't worry, you will have a chain! - said the snake.
With these words, she hit the ground and turned into a long chain.
The khan's daughter obeyed and did as the snake told her.
As soon as it got dark, she asked the crocodile for permission to go out for a walk.
“I want to see where I will live now,” said the girl.
The monster did not want to let her out of the cave. But the girl handed him the chain and said:
“If you don’t trust me, you can chain me.”
The monster agreed. He wrapped the girl’s hand in a chain and secured it with a large lock, and placed a stone slab on the other end of the chain.
“Now you can take a walk,” said the crocodile, grinning. - Just come back quickly!
The girl came out of the cave and ran to the rocks where Kichibatyr was hiding, and the chain dragged behind her. Kichibatyr heard the ringing of the chain and ran out of cover. The girl showed him the chain and heavy lock hanging on her hand.
“I don’t know how to free myself now,” she said. As soon as she said that, the chain fell apart by itself, the heavy lock fell at the girl’s feet, and a black snake crawled along the ground. The girl was delighted, stroked the snake and thanked her for saving her. And the snake said:
“You saved me, and I repaid you with kindness.” Now run, and I will return to the monster.
The crocodile monster waited for the girl for a long time, finally grabbed the chain and pulled, but the chain immediately broke into links, and a black snake found itself in front of the monster.
- The time has come for us to settle accounts with you! - said the snake.
-Where did you come from, damned one!
“You killed all my brothers and sisters, destroyed our nest, and threw me into a well.” But I was saved, as you can see!
- I will trample you! - the monster shouted.
But the snake rushed, bit him, and at that very moment the monster fell dead. And the snake slowly crawled away...
And Kichibatyr and the khan’s daughter safely reached his native village. The brothers were very sad about Kichibatyr, they waited for a long time for his return, but then they lost hope of seeing their younger brother. Everyone thought he was dead.
When Kichibatyr and his bride entered the house, the brothers’ joy knew no end.
Soon Kichibatyr's wedding took place. The old father said:
“You had to endure a lot, son, to save your brothers and their wives.” But it’s not for nothing that old people say:
“Whoever does not know how to sacrifice himself for others does not know what he lives for.”
And all one hundred brothers with their one hundred wives began to live calmly and amicably.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru