One little knife lived like this. How long or short does he live like this - his mats are light, the fire is burning. So he lives and lives. How long or how short did he live like this? lived, and went straight away, as they say, he doesn’t know where to go. If it snows, it snows.
So he walked and walked and reached a house. And in front of that house hang two blankets, one blanket is made of fox skins, and the other is made of lynx skins. He pulled off the lynx blanket and wrapped himself in it.
Then a woman leaves the house, goes into the forest, and when she returns, she sees that the blanket has fallen.
She enters the house and, entering, says to her younger sister:
— Your blanket fell.
Younger sister says:
- Why didn’t you hang it up, since you saw that it fell?
The younger sister comes out - her blanket has fallen. She took her blanket and shook it. When she shook it, the knife fell. When he fell she said:
- Sister, I found a knife in my blanket, go take a look!
Then her older sister goes to watch. They trampled that little knife and spat on it, and then threw it away:
- Whoever you are, don’t come to us again! — completely thrown away.
Then the knife went. So it goes, let it go. He walked and walked and again reached a house. And in front of that house, there are three blankets: one blanket made of fox skins, another blanket of lynx skins, and one blanket of wolf skins. Then he pulled off the lynx blanket and wrapped himself in it.
Then one woman leaves the house, goes into the forest, returns home and says:
- Sister, your blanket fell! Then the younger sister says:
“It’s never fallen like it did!” Then he comes out and looks: the blanket has fallen. She took it and shook it - the knife fell. Then he calls his older sisters:
- Sisters, come here, go see where the little knife came from!
Then her sisters came to see her; when they come they say:
- It's probably the devil. Younger sister says:
- It would be nice to take it. And the older sisters say:
- You should laugh and mock him, and throw him away!
Younger sister says:
- You trample him yourself!
Then the older sisters trampled on the knife and threw it away.
Then the knife went. So it goes. So he walked and walked and reached a house. And in front of that house hang two blankets - one blanket made of fox skins and the other of sable. He pulled off the sable blanket and wrapped himself in it.
After he has wrapped himself up, a woman, a good woman, comes out of the house, and, looking at the fallen blanket, enters and says:
- Sister, your blanket fell!
The younger sister goes to look, goes to the blanket, takes it, shakes it - the knife has fallen. Wrapping him in a blanket, he carries him into the house and places him on his bunk. Elder sister says:
- Why did you bring in the blanket? The younger one answers:
“It’s almost evening, I brought it in at the same time.” The eldest says:
- Why did it fall?
“It was probably dropped by the wind,” he says. Then the younger sister hid the knife. Then we ate and went to bed. That's how we slept. We got up in the morning. This is how they live. How long or how short do they live like this? Then in the evening they go to bed, at night the younger sister talks, the older sister hears. Then in the morning the younger sister came out. After she left, the elder sister examined the blanket of the younger sister - she had a knife in the blanket. Then the older sister goes to her parents and says:
- Your beloved daughter lives with a knife, when night falls she talks, she has found a knife for her husband!
Then the older sister returns home. Then the old man came and said to his daughter:
- What did you put in? Daughter says:
“I didn’t put anything in, I don’t have anything.” Then the old man got angry with his daughter and said to his youngest daughter:
- Go away, don’t you dare live in this house.
Then the old man punished his daughter. Then his daughter went to the taiga, made a house for herself in the taiga, and began to live there - living alone.
He lives like this, there is no food, he is very hungry, he is in poverty - the old man gave nothing. This is how he lives. So when she lived, she lost her little knife without a trace. He is looking for him, looking for him all day in the house. She searched and searched and sat down on the bunk. Then in the evening a man's footsteps were heard on the street. Here comes a man in sable clothes: a very handsome man, what a man! Then he sits down next to the woman and, sitting down, says:
- If I sit next to the knife’s wife, what will kill me? And if I put my head on my wife’s lap with a knife, how will she kill me?
Then the woman says:
- Do you think I don't know? Aren't you a knife?
Then the man laughed, sat down and said to his wife:
“I put my knapsack in front of the house, go get it!”
Then the woman went and brought it in - he killed the elk, which was very fat. They ate it, the wife ate her fill.
Then the woman was very happy. Then they went to bed. Then in the morning they got up and her husband went hunting. Then they lived like that. Her husband kills a lot of animals: he kills the fattest elk, and he kills the fattest bears; he goes hunting every day. Then, while going hunting, he rests for one day. Then he cooks the meat, cooks the meat of his bears. Then he heated a mass of fat into many birch bark chum-nov bowls and put the lard in pieces there. Half the house is full of what I cooked that day. Then in the evening he says to his wife:
- Go and call your mother, father and sister as quickly as possible, say: the knife, my husband, invited me.
His wife went, came in to her parents, sat down next to her mother, and then said:
- Mom, I came for you, little knife, my husband, invited you, invited you to eat!
Then I went home. And behind her are her father, mother and sister. So, having entered their house, they sit down. Then the little knife stands up and places the meat in front of the old man. “Eat this,” he says.
The old man began to eat; No matter where he gets it, it’s all lard, but he can’t find any meat. Then he asks:
- Child, bring some water!
His daughter feeds him a ladle full of fat. The old man sipped:
- Why do you give fat?! And the daughter says:
- This is not fat, this is our water.
The fat made the old man’s heart feel heavy, so he went to a barrel of water to drink; drinks - and this is fat again, no matter where he drinks - fat. Then he goes home and throws up the old man. His sister follows him home. The old woman ate a lot of meat, and took even more home.
Then the little knife became a good fellow - Nevkhan, and left his name and appearance as a little knife. Nevkhan began going to the taiga to hunt every day. So he goes about, killing many elk; He walks like this and brings a lot of meat. One day he says to his wife:
- Go to your mother and say: my husband is going to leave for his home.
Then his wife went, entered her father’s house, sat down next to her mother and said to her mother:
“My husband said, let’s go home, I miss my job,” he said.
Then the old man says:
- I’m in front of you, go!
Then the woman goes home. Her husband asks her:
- Well, what did you say? Then his wife says:
- I’m in front of you, go; “For at least four days, go ahead and go,” he said.
Then we went to our parents' house to spend the night. There we spent the night and spent the day with our parents. After staying for four days, we went home. Then Nevkhan says:
- You will have enough food until you die - there is plenty of food in my barn, there is meat, eat it!
Then we set off. So they go and go. They walked and walked and reached three women. They are walking in front of their house. As they passed by, the women came out, all three of them came out. Having left, they began to catch up with Nevkhan:
- Why are you leaving us, we are waiting for you every day!
- Good fellow, wait for us! Nevkhan says:
- If you had treated me well, I would have waited!
Then the women say:
“We didn’t know, we thought it was someone’s tricks, we thought it was the devil; If we knew that you were human, we wouldn’t have acted so badly!
Then Nevkhan waited. their. Those women went. Then he went further with three women and his wife. So they go, they go. So they walked and walked and reached the house. The houses began to live. At home this is how they live and live. How long or how short do they live like this?
Nevkhan is a very good hunter: he won’t let a bird fly in front of him, he kills everything. Nevkhan is a strong person. So he lives and lives, whether long or short, he lives like this.
End.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru