There lived one poor man in the village. No one considered him a man - after all, he was poor, no one knew his strength. No one had ever seen him get on a horse and ride out somewhere, but was a man who didn’t have a horse worthy of respect? The poor man didn’t even have a name; everyone simply called him Kuizhiy.
Kuizhiy lived next door to one psha. What they gave Kuizhiy to eat in the psha’s house was his food. But he didn’t always manage to eat.
Pita was away, and guests came to him - three pshas. “The guests will be served refreshments, maybe they’ll feed me along with them,” thought Kuizhiy and went into the psha’s yard. He sat down in the kunatskaya, in the corner, by the door, waiting. The guests were served ane, they were treated well, but Kuizhiu was given nothing.
When the ane was taken away, Kuizhiy went to the big house in the hope that here he would be fed by the guasha - the wife of the psha.
Guasha sat with her daughter over a generous amount of ane. The girl saw Kuizhiy and said:
“Our nana, you see that the poor man is hungry, give him something to eat!”
Guasha threw Kuizhiu a large bone that had no meat on it.
- Our nana, I’m poor, but I’m a man, not a dog! - Kuizhiy said and threw this bone back.
The bone hit the hem of the gouache, and she, angry, began to loudly scold Kuizhia.
At this time Pshi returned home. They told him that guests had arrived, and he went to the kunatskaya. After mutual greetings and plentiful refreshments, the guests, as was customary, told the host about the purpose of their visit.
“If you give us sixteen girls as concubines, we’ll leave kindly; if you don’t give us up, we’ll kill you!”
“If your luck continues, you will get everything you want,” said the saddened pshi and left the kunatskaya.
Evening came, it was time for the guests to go to bed.
But Psha can’t sleep, he walks around the yard, thinking, where can he get girls?
At midnight Kuizhiy looked into the psha’s yard and saw him wandering around the yard. “Allah, Allah, our pshi is probably sick, let me go find out what worries him,” Kuizhiy decided and came to him. But Pshi shouted at him and drove him out of the yard.
After some time, Kuizhiy again came to Psha, but he again drove him away. When Kuizhiy came for the third time, Pshi said to him:
– I have guests, they demand sixteen girls. If I don't give it to them, they will leave me.
“Oh-oh, you should have told me that right away.” Go get me clothes and weapons.
Pshi went and brought Kuizhia and weapons and clothes. “Now go and sleep peacefully,” said the poor man. - In the morning, go and sit on that mound over there, let the Unauts tell the guests to come there. “I’ll be there too, you’ll see what happens,” Kuizhiy said.
Kuizhiy had two horses, which he inherited after the death of his father, but no one in the village knew about it. He mounted one of those horses and rode to the mound.
Here he saw Pshi and his guests.
He greeted them and said:
- Come to me, you are my guests.
- Thank you, we cannot visit you, we have important business.
– Are you planning to go somewhere or are you already returning from a raid? – Kuizhiy asked then.
“We’re not going anywhere and we’re not returning from a raid.” My guests demand sixteen girls, but I did not give them to them and cannot give them. “They will kill me and leave,” Pshi answered.
“They’ll do what’s right if they kill you, why don’t you give it if they demand it from you?” Come with me, I know the right place,” Kuizhiy told them.
“We won’t go,” said Psha’s guests.
“Whether you want it or not, you will go,” Kuizhiy said and led them in front of him. We drove for a long time, and finally Kuizhiy stopped. They arrived where no horse had gone before.
“Both guests and hagrei,” he said, “we all must go and bring herds of horses.” If we steal horses, the herdsmen will chase us. But they are not scary to us; the owner of these horses is formidable. When they chase us, stand either in front of the herd or behind, wherever you want.
The guests of the psha were worthy horsemen - they knew how dangerous it was to ride behind a herd that you were stealing, but they decided to ride behind.
Kuizhiy went and brought the horses. He was in front of the herd, and the psha and the guests were behind him. The herdsmen chased the kidnappers, but returned with nothing.
The owner of the horses went out in pursuit alone. Kuizhiy gallops, and he looks around all the time. The horseman caught up with the pshi and his guests, threw them off their horses and rushed on. Soon he caught up with Kuizhiy.
-Where are you driving these horses? - he asked him.
“I’m sending my own people to my place,” answered Kuizhiy.
“In that case, give me one of them, let the rest bring you happiness,” said the owner of the herd.
“I won’t even give you horse droppings,” answered Kuizhiy.
Then the owner of the herd took aim and shot at Kuizhia, but did not cause him any harm. Kuizhiy hit the rider and threw him off his horse, then picked him up, put him on the horse and drove the horse to his companions. He ordered the owner of the herd to put the pshi and his guests on horses and send them home.
They put Pshi and his companions on horses and sent them home. Kuizhiy remained with the herd.
When they had driven quite far, Kuizhiy left the owner of the herd in the steppe and wanted to gallop away. But he grabbed his horse by the bridle and said:
– I won’t let you go! Either you will kill me and leave, or you will go with me and taste my treats, you will be my guest.
“The one who says “be a guest” cannot be killed,” said Kuizhiy and went to visit the owner of the herd.
He received the guest, as was customary, and gave him five hundred horses as a farewell.
“Our guest, you see what I did to your companions and what you did to me.” But if you and I stick together, there is a man stronger than us - we won’t be able to steal his horses and we won’t be able to get away from his guard stallion,” said the owner.
Kuizhia was very surprised by such words, but he did not say anything. He drove in front of him the five hundred horses that had been given to him and soon caught up with his companions. Together they drove to the mound, from where they set off.
“Sit here and sit, and if you leave, I will still find you,” Kuizhiy said and left.
Soon he returned and brought sixteen girls on two carts, whom his guests demanded from the psha. After that, he gave the guests the herd he had brought and sent them home.
Kuizhiy and Pshi were left alone, Kuizhiy made Pshi swear that he would fulfill any of his requests. Pshi, delighted that Kuizhiy saved his life, made such an oath.
“Then,” said Kuizhiy, “as soon as you arrive home, separate from the guasha and take her to your parents, and give your daughter to me as a wife.” No matter how many times I come to you, promise that you will always greet me warmly with the words: “Please, please, sit down,” you will sit me down and feed me.
Pshi did everything: as soon as he arrived home, he took his wife to her parents, and married his daughter to Kuizhia.
After this, Kuizhiy decided to go to the horseman the owner of the herd was talking about and test his courage again.
“We can’t go, we’ll die from him,” said the owner of the herd when Kuizhiy came to him. But Kuizhiy insisted on his own, and they set off. When they approached the herd, the guard stallion did not even allow them to approach the horses. Kuizhiy galloped up to him, hit him with all his might with his sword and cut his croup. The stallion turned and galloped into his master's yard. The owner saw the wound on the horse’s rump and understood everything.
- God kill me, is there such a person in the world who is not afraid of me? Has Kuizhiy really gotten here? - he exclaimed.
At the same moment he mounted his horse and set off in pursuit. What did it take for him to catch up with both the horses and those who stole them! He drove the herd back. He brought the prisoners to his courtyard and received them as honored guests. They were seated in the kunatskaya, where they brought a lot of ane with a rich treat.
When the feast ended, the owner said:
“Now I want to ask you, how did it happen that you drove my horses?” Didn’t you know, didn’t you hear about me?
“We heard and knew about you,” Kuizhiy answered. “But I set out on a journey to find a person who would make me feel my strength.” Thanks to you, I tested my strength, thank you for that. And I forced this man to go with me, he is not guilty of anything.
The owner gave them a thousand horses as a sign of friendship and released them.
They brought their rich booty to the village and distributed half of it to the poor. And from then on Kuizhiy took up farming and never went on raids.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru