This happened a long time ago. So long ago that the oldest Ude does not remember. His grandfather told him about this. And his father told his grandfather. It was a very long time ago.
One hunter, Soldi-ga, his wife died and left him a daughter named Elga.
Soldig buried his wife, grieved, grieved, and married a second time. He took a woman from the Puning family. And the three of them began to live: Soldiga, his wife Puninga and daughter Elga.
Soldiga loved his daughter very much. He made various toys: a cradle, chumashki, a masher with a mallet to knead the skin. He made such toys so that Elga would get used to women's work. And little Elga asked her father:
- Make me a sledge, a bow, arrows, a spear! Puninga, hearing this, said:
– Why do you need boy’s toys? Elga answers:
“When I grow up, I’ll help my father hunt.”
- Here's another! - Puninga said. - It's none of your business.
Soldig looked at his daughter and saw that his brave girl was growing up. He made toys for his daughter: small sledges, a crossbow, a spear, he carved a small deer out of wood, and a sled of sled dogs.
She saw Puning that her husband did not listen, and she disliked Elga. She began to offend her when her father went hunting. Elga endured it and did not complain to her father about her stepmother, so as not to upset him.
This is how they lived.
One day I met Soldig a wild boar in the taiga. Soldiga chased him for a long time. Completely driven. The boar went into the thicket and lay down.
An amba tiger walked past. He was hungry. I came across a boar - and let's tear it up! Soldig didn’t see who was fussing around there, so he threw a spear into the thicket. The spear pierced the boar and hit the tiger.
The tiger became furious and attacked Soldiga. The hunter began to tell the tiger that it was not him that he wanted to kill, he was aiming at the boar, but the amba did not listen to him and tore him into pieces.
Amba learned the taste of human blood. I started going to the camp. Other hunters, Soldig’s relatives, followed his path, asked him not to touch them, and asked the tiger to go to other places. But the amba did not listen to them. He began to come at night - dragging pigs and deer dogs. He began to carry small children. What's worse!..
Her father passed away - Elga had a really bad time! Puninga hated her. She began to work to kill the girl. Elga goes for water, washes grains for porridge, salts fish, dries yukola for the dogs, crumples skins, embroiders robes for her stepmother, drags brushwood from the taiga for the fire... And Puninga lies on the bunk all day long, eats, sleeps, smokes a pipe, does nothing herself, keeps shouting at Elga: Give me this, girl, give me that!
Elga knew that she had to obey her elders and did everything that her stepmother told her. It was very difficult for her. But Elga endured. She consoled herself: When I grow up, I’ll leave my stepmother. I will live alone. Hunt boo-doo.
Elga did not part with her spear because her father made it. Elga loved her father very much. Wherever she went, she carried a spear with her.
One time Elga’s stepmother sent her to tear off birch bark to make new chumashki.
The girl went into the taiga, found a good birch tree, made two cuts, and began to tear off the bark. Suddenly she hears someone asking her in a rough voice:
- Hey, what are you doing here, girl? Whose are you? Elga turned around and saw an amba - a tiger. His hunting has been bad for some time now. His sides were sunken from hunger; the amba was very, very angry. But Elga was not afraid of the tiger. Answered:
– I am Soldiga’s daughter. What do you need? Tiger says:
“I tore Soldiga to pieces... and now I’ll eat you!” Elga shouted at the tiger:
- Go away, thief!
The tiger rushed at Elga. And the girl is behind the birch tree. The birch tree bent over and obscured it. The tiger hit his head against a birch tree with all his might and broke his head.
Elga swung her spear at him:
- Go away, thief, otherwise it will be bad for you!
The amba growled so loudly that leaves fell from the trees. Jumped again. Then two birch trees closed and squeezed him. The amba is stuck and can’t get out. No matter how he fought, he could not get out of the trap - these birches squeezed him so tightly. Elga threw a spear at him. The spear entered the tiger in one eye and came out the other. Elga blinded the amba. He died.
Elga cut off the tiger’s striped tail and went to the camp.
He sees people putting things into packs and dismantling yurts. They are planning to roam, they are afraid of the tiger.
Elga says:
-Where are you going? Amba won't come again!
- What do you know, girl! - said the oldest Ude. “Where the tiger came once, he will come there again.” We all cannot escape death!
Elga showed the striped tiger tail to the old people:
“I’m saying that the amba won’t come here again!” So I cut off the amba's tail.
The Ude were scared.
- What have you done, girl! - they shouted.
- Amba cannot be killed. Now his spirit will walk into the camp at night and destroy us all! The taiga will come to our camp - all the paths will be overgrown with grass. The swamp will cover this place...
Elga says:
- I know the law of hunters. I asked the amba to leave twice. He didn't listen.
“Well, then it’s a different matter,” the old people say. – Amba is to blame!
The Ude did not migrate. They began to praise the girl.
It's a shame for Puninga that she is not praised. I was completely angry with Elga. No matter what the girl does, she cannot please Puninga. Elga will wash the cereal and start cooking porridge - the stepmother will come up, throw away the cereal, and make her wash it again. Elga will embroider a robe - her stepmother does not like it.
- What are you doing, clumsy! - she says. - Is this how they embroider? Rip it all apart and do it all over again. Yes, more beautiful, yes, brighter, and more intricate!
Puninga screams and swears. Elga began to cry, went from the yurt to the river bank, and sat down where the ferns grew. She sat down and cried. The ferns rustled and began to move.
One fern Elgu asks:
- Why are you crying, little one?
Elga told how hard life was for her. He stroked her fern with its shaggy leaves and said:
- Don't cry, little one! This grief is easy to help. We will help you. - Here the fern began to gather all the flowers and herbs to help Elga. All sorts of herbs and flowers reached for the robe. They lay down on it and twirled themselves in different curls. And such a beautiful pattern was created on the robe, such as Elga had never seen before!
Here the fern collected all Elga’s tears, sprinkled them on the robe, and the whole pattern remained on the robe.
Fern says to Elga:
– I feel sorry for you, Elga! Your stepmother insults you so much, you cry so much that the whole earth here is saturated with your tears, and we grew up on your tears. We helped you as much as we could...
Elga carried her robe to the camp.
Many good embroiderers lived there. And when they saw the pattern on Elga’s robe, their mouths opened in envy and surprise. There has never been such a robe before!
And Puninga became even more angry with Elga.
- I want a robe sewn with deer hair! - she says to Elga.
And it was summer. At this time, deer have short hair. Where do you get long wool for embroidery?
Elga walked around the camp and asked the neighbors, but no one could help her out.
Elga sat down and cried again. She began to sort through her toys, remembered her father with a warm word and burst into even more tears.
Suddenly the toy deer that Elga’s father made says to the girl:
– Don’t cry, mistress, this grief can be helped! The deer shook himself. He stomped on his little feet and began to grow. He grew and grew and grew big. Overgrown with thick white winter fur. He threw off his fur. And he became small again.
Elga made a new robe. She pricked all her hands with fur. And again the stepmother was not pleased.
Puninga says:
– You’re not the one doing this! Someone helps you... But all this is in vain. You can't embroider like I can. Now I’ll embroider a robe for myself, then you’ll see how to work! Run to the camp near the Anyui River. My grandmother lives there. Ask her for my needle. Make sure you're back in the morning, don't be late!
And it’s a long way to the camp on the Anyui River—it takes several days to get there.
What should Elga do? She became sad again. He sorts through his toys and remembers his father with his warm words. Suddenly he hears a voice:
- Don’t be sad, little mistress, what are we for?
Elga looked around. And in front of her is a whole team of dogs. Twelve dogs, one more beautiful than the other! They wag their fluffy tails. They tap their thin legs. Their fur is white, their eyes are yellow, and their noses are black. Elga was surprised.
-Where are you from? - asks the dogs. And they responded:
– Don’t you recognize it, Elga? Soldiga made us.
Elga looked and instead of toy dogs there were real ones. They heard the mistress crying and came to life.
Elga harnessed her dogs to the sledge and sat down. And the dogs ran off at a gallop. A forest is not a forest, a river is not a river - they fly straight! The girl closed her eyes. And the dogs have already risen to the clouds. Elga opened her eyes. He sees light all around... Clouds lie around like fluffy snow. Elga took the ostol-pogonych and began to drive the sledges.
- Tah, tah! - shouts. - Sing-sing-sing! Only wisps of clouds fly from under the dogs’ feet.
Before Elga had time to get tired and freeze, the dogs carried her to the Anyui camp.
Elga got off the sledge. I found Puninga's grandmother. An old woman lies sick, unwashed, unkempt. Elga took pity on the old man - she washed him, combed his hair, found a ginseng root, and gave it to her grandmother to chew. Grandma ate the root and became healthy. Elga says:
- Thank you, girl! You're good! You did me good. And I will repay you kindly. It’s not a needle that my granddaughter needs, but your death. I’ll give you a needle, just watch: if you give the needle away, keep it with your ear towards you.
... The sun had just come out of the sea, and Elga had already returned home with her dogs. The stepmother is sitting there, angry and despicable.
“Well,” he says, “where is my needle?”
“Here she is,” says Elga. - Here's a needle. She began to give the needle to her stepmother. She remembered what the old woman told her. She turned the needle with the eye toward herself and the tip toward her stepmother.
But the needle turned out to be not simple. As soon as Puninga took her in her hands, the needle began to move between her fingers, stitched through her fingers, and sewed her fingers to each other. No matter how hard Puninga fought, she could not separate finger from finger.
- Well, you outwitted me, girl! - she says to Elga.
She realized then who was helping Elga. I waited until Elga fell asleep. She lit a fire in the hearth. I threw all the toys into the fire that Elge’s father did. She abandoned the deer and abandoned the dogs. They began to burn. Only one dog jumped out of the fire, rushed to Elga, nudged her with its nose, and woke her up:
- Trouble, Elga! Stepmother wants to kill us all! Let's run!
-Where to run? – . asks Elga.
“Run there, where the stepmother is not,” the dog answers. Elga jumped out of the yurt, the dog behind her. I saw Puning and chased after him.
At this time the moon rose. The lunar path stretched along the river. Elga and the dog ran along that path, as if on ice. Puninga rushed after them. Only under it that path broke - it couldn’t stand it. The stepmother fell. She grabbed Elga's small spear. She threw her spear after Elga. The spear flew to Soldiga’s daughter and said:
- Well, goodbye, little mistress! Now we will part! The spear turned back. It reached the stepmother. It entered one eye, came out the other, and scattered into dust. Puninga's eyes became as big as bowls. Puninga waved her arms, and they became wings. Long claws grew on her stepmother's feet. The stepmother became a bug-eyed owl. She wanted to return home, but her wings carried her to the taiga. The stepmother sat down on a tree and shouted:
- Pu-ning-ga! Pu-ning-ga!
That's how the owl still screams.
And Elga and the dog ran, ran along the lunar path and reached the moon. The girl wanted to go back, but then it began to get light - that path disappeared. And the girl and the dog remained on the moon.
Elga comes down to earth in the morning. He enters all the houses, looks for Soldiga’s spear, inspects everything. Lights up the weapon to see if there is Soldiga’s spear there. And if she notices that one of the children is sleeping with tears in their eyes, Elga wipes away the tears and gives them a good sleep so that the child forgets the insult. That’s why the guys don’t remember the insult.
But when the owl in the taiga screams: Pu-ning-ga! Pu-ning-ga! – then Elga quickly rushes back.
You can see it if you open your eyes at night when the moonlight touches them.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru