A long time ago, there lived in a village a stingy and cruel landowner. Every day he called his maid Tu Khoi to him and inspired her:
“If you find anything while sweeping the house, be it a valuable thing or a trinket, bring it to me immediately.” If you hide it, I’ll hang you.
And then one day Tu Khoi actually picked up the golden button. She wanted to give it to the owner, but suddenly she was afraid that he might suspect her of stealing. Not knowing where to put the find, she put it behind her cheek and then accidentally swallowed it.
Soon after this, the maid felt that she was going to have a child. The angry landowner wanted to execute her. Tu Khoi began to make excuses with tears:
- Have mercy, I swear, I’m not guilty of anything.
- If it’s not her fault, then where does the child come from?
The maid told the story of the button, but the landowner did not believe her. However, after reflection, he decided to wait until the execution to see who the child would be like and to convict the culprit.
The time came, and the maid gave birth to the Turtle. A cruel landowner expelled the woman from the village. And the people were surprised and pitied Tu Khoi. Since then, everyone began to call her a widow.
The Turtle Son grew by leaps and bounds. When the rice ripened in the fields for the third time, the son already knew how to speak and every time at dinner he asked his mother:
“Mom, our house is completely dilapidated, it’s about to fall.” Why don't you build a new one?
“Son,” his mother answered him with a sigh, “we are very poor, so where can we think about a new home...
Seeing the mother’s sadness, the son tried to console her as best he could:
“Don’t worry, mom, when I grow up, I’ll build you a new house.”
His mother just smiled sadly back at him.
A few years later, the landowner sent Turtle to herd buffaloes. And he had so many buffaloes that he couldn’t count them on his fingers; the landowner's five daughters could not cope with them. Every day the buffaloes poisoned the rice fields.
The turtle could not climb onto the back of the buffalo, and the landowner's daughters had to help him every time. The older daughters did this reluctantly, not forgetting to flick Turtle on the nose or tell him something offensive. Only the youngest, Nam, treated him kindly and respectfully.
The buffaloes, when the Turtle began to graze them, became surprisingly obedient; now they did not scatter and poison the fields.
Every day the Turtle took them to a lawn with lush grass and, while the buffalos were grazing, he flew into the air and frolicked there like a bird. The landowner's daughter brought him lunch. The elders did this reluctantly, but the younger one happily fulfilled her duty. One day, when she came to the pasture, she did not find the Turtle there.
- Turtle! Where are you? Go have lunch! - Nam shouted.
- Wow! - came from above.
- Turtle! Take me with you too!
“Okay,” he answered, “just close your eyes tightly.”
The girl obeyed and suddenly felt herself rising into the air. And when she opened her eyes, in front of her was no longer the Turtle, but a beautiful young man. They flew across the sky all day and from then on fell in love with each other.
After some time, the Turtle said to his mother:
“Go and woo the landowner’s youngest daughter for me.” The saddened mother began to admonish her son:
“Are you sane, son? You’re so poor, and you’re also a Turtle!” Where can you dream about a rich man's daughter!
But the son was persistent, and the mother had to go to carry out his instructions.
She had barely crossed the threshold of the landowner's house when the owner barked:
- Well, what else? Why did you come? The frightened woman did not dare to tell the truth and pretended that she had come to ask for fire.
- You need a fire, go to the kitchen. Mother Turtle took the fire and hurried away.
- What did the landowner answer you? - her son asked when she returned.
“He didn’t even let me say a word,” the mother sighed, “where was there any question?”
The next day, Turtle again sent his mother to the landowner. Trembling with fear, this time she fulfilled her son’s request. The enraged landowner ordered to seize her and suffocate her with smoke, but his youngest daughter doused the fire with water. Then the landowner called all his daughters and asked which of them would like to marry the Turtle.
“We are as beautiful as fairies,” answered the eldest daughters. “Is it ever heard of to take a stinking Turtle as a husband!”
Only the youngest daughter, Nam, announced her consent.
Having learned that his daughter loved Turtle, the landowner offered Turtle a ransom for her: a horse with nine manes, a rooster with nine spurs, and twelve bamboo trunks filled with fat rendered from grasshoppers.
Hearing the condition set by the landowner, the mother fell into despair and, returning home, showered her son with reproaches, but he told her:
- Calm down, mom, and sleep well. And in the morning you will see what will happen.
That night a terrible thunderstorm broke out. The thunderclaps heard near the house forced the mother to wrap herself tightly in the blanket in fear. And the next morning she suddenly saw herself in a large, rich house, and everything that was needed for the wedding was already prepared.
The sun had not yet had time to dry the night dew when the whole procession headed towards the landowner’s house. Servants who came from God knows where were carrying vessels with the fat of grasshoppers, a rooster with nine spurs, and urging on a wonderful horse. The Turtle himself reclined importantly on a golden platter, which one of the servants carried on his head. A crowd of surprised people ran behind them.
The wedding ceremony took place according to all the rules, at the sacrificial table. Seeing how ridiculous the pitiful Turtle looked next to the bride in a beautiful dress, clumsily stretching his neck out of his shell, the audience roared with laughter. The landowner's eldest daughters were especially zealous in ridicule.
When the ceremony was completed, the newlyweds retired to their room, and the guests began to feast. Suddenly a dazzlingly bright light flashed in the newlyweds’ room. Everyone screamed in fear and were even speechless for a moment. But as soon as everyone came to their senses, the bride’s sisters crept up to the couple’s room and quietly looked in.
Imagine their envy and surprise when, in the place of the Turtle, they saw a beautiful young man! And the sisters attacked their father, demanding that he give them in marriage to the turtles.
The landowner immediately sent people to catch the four turtles, and on the same day more weddings took place. However, these turtles did not want to behave as expected during the marriage ceremony. They always tried to run away in different directions and scared the children.
As darkness fell, each of the sisters carried her husband to the bedchamber. Time passed, but the turtles still did not turn into young men. When the sisters tried to attract them to themselves, they broke free and painfully scratched their skin with their clawed paws. Everyone was in tears from anger and pain, the girls finally threw the turtles into the yard.
The next morning they cried and told their father about everything. The landowner was afraid that he would not get grandchildren from his older daughters, and declared the youngest daughter his only heir.
Since then, the envious sisters only thought about how to drive the Turtle out of the world.
One day they managed to ambush him and mortally wound him. The turtle reached the house and, feeling that the end was near, gave his wife his blood-soaked shirt.
“When your hour of death comes,” he said, “put on this shirt, and we will meet in heaven.” Having said these words, the Turtle flew up into the sky.
His widow, not wanting to come to terms with her loss, went to the highest mountain the next day in the hope of somehow getting to her husband. The road went higher and higher. And then the woman met an old man riding a horse. Guessing that this was already a resident of the sky, Nam asked him if she had chosen the right path.
“Soon you will reach a fork,” the old man answered her, “then follow the road where you will see large footprints, and do not go where the small ones lead...
We followed the old man's advice. Soon she met a snake and a fox fighting. When one of the opponents was exhausted in the fight, he only touched the tree standing near him - and his strength reappeared. Nam drove away the animals, tore a piece of bark from the tree and continued on her way to heaven.
In the evening she stopped for the night in a small hut on the edge of the village. The owner of the hut has just killed a pig. Nam bit off a small piece of magic tree bark, chewed it and began to blow on the pig. She blew once and the pig moved, she blew another time and the pig jumped to her feet, she blew a third time and she grunted and ran towards the herd. The hostess was very surprised and told us that a man had died in the neighboring village.
Without waiting for morning, the young woman walked straight there. The coffin with the body was already nailed shut, and the peasants for a long time did not agree to open it in order to try the effect of the miraculous drug. But Nam still persuaded them. She carefully chewed the bark of the tree and, mixing it with water, sprinkled it all over the body of the deceased. He immediately came to life.
Having done her good deed, the young woman returned to the house where she was sheltered for the night and asked the hostess to keep her in her family as an adopted daughter.
Time passed, and then one day, going to the stream for water, Nam met a young man whom she had once revived. The young man was bathing in the stream. Looking closely at him, Nam was surprised at his resemblance to her husband. She quickly ran home and brought the shirt that her husband had bequeathed to her before his death. When the young man saw this shirt, he immediately remembered everything and rushed to his wife.
There was no end to the couple's happiness. The villagers happily donated whatever they could to them, and a joyful wedding was celebrated a second time.
And the sun, having learned about this story, became so angry that it came down and incinerated the treacherous sisters. This happened on June 22. And since then, every year on this day, the day of the summer solstice, it descends lower than usual and mercilessly scorches the earth with its burning rays, forcing all people to suffer severely from the heat.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru