A young goldfish lived alone in the forest; went hunting, beat everyone. beast, but I have never seen people. One day a gray-haired old man comes to him and says:
- Merge! Why do you live alone in a deep forest? Go to people, see how they live, take yourself a wife and live as gold should.
Merge wanted to see people, and he said to the old man:
- Take me with you, and let’s go to the people together. The old man agreed, and he and Merge went together.
They walked and walked and saw ducks swimming on the river. Merge was delighted and said:
“We need to shoot two or three.”
“These are not ordinary ducks,” the old man stopped him, “they are ssons (burkhans), rarely anyone sees them.” Some people never get to see them in their entire lives.
But the hunter could not resist and shot an arrow. However, he was very surprised that his arrow flew over the back of the duck. Merge became angry: he never missed, and he felt ashamed of a stranger. He took aim and shot again, but this time he didn’t hit: the arrow flew under the duck’s belly.
“This has never happened to me,” Merge said with annoyance.
- How dare you shoot at me? - one duck spoke “humanly.” “Because you wanted to kill me, I will torture you for a long time.”
And Burkhan the duck unleashed madness on Merge. The crazy Merge ran along the shore, pounced and killed everyone who got in his way. He killed a lot of people. Finally he met on the road the same gray-haired old man with whom he left the house together.
“If he remains crazy, he will kill a lot of people in vain,” thought the old man. “We need to cure him.”
He ran forward, and when the crazy Merge rushed at him, he hit him on the head with a large knife. The skin on Merge burst into two parts: one half went into the ground, the other flew into the sky, and Merge himself became healthy as before. Merge fell on his knees in front of the old man and began to thank him, but the old man lifted him from his knees and said:
- I want to make you a shaman - let's go to my yurt.
They went to the old man's yurt. The old man lit a big fire, boiled the cauldron, cut Merge into pieces, threw everything into the cauldron and began to cook. While Merge was boiling in the cauldron, the old man warmed up his tambourine and began to sing and dance. Finally he shouted loudly:
- Ha!
And Merge came out of the cauldron healthy and unharmed.
“Now you are a powerful shaman,” the old man turned to Merge. “You can fly like a bird and turn into any animal.”
Merge left the old man. He walked for a long time and suddenly saw in front of him an ugly big-eared monster.
“You killed my brother,” the freak spoke angrily.
“It’s not my fault,” Merge answered him. - I was crazy then.
But the freak continued to swear. Then Merge grabbed his guide and a fight broke out between them. They didn't fight for long; Soon Merge dropped the monster to the ground and killed him.
Merge went further. But he had not even gone half a day before he saw a yurt. He entered it and saw that a strong shaman, the brother of the murdered monster, lived here.
“You killed my two brothers and therefore you yourself will not be alive,” said the owner of the yurt.
They started a fight. Two powerful shamans fought for a long time, but neither one nor the other could overcome it. Suddenly a kite flew in and spoke humanly:
- Merge! You won't be able to kill your enemy if you don't wear an elk skin shirt.
- Where can I get such a shirt?
“I’ll bring it to you now,” said the kite and flew away.
Soon he arrived again and threw Merge a shirt. Merge quickly put it on and felt ten times stronger. He struck his opponent with all his might and killed him.
Merge rested a little, smoked a pipe and moved on. He walked for a long time and suddenly saw a hedgehog run out into his path. Merge wanted to kill him, but the hedgehog spoke humanly:
- Don't hit me, but listen!
- What do you want to say?
“Soon you will come to the yurt where your uncle lives; be more respectful to him.”
- Why do you run like a hedgehog and not walk like a human?
“An ugly freak wanted to steal me and marry me, but I ran into the forest and became a hedgehog.”
Merge went, as the hedgehog maiden indicated to him. Soon he saw a yurt. He entered the yurt and bowed to his uncle to the ground.
-Who are you? - his uncle asked.
- I am your nephew; I lived in the forest, and now I’m going to people.
The uncle was happy about his nephew. He began to ask him how he lived. Merge told him everything that happened.
“Where will you go now,” the uncle asks his nephew, “next or will you return home?”
- I'll move on.
- And I will go with you.
“No, I’ll go alone,” said Merge. Merge walked the same way he walked before. He walked
many days and finally sees the yurt. He went there. A young girl is sitting there. She quickly cooked him dinner. Together they went to bed. At night, Merge wakes up and hears that someone is sneaking towards his bed. He grabbed his guide and stabbed the three-foot-tall hero. There was no girl; instead of her would-
la ugly old woman. She knelt in front of Merge and said:
“Don’t kill me, I won’t do anything bad to you, I’ll follow you everywhere and help you.”
Merge did not kill her. He went to bed and slept until the morning. In the morning, Merge saw in the yurt, instead of the ugly old woman, a young girl again, the same one that he had seen last night.
“Where did you come from and where did the old woman I saw last night go?” - Merge asked the girl.
- During the day I am young, but at night I become old.
- Why are you changing like that?
- My Burkhan helps me with this.
Merge left the woman in the yurt and moved on. He walked for many days and finally reached a large camp. There is a big wake going on here; the shaman sings and is treated to vodka. The funeral is held for the deceased Gold, who left behind a young wife. He really liked the widow Merge, and he wanted to marry her, but all his relatives were against it. Merge tried to persuade him for a long time, but since they still did not want to marry him to a woman, he entered into battle with them. Although Merge had many opponents, he soon killed almost all of them, and then took the widow and all the workers and sailed down the river.
Merge stopped near the shore and after a while he saw that their boat was being overtaken by a large longboat. Merge began to shout for the swimmers to stop, but the owner of this longboat did not want to stop. Then Merge approached him in his boat, and a fight ensued between them. Soon Merge killed the owner, and took his longboat, where his wife and nyaka (slaves) were, with him.
Merge had been swimming for some time and wanted to stop to cook food. He went out onto the river and went up the hill. Soon he saw a small yurt in the forest, and an old man ran out to meet him. He began to scold Merge and threatened to kill him. They started a fight. But there was no way Merge could kill the old man. If he cut off his arm, it grew back to his body; the same thing happened with the legs, and even with the head
howl. But then Merge figured out how to kill the terrible hero: he cut him in half and, not allowing the halves to grow together, pushed one half into the water and threw the other up. The one who fell into the water drowned, and the one who fell from above was crushed to death on the ground. But immediately a young guy jumped out of the yurt and shouted:
- If you killed your father, then kill your son too!
Merge began to fight again.
The young hero, the son of old men, was strong, and their battle lasted a long time. But in the end, Merge killed this hero too.
Merge swam further. He swam for a long time without meeting anyone, but finally they arrived at a rich yurt. There were a lot of people here. Everyone was in smart clothes and drunk. The owner of the yurt gathered the best shooters and promised to marry his daughter to the one whose arrow would fly through the ears of the needles placed one on top of the other. None of the shooters could do it. Some did not hit at all, and some only shot through the eye of one or two needles.
Merge pulled his bow and shot an arrow. With a screech, the arrow flew through the ears of all nine, without hitting any. Merge took the daughter of the owner of the yurt and went back. On his way, he stopped at the same places where he had stopped before and took with him all the women he married, as well as all their slaves (nyaka) and all their property. He arrived home and lived happily and richly.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru