A husband and wife lived on the banks of a river. They had a son named Mokchu Kechikte. They lived by fishing.
One day my father went up the river to set nets. While going up the river, he saw a man on the bank. This man asks the old man where he is going. The old man replies that he is going to set a net for fish.
The old man reached the bend of the river and began to set his nets. By nightfall I caught a lot of chum salmon. Having finished fishing, he lit a fire and began to eat. Suddenly people come with arrows. The old man asks:
-Where are you going at night? They say:
- We are not going anywhere, we have come to you.
- Why did you come? They came to kill me, and then don’t you know how you’ll live?
But those people tied the old man’s hands and threw him into the water. The wife waited and waited for her husband, but he was still not there. Then the husband’s sister comes running from another village and tells how her brother was killed. The wife cried a lot, she was left alone with her son. Together they prepared fish. Mokchu Kechikte became quite an adult, he became a hunter.
One day, returning from hunting, he asks his mother:
- Did my father die? Or did people kill him? Tell me everything! Mother said:
— People killed your father when he was setting up nets. They tied his hands back and threw him into the water.
Mokchu, hearing this, thought: “Well, you killed my father, so now it won’t be good for you either.”
Some more time passed. Mokchu’s mother, having grown old, died, he himself got married and already had sons. One day Mokchu went on reconnaissance to the village where people of the same kind lived as those who killed his father. He walked and walked and reached the village by nightfall. I reached the house of their hero. The hero's house was surrounded by a high fence of trees. The height of that fence was three fathoms. Mokchu easily jumped over him and crawled to the hero’s window. Stood on the side of the window
and listens to the shaman performing shamanism in the house and people laughing. They made a figure of Mokchu, stabbed and chopped it with daggers, and at the same time said this:
- Well, Mokchu, let your head split... The shaman, kamlaya, says this:
- Mokchu Kechikte’s death is near, you will kill him... Mokchu kept hearing those words and, taking out his knife, somehow touched the window. Hearing the noise, their hero, taking an arrow, went outside. Mokchu, hearing that he was leaving, sat down close to the corner of the wall of the house, pressing the knees of his legs to his chest. He thought: “Let the arrow hit the leg, as long as it doesn’t hit the chest.” And he sees that an arrow has hit his knee and is sticking out. Mokchu endured it without breathing, only pressing his knees harder to his chest.
The hero did not look at Mokcha and, thinking that he had shot at the wall, returned home. Mokchu carefully took out the arrow, removed the tip and put it in his bosom. He bandaged the wound on his knee with clothes made of deerskin. He thought: “You haven’t killed me now, I’ll kill you first with the tip of your arrow.” Then, now with difficulty, he climbed over the fence and walked towards his house. At home he began to treat his wound. A month later it healed for him.
One night, many people surrounded Mocchu's house. Mokchu, having heard, woke up his wife and ordered her to defend herself from the arrows. He himself crept up to the door with his arrows and began to look through the hole. People keep shooting, his wife keeps defending herself from arrows. Mokchu sees one strong man standing at his door and shooting. “But this man must be the younger brother of their hero,” Mocchu thinks. Through the hole in the door, he aimed the end of his arrow and shot into the man's chest. He fell down and shouted to his comrades:
“It’s Mokchu who puts out our fire!”
During the night, Mokchu finished off all those people. In the morning he took his arrows and followed the trail of the people who attacked him. Came to their summer migration. At this time, only their greatest hero remained on the summer migration. He knew nothing about Mokchu’s arrival and thought that Mokchu had been killed by his people long ago. Mokchu climbed under one boat and looked out for everything from there. While lying in wait, he put the tip of that hero on his arrow. The hero went out into the street and shouted to his wife:
“I’m going to go install nets today!”
His wife replied:
- Go set it, but it’s better to work.
The hero took his nets and went down to the shore. There he lifted his boat with one hand, laid it on the water and floated upstream, propped up with a pole.
Mokchu looks from under the boat and thinks: “Well, today is the day of your death.” The hero swam, and when he waved his hand, propped up by a pole, his armpit was very clearly visible. Mokchu, aiming at her, fired.
- Here, I’ll give you your arrow!
The hero fell into the water.
Mokchu Kechikte killed many people, avenging his father.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru