A long time ago, when the earth had just begun to be created, when the blue sky was just beginning to appear above it, it was then, in a place where long rivers crossed, on one island there stood a tent made of eight twigs of talnik and covered with three squirrel skins. A man lived in that plague. His name was Niraydak.
He wore a fur coat made from two sable skins, a hat made from one squirrel skin, and mittens made from two chipmunk skins.
-He had a riding deer - Kabarozhka - and a knife made of musk deer bone. He had nothing else: no brothers, no sisters, no father, no mother. And there was no one to tell him:
"Mom and Dad." I was alone. He hunted animals, caught fish, and lived like that. He will kill a squirrel, but it seems to him that he has killed a fox. He will kill a roe deer, but it seems to him that it is not a roe deer, but an elk. Of the birds, the smallest one, Chipicha, seemed to him like an eagle.
I lived like this for a long time. He began to think that there was probably no one stronger than him in the whole world.
One day he decided to travel around the world, see different people, measure his strength against heroes, and at the same time find himself a wife, and one who would be the most beautiful of all women on earth. He called his two-year-old riding deer, his Kabarozhka, and said in his ear:
“My two-year-old musk deer, become a fire-breathing boar and fly an arshin and a half above the ground and carry me to where the heroes and all the most beautiful women live.”
That two-year-old Kabarozhka instantly became a fire-breathing wild boar. Niraydak sat on it and rode off.
The fire-breathing boar-cleaver struck many people with its fangs, sharp as knives, and crushed it with its hooves, heavy as stones.
Niraydak rides, looks around and doesn’t close his mouth - he sings songs all the time. He was cheerful. I reached a large, large gorge and met a hero there. His name was Deloni the Stone Man.
Niraydak got down from his two-year-old Kabarogka, tied the deer behind a bush, took out his knife made from a musk deer bone, and, having gained courage, went straight to Deloni the hero. “I’ll either kill him,” he thinks, “or cripple him.”
Niraydak began to approach him. He was already close, but he touched the rod with his foot, fell and hit his nose right on the heel of Deloni the hero.
Deloni the hero turned around:
- Who are you, where did you fall from and why are you so small?
He picked it up and placed it on his palm.
- I am Niraydak and I am not afraid of you, Deloni the hero, I will kill you now.
He swung his knife made of musk deer bone, jumped on the chest of Deloni the hero and began shouting in a loud voice, thinking to intimidate Deloni the hero.
Deloni the hero laughed and, in order not to hurt him, he lifted Niraydak with two fingers and put it in his bosom.
Niraydak immediately forgot about his songs, but he was not afraid. He began to sneak into the sleeve. He reached the end of the sleeve and jumped to the ground. In two leaps he overtook his riding deer, his two-year-old Kabarozhka, jumped on it and galloped off. Behind the ledge of the mountain he turned around and shouted:
- Hey, Deloni the hero, watch out! Another time I’ll come to you and cut the fat off your bones and knock out your marrow from your bones. Be healthy!
And he left. I came to the place where all the most beautiful women lived. I lined them all up in one row, looked and admired them. He chose the most beautiful one, sat with her on his two-year-old Kabarozhka and galloped home.
At home, he let his two-year-old Kabarozhka graze, and he wanted to bring a woman into his tent, made of eight twigs of talnik, covered with three squirrel skins. How will she get into such a plague?
Niraydak built a new tent, so spacious it seemed to him like the sky above his head, and he himself went fishing. He caught twenty-five galyans, planted them on a twig, but did not even lift them from the ground, they were so heavy. I went to get my wife.
“Wife, I caught so much fish that I can’t bring it alone.”
The wife almost flew up with joy and ran quickly to the river.
“Where is the fish?” she asks.
“How?” Niraydak was surprised. “You see the hill, you see the trees, but you don’t see my fish!” Why is this so?
The wife looked at the galyans on the twig and got angry. She took them with one hand, brought them to the tent, cooked them, but couldn’t get enough to eat.
Then Niraydak put a stone on her stomach so that she wouldn’t ask for food anymore, and he went into the taiga.
The wife lies and thinks: “No food, no clothes from such a husband - not life, but torment!”
And his beautiful wife left him wherever his eyes looked, wherever his feet carried him - to where beautiful, strong and kind men live.
And Niraydak now lives alone, without a wife, but he is still cheerful and daring.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru