Before the Kabardians occupied Abgash, they say, Nogais lived there. But before the arrival of the Kabardians, this land was abandoned by the Nogais and remained empty for some time. During this intermediate time, one Kabardian came to the reeds located here to hunt in the first snow that fell. As soon as he approached the reeds, he saw the tracks of seven dogs and one horseman in the snow. Wondering who could have come here, since these places were dangerous and rarely visited by anyone, the Kabardian “took the tracks” and followed them, but not in the direction where they went, but back from where they came. Still not leaving the tracks, he drove into the reeds, where in the thick of it he met a small Nogai wagon. When he approached her, a girl came out to him and, greeting him, invited him into the wagon. To his question: “Is there a guard here?” - the girl answered that “he went to catch someone whom seven horses could not catch.”
Then the Kabardian, wanting to find out who this man who settled in the desert with one girl could be, got off his horse and went into the tent with the intention of waiting for the hunter, who went with the greyhounds to catch hares and foxes. While the girl was preparing a snack for the guest and fiddling over the fire, the owner of the wagon returned with several hunted hares and foxes. It turned out that this was a poor old Nogai man, who, during the migration of his tribe, not having the means to follow him, remained here with his only daughter and fed himself and his daughter by hunting seven greyhounds - his only asset. “As soon as I gather my strength a little, I think I’ll follow my tribe,” the old man concluded his sad story. The Kabardian liked the old man’s daughter, and he now intended to offer the old man to marry her to him, and rather than go far away to his tribe, he would move to live with him, where he would live out his old age without need. Refusing the Kabardian's proposal for resettlement, the old man replied that he would not interfere if his daughter agreed to marry him. The daughter said that she would marry him, unless he refused to provide the old man, her father, with the means to return to his homeland.
“One old man will need a little, it will be enough for him if you give him the money that will fit in this wallet,” said the girl, taking out a small wallet from her bosom and handing it to the Kabardian.
Seeing how small the wallet was, the Kabardian said that filling it was empty and that he would only go home and immediately bring back a wallet filled with silver. Returning home, he poured into his wallet all the silver he had at home, but no change was noticeable in the wallet: it seemed to be as empty as it had been brought. The Kabardian borrowed silver from his neighbor, as much as he had, and poured that into his wallet; but it is still as empty as at the beginning. He borrowed from the third, the fourth, and finally, he visited all his friends and relatives - in a word, he visited everywhere he expected to find some silver, put everything he found in his wallet, but it was not filled at all.
Finally, he arrived, completely despairing of ever filling his wallet, to a Kabardian who was married to the sister of a Nogai woman, who gave him this wallet. Hearing the strange property of the wallet and then seeing it, this woman said:
“I recognize it, it’s the wallet of my sister, the worthless witch.” Without knowing its secret, you will not fill it with the silver of the whole world. But I'll fill it now.
She took some earth, poured it into her wallet, and when she then put one small coin in it, the wallet turned out to be full. The surprised Kabardian then asked to explain to him what this meant. The woman explained the following: “This wallet is made from a human womb; it is known that the human womb is not satisfied, not filled, until earth enters it. And this wallet has the same property. You put so much silver in it that it seemed that you could fill hundreds of such wallets with it, but meanwhile the wallet was empty, as at the beginning. But I, as you saw, knowing its properties, poured some earth into it, and it was filled with one coin. Now that you know its properties, you can fill it by putting in exactly as much as you want.”
“Okay,” thought the Kabardian, “I’ll show this worthless witch how to deceive me.” And, having arrived home, he poured out of his wallet all the money that was already there; he returned those taken from others to the lenders. Then he put as much of his money into his wallet as he found to be a sufficient dowry for the Nogai, and went to the old Nogai man. The girl and the old man, having received the Kabardian very cordially and treated him, asked if he had brought his wallet back. The Kabardian took it out and placed it in front of the girl. She, taking the wallet in her hands and feeling that it was very light, quickly poured money out of it and, counting it, said:
“It’s strange, my wallet didn’t tend to be filled with so little.” “But, immediately realizing that, probably, her witch-sister explained to the Kabardian the property of the wallet, she did not add anything more.
“You fulfilled your obligation,” the Nogai’s daughter said later, “and I will not change my word, I will marry you, although I was counting on a much larger bride price.” But in retribution for the joke he played on me,” she continued, turning to her father, “I promise you, father, I will do to him that he will show himself to people only once - first for seven days, then seven weeks, then seven months and, finally, seven years.”
The Kabardian, not afraid of the unenviable life of a woman promised to him, nevertheless took the girl and married her. But, they say, his wife took him into her hands so much that he really did not leave his hut and did not show himself to people, as she predicted.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru