Previously, in happy times, old man Khoredoy lived in the world. He had twenty black rams grazing in endless meadows, and in addition two bay stallions, one of which was an excellent racer, and the other lame on both front legs.
Old man Khoredoy had plenty of everything, and he lived without worries. It happened one day that the best of the sheep of his flock gave birth to a white lamb. Khoredoy did not immediately notice the offspring in the flock. Meanwhile, two crows flew in and pecked out the lamb’s eyes.
The old man got angry, mounted his horse, rushed in pursuit of the crows, caught up with them and, tearing out one eye from each, put the lamb in place of the ones that had been pecked out. The lamb began to see better than before. And the crows flew to Esege-malan1 to complain: they say, the old man gouged out our eyes when he caught up with us on his fast horse.
Esege-malan was angry with the old man and sent nine wolves to eat the fleet-footed horse. But the old man felt bad and hid the horse, and tied a lame stallion in its place. The wolves came at night and ate the lame man. As soon as they left, the old man mounted his horse and instantly caught up with the grays, who were jogging after a hearty meal. The old man skinned all nine wolves, leaving only tassels on the tail, and returned home.
The wolves howled and rushed to Esege-malan with a complaint: the old man allegedly stripped off all the skins after we mistakenly ate his inferior stallion instead of a horse.
Esege-malan became even more angry than before, called nine shulmus2 and ordered them to bring Khoredoy. And the old man had already locked all the gates, bolted all the doors, and was waiting for uninvited guests. The shulmus came, poked their heads through the gate, but no such luck! The bolts and locks of old man Khoredoy are strong! Shulmus walk along the fence, look into the cracks, but cannot enter. To ward off uninvited guests, Khoredoy boiled a cauldron of water and splashed it on the evil spirits.
Nine shulmus squealed and ran to complain to Esege-malan: they say that the harmful old man scalded us with boiling water.
Esege-malan lost patience, sat on a cloud and flew to Khoredoy to punish him with thunder and lightning for the insults he had caused and his disobedience.
Old man Khoredoy has his own head on his shoulders. “If I offended the messengers of Esege-malan,” he thinks, “won’t the deity himself appear in my house?” The old man prepared nine cauldrons of Tarasun3, caught a white ram for slaughter and went out into the street to meet the heavenly guest.
So Esege-malan arrived on a cloud, saw that Khoredoy was preparing to make a sacrifice, and his divine anger cooled down.
“Why did you, old Khoredoy, tear out one eye each from my crows?” - asked Esege-malan, descending to the ground.
“Don’t you know that they pecked out the eyes of the white lamb that was intended for you as a sacrifice?” - says Khoredoy.
“Why did you skin my nine wolves that I sent to eat your horse?”
“Well, they didn’t eat the horse that you told them to eat,” Khoredoy answers.
“Why did you scald nine of my shulmus sent after you with boiling water?”
- How do I know that these are your messengers? They behaved really like thieves. So I scalded them.
Esege-malan was satisfied with Khoredoi’s answers, accepted his sacrifice and returned to heaven. And since then no one has offended the old man.
[Esege-malan is the name of one of the supreme deities of the shamanic pantheon.
Shulmus (sholmos, shumus) - devil, devil, evil spirits.
Tarasun - milk vodka.]
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru