Once upon a time there lived a poor potter. He made pots, bowls and jugs from clay, fired them thoroughly in a pottery kiln, and then went to the villages to exchange his goods for grain. This potter had a skinny horse that could hardly drag a cart along the roads, and a son, Ivancho, who was very smart and agile. When the boy turned eighteen, his father loaded pots into a cart and said to him:
- My son, Ivancho, are you there already? grown up, it's time for you to replace me. Get in the cart and go to the market to sell pots. And by the time you return, I will have prepared others. I won’t teach you to be smart. You are savvy. I will only say one thing: take the upper road to the market, and from there take the lower one. When you return and reach the crossroads, turn to face the month and raise your left hand. The month will show you the right path. Well, good morning!
Ivancho got into the cart and whipped the horse. He rode for seven whole days. On the eighth day I reached a poor village. There were only a dozen rich people in this village - the headman and his bearded advisers. They took seven skins from the peasants and lived happily ever after. Ivancho arrived at the market, unharnessed his horse and began inviting buyers:
- I sell pots! I give it cheap! A bowl of grain for a painted jug!
But no one bought anything from him, because the peasants’ barns had been empty for a long time. The young potter became depressed. “I’ll spend the night and leave here,” he thought.
In the evening, in the village square, the herald beat a drum and announced:
— A hundred-year-old communal manure pit, just outside the village, is for sale. Whoever buys it will not go wrong!
- I'll buy it! - Ivancho decided and went to the village community.
- What will you give for our hundred-year-old manure? - the headman asked him.
“I’ll give you,” Ivancho answered, “a cart with pots.”
“Not enough,” the bearded elder shook his head, “add something else!”
- I’ll give you my skinny filly in addition! The headman decided to consult with his nine advisers:
- What do you think, should we give him our obscene manure pit?
“Give it back,” the advisers answered. - You will take a cart and a skinny filly, and you will ride with the elder, and we will divide the pots among ourselves.
The deal was completed. Having become the owner of a hundred-year-old community dung pit, Ivan thought for a long time what to do with it, and in the end decided to distribute the manure to the poor. He took out the last coin, paid the herald and asked him to beat the drum again and notify the peasants that he was distributing free manure to everyone who had neglected fields. The poor people harnessed themselves to their carts and carried manure to the fields for twenty days. And so, when one of the poor people began to collect the remains of manure, Ivancho undertook to help him. And suddenly his shovel hit a stone. Breaking the ground, the potter's son saw a large smooth stone slab. He pulled her aside and opened his mouth in surprise: under the stove lay a silver jug full of gold coins.
The stunned poor people were speechless, and the headman and his bearded advisers began to cheat:
“We, Ivancho, only sold you a dung pit, which means the silver jug that you found under the stone slab is ours.”
Then people who were grateful to Ivan intervened in the dispute and began to stand up for him;
- Since the jug was buried in his own hole, it means that it rightfully belongs to him.
In the end, the dispute was resolved this way: Ivancho would give the silver jug to the village community, and keep the gold ones for himself. Ivancho bought a black horse, fast as the wind, poured the gold into a new morocco saddle bag, threw it over the saddle, jumped on the horse and galloped back to his village along the lower road, as his father had told him.
But before he had time to disappear from sight, the headman gathered his bearded advisers and ordered them to take the gold from the potter’s son. Suddenly, all nine councilors pulled their beards and found themselves beardless.
- Take the scimitars! - the headman ordered.
Nine black hands reached out to the wall, took off nine heavy scimitars and put them in their belts.
- Get on the fastest horses, catch up with the guy with the saddlebag and cut off his head. So that the golden ones will be here before the first roosters! - the headman ordered.
Nine robbers rushed into the street, opened the stable, locked with three locks, jumped on fast horses and disappeared into the night.
Meanwhile, Ivancho was rocking in the saddle and whistling carefree. The horse was walking
trot across a flat field. Suddenly, as if out of the ground, a horseman with black fiery eyes appeared in front of Ivancho, with an ax in his left hand and in a high hat, the same as Ivancho’s.
-Where are you going, brother? - asked the stranger.
“I’m returning home,” Ivancho answered.
- Take me as your comrade.
“With joy,” Ivancho answered, “I will not spare myself for my friend.”
They drove side by side and had a cordial conversation. Finally they arrived at a crossroads.
“And now where?” Ivancho stopped his horse, but then he remembered his father’s order, turned to face the month and raised his left hand. - In that direction! - he said, - there is the right road.
With these words he turned his horse to the left, and the stranger turned to the right and shouted:
- Jump after me!
“Wait, brother,” Ivancho objected, “this road will lead us to a den of robbers.”
“Since I’m with you, don’t be afraid of any robbers!” — the stranger assured him and swung his axe.
Ivancho meekly galloped after him.
They passed the field, went into the forest and galloped all night long. By dawn we reached an unfamiliar village, drove through the streets, but nowhere did we meet a single living soul, did not see a single light in the window. The comrades stopped at the inn. They jumped off their horses, saw the door was open, looked in - no one was there. They entered the tavern, lit a candle, sat down at the table, pulled out what anyone had and began to refresh themselves. Then we drank a glass of wine from a barrel that stood in the tavern. And when Ivancho began to yawn, his friend said:
“You, brother, go to bed, and I’ll go and find out what kind of village this is.”
Ivancho stretched out near the stove, and the stranger came out with an axe. He walked around the village for a long time and listened. There was dead silence all around, as if all the people had died out. The young man walked quietly, like a deer, and suddenly froze in place, holding his breath. Somewhere nearby, muffled human voices could be heard from underground. Stealthily, he approached the place from where these voices were heard and saw a well. “It must be dry if there are people in it. Let me listen to what they are talking about,” thought the stranger.
- Son of a potter, how long ago? in the tavern! - a voice was heard. “He’s tired, he’ll drink a glass of wine and fall asleep like the dead,” another voice whispered.
- Surely he already is? sleeps, more than half an hour has passed since we heard the clatter of horse hooves,” a third voice wheezed.
- It's time! Come out one at a time! - ordered the first voice.
Hearing this, the sworn brother Ivancho clutched the ax even tighter and approached the well. As soon as the head of the first robber appeared above the log house, the fellow raised his ax.
“I cut off the head with one blow, I don’t repeat it twice,” he shouted, and the robber’s head rolled to the ground. second robber.
And this was also expected, that
And the third...
And the fourth.
And the fifth.
Finally the chieftain himself appeared.
- Where are you? - he shouted, but at that moment the sworn brother Ivancho cut off his head too. He returned to the tavern and woke up Ivancho.
“Get up,” he said, “it’s time to get ready, because a long journey awaits us.”
They harnessed the horses again and rode all day. Nine rivers were crossed, eight mountains were left behind. Darkness found them in the big city. They stopped at the largest inn, ate well, and went to bed. And this city was ruled by an evil king. As soon as he found out that unknown people were staying at the inn, he immediately sent his servants to find out who they were, where they were from and what they were bringing with them. The servants quickly found out about everything and told the king that the travelers had a saddlebag with gold and a small axe. Did the evil eyes flash with fire? king
- Let's take their money and take their heads off their shoulders. Let them come to the palace tomorrow morning! - he ordered.
The next day, the royal cupbearer himself carried a bottle of wine to the inn and conveyed the royal invitation.
- Is the royal palace beautiful? - Ivancho asked the courtier.
“The palace is beautiful, but the king’s daughter is even more beautiful.” You can't find another like it in the whole world.
- If so, let's go! - the sworn brother Ivancho jumped up.
They bought new caftans, cut their hair, twirled their mustaches and went to the palace, and left the money locked up in the inn.
The king warmly greeted the guests, clapped his hands and ordered to treat them to the most delicious dishes. When the guests had eaten their fill, the king clapped his hands again:
- Bring some wine!
And suddenly the royal chambers seemed to light up - the royal daughter herself entered, carrying a golden bag on a silver tray. Ivancho was speechless. What is true is true - he has never seen such a beauty before. One day the girl looked at him very sadly, bringing him a bottle of wine, but said nothing. Other guests began to try the royal wine, but Ivancho still couldn’t take his eyes off the royal daughter.
-Did you like my daughter? - the king asked him.
- Yes! - Ivancho answered.
-If so, I'll give it to you,
Ivancho looked at his adopted brother.
“Take it,” he whispered. - Since I'm with you, don't be afraid of anything.
They played a magnificent wedding. And while everyone was having fun, the royal daughter, who really fell in love with Ivancho, kept crying secretly and wiping her eyes? silk handkerchief. Why is the beauty so twisted? She grieved because she knew that the last hour had come for her betrothed. Forty times her father gave her in marriage to the best young men, and every night when she and her groom went to bed, the evil king sent a viper to sting the groom between his eyebrows. Snake? crawled into the bride and groom's room through the keyhole. The girl both pitied and did not regret the other royal and boyar sons, but because of Ivancho her heart ached.
The wedding is over. The songs and music fell silent. Ivancho and his bride went to their bedchamber. They locked the gilded doors behind them. And the named brother Ivancho laid out a sheepskin coat for himself and stretched out at the threshold of the room, putting an ax under his head. Midnight has passed. Ivancho and the Tsar’s daughter fell asleep, and the named brother lay, looking at the ceiling and listening. When the first roosters crowed in the royal garden, he heard some rustling noise. He took a good look and saw a snake crawling up the stairs, raising its head high. Did he close his eyes, pretending to be asleep? Snake? crawled along his chest, climbed up on his tail in front of the door and just stuck his head through the keyhole when his sworn brother Ivancho jumped up, grabbed an ax, swung it and hit the snake?
“I cut off the head with one blow, I don’t repeat it twice!” - he exclaimed.
The severed snake head fell into the room of the bride and groom, and a scaly tail fell at their feet.
Having finished with this matter, the named brother knocked on the door, woke up the bride and groom and secretly led them out of the palace. They went to the inn, took a saddle bag and galloped into the forest, hurrying to get as far as possible before the king woke up. The royal daughter sat on a horse in front of Ivancho and trembled like an aspen leaf, and Ivancho calmed her down in a whisper;
“Don’t be afraid of anything, since my faithful sworn brother is with us!”
For seven days and nights they galloped over mountains and valleys and finally arrived at their native village of Ivancho. On the outskirts the named brother Ivancho stopped his horse and said:
- Here I will say goodbye to you. Go home and live honestly and justly!
-Who are you? Who sent you to protect me on the way? - Ivancho asked him.
- I am the people's warrior. My mother saw me off and told me to take care of you, because you did good to the poor.
-What is your mother's name?
- The truth is poor.
And with these words, the named brother disappeared - as if he had fallen through the ground.
- Wonderful man! - said Ivancho and galloped with the king’s daughter to her father’s house.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru