Good work is not wasted; it will benefit people. Not for you - so for your son, not for your son - so for your grandson.
One Ulchi guy's old father died.
Before his death, he called his son to him, looked at him, and cried:
- I feel sorry for you, son! My grandfather was an angaza - a poor man - was an angaza, my father was an angaza, I was called that all my life, and you, apparently, will have to be an angaza! All my life I worked for the rich Bold and earned nothing. Bold's hand is light when he takes it. Bold has a heavy hand when he gives. I don't leave anything for you. Just a knife, a flint and a spear. They were left to me from my father, my father received them from my grandfather... Let them serve you now! The father said this and died.
Dressed him for the last journey. They buried... They organized a small wake.
Monocto took a knife, a flint and a spear and began to work for Bold, just as his father had worked.
And people forgot his name, they began to call him Angaza the Poor Man.
The old man was right when he said: Bold has a heavy hand when he gives. Bold called the guy Monocto and told him:
“Your father had a duty.” His debt has been transferred to you. If you don’t work for your father, the shaman won’t take his soul to Buni. And I will help you: feed you, clothe you; What you eat, what you wear, I will count for you.
Monocto began to work for his father. Bolda began to help him. Only from his help to the poor man, every day it gets worse. Monocto walks around in cast-offs, eats scraps, and doesn’t dare say a word. Bolda tells him, barely opening his mouth from the fat:
“Work, Monocto, work.” You and I are now like brothers: we both help your father’s soul get to Buni: I by giving you work, and you by working! Work it, Monocto!
The guy is silent, working. He's gotten so worked up that he can barely keep his robe on - you can count all his ribs.
And wealth comes to Bold from everywhere. He is friends with overseas merchants, buys goods from them and sells them to his relatives for three prices. Half the village on the river works for him - they catch fish, dry them, dry yukola, and look after Bold’s dogs. Half the village is on it. works in the taiga - they beat animals and birds. Bolda drags everything into his house. Bold had ten wives - he took all of them away from their relatives for debts, and did not pay ransom for any of them. Bold has ten slaves - they are working off their debts, cursing their bitter lives.
No matter what autumn, Bolda goes to the Nikan kingdom on ten boats with yellow sails made of fish skin. In the city of San-Sin, the amban himself - the boss - drinks tea with Bold, buys furs from the rich man, doesn’t ask how much Bold paid for the skins, but gives him a good price.
Bolda is getting fatter and fatter. Every day the Bold gets thicker and thicker. And Monocto can barely drag his feet.
One day Monocto asks:
- Let me catch some fish for myself! You see, my stomach is already stuck to my back! If I disappear, how will I pay off my debt for my father? Bolda says in a kind voice:
- Catch it, catch it, okay! Only first - for me, in a large vat, and then for yourself... Don’t take my spear. Don't touch my boat.
Monocto fished all day until Bold's vat was full. Then it started to rain. That's how it gushes. Anga sat down on the shore: how to catch fish? The guy doesn't have a boat. The guy has no strength. Monocto took his father's prison, but he can't throw it away. The guy looked at his hands and cried:
“I’m completely perishing, death is approaching, my hands are drying up!” - He looked at his father’s inheritance: a knife, a spear and a flint, and got angry: - You are bad helpers! How many years have you worked, you would have learned to do everything yourself long ago... But without my hands you are good for nothing!
I felt ashamed of the knife...
It moved on Monocto’s belt, jumped out of its case, and ran into the forest. He began to cut dead wood and cut down a whole mountain. The talnik for the hut began to cut, cutting a lot.
The flint looked at its owner. And Monocto lies there and doesn’t move. A flint jumped out of the bag, jumped up to the dead wood, sparked a fire, and lit a fire.
Meanwhile, the knife made a hut. And again he galloped into the taiga. A large poplar fell down. He began to hammer the boat. Only the chips curl in rings in different directions and the log groans, turns over from side to side, then substitutes one side, then the other... Before Monocto had time to look back, his father’s knife made the guy a good boat, the likes of which no other master had ever made.
Monocto sat down in the hut. He extended his hands towards the fire. He began to warm it up so that he could take hold of the spear.
That prison began to stir. She felt ashamed that her comrades were working, and she was lying idle. She stood up and pushed the boat into the water with her handle. The boat floated down the river. The flint jumped into the boat and began to strike fire. Fish goes to the fire. Ostroga got to work. As soon as it hits the water, it drags taimen, sturgeon or carp!
The boat sailed to the shore. The fort at the hut stood up. The flint was hidden in a bag.
... I ate my fill of Monocto. He feels that his strength is increasing, he is becoming a man again. And the knife, having done its job, jumped into the case on Monocto’s belt.
Monocto tells them:
- Thank you! Now I see that you are good helpers! With your help, I will pay off my father's debt. I’ll start fishing for myself. I won’t think about Bold!
And Bolda is right there! He saw a fire on the river, heard fish splashing, smelled the smell of fried fish, and he became impatient - who is it that lights the fire without his knowledge, catches fish, eats fried fish? I came running. He sees a well-fed hanga sitting by the fire, a spacious hut above him, a large fire near the hut, a new boat standing by the shore, full of fish...
- Uh! - say Bolda. - How does this happen, angaza? You can’t pay off your father’s debt, but you yourself have such a big loot. He said he had no strength, but look what a hut he made! Why did you take my boat?
- This is not your boat! - Angaza Monocto answers.
- And not yours. You don't have a boat! - says Bolda.
- My! - Monocto answers.
The guy told how the old man’s things helped him when he was about to die.
Bold looked at the guy. He tells him in a quiet voice:
- That’s good, angaza! I will forgive you your debt. Just give me your knife!
Monocto was saddened. I thought about it and smoked. I'll have to give up the knife. He gave me the knife. But Bolda doesn’t leave. Again he speaks in a kind voice:
- I forgave you a big fatherly debt. And behind it there is still an average debt. In the middle barn there is a notch on the wall. Give me your prison!
Monocto sighed and gave it to the prison. But Bolda is still sitting. He smoked, smoked, and said in a sweet voice:
“Your father, angaza, still has a small debt; there is also a notch on the wall in my small barn.” Give me your flint. Father will become clean. And then I’ll take from you what’s behind you...
Monocto cried. Gave Boldo and the flint.
He was the only one who saw the rich man! Bolda ran away. With one hand he holds the old man’s things, with the other hand he holds his fat belly, so that it does not interfere with his running.
“It’s okay,” Monocto thinks, “I’ve taken a big burden off myself - my father’s duty, now it will be easier for me!”
In the morning Bolda got up. He’s glad that now the old man’s things will work for him, and he won’t have to feed them. Bolda went into the forest. There, poor people worked for him - they made a boat out of poplar and hollowed it out. Bold pushed everyone away and shouted:
- Why are you doing a bad job?! I won't feed you! One knife will do everything for me faster than you lazy people! This Monocto knife made a boat while the guy was smoking a pipe...
Bold took the knife out of its sheath. Threw him into the forest. The knife fell and did not move. He's not going to cut down the forest. It doesn't work to make a boat. How so? - says Bolda.
– Monocto’s knife worked on its own! People looked at the rich man and said:
“Monocto’s hands know how to do everything, that’s why the knife obeys them.” Your hands only know how to count and collect money.
Bolda ran to the river. He grabbed the spear and threw it into the river. The prison went into the water. Stuck into the bottom. Bolda could not pull her out, no matter how hard he tried.
Bolda got angry. He realized that the old man’s things did not want to serve him. He pulled the flint out of the bag and threw it on the ground. A flint fell and sparked a fire. Fire ran across the ground. I rolled up to Bold's house and the barns. Before Bolda could even blink an eye, the fire began to spread through the barns and through the house. The rich man's goods caught fire.
Bold rushed to trample the fire. I wanted to trample, but I couldn’t. Bolda got hot from the fire. All his fat melted away.
Bolda melted. All that was left of him were the high boots and the robe that the poor women sewed for him.
Monocto went to the place where the rich man had thrown his knife. He sees that the knife has gone into the stones. Those stones became iron. If you crush them and melt them on fire, iron will flow out of them. Monocto went to get his spear. He grabbed it with his hand and looked, green shoots appeared on the fort, a tree grew out of the fort. The Ulchi began to make spears, cuttings, and poles from that tree, hard and flexible - you won’t find anything better!
Monocto went to get some flint. In the place where Bold’s house and barns stood, there was a swamp, and in the swamp blue lights fluttered from the old man’s flint, guarding the damned place.
The people bowed to Monocto and remembered his name!
Thank you, Monocto, they say, for delivering us from Bold.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru