Once upon a time there lived a raven and a kite in a winter road. Raven is the older brother, the kite is the younger. Their fire is burning. Whether for a long time or for a short time they live like this, then one day a raven flew out of a round window, completely flew away, and the kite was left alone.
One day a kite flew out through a round window and flew down its Amur River. He flew up to the place where five female sisters were collecting bird cherry and sat down on a tree near these five women. He sits like that. It was a very hot day.
Here is the eldest sister saying:
- Let's go swimming! The younger sister answers:
- I won't swim!
“It’s okay, let’s all go swimming,” says the eldest.
All five women began to swim.
Then the kite flew up and soiled my younger sister’s pants. He flew away again and sat down on the same tree.
We finished swimming and went ashore. The younger sister had kite droppings in her pants. The younger sister wiped away the droppings with grass. Then they began to collect bird cherry. The younger sister became pregnant. They began to move to the other side of the Amur. During the move, the younger sister gave birth to a child, a boy.
When they moved, the younger sister wrapped her child in outer clothing. In the very middle of the Amur, their elder sister says:
- Let me hold your baby!
- Sister, why do you need to hold the child?
- Okay, let me hold it!
The younger sister gives her child to the older one. And so the elder sister, in the middle of the Amur, throws the child into the water.
They move, and the younger sister cries for her child. Elder sister says:
- Well, why did you cry for some child? The elder sister sat down at the oars. Rowing. We moored to the shore.
The older sister jumped into the waist-deep water and ran to the shore.
“Oh, father,” he says, “your favorite daughter, whom you fed with the best food, gave birth to a child with a kite.”
An old man with a spear as long as an autumn chum salmon jumped up to his daughter, and his older sister detained him.
The old man says:
- I'll kill her!
And my sister, a little older, says:
- Father, leave her!
Then my father left me, but he beat me hard with his hand and even tore off my earrings.
And a kite flies near the child - the water carries the child down the Amur. The child is carried, and the kite accompanies him. A child got into a fishing trip.
He came upon a visit that was located near the shore of a very large village, and a kite sat down near the village.
Then one girl went to get water. Just as I wanted to scoop up some water, I looked to the side - the boy had hitched himself to the entrance. She throws away the chuman, takes the child and rises from the shore home.
The old man says:
- Damn, probably, go ahead, leave him! Why the hell did you take it?
And the daughter says:
- I won’t give up!
Then the old man says:
- Servants, go for the old man with a visor who lives below, go for the old man red as a fox who lives above, go for the nine hunchbacks, go for the eight talkative ones, go for the seven soldiers - let them think!
The old man with the visor who lives below came, the old man red as a fox who lives above came, nine hunchbacks came, eight talkative men came, seven soldiers came.
The old man says:
“There’s an old man with a visor living below, and a red old man living like a fox above, well, think and discuss.” My daughter went to get water today and found a boy. Below is an old man living with a visor, above, living like a red old fox, think and decide!
“Well,” the old man with a visor living below says, “I think the devil probably set it up.”
Above, the red old man living like a fox says:
- Probably from the water guy. This is a merman's trick. Prepare some different food and throw it back into the water!
- Nine hunchbacks, seven soldiers, eight talkative people - well, think and discuss! Nine humpbacks say:
- We think this is a trick of the water devil. The old man says:
- Seven soldiers, think and discuss! Seven soldiers say:
- We think that you should make a separate house for your daughter, away from home; Let them live with this child together: if it’s the devil, it won’t grow up, but if it’s a person, it will grow up.
Eight talkers say:
“We think: let them live together, and you don’t go to them.”
The old man says:
- Well, servants, go and make a home for your mistress! They went to the taiga to make a house. We did it. The old man's daughter and child moved into the house. They live together.
Whether they live long or short, the child grows and has already become big.
One day a girl went to throw the trash on the street. In the place where I threw out the garbage, I found a kite. The kite flew here so that his child could play with him.
The girl brings him in and ties him up. This is how they live with him. No matter what you give him, he doesn’t eat. If he gives you caviar, he doesn’t eat it, he just eats something good.
One evening the girl got angry:
- What kind of kite is this, it doesn’t eat bad things, it only destroys the child’s supplies, it only wants to eat good things!
So, angry, I fell asleep.
In the morning he gets up and the kite is gone, disappeared, lost. He searches, he searches under the bunks, he searches in the corners - he doesn’t find him, he has completely disappeared. Well, here he says:
“My child will get up and look for his kite, and why did I scold him!”
Then the child gets up, but does not look for the kite. It's noon. Then the girl hears that from the side of the taiga it is as if a man is descending on skis. You can hear something rustling. On the street near their house, a man took off his skis, placed them on the house, then entered.
The girl looks - he has a sable jacket, a handsome man - whether he came out of the water or fell from the sky, a handsome man.
Sits next to the woman:
- What happens if you sit next to the kite’s wife? Will he kill me with his beak, or what? What happens if you lie down next to a kite's wife? Will he kill me with his beak, or what? What happens if you put your kite's head on her knees? Will he kill me with his beak, or what?
The girl says:
- When did I live with the kite? Nevkhan says:
-Who did you play with? I am a kite after all. Who did you scold last night? She scolded me. Whose child do you think you found? This is my child.
This woman found herself a husband. That's how it was.
Whether they live long or short, their son has grown big.
Nevkhan says:
- Well, girl, tell your parents: Your son-in-law told them to say that he is going to return to his home. The girl came down from the taiga to her parents and entered:
“Father, mother,” he says, “your son-in-law told me to say that he is going to return to his home.”
“Child,” said the old man, “bring me to my house to spend the night!”
The girl went home and said:
- The old man said: Come to my house to spend the night!
Nevkhan and the woman went down and spent the night in the old man’s house.
While they spent the night, Nevkhan killed a lot of animals so that the old man and old woman would have enough food until their death. Then they began to prepare to move.
Nevkhan says to his wife:
“You go tomorrow, and my son and I will go ahead to the village that’s above here, and you’ll catch up with us there.”
Nevkhan and his son set off. That's how they go.
So they walked and walked and reached the village. We climbed up the shore, along the old man's slope. They entered the house.
Nevkhan, entering, looked around: four women were sitting. One woman's hair is disheveled like a crow's nest. He sits down next to her.
- This is probably my former wife. Poor thing, apparently people hurt her. The old man says:
- Dirty, dirty, why did you sit there?
-And Nevkhan says:
- How can I not sit down with my wife? And how can my son not sit with his mother? Then the woman sits down and kisses her son. The old man says:
- How do you find out what people are saying? I really thought you were a kite.
The old woman says:
“I told you, as a person is born, so will everyone be born.” Now continue to feed your daughters well!
The old woman scolded strongly:
- What should I do now? People are ashamed. Nevkhan says: “I’ll take the bad woman away tomorrow afternoon.”
We spent the night there.
The next day his wife catches up with him: the old man gives many servants to his daughter. Then they leave. So they go back.
They walked and walked and began to approach the house. The house is located in a village up on the river. Some person leaves the house all the time. He looks down the Amur - they approach and land on the shore.
The man came down. Says:
- Brother, why are you making me wait? You've been walking for a long time!
Amur threw a small hatchet downwards and houses appeared. People who lived in small houses entered small ones, and those who lived in large ones entered large ones.
Nevkhan entered his house again, and his brother brought two wives, and he has two wives.
All.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru