There lived two girls. They went into the forest, broke the talik, and slept at home. They lived poorly, they had no food. Ate worms.
One day, one girl woke up and lay awake for a long time. Suddenly she heard a noise, began to listen to it and saw how the devil entered the house, took a whorl, began to hit her stomach with it, saying:
- Fish, come out. I want girls to get fat so I can eat them.
There were a lot of fish in the house. When the devil left, the girls stood up. They saw that they had a lot of fish in the house. The older sister was happy and started eating the fish, but the younger sister didn’t..
She says:
- Don't eat bad food.
The elder sister said:
- Why don’t you eat, God gave us this fish! The younger sister answered.
“God didn’t give it to us, the devil gave it to us.” The older sister got angry and hit the younger sister:
- Don't tell lies! Why the hell gave you the fish? The girl cried and said:
“If you don’t believe me, don’t sleep tonight.” Evening came, the girls went to bed again. The younger sister fell asleep, the older sister does not sleep. She hears how the devil came, how he began to hit his stomach with a whorl, and how the fish fell out.
In the morning there were a lot of fish in their house again. The elder sister said:
“You were right, the devil really came.” What to do now?
“We’ll run away,” said the younger sister. The girls ran away. One girl had a comb in her hands, the other had a box. They had nothing else. With these things they ran away into the forest. The girls walked for a long time and reached the river. The river is large and full-flowing. The girls looked around and saw that the devil was running after them. Girls cannot cross the river. They ran up the river. We saw a house near which an old woman was sitting. The girls shouted:
“Grandma, stretch out your leg, otherwise the devil will eat us.” The old woman replied:
- I can’t, I’m looking for lice.
“Grandma, stretch out your leg, we’ll help you look for lice.”
The old woman extended her leg. The girls ran along it. We entered the old woman's house.
“The devil is catching up with us,” they said.
The old woman said:
- My children are devils too. I have three sons, and they eat people.
“Grandma, hide us,” they asked. The old woman hid them. After this the devil shouted:
- Old woman, how did the girls cross the river? The old woman replied:
— They crossed the river in the upper reaches. The devil went up, but found no one. He came again to the old woman and shouted:
- Don't lie, tell the truth. I know they walked up your leg. Stretch your leg and I will pass.
“I can’t,” says the old woman, “I’m busy, looking for lice.”
“Don’t tease, old woman, don’t brag, I’ll eat you if you don’t stretch your leg.”
The old woman stretched out her leg and the devil began to cross the river. When the devil reached the middle of the river, the old woman pulled her leg out from under him. The devil fell into the water, swam, and shouted:
“Old woman, make my back a boat, my arms an oar, my legs a stern, my head a cauldron.”
The devil just had time to say this and drowned.
The old woman gave the girls a drink, fed them and hid them again.
“Now my children will come - devils, you lie still until the morning, don’t move,” she told them. At lunchtime three devils came, very angry.
“Mother, it smells like girls,” they said.
“What girl will come to me?” said the old woman.
“No, it smells like girls, you’re hiding girls,” said one of the devils.
- How stupid you are, what kind of girl am I hiding! I just burned my father’s box in the oven, which is probably why it smells like I’m hiding girls. Better go to sleep.
When the devils fell asleep, the old woman said to the girls:
“Don’t move, otherwise your sons will hear you.” Stay in bed until the morning.
One devil heard this, came to his mother and asked:
- Who are you talking to, tell me. If you don't tell me, I'll kill you.
The old woman cried:
-Who will I talk to? I look for lice, I scold them. The devil said:
- Don't talk, sleep!
In the morning the devils got up and went to hunt people. The old woman says to the girls:
- Girls, go back to where you came from, otherwise my children will eat you.
“We won’t go home,” the girls said. “Grandma, show us the way to where people live.” The old woman said:
- Go upstream of this river. When you go, there will be a road on the right, marked with a moose tail, follow it, don't go on the left - that's where the devils live. “Goodbye!” the girls said and kissed the old woman.
The girls left. They reached the right road. The elder sister said:
- We will not go along this road, we will go along the left. The younger sister objected to her:
“After all, the old woman told us to take the right road.”
But the elder sister insisted on taking the left road. They decided to fight: whoever wins will be right. They began to fight. The elder sister won, and they took the left road. The younger sister walks behind the older one and cries. Suddenly they saw how many devils were flying above. And the devils caught them in nooses. They were brought into the barn and locked.
The younger sister said:
“Because of your stupidity, the devils caught us.” Elder sister says:
- Become a needle.
The younger sister became a needle and left the barn. The older sister became a big needle. The younger sister took her sister's head and ran away with it. She ran for a long time, got tired, and hung her sister’s head on a tree. Walking away a little, I looked at her - she was crying. She took pity on it, took off the head and carried it in her hands again. The girl walked for a long time, her hands hurt, and again she hung her head on the birch tree. I walked away a little, and my head began to cry. The sister carried it in her hands and hung it on a tree that had been knocked down by the storm. I looked at her and my sister was laughing. The girl went alone. I was hungry, tired. She sat down on the ground to rest. It turns out that she landed on the house where the frog lives. The frog screamed:
- Who broke my house?
The girl got scared, fell into the ground, and entered the frog’s house.
The frog asked:
- Why did you come here? My husband is the devil, he will eat you.
The girl cried:
-Where will I go now? There are many devils everywhere. The frog said:
- Don't cry, I'll hide you. The girl asked:
-Where did your husband go? The frog replied:
- Hunting, should come now. The frog hid the girl on the street in a bag. In the evening her husband came. In the morning the frog called the girl, fed her, and ordered:
- You sewed fur boots, gloves, and a doshka for my husband. The girl sewed everything together. In the evening the frog hid the girl again. When the husband came in the evening, the frog gave him new clothes. The husband asked:
-Who made these clothes?
- I myself; “Who will do it?” answered the frog.
- You don’t know how to sew, why are you deceiving me? “Of course, I did it myself,” the frog insists.
The next day the husband did not go hunting, but said to the frog:
- Get ready, let's move.
The frog began to gather, and the husband watched it. The frog took the bag away and threw it on the ground. The husband asked:
- Why are you throwing such a bag, bring it!
The frog ran to the bag. She took the girl and left her. The girl turned into bark. The frog brought a bag to her husband.
The husband went outside, went to the well, found that bark and began to cut it with a knife. The bark screamed, cried, blood poured out. The man got scared, ran home, caught a frog and started beating it.
“What have you done?” he says. “Why did you hide the woman, why did you deceive me?”
The frog didn't say anything. The frog's husband went to that girl and said to her:
“Don’t cry, I cut you without knowing anything.” Let's go to my house, I'll cure you.
He brought the girl home, filled her hand with iodine, and bandaged it. Then he fed her. At night we went to bed. The man asked the girl:
—Where will you sleep, in the house or on the street? The girl said: “In the house.”
I asked the frog:
—Where will you sleep, in the house or on the street? The frog said:
- On the street.
The man gave the frog the skin. The frog laid her down on the street and went to bed. The man said:
- I will call you three times.
He himself fell asleep on the roof. The first time he called was at twelve o'clock. The frog answered earlier, the girl said quietly: “Yes.” The frog thought: “The girl must have died, that would be very good.” Then the man called out to them at four o'clock. The girl answered: “Okay,” the frog did not answer. The man called her, called her, but she did not respond. He went to the frog and saw: the frog was dead. The man took pity on her and threw her into the water. There she came to life and returned home again. The man said:
- Let each of you bring your wealth. Whoever is richer, I will live with her.
The frog brought two baskets of different worms. The girl went to her sister’s head left on the tree. Instead of a head there was a barn. I entered the barn and saw my older sister and two children there. The elder sister asked:
-Are you married?
“I didn’t come out,” said the younger sister, “I’m going to go out.” The man told me to bring my dowry.
The elder sister gave her clothes, a silk scarf, and thirty deer.
“Go to a man, get married,” she said. The girl went to the man and gave her dowry. The man was delighted and burned all the frog worms in the fire. They killed one deer and celebrated the wedding. The frog at the wedding does not eat anything and scolds the girl.
- Why did you come, why did you take my husband away from me? Then the three of them moved to another place. The frog was given a riding deer. In the evening, when the frog was traveling, the deer threw it off, and the frog tore open its stomach. And so she died. The deer came alone.
The man drove to the abandoned house, saw the dead frog, took it and brought it to his wife.
“Our frog died,” he said.
The frog was buried.
The girl and the man began to live together. They lived very well and amicably.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru