There were many Udege people in the early days. From camp to camp, the kids threw stones. From the Koppi River to the Khadi Bay along the seashore, along all the mountain rivers in the Sikhote-Alin mountains, the Ude lived. Smoke from their fires rose in clouds to the sky. While the white swans were flying over the camps, they turned black from that smoke. Then two brothers lived on Hungari - Kanda and Egda... Their father was a simple man. And the brothers - I don’t know what they were born into: they grew up like no one has ever been born since. As tall as a larch tree with seventy rings. They were strong - where they passed, there were deep holes in the ground. When Kanda and Egda were skiing, they overtook a migratory bird. There were no such hunters among their relatives as Kanda and Egda. They didn’t consider the bears as prey, they crushed them with their hands. The tiger was caught as they walked. The leopard was caught by the tail...
The brothers loved sable hunting most of all.
The sable is a cunning animal. Leads the hunter for a long time. The hunter does not eat or drink while he is chasing the sable. And the sable circles, wheels around, and the trail confuses. Then he climbs into the hollow - smoke him out of there!
Only Kanda and Egda did not chase the sable for a long time. The sable runs fast, and the brothers run even faster! They drive the sable into the forest and into a hollow. Then Kanda stands by the hollow, and Egda knocks down the tree with one hand. The tree will sway - the sable will run out of the hollow. And Kanda holds his hat at the ready. Where will the sable go?!
This is how the brothers hunted.
They caught all the sables on their uncle’s plot. They began to go to different places for sable. They started going to strange places. Other hunters were offended.
They say to the brothers:
-You are taking our spoils. If you take our beast, it means you consider us dead, as if you killed us. Let's think so. It's a bloody affair. We will sue you - why did you kill us!..
Kanda and Egda laugh. They boast about strength. They are not afraid of blood feud. They are not afraid of ships. They are not afraid of Zangin, the judge.
“A big hunter,” they say, “a big beast!”
-What kind of animal do you want?? - Zangin asks.
“You take someone else’s animal, you have to pay a byte - a fine - you have to take it.”
“We won’t give you a byte, we won’t stop being sick,” the brothers answer. - Until we get the Sable Master, we will be sick!
Zangin sees that Kanda and Egda don’t recognize the law and don’t listen to people, and he gets angry. He broke his staff in half and threw the ends in different directions: the resentment remained on the brothers.
The brothers left to be sick. They want to catch the Sable Master. They heard from the old people that there is such a sable: three times larger than others, black as coal, fast as the wind; If you look at it for too long, you will go blind.
They walked all over the taiga - they couldn’t catch that sable.
While they were chasing the Sable Master, all the sables were transferred. It would be good if they got some benefit from the spoils, otherwise they will catch it, look, see it’s not the right one, and throw it away, tearing it up so that no one gets it.
There was no life for other hunters: there was no prey.
And Kanda and Whenever they see it, they can’t get the Sable Master with their mind. The brothers went to Zangin and bowed:
“Do you know where the Sable Master lives?”
“I’m a small person,” Zangin answers, “what can I know!” Ask Onku - the Master of mountains and forests - he knows!
– Where does Onku live? - the brothers ask.
- He lives in the highest mountain of Sikhote - Ali-nya, among stones and rocks. He has a stone house. The road to it is difficult. And you can see him if he wants. “Okay,” says Kanda. - Let's go, brother! Here they go.
At first we walked through the plain. We met the Red River. The boat was made from birch bark. They swam across the river. We went through the birch forest. We went to the yellow river. They made a boat from poplar. We swam across the yellow river. Then we went through the pine forest. The brothers met the White River on their way. The river is boiling, seething like boiling water, and the water is cold, if you dip your finger, it becomes covered with ice. The brothers threw large stones into that river and crossed it on the stones. On the other bank, a cedar forest grows. The brothers hear - three crows, three eagle owls scream.
Kanda and Egda are walking, making their way through the cedars. And the forest is thick, like a wall. The branches intertwine with each other.
The brothers began to cut down cedars to make a road. And behind them, the fallen trees again take root in the ground and rise to their full height. There was a road - and there is none, again there is an impenetrable forest.
So the brothers reached a high hill. And on the hill there is a three-tiered cliff. The hill is so high that when you look at the top, your hat falls off your head.
The brothers began to climb the hill. Then six ravens and six eagle owls screamed. Kanda thought that apparently the owner’s house was not far away, so he began to call. He began to call in a loud voice. His scream causes the bark to fall off the trees. But he has no answer. The brothers climb further...
The forest is over. The bush has gone. There are not so many bushes in it, but stones. The further, the more. The brothers are walking between the rocks. We went up to the first tier and rested. We began to climb the second one. The stones under your feet move apart, as if someone is kicking them out from under your feet. And Kanda and Egda are climbing higher and higher - they climbed to the second tier. We sat and rested. They began to climb to the third tier, and the rocks were piled one on top of the other, standing in rows. The brothers look - the further they go, the more the rocks and stones resemble people. Completely living stones. They have no eyes, but they watch their brothers - they turn after them. Somehow the brothers climbed onto the third tier. The stones disappear from under your feet and are not given into your hands. And above, nine ravens and nine eagle owls are screaming.
Kanda says:
Well, brother, apparently we have reached the Master’s house!
We climbed onto the rock. They see a stone house standing on ten pillars; as the law dictates, he looks at the sunrise with two eyes – through the windows. The roof is lost in the clouds - such a tall house. And inside everything is as it should be: bunks, a hearth, a bear’s place, a place for old people. Only they are all so big that the brothers seem like children to themselves.
On the bunk it looks like a whole rock overgrown with moss.
Yegda shouted. Egda shouted so loudly that even the wind went in all directions:
- Hey, father, ordinary people have come to you! They came to you with business!
The rock, covered with moss, turned to the brothers. They look: this is not a rock, but a man. Dark, as if made of stone, its weight sinks waist-deep into the ground. He looks at his brothers with stone eyes.
His gaze makes my heart grow cold. Onku himself sits in front of the brothers.
Kanda and Egda bowed to him. They worshiped with elk meat, they worshiped with the food of ordinary people. They say:
- Father, help us catch the Sable Master! They told ordinary people - we’ll catch you! How can you break your word?
Onku spoke - cracks appeared on the neighboring rocks from his voice, avalanches fell from the mountains, and the earth shook:
- I heard about you. A big offense lies with you! Ordinary people are offended: why were all the sables transferred? The Sable Master is offended: he has nothing to do on earth now. You won't catch him. You killed sables - their souls went to heaven to graze. The owner left after them...
The brothers thought. The pipes were lit. They gave it to the owner. I lit a cigarette on Onka. Then smoke poured out from the tops of the hills, fire rose to the sky, stones flew upward. Clouds swirled over the hills, lightning flashed, and fiery rain poured down.
The brothers are sitting neither alive nor dead - they are scared. They thought again - it was a bad thing: they wanted to show off their strength and prowess, but it turned out that people are now offended at them. The Sable Master is offended, and Onku himself, apparently, is also angry. Kanda says:
- How, father, can you return the sable to the earth? The owner took the pipe out of his mouth and they stopped smoking. Says:
– If you kill a sable in heaven, its soul goes to earth and enters a new sable...
Then Kanda said:
- Well, brother, it seems that you and I will have to go to other places to get sick...
“Apparently so,” Egda responds. They got ready to head back. They looked down and felt dizzy: they had climbed to such a height to meet the Master. They don’t know how to get down, there are no roads in sight, there are cliffs all around. The eagle owls picked them up and lifted them into the air. Everything disappeared at once: there was no Master, no mountains, no stones that looked like people. The brothers are standing nearby from their native camp.
The brothers began to twist the rope. A whole forest of willow grass was destroyed. They made such a rope that a good runner would not run from one end to the other from sunrise to sunset. They made a strong rope. Kanda hooked the rope with one end to the red rock and the other to the black one. He hit me in the middle with his fist. The rocks crumbled into dust, but the rope remained intact.
Egda threw a rope into the sky. The hook caught the sky. The brothers strained themselves. They pulled the sky to the ground. The rope was pressed against the foot. They took hunting supplies and food with them and climbed up the rope to the sky for the sable souls.
The brothers reached the sky.
First they saw the earth below, then they entered the clouds. Clouds lie like snow. The crust is good and strong. Around the sable tracks - visible and invisible! The hunters' hearts burned:
- Now let’s console you, brother! ... They hunted for a long time.
No matter how much the sable is beaten, it does not diminish. Even the brothers began to get tired. Kanda says that he misses home - he should go home...
The brothers went to look for the place where they climbed into the sky, and could not find it.
While they were hunting, spring came on earth. The young boars began to sharpen their fangs on the rope with which Kanda and Egda pulled the sky to the earth. They sharpened and sharpened - and the rope frayed. The sky has returned to its place.
The brothers walked and walked across the sky - they trodden down the road, but never came down to earth. That road in the sky at night is clearly visible: it stretches across the entire sky. People call it differently, and the Ude say: This is Bua Gidini, the Road of the Heavenly People! Egda and Kanda walk along it and beat the sable. And since then, sable has not been translated on earth.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru