In an abandoned camp, in an empty house, there lived a completely alone boy. One day he was sleeping and had a dream: a small old man came up to him with an awkward gait and said: “Are you sleeping like that? How good it is to go and see the places where you were born!”
The boy instantly woke up and said:
- What a wonderful dream I had!
He quickly got up, jumped onto the floor, reached the door and saw the stove on both sides. Immediately the boy thought: “But these are the dens of some wild bears; the bear will come out and eat me, perhaps.” And, crying pitifully, he ran to the place where he slept, hid under the blanket and fell asleep.
Again he sees a dream: the same old man, approaching, says:
- How much you are afraid of dying! If a person intends to kill you, he is more likely to kill you while you sleep. Where have you seen wild bear dens? These are the stoves that your parents lit. If you don't come out now, you will receive a flogging with an iron rod.
The boy quickly stood up and walked towards the exit. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t open the door for a long time. He pushed, knocked and barely opened it. Barely left. On the street the sun blinded him so much that he staggered. He resisted and began to cheer himself up:
- After all, I am a man, I will not fall.
Tall grass grew all around the house. The boy, grabbing the grass with one hand or the other, pulled and cleared the road from the house to the river. When he reached the shore, he looked at the road he had made and exclaimed:
- Hey, what a wide road! My parents, of course, did not make such roads.
There were rocky and sandy places on the shore. The boy sat there all day doing nothing. When evening came and the birds began to fly over him screaming, he got up and went home. Walking home, he thought: “And tomorrow, perhaps, we should hunt these birds!”
The next morning, the boy, looking around the house, found his father's arrows and bow. He took them with him and walked towards the forest. After walking a little, he came to the swamp. At the edge of the swamp he killed four ducks. He lit a fire, roasted one duck, ate it, then lay down on the grass and fell asleep. He slept a little and woke up because an old woman had fallen on him. The guy got scared and exclaimed:
- Grandma, what are you doing?
Old lady says:
“Son, I can’t see well, I tripped over you.” I live alone in the depths of this swamp. The boy says:
- Where is your family?
“I ran into the depths of this swamp with my husband when the enemies attacked our camp. Five years later, my husband fell ill and died. I forgot how long I lived from that time.
-Do you know where the leader of this camp was taken?
“They probably put him in an iron cage and took him away.” - Who conquered your camp?
- This is the immortal master of the mountains - the stone man. -Where did he take the entire population?
- Son, they went down this river... But why are you asking about this?
- Grandma, I am the son of your master who was taken away. Now, during your story, I understood everything and decided that I would go look for my parents and fight their enemy. Here, grandma, take these three ducks and eat.
Having said this, he gave his ducks to the old woman and walked down the river bank.
When he walked through the taiga, it was already dark. After walking a little more, he saw a lamp light on the hill. The guy was happy. When he ran up the hill, six red wolves attacked him, barking. The wolves jumped back from the guy’s kicks. Then, before entering the house, he saw hangers made from human bones. Under the hangers lay a pile of human skulls. The guy was scared at first, and then thought: “Eh, okay, no matter what, I’ll stay here...”
Entering the house, the boy saw an old woman sitting by the stove.
- Grandma, can I spend the night with you?
- Of course, son, you can. After all, son, you are probably tired, go to bed quickly,” the old woman says with the cunning of a fox, “after all, you are Senue the hero... Where are you going?
Well done says:
“I’m going to fight my father’s enemy.”
The young man thinks to himself: “This is a witch; when I fall asleep, she will probably want to kill me.”
When the young man lay down, he tried his best not to fall asleep, and when the old woman fell asleep, he quietly got up, pulled out the cauldron that was in the stove, put it in the place where he slept, and lay down on the other side of the bunk. At midnight the old woman woke up, quietly stood up, took a hammer and a cup and, like a cat, began to creep up to the cauldron. When she approached, she stood up more comfortably and, swinging with all her might, hit the hammer. Ding! - the boiler burst. The young man immediately jumped up and shouted:
- Why are you breaking the boiler at night? The old woman whispers:
- Son, I often wander like this at night.
Without saying anything, the young man lay down, but tried not to sleep. When the old woman fell asleep again, he quietly got up again, pulled out the cauldron that was in another stove, put it in the place where he slept, and he himself lay down in his original place, next to the broken cauldron. After some time, the old woman woke up again and crept up to the second cauldron that the young man had set up and smashed it with a ringing sound. The fellow stood up again and asked.
- Why did you break another boiler? The old woman threw the hammer into the corner and said:
“I always wander around like this when I have guests.” Well, why are you lying on the other side of the bunk, because you were lying on this one? The fellow laughed and replied:
- Old lady, I too, when I spend the night with strangers, I constantly wander around the house like this.
The witch guessed that the fellow had outwitted her, and was about to kill him in another way. She took the iron out of the chest, put it in a ladle and began to melt it. When the iron melted, she took it into her mouth and began splashing it inside the house. At the same moment the house was completely covered with iron. It became completely impossible to leave. Having finished all this, the witch began to sharpen her knife, chanting:
“Now, brave fellow, you can’t hide from me anywhere. Now I will kill you, I will drink your blood, I will drown your fat.”
The young man, listening to the song, quietly took the arrow and bow and whispered to the arrow:
“You pierce the old woman right through, and stick yourself into the door post, and don’t let her go until I pull you out myself,” he said, and fired.
The arrow pierced the old woman's chest and pierced the doorpost.
The witch tried her best to break free, but, seeing that nothing was working, she prayed to the young man:
“Son, let me go, I won’t kill you.”
“Before I let you go, remove the iron armor.” The old woman says:
“How can I remove it, I’m chained, you take the brand from the oven and bring it to me, and I’ll spit on it.”
The good fellow took the brand and brought it to the old woman: The old woman spat on the brand and said:
- Well, now wave the firebrand around the house.
The good fellow swung the firebrand, and the iron armor in the house melted like ice. When everything in the house melted, the young man threw the firebrand into the stove and, going up to the old woman, pulled out the arrow. The old woman smeared saliva on the wound so that it would heal quickly. Then she began to say flatteringly:
“Well, son, I’m happy, now I’ll help you as best I can.” You are going to fight your father's enemy, and to make you invulnerable, I will cover you with iron if you wish.
The thought flashed through the young man’s mind: “Eh, he wants to kill me again.”
Then he says:
- Well, how are you going to cover me with iron? The witch brought a new cauldron from the street, put it on the stove, took the pot from the shelf, took off the lid and poured red liquid into the cauldron. Then she fired up the stove. As soon as the liquid began to boil, the witch said to the young man:
- Well, well done, jump into the cauldron, take a little swim and become an iron man.
The young man guessed about the old woman’s deception and said:
- You jump first, show me how to jump. The old woman waved above her head three times and dived into the cauldron.
The young man quickly grabbed the heavy lid and covered the cauldron with it. Then he brought a stone mortar and pressed the lid with it. The witch was thrashing around in the cauldron. A little later, a column of flame burst out of the cauldron.
The good fellow boiled the witch, went to the shore, pushed the boat and swam down the river. Just before sunset he saw a brand new hut. Approaching the shore, the young man heard the gentle voice of a woman, either singing or crying. Entering the house, he saw a woman sitting and crying bitterly. Seeing the young man, the woman stopped crying and asked:
- Well done friend, where are you going and how did you get here?
“I’m going to fight my father’s enemy.” Why are you crying?
- Well done friend, how can I not cry when my only daughter today, while she was washing clothes on the river, was dragged away by the Girin shaman.
- Where did you take it?
— He flew down the river. He will probably sit on the tree where evil spirits sit.
- Okay, don't cry! I’m on the way, if I find them, I’ll save your daughter.
The fellow spent the night, and the next morning he set off early. He walked all day and only when the sun rose above the trees did he come out to the sea. He landed on the shore and walked along it. When it got dark, he came to a tree of enormous height and smooth as stone. Passing under a tree, he heard someone speaking in a human voice. The young man froze in place and began to listen. Two birds sit on the branch of a tree and talk. One bird says:
“Younger sister, I heard this news today: a woman who lives upstream had her daughter stolen by the Girin shaman, and it’s about to get here.” He will sit on this tree, kill that girl and eat her heart.
Another bird says:
“Elder sister, my news is interesting: well done, Senue the hero, he is going to attack his father’s enemy.” He may already be here: perhaps he can already hear our conversation.
Another bird screamed in a loud voice:
- Yes, how could he, the worthless one, be here? If I see him, I will peck out all his eyes, your good fellow.
When the fellow heard this, he even went cold. The younger bird began to beg her sister:
“Sister, why are you chatting like that? People will hear and it won’t be good.”
Another bird, laughing stupidly, says:
- Let him hear - I'm not afraid. Now I would appear, I his eyes completely, completely...
She did not finish speaking: pierced through and through by an arrow, she fell down noisily. The young man stepped on the fallen bird and, pulling out the arrow, said:
“Ducklings haven’t yet been born enough to peck me.” Another bird, flying up, cried out:
“Sister, it’s your fault that you’re disappearing.”
The young man kicked the dying bird, sat down under a tree and lit a cigarette.
A little later, a noise was heard from the direction of the sea. The fellow hid behind a tree. Noisily flapping its wings, a kori (bird) the size of a huge barn flies up to the tree. On the back of that kori, with her arms spread over her wings, crying bitterly, lay a girl. Well done, holding his bow and arrows ready, he waited. Corey spun around the tree and turned over on his back. The girl fell and got stuck between the branches of a tree. Corey sat over the girl and said:
“Well, I’ve reached my place, and no matter how beautiful you are, you will still die.”
Having said this, he pecked the beauty in the chest. The girl screamed pitifully. Senue the hero shuddered and said to himself: “Why am I standing and watching a man being killed.” Then, aiming the arrow, he whispered:
“An arrow, you are not an ordinary one, but an arrow that served my father’s father.” Now you help me - the measles will pierce me through and through.
The arrow pierced the kori through and through, and he, staggering, disappeared without a trace... Then a voice came from under the ground:
- Well done, you wounded me very badly, and therefore it is unknown whether you will reach home.
Well done, laughing, answers:
- Okay, okay, maybe we’ll get there, maybe we’ll die. You're not scary anymore.
At the same moment he climbed the tree, took the girl and went down with her to the ground. He smeared the girl’s wound with saliva so that it would heal. Then he said to the girl:
- Friend girl, your mother cries and is sad for you day and night. Think about my return to you. Now sit on this arrow, I will shoot in the direction of your house. When you get home, take care of my arrow.
The girl sat on the arrow, and the fellow aimed in the direction of her house and fired.
The young man slept that night under that tree, and early in the morning he went further along the seashore. After some time I reached a small dilapidated house. He entered there and saw an old man sitting on the floor, weaving a net out of nettles.
“Hello, grandfather,” said the young man.
- Hello, well done! Where are you going, how did you get here? - asked the old man.
“Grandfather, I’m looking for the immortal stone man.” I'm going to save my father, they will fight his enemy. The old man listened silently and said:
“Son, you’re planning a dangerous thing.” From here it’s close to that man’s village—I’m his worker. If you wish, I will tell you about my past life.
- Grandfather, tell me - why are you asking? The old man began to talk:
“Twenty years ago we lived very well.” Our village was located on the banks of a river that flowed into this sea. We lived very richly. At that time I was a carpenter for the leader of the camp. We were great friends. One day, when the inhabitants of the camp were all asleep, the stone man and his comrades attacked us, our leader was tied up. The leader's wife barely had time to hide the child behind a pillar in the house. And indeed, since you came to fight the stone man, you are the one who remained and grew up in an empty house. The enemies destroyed houses in the camp, made rafts and lowered the population down the river. At the site of our camp, only the house of our leader remained. Our leader was tied with an iron chain and lowered into the depths of the sea. And to this day, if you swim far into the sea, you hear the noise, hear the rattling of its chains. The stone man could not force the leader's wife to be his wife and threw her into prison, which is located under his own house. She's probably alive. They settled me here so that I could catch fish. Every morning I deliver fresh fish to him... The fellow asks:
“Grandfather, if you love your leader so much, then why didn’t you save him from the stone man?” The old man smiled and said:
“Son, you, like me, don’t know everything if you say that.” How can such people do this?! There, day and night, twenty barges with soldiers armed with swords and spears constantly drive around that place, keeping watch. But if, fortunately, you kill these soldiers, then how can we get to the bottom of the sea? Moreover, the anchor stone and a hundred people like us will not be moved.
Well done listened and said:
“Grandfather, tomorrow, when you go to the village, I will go with you.” The old man says:
“Son, it would be good if you looked for the death of the stone man before fighting.” The fellow sat silently, and then said:
- Okay, grandfather, it’s okay - I’ll still fight as long as I have enough strength.
The next morning, the young man went with the old man, who carried the fish. When they drove around the rock, the young man saw the camp in full view. The good fellow made the old man stick to one end of the camp and went into the forest to hide his bow and arrows. When he hid them in a hollow, two birds flew in from the upper reaches of the river, circled over the young man and sat down next to him. They turned their little blue heads, and two women stood in the place of the birds. The young man recognized the beautiful girl he saved and her mother.
- Well, beauties, why did you come here? The girl's mother says:
- Well done friend, we have now come to help you. Well done, laughing, says:
- You are women, how can you help? The girl's mother says:
- Well, it’s okay, we’ll help somehow. And when you fight, look up. When we, two birds, begin to circle above you, you step aside.
The women again turned into birds and flew away. The last bird-girl shouted to the young man:
- Well done friend, we are flying to look for the death of the enemy. The young man went out to the middle of the village, broke the slave boat, lit a fire and began to challenge his enemy to battle. Well done shouts:
- The stone man, who defeated my father and his son by cunning, come out to fight!
The fire from the fire flared above the clouds.
The stone man had just woken up and, hearing the young man’s cry, asked his servant:
- What kind of mosquito is making noise on the shore, come out and look. Then bring me some fresh fish soup.
The servant came out and looked from under his hand to the shore. He saw the young man, returned home, brought the fish soup and, serving it, said:
- Master, I saw a screaming man the size of a sparrow on the river bank. I could have killed him too.
Laughing like thunder, the stone man says:
- Servant, go kill while I finish your ear. If you kill, I'll give you a box of wine.
The servant rolled up his sleeves and walked away. Without stopping, he hit the standing young man. Well done and did not shake from the servant’s blow. Then he said slowly:
“Come on, go back to your master and tell him that a brave fellow has arrived.”
With these words, he hit the servant so that he flew back like a bullet. With tears in his eyes he says to the owner:
“The brave fellow is challenging you to a fight.”
The stone man got angry, threw the plate with the fish soup on the floor and, wearing a robe, girdling himself, ran to the shore.
The young man saw a strong man in his enemy. He was a stocky, short man. And the stone has a crack, and the iron has a crack, but this man had neither a crack nor a crack. When the stone man approached, the fellow pounced on him.
Well, now let’s leave for a while those who began to fight, and tell us about the beauties who went in search of death for the stone man.
After talking with the young man, two ducks immediately flew across the sea. They flew for three days and three nights, and on the fourth day they flew to the other side of the sea. When they rested, they turned into mountain goats and began to climb the mountain that began from the seashore. In two days they rose above the clouds. Sliding on the ice, they barely reached the top. At the very top in the middle of the blazing lake there was a stone island, and on it a small hut. The beauties of the goats became ducks again, flew over the lake and sat down on the hut. An old woman lived in that house. The old woman heard the ducks fly in and immediately stood up. Before the old woman asked, the beautiful ducks began to speak quickly, interrupting each other:
“Grandmother, our master, the owner of the mountains, the stone man, sent us and ordered you to tell us that Senue the hero is coming to him to save his father.” Now that fellow, having learned that the death of our master is here, comes here to kidnap her. When we were flying here, we overtook him in the middle of the sea. Tomorrow, around evening, he will come here. Our master sent us to his death. He wants to keep it with him so that no one can steal it. The old woman listened silently and said:
“I will not give the death of the stone man to anyone, but I will take it to him myself.”
Beautiful ducks say:
“Of course, grandma, you go yourself, it will be even better for him.”
The old woman says:
“Make yourself comfortable and rest, and now I’ll go get that death, we’ll leave early tomorrow.”
Having said this, the old woman disappeared into the stove. Only at midnight the old woman jumped out of the stove, holding a tightly wrapped package. The beauties pretended to be asleep. The old woman, looking very carefully at the sleeping beauties, hid the bag under her pillow, lay down and snored sweetly, and the beauties quietly crept up to the place where the old woman was sleeping and tied her tightly. Then at the same moment they cut the package with a knife and began to examine it. When the very last winding was removed, a chick appeared. Daughter's mother says:
“Daughter, we got this thing very easily, now we have to quickly hide.”
One after another they went out through the window and flew back. Well, now let's get back to the fight of the heroes. The heroes fight so hard that the noise can be heard along the seashore. The plain becomes a mountain, and the mountain is destroyed when they run into it. During the battle, suddenly the young man heard the calls of ducks above him. He looked up - two ducks were circling above him. Having stopped fighting, he says to the enemy:
- Comrade, rest a little, my death is near, I want to leave a will to my wife.
The stone man laughed hard.
“How is it that you, knowing about your weakness, still came to fight me?” My thick veins have not yet stretched at all. Well, okay, go ahead, give your will, say goodbye to your wife.
The young man stepped aside and knelt down. The ducks flew low and dropped the death of the stone man. The good fellow took death by the legs and, holding it stretched, brought it to the stone man:
- Comrade, look what I found in the grass. The stone man looked closely and said with excitement:
- Comrade, you found a very bad thing. These things kill people especially painfully. They don’t keep it, don’t keep it, but give it to an older person. The fellow laughed and said:
- Comrade, why did you worry about my death? Whether I kill this chick and die, whether I fight with you and die—does it matter?
So to speak, he turned the chick's head onto its back. The stone man screamed loudly and died.
After this, the young man entered the house of the stone man, turned a stone the size of a cauldron that was located in the middle of the floor, opened the iron door under it and entered there. I went down a little stairs and found an old, decrepit old woman in a dark pit. He took the old woman outside, hugged her tightly and said:
- Mother, what a blessing that I saw you still alive! The old woman got used to the darkness, the sun blinded her, and she, closing her eyes, asked the young man:
- Son, whose son are you that you call me mother? I don't have a son. He was alone, but, left in an empty house, of course he died.
Well done says:
- Mother, I am the boy whom you and your father left in an empty house. I learned from people that your enemy took you here, and I went to save my father.
Only at that moment did the old woman understand everything and, hugging her son, kissed him, and cried with joy.
When the mother released the young man from her embrace, he immediately ordered the servants to call the people. When the people arrived, he chose the strongest, put them on a barge and went to the middle of the sea.
Only in the evening did they approach the guard barges. Well done shouted:
- Hey, soldiers of the stone man, I killed your master. Now, if you value your life, peacefully leave for the village.
The army, located on twenty barges, began to laugh loudly and unanimously. Waving swords and spears over their heads, the warriors shouted:
-Who did you come to scare? While you're still alive, run back quickly.
“Wait here,” the fellow said to his comrades. He jumped from his barge into the sea and swam to the guard barges. The young man swam so well that the wave in front of him rose as high as a house. He swam up to the very first barge, grabbed it by the bow and turned it over. The soldiers in chain mail quickly began to drown in the sea. Then, when he attacked another barge, the soldiers in it began to shout in fear to the young man:
- Have mercy on us! - and drove off to the village. The young man caught up with the nearest barge, climbed onto it and ordered the eldest to immediately return to the place where they threw the old man into the sea. The barge immediately turned and went towards that place. When they arrived, the young man pulled out a hatchet the size of a squirrel's tooth from his bosom and dived into the sea. Having reached the bottom and moving a little to the side, he saw his father, who, trying to free himself, rattled the chain. The fellow came up with a hatchet and cut the chain. When he cut the chain, he took his father by the hands and swam up with him. He put his father on the barge, hugged him and said:
- Father, what a blessing that I saw you alive!
The old man, like the young man’s mother, was surprised. When the young man told how he, having killed the enemy, came to save him, he was delighted, began to kiss the young man, and cried with joy.
On the same day, the young man instructed his father to send all the people to their places, and he himself went back along a different road. He walked through the dark forest all day and suddenly came to a large village at the foot of the mountain. A hundred people came in and out of the house of the chief of that village. The good fellow asked one old man why people were entering the owner’s house. The old man looked carefully at the young man and said:
“On holiday, our host turned into a kori (bird) and, while traveling, met a daring young man, from whom he received a mortal wound. Now various shamans, kamlaya, cannot pull out the young man’s arrow. The shamans all say that only its owner can pull out that arrow.
The young man silently entered the house, approached the dying man and said:
- Old man, I came for an arrow. If you want to stay alive, submit to me now, together with the village. If you don’t agree, then die.
The old man, crying, whispered:
- Son, just don’t kill. I agree, I will bring the entire camp to you.
The young man immediately took the arrow out of the old man’s chest and, so that the wound would heal, smeared it with saliva.
The next day, the young man took the entire village of the old man with him. Along the way, he married the rescued girl and took her and her mother to him. Having reached the witch's house, he burned it, so that only coals and ashes remained in that place. Then he took the old woman who lived on the edge of the swamp with him.
When he arrived at his home, he kicked his already half-collapsed hut, and it became a new hut of ten fathoms. Near his house, he settled the people of the conquered camp who arrived.
The next day, the father arrived with the inhabitants of the stone man. They were placed further, where the houses of those who had arrived before ended.
Then they began to live on good terms. Well done, he went hunting every day. Father and mother lived calmly, without any worries.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru