Where, talking tenderly, seven quiet streams flow into one stormy river, on the hem of seven high mountains, seven brothers lived a long time ago.
The brothers did not drive cattle. And instead of a horse, each one had a copper crutch as thick as his girth.
Nobody knows what the name of the father who fed them was.
No one knows which mother gave birth to them.
The brothers did not have names. They called each other:
- First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh.
Six older brothers were married. The seventh lived alone. One night the First said:
- On seven mountains, on the banks of seven rivers, in seven forests - there is no man anywhere around us. And the sky is full of stars. They stand in large and small camps from edge to edge. Should we woo a star for the Seventh? In the camp of Ulker-kaana—the Pleiades constellation—there is a suitable one. Her name is Golden Rainbow - Altyn-Solony.
The open eyelids did not have time to close, the spoken word had not yet left the lips, and the brothers had already taken copper staves in their hands and walked up to Ulker-kaan - to the star camp.
We climbed the white marble mountain and climbed the blue mountain. We stood on a mountain of black stone. The sky rests on their shoulders. The stars are walking very close. Small stars have golden eyes, big stars have yellow eyes like flames. Old stars wear long golden fur coats. Young people wear bronze jackets. Silk tassels hang from copper caps. The silver caps have pearl tassels.
The brothers are standing. They stand there and don’t know what to do.
“However,” said the Seventh, “Khan Ulker-kaan will not give his daughter to me, a man without a name.”
- Oh-ha! - answers the First. - Father and mother did not leave us names. We'll have to find a name for ourselves.
He said and sat down on the ground. I picked up a wooden topshur. I touched two strings with my fingers. Coughing, he cleared his throat and sang a fairy tale. A light cloud reached the bottom of the sky. Warm rain fell. A warm, warm wind blew. And a three-color rainbow stood on the singer’s collar.
The brothers gasped and shouted in one voice:
- Kaychi-Mergen - A clever storyteller - that’s your name. Now it's the second brother's turn. The second parted the tall grass with his palm.
“Here,” he says, “in this place, seven years ago a wolverine ran, I’ll catch up with her now.”
The fired arrow did not have time to fly off the string, and the second brother was already walking back, dragging the wolverine.
- You are Tyuguruk the Agile. That's what we'll call you. The third brother stood up, narrowed his eyes, and shaded the sun with his palm. He looked around: at the bottom of the gray sky he saw seven gray geese. He took the spruce branch off his shoulder, pulled the string and let go at once. The meadowsweet arrow killed seven gray geese. Seven gray geese hang dead on one arrow.
- Aduchi-Mergen - A sharp shooter - that's who you are! The fourth brother remained on his side. He just turned his head, stretched out his lips, took a sip of the eastern lake and spat it to the west.
- Vodyanoy - Suuchin-Mergen - your name.
The fifth brother, grinning, hugged the round hill with his left hand, lifted it and placed it in the valley.
- Lord of the mountains - Tuu-Uzer - you are with us.
- Oh! - the sixth brother suddenly shouted. - Oh, my brothers! While we are here looking for names for ourselves, our Altyn-Solony is going to woo our Altyn-Solony on a horse as gray as iron, the son of the heavenly king Teneri-kaan, young Temir-Mize, a hero) They are feasting in Ulker-kaan. The horses at the hitching posts are stamping, snorting, neighing.
“Ter-Tynduush—He who hears far away—we will call you,” the brothers said.
The seventh brother grabbed the stone rock with his fist. The rock fell on two sides like a knife cut through it. The seventh grabbed the fragments into his fist and stabbed them into the black rock.
“Tash-Oodor - Destroyer of Stones - that’s what you are,” said the brothers and, clapping their crutches, they moved towards the camp of Ulker-kaan.
Sensing the brothers, the horses at the hitching post began to snore. Having cut off the bit, they rushed off in different directions. The golden seven-sided hitching post stands empty. The brothers leaned seven copper crutches against the seven sides of the golden hitching post.
Hearing the brothers, the dogs chained to golden chains sat on their tails and squealed like blind puppies.
The brothers entered the golden palace.
The palace is full of people. The seven-headed cannibal Delbegen saw the brothers and thundered:
- Ah-ah-ah, a good dinner came to me on its own feet!
The strong man riding on a blue-gray horse, Kobon-Ochun, took an iron pipe out of his mouth, spat over his right shoulder and put the pipe in his mouth again.
Riding on a horse as gray as iron, Temir-Mize, the son of the heavenly king Teneri-kaan, did not even turn around. The tassel on his fox hat did not move. The long braid hung over his left ear, and still hangs.
The owner himself, Khan Ulker-kaan, was in the front corner. He sat on a golden throne with three steps. Eyes are like calm lakes. The nose is like a smooth mountain. Eyebrows are like humpbacked cliffs. The mustache is pulled back over the shoulders. Beard below the chest.
- Horseless tramps, homeless brothers! Don't you dare enter my village! - said Ulker-kaan.
For seven days the seven brothers stood at the golden door. Ulker-kaan did not want to listen to their words. I didn’t bring their araku to my lips. The brothers hid their hats under their arms and politely, with bows, offered araku again and again. Ulker-kaan just chuckles:
— A fire made of two trees will burn hot. The children of the two heavenly kaans will live well. And you seven, don’t desecrate my palace, don’t make my guests laugh.
However, seven brothers stand like seven red bulls. Seven crutches are like seven red horses.
“Okay,” Ulker-kaan sighed, “if you dare to woo the seven-headed Delbegen, the hero Temir-Mize, or Kobon-Ochun on the same day, dare to get a black deer with sixty shoots on its horns.” That deer lives on the shores of six seas, at the bottom of six mountains with sixty spurs, on sixty
sixth cliff.
First of all, the seven-headed Delbegen stood up from the white felt. He jumped out onto the green field, caught his blue bull, grabbed the mighty horns and jumped into the saddle, minted in silver and bronze. Delbegen the cannibal galloped off first. His blue bull gallops seven days ahead of all the horses.
Behind the bull, the iron-gray horse of Temir-Mize, the hero, will be taken aback. The strong man rides a blue-gray horse, Kobon-Ochun.
Seven foot brothers lean on seven copper crutches. The seven brothers are seven months behind everyone else.
Whether they have gone far or close, only seven brothers are already seven days ahead of everyone else. The ogre Delbegen turned completely brown from anger. The blue bull has horns like the uprooted roots of a convict. The cannibal is about to catch up with the brothers and eat them. Ter-Tynduush can already hear the cannibal’s breathing.
“Don’t be afraid, my brothers,” said Suuchin-Mergen. He said and spat Black Lake onto the road.
But Ter-Tynduush hears the tramp of an iron-gray horse, hears the whistle of the octagonal whip of the hero Temir-Mize.
“Don’t be afraid, my brothers,” said Tuu-Uzer and put a wooded mountain on the road.
Ter-Tynduush hears the silver ringing of the harness of a blue-gray horse. He hears Kobon-Ochun's iron pipe puffing.
Then Tash-Oodor grabbed a handful of rocks and overturned them upside down.
And Tyuguruk the Agile has already run up six mountains, sixty cliffs. Fleeing from the scream with which Tyuguruk shouted, running away from the stomping with which Tyuguruk stomped, the deer jumped out onto the sixty-sixth spur of the sixtieth cliff. Above the mountains Aduchi-Mergen saw green horns with sixty branches. He took the iron bow from his shoulder. He laid it on both knees. He pulled back the tightly twisted bowstring with the thumb of his right hand. His shoulder blades came together behind his back. The cheeks turned red. Without blinking, he shot an arrow from his bow. Smoke came from the thumb, an arrow burst into flames and, piercing the black deer, flew away to Ulker-kaan. It’s good that Tyuguruk the Agile managed to catch this burning arrow. Otherwise the whole camp would have burned down from it.
The black deer fell to his front knees. In his eyes there are overturned mountains. Red foam flows from the mouth.
The first brother pulled a sharp ax from his belt, swung it and cut off the forehead of the deer with large warm horns. The seven brothers took out seven knives from their sheaths and sharpened their hard blades on the stone rock. With a sharpened knife, the elder brother ran across the deer’s chest and across his four legs. Six brothers picked up the skin and tore off
it is so clean that even a magpie would not find a scrap of meat on the skin.
From this black skin the brothers sewed an arkyt for sour milk. Large horns were stuck into the ground opposite the palace of Khan Ulker-kaan. And the horns stood in front of the golden door, like a hitching post made of iron poplar. Black Arkyt
lay at the feet of Khan Ulker-kaan, like a black valley with six ears.
Ulker-kaan did not dare refuse these gifts.
He squinted one eye towards the moon, the other towards the sun. Doesn't look his brothers straight in the eye.
“We must,” he says, “wait for other heroes.” Maybe you weren’t the one who killed the deer?
The seven-headed cannibal Delbegen, who left seven days in advance, returned after seven years.
Ten years later, the hero Temir-Mize arrived on his iron-gray horse. Next to him, the strongman Kobon-Ochun rode on a gray-blue horse. Their faces were black as earth. The sand squeaked on my teeth.
“I’m glad to see you,” Ulker-kaan bowed to the heroes. - All of you returned alive from the hunt. I don’t know which of you to give my daughter to.
He sighed and lowered his head. It's like a fog clouds my eyes.
- Who can sing a fairy tale so that leaves will bloom on a dry tree, so that flowers will rise from the dry ground?
- I can! - the seven-headed one roared from the seven throats:
Delbegen.
Because of his singing, birds abandoned their nests, animals left. cubs rushed out of the forest, ran away through the mountains, swam across rivers. The cattle ran away from the pasture, the people hid. Fresh leaves have turned yellow. The golden grasses have faded.
“However, you sing very poorly,” Khan Ulker-kaan finally said to Delbegen. - Shut up, please.
Don't drive away my white cattle. Don't scare people. Don't dry out my land.
Delbegen turned blue from shame, like his blue bull.
He quickly jumped into the wide saddle and let the bull run at full speed.
Now the son of the heavenly king Teneri-kaan, the young Temir-Mize hero, riding on a horse as gray as iron, began to sing. Kobon-Ochun the strong man began to sing with him. The birds on the branches fell asleep from their singing. Where the animals stood, there they were. lay down. People snore where they sat. The bulls fell asleep. The horses fell asleep. All six hundred and sixty-six mountains are fast asleep.
“Your fairy tale is completely worthless,” he got angry. Khan Ulker-kaan. - Shut up now!
Kobon-Ochun and Temir-Mize do not look at each other. They are getting ready to go home.
Kaichi-Mergen took his topshur. He sang a thick song in a drawn-out manner. Shy birds flew to the camp to listen. Wild animals stand at the camp, listening. People came from all seven hundred mountains of Altai, from sixty hills. listens. The forest trees, listening, bowed their tops. The dry dead wood, rustling its twigs, repeated the fairy tale to the dry leaves. The buds on the dead wood swelled, cracked, and the green leaves turned towards the singer. With dry
the flowers of the earth have risen. There are no words - it turned out beautiful. song. Rain fell from the sky. The wind blew, and a three-color rainbow, bending, rested on Kaichi-Mergen’s shoulders.
Saw! This is Ulker-kaan. His knees became weak. The lower lip stretched out. Can't say a word. Tears flow without stopping. I listened for four days and didn’t lower my head
to the pillow. Didn't pick up cups of food.
“I cannot defeat these seven brothers.”
Decorated with moonlight, the maiden Golden Rainbow—Altyn-Solony—came out from behind a silk curtain. Her hair is yellow like gold. The eyes are bird cherry berries. White and curly, like a young birch tree, it stood by the silk curtain, straight as a needle.
Tash-Oodor fell on his right knee and, tightly grasping
Altyn-Solona’s right hand, said through clenched teeth:
- From now on we are inseparable!
“We’ll always be together,” Altyn-Solony answered. Tash-Oodor picked her up, shook her and put her in
pocket. Clutching their copper crutches, the seven brothers went to their villages.
Temir-Mize the hero hit his iron-gray horse hard and viciously. The horse jumped into the sky.
“Don’t worry, Temir-Mize, my son,” said the heavenly king Teneri-kaan. “These brothers will not live from us.”
Khan Ulker-kaan is sitting right next to Teneri-kaan. Yun bit his lower lip in anger until it bled. Ankle
I went crazy on my left leg. Tears from the eyes fall to the ground like thick rain.
And seven brothers are getting married. Aduchi-Mergen brought
from hunting the fattest animals, the most delicious birds! Suuchin-Mergen turned all the lakes into hot araka. Tuu-Uzer builds a high village from the most beautiful mountains. Tyuguruk ran around the entire Altai seventy-seven times. All seven hundred peoples of Altai convened for the wedding. Kaichi-Mergen sits day and night, singing a fairy tale. Suddenly Ter-Tynduush
became white like a cloud:
- Oh, trouble! The heavenly army is coming towards us. Khan Ulker-kaan is ahead of everyone. Behind him is the son of Teneri-kaan Temir-Mize, a hero riding on a horse as gray as iron.
The seven brothers don't know what to do. How to escape?
Hot fiery rain rained down from the sky. A bright star flame fell.
The Lord of the mountains Tuu-Uzer raised the icy peak.
The brothers crawled under the glacier. But the fiery rain fell and fell, and three layers of ice split into three parts. Tuu-Uzer tore off all seventy glaciers from the seventy peaks of Altai. He stacked them in seventy rows. But the fiery star rain kept coming and going, and one by one seventy glaciers melted, flowing down in stormy rivers. Then the brothers stood up and shouted sternly:
- Don’t let us live on earth? OK! We will live in heaven.
Since then, their pasture—the Big Dipper—lies near the golden stake—the North Star. Ulker-kaan - the constellation of the Pleiades - still still wants to take away his daughter Altyn-Solony from the seven brothers. They don’t dare to fight openly, but everyone is trying to come in from behind. Yes, the brothers are careful. They always turn to face Ulker.
So they stand as eternal opponents against each other.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru