There lived a husband and wife. They had seven sons, but no daughters. The sons often said:
“We want a sister, we would love her, cherish her and take care of her.” The hope of having a sister never left them.
Seven brothers went hunting every day. Wandering through the high mountains, they hunted for gazelles, mountain turkeys, and various wild animals, and this fed the family.
One day they say to their mother:
“Mom, we’ll go hunting, if we have a little sister, tell us to hang a spinning wheel, and if we have a little brother again, tell us to hang a bow on the gate.”
When they had a little sister, the mother was very happy and said to the grandmother:
- Go and hang a spinning wheel on the gate, my sons will come and rejoice.
The old woman went and hung the spinning wheel on the gate. And seven brothers had an envious neighbor. He watched with malicious envy as the brothers brought rich booty from the hunt. Having overheard a conversation between the mother and her sons, he took the spinning wheel from the gate and hung a bow in its place.
Seven brothers returned from hunting and saw a bow hanging on the gate.
“Oh, we have a brother again!” they said and did not go home, but went away wherever they looked.
They walked and walked and came to another country and began to live there.
Their sister Gulmokh grew and grew and grew to ten years old, and then to twelve. One day she was playing with her friends and quarreled with a girl whose father was the enemy of her brothers. This girl reproached her:
“You bring misfortune: when you were born, your seven brothers disappeared!” We will not play with you, otherwise we will also be left without brothers!
Gulmokh was so saddened by these words that her tears flowed in streams and reached the courtyard of an old woman. The old woman walked along the bank of the stream and saw that the neighbor's girl was crying.
“Why are you crying?” asked the old woman.
“My friends tell me: “You were born, but your seven brothers disappeared!” Is this true or not?
“Go home,” said the old woman, “and tell your mother to fry the wheat for you, just don’t take it in anything, but tell her to give it to you in her hand.” When she hands you wheat, grab her hand, put it in the hot pot and ask: “Where are my brothers?”
Gulmokh came home and said to her mother:
“I’m very hungry, I want fried wheat.”
Mother went and fried the wheat. She served it with a slotted spoon, Gulmokh didn’t take it, her mother gave her wheat in a spoon, Gulmokh didn’t take it again and said:
- Give it to me in your hand!
The mother wanted to give her wheat in her hand, and Gulmokh put her hand into the cauldron and asked:
- Tell me the truth, do I have brothers?
- You don’t have brothers, let go of your hand, otherwise you’ll burn it! Without letting go of her mother’s hand, Gulmokh asked again:
- Do I have brothers or not?
- Yes, yes, you have seven brothers!
“Where are my brothers?” Gulmokh asked again.
“I don’t know, on your birthday they went hunting and didn’t return.” From longing for them, my heart became a hive full of wasps.
Hearing this, Gulmokh went, kneaded the dough, baked twelve buns, tied them in a bag and said to her mother:
- Mother, I’ll go look for my brothers!
The mother began to beg her daughter not to go anywhere, assured that she would not find her brothers and would deprive her mother of her daughter, but Gulmokh did not listen to her and left.
She walked and walked. She crossed deserts, swam across rivers, climbed over mountains, passed through cities and villages, and kept walking and walking. If she was hungry, she would eat one bun and move on.
So Gulmokh walked a long way, and she only had one bun left. She rolled this bun on the ground and followed it. But now, very hungry, she broke off a piece of the bun and ate it. After that, she again wanted to roll the bun, but the bun no longer rolled. The girl took the bun in her hands and cried so much that the ground around her turned into wet clay. She stuck a lump of clay
to the broken edge of the bun and laid it out to dry in the sun. The clay on the bun dried, and the girl rolled the bun again, and she followed it. Gulmokh approached a mountain on which stood a house surrounded by a courtyard. The bun rolled and rolled and rolled up to the gate of this yard.
The girl entered the yard and saw that there was no one in the house. All kinds of hunting game were hung on the doors of the house. There were gazelle and mountain sheep, partridges and wild chickens. The pots were full of oil, the chests were full of flour - there was a lot of everything here.
Gulmokh took flour from the chest, kneaded the dough and baked cakes and buns. She fried the game and cooked a tasty and fatty pilaf. She prepared everything and hid in the chest.
In the evening seven young men came home. They entered the house and were just about to cook food when they saw that the pilaf had been cooked and the baked flatbreads and buns were lying on the table.
The brothers marveled at this. Until now, no one had come to their house, but here someone even prepared food for them. “Whoever it is, we’ll find out tomorrow,” they said and happily began to eat pilaf and flatbread with buns.
In the morning, all the brothers went hunting, and the eldest, in order to find out who came to them, hid at home. He watched and watched the house and quietly fell asleep. Gulmokh saw that the young man had fallen asleep, came out of the chest, kneaded the dough again, baked delicious flat cakes and buns, made three or four sieves of dumplings and hid in the chest again.
The elder brother woke up and saw that the hot cakes and buns were lying around and the dumplings were cooked. He sat surprised and looked at all this, and then his brothers arrived.
“Who was with us?” they asked.
“I accidentally fell asleep, and after waking up, I saw that all this had already been prepared,” replied the elder brother. The younger brothers laughed at the sleepiness of their older brother and decided to stay home alone every day to find out who was coming to them. But none of the six brothers could keep themselves from sleeping.
The youngest brother remained to guard the house. He, too, began to feel sleepy, but he cut his finger and sprinkled it with salt. His wound was so corroded that it was gone.
So he lay there and watched the house and suddenly saw that a beautiful girl had crawled out of one of the chests. He wanted to immediately jump up and catch her, but changed his mind and decided to see what she would do.
Gulmokh kneaded the dough again, baked buns and flatbreads, cooked a rich soup and, leaving the boiled kettle by the fireplace, went to hide in the chest, but at that time her younger brother jumped up and grabbed her hand.
- Who are you? Are you a human or a peri who has settled in our house?
- I’m not a peri, but probably your sister. I had seven brothers and you have seven, so you are my brothers!
“We are seven brothers, but we don’t have a sister!” answered the younger brother.
Then the girl told him everything in order, just as her mother had told her. And the younger brother became convinced that this was his sister. Joyful, he hugged her, kissed her, and began asking about her, about her parents. They sat and talked like that until their older brothers arrived. All of them, joyful and happy, could not stop talking to their long-awaited sister and regretted that on her birthday they had been deceived by someone.
Gulmokh began to live with her brothers. Satisfied and cheerful, they now began to go hunting. My sister cleaned the house, did the laundry, and sewed. So that she wouldn’t get bored, the brothers brought their sister a cat. Gulmokh fell in love with the cat and did nothing without her and did not even eat.
One morning the girl was making the bed, sweeping the floor and sweeping up the raisin with a broom, then picked it up, blew on it and put it in her mouth. The cat got angry with the girl for this, ran and put out the fire in the hearth.
Gulmokh kneaded the dough, and now it has already risen. It was necessary to light the tanur stove, and she went to the hearth to get a fire, but saw that the fire had been extinguished. She had nothing to light the tanur stove with, and she was very sad.
Gulmokh came out of the gate, looked in all directions and suddenly saw that in one place of the forest a narrow stream of smoke was rising above the trees. Without letting the smoke out of sight, the girl walked towards him.
So she approached the fire and saw that Baba Yaga was standing near it and was breastfeeding the child, holding him with one hand. With her other hand she stirred the wheat roasting in the cauldron. Willy-nilly, Gulmokh approached Baba Yaga and said:
- Hello, grandma!
“Hello,” answered Baba Yaga, “if you hadn’t said hello to me, I would have eaten you alive!” Why did you come?
“My fire went out, I came for the fire.”
Baba Yaga gave her some fire, as well as a handful of wheat and said:
- Throw this wheat on the road along which you will walk, and so that it will last all the way to your home!
Gulmokh came home scattering wheat. She heated up the tanur stove, baked some flatbread, fried meat pies and prepared a very tasty dinner. Her brothers came and had lunch. And, having driven away all worries, they sat and talked for a long time, grateful to their skillful sister. Then everyone went to bed, and early in the morning the seven brothers went hunting again.
As soon as Gulmokh went out into the yard and began to sweep it, suddenly Baba Yaga rode into the gate riding on a goat. She drove in and shouted:
- Uh, geek, go take my goat and tie him somewhere!
Gulmokh ran up to her, took the goat and tied it to a peg.
“Now go and comb my hair!” Baba Yaga ordered.
Gulmokh began to comb Baba Yaga's hair. And suddenly she saw that Baba Yaga had collected a handful of the wheat grains scattered by her along the way, and now they had turned into a needle. And she stuck this needle into the girl’s thigh. In pain, Gulmokh clenched her teeth tightly, but continued to comb Baba Yaga’s hair, and she began to suck her blood.
This went on for several days. A beautiful, healthy girl turned yellow and ugly. One day her brothers asked her:
- What's wrong with you? Or are you undernourished, or are you not drinking enough, or are you bored with us? Why are you fading every day?
Gulmokh told what happened to her. The next day the youngest brother did not go hunting. He dug a hole in front of the door of the house, placed a large stone near it, and hid behind the door. Soon Baba Yaga rode into the yard and shouted:
- Hey, geek, go take my goat and tie it up!
Gulmokh ran up to her, took the goat, tied it to a peg and went into the house. Baba Yaga is behind her. But as soon as she approached the door, the younger brother quickly jumped out from behind the door, pushed Baba Yaga into a hole, threw a large stone on her and covered her with earth.
In the evening the brothers returned from hunting and asked about what happened during the day.
“Baba Yaga came into our house, it’s good that we found out about her, otherwise she would have killed our sister.” - And the younger brother told how he dealt with Baba Yaga.
After this, the elder brother said to his sister:
- Be careful not to pour water into the hole, otherwise Baba Yaga will come to life!
Several days passed like this. One day Gulmokh was washing a cauldron and cups and, forgetting her brother’s warning, threw the slops into the pit. After some time, the embankment above the pit was overgrown with dill, and what, simply incredibly fragrant dill!
One evening the brothers heard their sister sighing heavily and asked:
- Why are you sighing so heavily?
“I miss my father and mother, my friends and girlfriends,” answered Gulmokh.
“And we missed our father and mother, our homeland.” If so, then let's hit the road tomorrow.
The next day the brothers began to pack their things, and Gulmokh cooked a delicious mastoba stew. When the mastoba was ready, she picked dill from the mound, chopped it and seasoned the mastoba with it in each bowl.
The brothers sat down to the dastarkhon and just took a spoonful of matoba, seasoned with dill, when everyone turned into doves and flew away. Surprised by this, Gulmokh thought: “Oh, I picked the dill for the dressing from the embankment above the pit! Oh I'm stupid.
I forgot about it and poured it into my brothers’ food. Now my brothers have become doves, but what should I do? I too will become a dove!” she thought, and ate a spoonful of matoba, seasoned with dill. Immediately Gulmokh herself became a dove, soared into the sky and flew after her brothers.
Eight pigeons flew home. Having arrived, they descended to the ground in their garden, and immediately the seven brothers turned into seven poplars, and their sister into an apple tree.
Their mother went out into the garden and was amazed: seven tall poplars and one curly apple tree appeared in their garden. Their garden with these wonderful trees became incredibly beautiful. Now the mother began to come to the garden every day. She looked lovingly at the wonderful trees and admired them for a long time.
Spring has come, the apple tree is covered with thick blossoms, and many fruits have budded. In summer, the apples ripened: they became red, beautiful and fragrant.
One day, the son of the padishah, going hunting, drove past this garden and smelled the pleasant smell of apples. He reined in his horse and said to the servants:
- Where does such a pleasant smell come from? Hurry up and find out!
Two servants ran into the garden and saw that there was an apple tree strewn with apples in the garden, and around it were seven tall poplars.
- Let's pick two or three apples and take them to the prince! “He’ll be happy!” said one servant. He approached the apple tree and extended his hand to pick an apple, but suddenly a voice was heard from the tree trunk:
- Hey, travelers, take your hands off!
The servants were surprised by this and stepped back. One of them said:
“The prince sent us, we wanted to pick two or three apples for him.”
The tree spoke again:
“My dear brothers, the prince’s people have come for apples, shall we give them or not?” At this time, a voice was heard from the trunks of seven poplars:
- Why give the prince apples, what good has he done in his life? The servants hurried to the prince and told him about what they had heard and seen.
-What are you making up, do trees talk?
And the prince himself entered the garden, but as soon as he extended his hand for the apple, the apple tree spoke:
- Hey, traveler, take your hand away!
“I am the son of the padishah of this country, I want to pick two or three apples!” The tree spoke again:
- My dear brothers, the son of the padishah came for apples, shall we give him or not?
“Your apples can be picked by someone who has done only good things for people all their life.” Why give the prince apples, because he has never done anything good to anyone in his life!
The son of the padishah stood, thought and did not remember a single good deed that he had done for people. And he and his servants were forced to leave the orchard without apples.
But then a poor gray-haired old man walked past the garden. He saw an apple tree with branches drooping from the weight of the fruit and, captivated by the fragrant aroma of apples, he entered the garden and wanted to pick an apple, but a voice was heard from the trunk of the apple tree:
“My dear brothers, this old man wants to pick an apple, shall we give him or not?”
“Give him an apple!” the brothers said in one voice. “Here comes a man who has done only good things for people all his life, maybe he will help us too!”
The old man heard this and hurried to pick an apple. And only one apple separated from the tree branch, the trunk of the apple tree cracked and a beautiful girl came out of it. Together with the trunk of the apple tree, the trunks of all seven poplars cracked - and a handsome young man emerged from the trunk of each poplar.
The brothers and sister thanked the elder for his help, ran to their house and rushed to their parents.
The overjoyed mother and father began to cry with happiness, and tears flowed from their eyes like rain. They hugged and kissed each son and daughter. Since then they lived in happiness and joy.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru