In ancient times, a husband and wife lived in the same village, and they had seven daughters. The parents loved their daughters very much, well, they simply doted on them. And they lived in harmony and joy. But then trouble came to the house - the mother died.
Before the daughters’ eyes had time to dry from tears, the father had already brought his stepmother into the house. And the stepmother had her own daughter. The sisters were not very happy about the appearance of their stepmother, but tried to please her in everything. However, the evil stepmother disliked her stepdaughters and decided to get rid of them at any cost. The poor orphans had to work from dawn to dusk, and the stepmother pampered and cherished her own daughter in every possible way. At first, the sisters endured all the hardships without complaint - they loved their father very much. And when they realized that their stepmother was planning to exterminate them from the world, and their father would not stand up for them, they decided to leave their home wherever they looked.
How long or short did they walk, but only one fine day they found themselves in a country where the evil sorceress Bilum ruled. The sisters got hungry on the way, tired, and then, lo and behold, there was a lake. They sat down on the shore and began to fish. And when each of the sisters caught a fish, they lit a fire to roast it. Here it should be noted that, while cleaning the fish, the sisters gouged out two eyes of each fish, and only the younger sister left one eye in her fish.
The girls ate, rested and moved on. They walked and walked, and suddenly Bilum met them. The evil sorceress pretended to be kind and friendly and invited the sisters to visit her. No sooner had the girls crossed the threshold of her house than they immediately became blind, and only the youngest remained sighted in one eye. Bilum strictly forbade the girls to leave the house and ordered them to take turns cooking rice every day, so that not a single drop of rice water would spill out of the boiler.
One day, when Biluma was not at home, the youngest of the sisters was preparing food and accidentally dropped some rice water on the floor. The daughter of the evil sorceress immediately ran up and licked the spilled broth from the floor. From that day on, the girl deliberately spilled a little of the broth every time, and Biluma’s daughter invariably licked it off. Soon a friendship began between the younger sister and Biluma's daughter.
One day, the daughter of an evil sorceress took her friend to a beautiful garden where the sisters were forbidden to go. Amazing trees grew there, the leaves of which had magical properties.
“Look at this tree,” said the little sorceress, “as soon as you throw its leaf on the ground, a huge mountain immediately grows in this place.”
The girl quietly tore off one leaf and pressed it in her palm. The tree moaned pitifully in pain.
- What's happened? - asks the little sorceress.
“I hurt myself a little,” the girl lied.
The girls walked around the garden for a long time, and Biluma’s daughter showed her friend the trees, the leaves of which had the magical property of turning into a dense forest, a stormy river, or fire. Among the trees there was one that could restore sight to the blind. And the girl picked a leaf from each tree and hid it in her pocket. Finally, the little sorceress led her friend to a beautiful fruit tree. And it was the tree of life of Biluma. And his secret was that if the fruit of this tree was broken in half, the evil sorceress would die immediately. The girl slowly picked the fruit from this tree.
And when the friends returned home, the girl hurried to the sisters, she put a magic leaf to their eyes, and all six sisters immediately received their sight. Then the girl showed the leaves she had brought from Biluma’s garden and talked about their magical properties. And the sisters decided to flee from the kingdom of the evil sorceress. And soon Bilum returned home and, not finding her sisters, immediately set off after them.
When Biluma was already very close, the sisters threw the first leaf, and immediately a huge mountain grew, blocking Biluma’s path. However, soon the sisters felt her approach again. Then they threw the second leaf, and a dense forest stood in front of Biluma. Bilum also defeated the forest. The sisters threw the third leaf, and immediately Biluma’s path was blocked by a wide and stormy river, and then the sisters threw the fourth leaf. At that same moment a huge flame shot up. But Biluma passed through the flames and continued to pursue the sisters. Meanwhile, the sisters were already exhausted: they could no longer run. And when they saw that the evil sorceress was very close, they took out the magic fruit. Biluma was frightened and asked for mercy, but the sisters no longer believed the insidious witch and broke the fruit in half. Biluma immediately disappeared, as if she had never existed.
And the seven sisters lived calmly and happily. That's the end of the fairy tale.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru