Once upon a time there lived seven brothers. But they didn’t have a sister. One day they were going hunting and said: “If we have a little sister, put a spindle on the roof.” And if a brother, then a plow. If we see a plow, we will not return home, we will go to foreign lands to seek happiness. And if we have a sister, we will come to see her.
They had a little sister, but someone mistakenly put a plow on the roof. The brothers saw it from afar and said: “There’s no point in coming back.” And they left. And my little sister grew up and became a big girl.
One day one of her friends lost a ball of thread. She began to accuse everyone that it was stolen. All the girls swore by their brothers that they had not seen her ball, but this girl swore by her dog. Her friends began to laugh at her: “Why do you swear by your dog, you have seven brothers?” The girl ran home to her mother and asked: “Is it true that I have brothers?” Mother says: “It’s true.” Only they went to foreign lands.
The girl decided to go find her brothers. She got up early and hit the road. You never know, she walked a lot, she knew better, she reached a dense forest. He sees: there is a house in the forest. I went into it. There's no one there. She tidied and swept everything, made seven beds, washed seven cups, prepared dinner for seven, and hid herself.
By evening the owners returned. They were surprised: who cleaned it up so cleanly? Who prepared such a delicious lunch? And just think! Seven of her brothers lived in this house. The next morning, six brothers went hunting, and the seventh stayed to watch, to spy on who was coming to their house. He saw the girl, talked to her and found out that it was their sister. He went into the forest to fetch his brothers, and his sister began to prepare dinner. She began to fan the tonir in order to cook porridge with raisins, but she didn’t succeed, the fire completely went out.
My sister went to ask kind people for a light. I reached a big house. He sees: smoke is pouring out, which means there is a fire in the house. She came in and stood frozen at the entrance: an old woman was sitting in the middle of the room, she had stuffed forty pounds of pork into her mouth and was chewing. The girl asked her for fire, and the old woman gave her hot coals and a handful of ash so that the ash would wake up and leave a trace. And this old woman was the mother of a huge and terrible deva.
Dev returned home, found out that a girl had visited them, and wanted to drag her away. He followed the trail, found where she lived with her seven brothers, and began knocking on the door. “Open up for me, girl, open up!” I’ll give you beautiful beads.” “No,” says the girl, “I won’t open it for anything.” And the deva knocks again and says: “If you don’t want it, don’t open it.” Stick your finger into the crack, I’ll put a ring on it. As soon as she stuck her finger out, the deva immediately bit it off, and the girl fell unconscious.
Her brothers returned. They see: the door is locked from the inside. We went down into the house through the smoke hole. They brought their sister to her senses, and she told them everything. The brothers got angry at the damned deva, tracked him down and killed him. They dragged his carcass to their yard and buried him in a garden hole: And the deva’s mother decided to take revenge on them. She pretended to be a poor old woman and hired herself into their house as a servant.
She began to water the place where the deva was buried, and spicy herbs grew there. The old woman put this herb in the soup, and as soon as the brothers ate it, they immediately turned into rams. Their sister began to cry, but what could she do? She drove the sheep to pasture. The king's son was driving past. He liked the girl so much that he immediately decided to marry her. But she said: “I will marry you only if you take my brothers with you.” The king’s son agreed. They began to live together in the palace, and the rams were placed in the royal stable.
The royal relatives were jealous of the girl that the prince loved his wife so much, and decided to get rid of her. They took her to the river to swim and pushed her into the water. And one of the women put on her dress, the husband did not notice that his wife had been replaced. This woman lay down in bed, got tired, groaned and said to the prince: “I’m sick, I’m dying, order them to slaughter all the sheep and give me blood to drink, then I’ll get better.” “Wow, wife,” says the prince, “you took such care of these sheep!” What happened that you want to destroy them yourself? “Nothing,” says the woman. - Life is more valuable than anything else. The sheep heard that they were going to be slaughtered and went to the river. They stand by the water and cry:
They are sharpening their knives, Sister-jan, They want to kill us all, Sister-jan. Come to the shore quickly, Sister-jan, Save your faithful brothers, Sister-jan.
The sister heard them, woke up in the river, life woke up in her, and she swam ashore. As soon as she came out of the water, the brothers all became human again. Then the prince threw a merry feast, and the vile deceiver was tied to the tail of a mule and let him go down the mountain. Good remained with them, evil went with her. Three apples fell from the sky: one for us, one for you, and the third for everyone else.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru