There live two Tungus with sewn faces. But, despite the fact that they are Shit-faced Tungus, they live all the time with the tundra Tungus. They abandoned the real shitfaces a long time ago. Both Tungus are brothers, born from the same mother. One of them is a little older.
The eldest has two children: one girl and one boy. They sat close to the largest stone. The wild ones were hunted. Having lived here for a long time, the wild ones were exterminated in these places. Younger brother says:
- Near the wild one, we were completely finished. There, far away, in places barely visible from here, the wild, however, still exists.
The elder brother answers:
“It’s bad to go that far.” You have to look nearby.
“I’ll go,” says the younger brother. “We have a real good place.” When the sun goes down, I'll be back. I'll be back in the faint light of dawn.
Now the younger brother has left. He took two uchags with him. One of the plots is very good - as tall as a barn. He left home in a bad car, but wants to return in a good car. Stopped halfway. He sees: the earth is still very far away. The sun has already risen a little. He rode on good ground and reached the land to which he was traveling. I found a river in the rock itself, in a steep valley. At its peak the river split in two. At the confluence of these two rivers, the Laida. There are ten wild poses on the laida. Coming from the upper reaches of the river from the gorge, he shouted. The wild ones ran to a convenient place for them, close, past him. Shot two with a bow.
I skinned one. I started filming from someone else. He began to drag the wild carcass to a convenient place. He took him by the horns, lifted him up and heard two bows click. He ran, dodging one arrow. But another arrow broke a vein in his leg.
Then two shit-faced men came out of the ambush. One long-legged one is Hodukundamatu. Another person as thin as grass is Nyotaraku. The younger brother tells them:
- Hey, friends! I don't have a leg. How will I go? Why did they stealthily kill me? Why didn't they kill you honestly? Finish me off here. Give me the bow, it's close. I’m sitting on the ground for nothing, I’ll taste you.
“No,” the sewn faces answer, “why will we give you the bow?” - And, turning around, these two people left on foot.
The younger brother made a block for his foot from arrows. I crawled with force to the hearth. Grabbed a bow and arrows. Climbed onto the plot. He threw his wounded leg onto the saddle and rode home. It goes quietly. How soon will it go? Dikikh abandoned. It became dark.
A good uchag follows the trail to the plague itself. The deer dig was already close. Suddenly the fire stood up. The younger brother heard a cry in his tent. He threw the bag and fell to the ground. He sees his older brother running naked. An arrow sticks out between the shoulder blades. Only the shaft is visible. The iron tip is covered in meat. Two shitfaces are chasing him. One is thin, like grass, the other is long-legged.
Lying in a hole on the ground, the younger brother grabbed a bow. His brother ran nearby.
- Let those following him come closer!
Shot once. It hit the long-legged man right in the bridge of the nose. Shot another. But he missed, apparently in the dark. I heard an arrow fall to the ground. Nyotaraku parka - made from white fox. It is clear that he is escaping alive.
The younger brother crawled with difficulty in his arms to the tent. There is not a single person in it. His wife is gone, his wife's brother and children are gone. There's not even a phone number. The younger brother lay down on the blanket and fell asleep. I slept for three days. On the third day, I woke up and heard footsteps on the street. He opened the door and looked. He sees: Nyotaraku came again dressed in a white parka. His face is shot through. With him is another shit-faced man with a scythe*126. Lying in the plague, the younger brother says:
- Nyotaraku! Come into the chum and finish me off. I'm in a lot of pain.
- It is forbidden. If I enter the tent, I myself will die in it,” Nyotaraku answered and left.
Why does a person disappear from a wound in the leg? So he sits there hungry. He hears something creaking in an overturned cauldron. His younger brother pushed him with a log. The cauldron overturned, and under it he saw a boy, the son of his older brother.
So he and the boy began to lie in the tent. One day a boy says to his uncle:
- Sit down!
Uncle doesn't answer. Died.
Where will a lonely child go? He lived in a tent, ate leftover food in a cauldron. Once I heard that someone came to the plague again. Opened the door. It turns out that the bear has arrived.
The bear entered the tent, took the uncle’s corpse and carried it outside. He dug a grave in the ground, put the corpse in it and buried it. Then he came into the tent again and whined like a dog. The child, frightened, runs away and hides. The bear is very big. His hind legs are at the door, he stretched himself through the entire tent. He caught the child, carried him outside and carried him away from the plague. Having reached the den, he stuffed the boy into it.
The den is big as hell. There are a lot of bears roaring in it. The bear that brought the boy roared once. All the bears were silent.
The boy began to live here, without leaving anywhere. The bear that brought it lies at the door all the time. The bears bring wild meat, only without ribs, and other food.
So the boy lived here for ten years. I grew up with chum. I went out into the street with the bears, laughed, played, and made friends.
An old bear once said to others:
- What should I do with the child? A very cold weather is coming. What kind of parka should I give him? I need to sew.
This bear is gone. Somewhere I got a black parka and brought it. The guy dressed in it and stood like a bear.
Several more years have passed. The guy began to go into the forest and looked at the sun in silence for a long time. The old bear noticed this. He thinks to himself: “However, is he thinking about something?”
Having decided so, the old bear asked the guy:
- Well, Tungus. What are you thinking about?
The guy answers:
- I have been thinking for a long time. I had a father, mother, sister. Where did they go? I will search for this land,
The bear thinks: “How will the guy leave?” Tells him:
- You can go. But don't kill innocent people. Your father was killed by Nyotaraku. Look for him. If you kill innocent people, you yourself will die. I will find out and kill you. You have the same strength as me. How will you go on foot? But I also have something. I also have reindeer, I have daughters, I have sleighs, I have various property. Wait for me, I'll go look.
Now the bear has left. The day has passed. Everyone was asleep. The next day at noon he comes and says:
- Well, everything is ready. Chum is ready. Go.
The guy came out. He sees: seven argish approached the den. Instead of deer, all are bears. Seven women - human faces, bear parkas. There is one extra sled - a man's one. Four bears are harnessed to it. The guy approached the sled and stopped. The old bear asks:
- Why don’t you sit down?
“I have a speech,” says the guy. - I saw your skis. Do you really feel sorry for them?
- How can I resist my son’s request? - answers the old bear. - Take the skis.
Now the guy with seven argish has left. He was arguing all the time and didn’t stand. I drove through the night, drove through the day, and finally stopped. He thinks: “Out of these seven women, which one is my wife? All are good, all the same!”
They let the “deer” in, they did a plague. All the women went into the tent. I went into the tent myself. He knocks the snow off the bakari with a log and looks: one woman is sitting on the upper side of the door. A black parka, the same as his own, was tucked behind the poles. Other women don't have this.
“This is my wife,” the guy decided and sat down next to her and then went to bed with her.
After that, we spent another day quarreling. They did it again. But he did not let go of his four bears and moved on. It took a long time to travel. Night, followed by day, and again night and day rode. Three days later, four bears fell to the ground. Then I went skiing. Walking like this, I found seven plagues.
The people who were before the plagues ran away when they saw our man. Only before the middle plague, there was only one person left working. Without stopping his work, the man asked:
- Who are you?
“If you have intelligence, then listen,” says the guy. “I don’t have a father, I don’t have a mother.” Who are you?
“Long ago, they say, a bear carried away the son of one Tungus.” However, this is you, says the working man.
- Right! Where is Nyotaraku now?
- Three days ago Nyotaraku was here, playing cards. His trace is visible,” the man answered.
“Your deer are strong. Give me some deer,” says the guy.
Only one deer was given by the working man. The guy harnessed him to someone else's sled and asked:
- Is this deer strong?
- Strong!
“Well, if I’m strong, I’ll catch up soon,” says the guy. I drove a deer with a trochee. The deer rushed, buried itself in the snow and fell. The guy says:
- The deer is strong! But, however, do you have the strength yourself? Let's fight once.
“Okay, we’ll fight once,” says the man working. The owner of the deer lifted the guy up and said:
- Well, just strength. I separated it a little from the ground.
Then the guy grabbed this man, squeezed him, and he died. After that, the guy left on skis again.
Walking like this, in another six tents he quarreled over bad deer and killed six more people.
So, getting people, the guy walked on foot. He walked for a long time and reached a large river. There is a high, steep ravine above the water. A guy came out to him and couldn’t find his way forward. In the distance, across the water, a red hill can be seen.
-What kind of river is this? - says the guy. - If I go around it, my road will be very crooked. We must go straight.
The guy jumped straight from the ravine into the water and disappeared into it headlong.
Now the speech of the fairy tale*127 has gone straight down the drain. The guy is not visible, he disappeared with his head. Near the hill, on the other side of the river, there is a small river flowing into it. At the mouth of this river something began to bubble and a head appeared. The guy came ashore and walked along the river. The parka is dry. I reached the source of the river. There were seven more women here. There is a cave near the women. Women are chopping wood near the cave. They say:
- Why did you come? What kind of person? Does he have any sense? He has no sense. We won't tell him anything!
- What kind of damned women are these! - said the guy and interrupted them all with his fist. I began to look for the entrance to the cave. Having found it, I went in.
The cave is as high as a plague. There was an old bear in it. Says to the guy:
-Why did you come back? What's the matter? What have you done?
“No business,” the guy answers.
- No matter what! - says the bear. -Didn’t I say, don’t kill innocent people? Have you done it? Do you have no sin? Did you find Nyotaraku? Now I'm going to get angry!
The old bear is strong. Fights with a guy. Then two women came in and said:
- Hey! Bear's son! Why are you angry? Do you hope to win? However, you won't win!
Hearing this, the guy released the bear. I slept here for several days. Then the bear woke him up and said:
- Get up, boy! You have a long way to go.
The guy got up and ate. Old Bear says:
- Now you will go far to look for Nyotaraka. His head was scooping. Now, however, it is white. However, you won’t find other people now, but you will find Nyotaraka.
-Where will I go? - says the guy. - No matter! I will find you and kill you!
“Take two white deer,” says the old bear.
A guy rode on these two reindeer across the flat tundra. I found an old monster. Nyuk is completely tattered, there are only a few poles standing. Arrows stuck into the ground stick out near the chum. There is a river nearby.
- Hey! This, however, is my father's plague! - said the son of the bear. There was an onion in the upper side of the chum. The son of the bear took him and many arrows.
After that, I decided to leave for my tent, where I left my wife. I arrived there. While he was away, his wife gave birth to a boy.
Now they were argish. They kept moving towards the forest all the time. The black stone has been crossed. They stopped behind him. The son went to look for wild bears, thinking that maybe he would come across some sewn faces. He left his family with his son. The son has already grown up. He became one and a half arshin tall.
Going towards the forest, I came to a very large and dense forest. The opposite side of it is not even visible.
Having reached this forest, he left the sleigh with the deer and went on foot, taking with him a bow and arrows.
I found a big road. I went into the forest. He walked and walked, and it became a little dark. The fog fell, a heavy fog. I found a deer dig in the fog. On the lake, on the ice, the Tungus are dancing.
The whole lake is strewn with them. Approaching the lake, he found Norka-nyo (i.e. “Bear’s son”) one abandoned sokui and put it on himself. Entering a crowd of merry people, he touched one of them on the shoulder and asked:
- What's the big deal about Barbs?
- That's right. “The most average plague,” answered the Tungus.
Norka-nyo noticed this plague and returned. I was sitting on a digging pit in the dark. When it was time to go to bed, I decided to go. He thinks: “However, they are sleeping, midnight has come.”
Taking a bow and a palm tree, he approached the tent, which the Tungus pointed out to him. I opened the door - nothing was visible, everyone was sleeping. He began to hit the palm right and left. Killed everyone. He entered another tent, killed half of them, and the rest screamed. People in other tents heard a scream and grabbed their bows. Many people turned out to be alive on the street. Among them is Nyotaraku with a bow. How he left the plague - the devil only knows!
Norka-nyo fought with all these people for three days. He killed them all, leaving only Nyotaraku.
By this time, Norka-nyo had run out of all his arrows. Norka-nyo ran and ran into the sled in the pit. He ran close to the sled. From behind the sled, someone fired and cut through a vein in Nyotaraku's leg. It turned out that Norka-ne’s son came and rescued his father.
Norka-nyo and his son returned to the shit-faced tents. Norka-nyo says:
— Shall we take the deer that people have killed?
The son answers:
- Let's take it! You have to take it!
Norka-nyo found his mother, sister and uncle's widow here. I took them all with me, stole the deer and began to return to the tundra. My son watches for deer all the time at night. The wolves came and killed them all. We crossed the ridge towards the tundra and stopped. Says to the son of Norka-nyo:
-Where can we find comrades? I had bear friends. Will you go to them or somewhere else?
The son answers:
—Are there still people like us, or were they all killed?
“Go and look for it yourself,” says Norka-nyo.
The guy went looking on a sled. He went towards the tundra. At the very edge of the forest I found five tents. Tundra Tungus live in them.
- What kind of person are you? - they ask the guy.
“I have a father,” the guy answers. - How am I going to say my father’s name? Man and man.
- It doesn’t matter what the person is. Why don’t we know you, haven’t we seen you here before? - these Tungus say.
— The bear fed my father. He grew up with him. I was born from the daughter of a bear. That's the kind of person I am. Our argish will come, don’t be afraid,” the guy said and returned home.
Father asks:
- Well, what did you find?
— I found five plagues, five men. These people are meek. “We’ll go there,” the guy answered.
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” says the father, “maybe we’ll get into some kind of trouble again.”
- What could be worse? Well, let me be their guest, but we won’t worry,” says the son.
“Okay,” answered the father.
They came close to these plagues and stood up. They stood here all the time. We lived like this for several years.
One day a man arrived. Two reindeer harnessed to a sled, when stopped, immediately fell. This man entered the tent of Norka-nyo. The old man asks:
- Where did you come from, what is the matter? Your reindeer fell from driving fast. It was probably not for nothing that he came.
- How not without reason! — the newcomer answered.
- Well, what do you say?
- A whole people was killed by sewn faces. They came at night. I was guarding the deer. Hearing the cry in the tents, I left for an empty land. I was looking for your plague. My plague-sewn faces, however, completely ruined them. Give me a comrade, or is it bad? - says the newcomer.
“I don’t know,” says the old man. - Well, ask my son. There are no stronger people than him. However, his soul will not remain in empty land.
The son agreed and left with the man who had arrived. They found ruined plagues. The dog is not alive either. The son of Norka-nyo (Norka-nyo-nyo) asks:
- What are we going to do? Shall we continue searching? Or shall we stop here first and do something else?
We decided to go straight ahead. They are riding on a sled and have reached the largest stone. We saw a lot of smoke coming from the stone here. Here they went to bed, waiting for the evening when they would fall asleep.
“Maybe there will be strong men among them, then we won’t be able to cope with them during the day,” they decided.
We went at midnight. Mink-no-no says:
- There are a lot of crazy things. You come from the far side, I'll go from the near side. Let's go through the plagues.
So let's go. Mink-no-no killed people first in a small extreme plague, then in another he destroyed everyone again, then in the middle of the plague he got it. After him, he killed the people in four more tents. There are still five plagues left. Approaching them, he saw that his comrade was fighting with two shit-faced people. Arrows are flying. He ran to help.
But before he could get there, the sewn faces of his comrade were killed. The arrows hit me right in the throat. Now he began to fight with these shit-faced Mink-no-no. One is a thin man with a shitolic face, the other with a scythe. While they were fighting, it was noon. Then the sun began to set. Mink-no-no shot here and hit the big shit-faced man with a scythe in the head. Then he broke the bow string of the thin, shit-faced man. A thin, shit-faced man quickly ran away from him on foot. The guy didn't chase him. I thought: “If I would chase him, if I killed him, it would be a sin before God.”
He took a herd of shitfaces, one girl, and returned home. He brought only one girl, previously stolen by the Shitolitsy from the tundra Tungus. He came to his father and told him that his comrade had been killed.
- Hey! This, however, was a weak man. What can you do?
Minka-no-no began to live with this girl. Years passed. Now that's it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru