Once upon a time, or perhaps not, there lived a certain king. He had one and only son, in whom the king doted.
“There is hardly another boy like him in the world!” he once said to his Nazir-viziers.
“The light is great, there probably is!” answered the chief vizier. The king was angry:
- Try to find it! If you find one, you will get as much gold as you weigh, but if you don’t, you will lose your head.
The vizier asked for three months and went to look for a boy who looked exactly like the prince. He proceeded along and across three sides of the kingdom. Three months have passed. He returned to the king and said:
“Sir, I have walked around three sides of your domain, all that remains is to look in the fourth.” Give it another month. If I don’t bring a boy who looks like the prince, then cut off my head.
The king gave the vizier another month.
The chief vizier is looking for a boy in the fourth side of the kingdom. I reached the mountains where Tush herders were grazing sheep. Boys are running along the slope. One of them is exactly like the prince. The vizier saw him and took him and his father to the palace. There he dressed the son of the shepherd Tushin in the dress of a prince and led both boys to the king’s chambers.
The king will hug one boy, then another - he will not distinguish his son from someone else’s.
- Praise be to you, my vizier, you have proven that you are right, receive the promised gold!
“No, king, first thank the shepherd for bringing his son here, and then pay me,” says the vizier.
The king gave Tushina gold and silver and asked him to leave the boy in the palace until he grew up. Tushin agreed.
Boys study together and play together. They grew into handsome, handsome young men.
The king rejoices, and the queen walks blacker than a black cloud. The king asks her why she is dissatisfied, who angered her.
“Why should I be satisfied!” the queen answers. “All people are mortal, and we will die too.” After us, how will a prince be distinguished from a shepherd’s son? What if the shepherd's son gets the kingdom?
“Don’t worry,” says the king, “weave an extra thread into our son’s dress, and everyone will recognize the prince.”
And so they did. The queen became cheerful, but Tushin’s son became sad.
“Don’t worry,” the prince tells him. “Put on my dress, I don’t need it.”
extra thread.
- And I don’t need it. It offends me that they don’t want to dress us alike, like brothers.
The young man walked sadly for two days, and on the third he said to the prince:
“Ask the king to give us horses, we’ll go for a ride tomorrow.”
The next day the young men went for a ride on horseback. They rode far from the city, and then the shepherd’s son hugged the prince, said goodbye to him and urged his horse to gallop. The prince follows him.
- Don't follow me. You are a prince, and I am the son of a shepherd!
- Where you go, I go too! I will never part with you.” And the prince rode next to his sworn brother.
Whether they traveled a lot or a little, they found themselves in an unknown land. They don't know where to go next. They decided: wherever the arrow flies, that’s where they will go.
Tushin's son pulled the bowstring and shot an arrow. The arrow flew over seven mountains. The horsemen ride after her, riding according to signs - branches have been torn from trees by arrows, tops of heads have been knocked off from mountains.
They crossed the seventh mountain. They see a vineyard on the slope, and in it, under a quince tree, their arrow sticks out of the ground. They dismounted and let their horses graze the grass behind the vineyard. They picked the grapes themselves, ate and went to bed under the quince tree.
They woke up in the morning and saw: there was no way for them. The terrible gwelveshapi wrapped itself around the vineyard, threw its tail to its head and held it in its mouth.
“We’ll fight him,” says Tushin’s son.
“Don’t rely too much on your own strength,” said the gwelveshapi in a human voice. “You can’t defeat me with a metal sword, and you can’t pierce my skin with an arrow.”
If I hit you with my tail once, there will be nothing left of you. But I don’t wish you harm, I’ll let you go with an agreement - bring me a girl who was not born human.
-Have it your way! Let us out of here!
- I don’t take your word for it. One of you will stay here, the other will go after the girl.
- Where to look for that girl? - asks Tushin’s son.
- Go towards the sunset. Maybe you'll find her there.
The prince remained with Gvelveshapi, and Tushin’s son set off on his journey.
The sun goes to the west, the young man follows the sun. By evening he found himself at the edge of the forest. There is a house on the edge of the forest, and in the yard an old woman is fiddling with wool.
“Hello, mother,” the young man greeted. “I’m thirsty, give me some water to drink, for the sake of your children.”
The old woman turned around:
- Hello, son! If you hadn’t called me mother, my sons would have had it for dinner! What brings you here? Even a bird does not dare to fly over the domain of the devas.
- I have such a problem - and it’s not scary to get to the deva! I'm looking for a girl who was not born human. Don't you know, mother, how to find her?
The old woman promised to help his troubles. She watered and fed the young man and said: Hide in the tone, otherwise my sons will soon return from the hunt. If you catch their eye, they will eat you alive!
Tone -
a large oven for baking bread, half buried in the ground.
The devas, the sons of the old woman, came from hunting. They brought a deer with them, skinned it, roasted it, ate it and went to bed.
In the morning, when the devas went hunting again, the old woman gave Tushina a sharp knife to her son and said:
- Go cut a tree in the forest and bring it here.
The young man cut down a tall tree, somehow dragged it, and the old woman broke the trunk on her knee!
- This is no good, it needs to be stronger. Get on your horse and follow me. The old woman went into the forest, cut down a gigantic tree and carried it herself. coming
The old woman walks so fast that her horse can barely keep up with her. They left the forest to the seashore.
“Here’s a knife for you,” the old woman says to the young man, “sharpen the knife so that you can cut the trunk in one go.”
My son sharpened a Tushina knife. The old woman said the magic word and threw the tree into the sea. The water receded from the shore and exposed the reed.
- Run, cut it at the root and bring it here! - says the old woman. - Don’t hesitate, otherwise the waves will swallow you up.
The young man ran, cut the reed and hurry back! The waves are chasing him and overtaking him. He ran faster and managed to jump ashore.
The old woman whispered over the reed, and suddenly the reed burst, and a girl came out of her - you couldn’t take your eyes off her, so beautiful! The young man put the reed girl on his horse and set off on the return journey. They drove and drove and lost their way. We found ourselves in a garden with strange fruits.
The travelers got off their horses and picked a juicy fruit. Before they had time to take a bite, an unknown force pulled them, dragged them! It was the owner of the garden, a cruel one-eyed deva, who smelled the human scent and pulled them towards him. The devs grabbed the aliens and dragged them into the house. The deva pushed the young man into a large room and chained him to the wall, next to many other prisoners, and imprisoned the reed girl in a tower. Then the deva lit a fire, ate one prisoner and went to bed.
The dev is sleeping, snoring throughout the house.
- How long does he sleep? - Tushkin’s son asks the captives.
- Eats a person and sleeps for three days.
- Are you waiting for him to finish you all off? Let's pull the chains together, break them and kill the deva.
The prisoners strained themselves, pulled the chains together and broke them!
People ran away, away from the terrible place. And Tushin’s son took a skewer, poked the deva in the only eye - let him not catch people, do not destroy them! The deva howled, jumped up, and spun around in place. The young man locked the deva and ran to the tower after the reed girl. I was about to take her out when I heard someone’s voice calling for help. The young man opened a small door in the wall, and behind it was an old ugly man with a three-yard beard, chained.
- Hey, son of man, bring me a bowl of food, a jug of water! - asks the freak.
The young man took pity on the old man and moved the bowl and jug towards him. The freak ate and got drunk. And the water in the jug was not simple - every sip tripled your strength. The freak broke the chains, hit the young man with his fist - he flew off like a pumpkin. The old man picked up the girl and disappeared.
Tushina’s son rose to his feet and looked: neither the freak nor the reed girl.
He wandered wherever his eyes led him. He walked for a long time through mountains and gorges. His dress tore. The shoes were torn. The young man lay down to rest under a tall, shaggy spruce tree. He lies down, looks at the sky and suddenly sees: he is flying towards the Veshapi spruce. And on the spruce there is a huge nest, and in it are two chicks of the magical bird Paskundzhy. The chicks squealed in fear. The young man grabbed a bow, shot an arrow and killed the winged monster.
The chicks have quieted down. And the young man lay down on the ground again and fell fast asleep. The Paskunjy bird flew in and brought food to its chicks. He sees: a woman is stretched out on the ground, and a man is sleeping next to him. The smart bird guessed who killed its enemy. She fed the chicks, and then spread her mighty wings over the young man, shading him from the burning sun.
Tushin’s son got enough sleep, opened his eyes, and something black hung over him, covering the entire sky. He got scared and closed his eyes again.
“Don’t be afraid of me, son of man,” Paskunjy tells him. “Thank you, you saved my chicks.” I take them out once at the age of seven, and the Veshapi eats them! How did you get to this remote place? Do you need my help?
The young man told about his misadventures.
“You fly all over the world, have you seen a freaky old man with a three-yard beard somewhere?” the young man asks the bird.
“The ugly old man is hiding in the underground forest,” Paskunjy answers. “I have no way there.” I'll take you to the tree at the entrance to that forest. There in the evening a foal jumps out from under the ground and grazes under a tree. You will hide in a tree and jump onto the foal's back. He will take you to the underground forest. Sit on me and close your eyes.
The bird soared under the clouds and in an instant flew to a large spreading tree in the field.
The young man climbed a tree and began to wait. As soon as the sun set, a white stone under a tree split, the earth rose up, and a white foal jumped out. The young man jumped on his back. The foal rushed through the split stone back into the ground and found himself in a dense forest. The young man looked around and saw: on one tree near a steep cliff there was a reed girl. The poor thing was barely alive, but the ugly old man hung her by the hair.
The young man took it down from the tree and doesn’t know what to do next, how to get out into the world.
__ Save me, son of man! - the foal suddenly spoke. - Old man
Doesn't let me eat. I’m grazing near a tree, and there’s no grass there anymore. The old man hid my bridle under a large stone; I couldn’t escape without it. Take out the bridle, and I will take you out into the open world.
The young man lifted the stone, and the earth began to hum. Under the stone is a bridle and a bottle of green water. The young man grabbed the bridle and lowered the stone. The bottle broke and green water spread in all directions. The earth trembled here, the sheer rock shook, split, and a lifeless freak fell out of it. It was in the bottle that his evil soul was kept.
The young man threw a bridle on the foal, and it immediately turned into a mighty Rashi. He carried the young man and the girl to the ground and in an instant rushed to the vineyard, where the prince was waiting for his brother-in-law.
Tushin's son hugged the prince, and then said to gvelveshapi:
- I fulfilled your instructions, I brought a reed girl, not born a human. Why do you need it? Let her go with us, she will be our sister.
The gwelveshapi did not answer anything, began to shrink, shrink, and suddenly shed its skin.
A girl of unprecedented beauty appeared before the astonished young men!
“Thank you, young man, you gave me back my life,” she said. “I was kidnapped by the evil Judah, an old ugly man with a three-yard beard.” I would have died, like many others in his underground forest, but the one-eyed deva caught the freak. Then the old man cursed me: “You will be gwelveshapi until you see a miracle.” Isn't it a miracle - a girl not born human?
Tushin's son kissed the Rashi on both eyes and released him, and invited the girl to go with them. He led his friends to the shepherds in the mountains of his native Tusheti.
Tushin is a native of Tusheti, a mountainous region of Georgia.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru