In ancient times there lived one pshi. His wife died and he married the daughter of another psha. From his first wife he left a son, whom he, according to custom, gave to be raised by an old man.
One day the atalyk ordered the boy to show his palm. Looking at her, he said:
- Oh, my boy, you're going to die soon!
“It won’t be surprising if I leave this world soon,” the boy answered.
“But listen to me, boy, and you will live.”
- Speak up, I’ll do whatever you say!
“Until forty days have passed, you must not talk to anyone, even if on the gallows they put a rope around your neck.” Can you do it?
“I promise you that I will fulfill it,” said the boy.
- Well, then go home. And the atalyk sent the boy to his father.
The boy went home.
His father asked him for a long time why he returned home earlier than expected*, but his son did not tell him anything. Then his father sent him to his stepmother. She greeted him warmly, sat him down, put tasty and varied food in front of him and said:
- O young man, since I came to this house, I have been yearning to meet you, your father is not fit to be my husband. I will deal with your father, put some poison in his food, and he will die in forty days. No one will know anything, and for you and me this world will become a paradise. When your father is gone, you will be made into nothing.
And she wanted to kiss the young man, but he hit her so hard that he knocked out her teeth, and, leaving the bloodied woman, he went out into the yard.
The stepmother tore her clothes, smeared her dress with blood and began screaming loudly. Pshi, hearing the cry, sent people and ordered to find out what had happened. When the Unauts came running, the stepmother said:
“The son of Psha came here and began to seek my love. When I shamed him, he tore my clothes and left.
Pshi became angry, called his subjects and ordered them to hang his son.
They grabbed the young man and led him to the gallows. The inhabitants of the village were surprised why Pshi ordered his beloved son to be hanged. They began to ask the young horseman, but he did not say a word to them; Then they went to the pshi and asked him.
“You love your son so much, why did you order his execution?” Pshi told them what his wife told him.
“You can’t execute a man based on a woman’s slander.” Haven't you heard the story about the haji? – one of his subjects asked the psha.
“No,” answered Pshi.
“Then listen,” he said and began his story. “Once upon a time there lived a beggar. Every day he walked around the market, begging for alms. One day a man came up to him and said:
“Tell me, poor man, what do you want—the twenty gold pieces that I stole, or the two gold pieces that I earned by honest labor?”
“One piece of gold, acquired through honest labor, is enough for me.” answered the beggar.
The man gave him one gold piece, and the beggar walked through the market. Suddenly he saw that the old man was selling a bird of extraordinary beauty - it was sitting in a cage. The poor man could not resist - he really wanted to have this bird, he bought it and took it home. His wife began to scold him, reproaching him for buying some kind of bird when there was not a piece of bread in the house.
The poor man was upset, but what to do - he hung the cage on the ceiling beam and went to bed. Waking up in the morning, he went to the cage to look at the bird. She sat with a ruffled face. Suddenly the poor man began to cough. The bird started, and a pearl fell out from under its wing.
The poor man's wife took the pearl, went to the market, gave it to the buyer and received a bowl of gold from him. Every day the bird gave the poor people a pearl. They became rich, built a new house, and soon had a son. One day a husband said to his wife:
– For many years I lived in poverty, now I have become rich and I want to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and bow to the sacred stone.
At that time, those who set out on such a journey returned no earlier than three or four years later. Before setting off, the husband said to his wife:
- I leave you our bird - take care of it!
My husband left. Time passed, and his wife wanted to have a lover. One day, standing in the hallway of her house, she saw a man looking in her direction. The woman invited him into the house, treated him well and said: “Come to me in the evening.
He came in the evening and lay on her chest. A woman was there and told him about the bird, thanks to which they got rich.
One day, this woman's lover went to see his friends. He told them about his mistress and about her wonderful bird, which brings a pearl every day.
“If this woman loves you, let her boil this bird and let you eat its head.” Then you will become either a very rich man or a king,” one of his friends advised him.
- Wollaghi, I will do it! – the man answered.
The next day he came to his beloved and told her:
“If you don’t do what I say, I won’t come to you.”
“There is nothing in the world that I wouldn’t do for you,” she answered.
“Kill the bird that is sitting in the cage and let me eat it,” he said.
“I won’t upset you because of some bird, you will eat it,” the woman promised.
The man spent the night with her and left at dawn. The woman immediately took the bird out of the cage and killed it. Seeing this, her son began to cry loudly; they could not calm him down. The woman had already fried the bird, and the boy was still crying.
Then one of the neighbors advised:
“If you gave the child a piece of meat, maybe he would shut up.”
But his mother did not give him anything, he began to cry even louder, and the neighbor said:
“Give the child a bird’s head and let him eat it—after all, it’s not supposed to be served to guests!”
The woman gave the boy a bird's head, he ate it and immediately calmed down.
When night fell, the man came.
“Here, I roasted for you the bird that made us rich: I don’t feel sorry for anything for you.” If necessary, I will sacrifice my husband to you,” she said and placed a dish with a bird in front of him.
He looked at the plate and did not see the bird's head.
-Where is the bird’s head? – the man asked.
“My boy was crying loudly, and we couldn’t do anything to calm him down. Then I gave him the bird’s head - after all, it is not served to guests - and he calmed down,” the woman said.
The man got angry, hit the dish with his fist, broke it and left. He went to his friend, who advised him to eat the bird's head, and told him what happened.
“If you eat that boy’s head, you will become either a king or the richest man,” he said.
The man returned to the woman.
“If you love me, let me eat your son’s head,” he told her.
“Tomorrow evening I will do it,” the woman promised. The neighbor heard their conversation, she went to his atalyk-anai and told him what she heard. That night she took the boy, went with him to another village and raised him as her own son.
When the boy matured, he got himself a horse and weapons and began to hunt. All the villagers loved him for his courage and daring, for his generosity.
One day a young man passed by a house and saw a beautiful girl in the window. He decided to marry her.
He wooed this girl, and she agreed to become his wife, but said that she was the king’s daughter and that she needed to send matchmakers to her father. The young man thought that the princess would not marry a simple peasant, but still sent matchmakers to the king. The king said that he agreed to give his daughter for him, provided that he kills the devil, who has been rampant in his kingdom for so many years.
The young man agreed to kill the monster, if only he would be given a guide who would indicate the location of the monster. Fifty thousand of the king's soldiers gathered and began to ask the horseman not to go to the monster. They said that they tried many times to destroy him, but they failed, and the young man, if he went, would die. But he firmly stood his ground, and the king gave him a guide. One of the king’s close associates, who himself dreamed of marrying the princess, went with him.
They set off on their journey. We drove for a long time and saw something black and shiny.
- You see this black thing, shining in the distance - this is the damn thing. If you want, go further to him, I will stay here,” the conductor said and stopped.
The young man on horseback rode straight up to the devil - he was fast asleep - and cut him down. Soldiers stood nearby, watching what would happen. When they saw that the monster had been defeated, they rushed to the horseman, and one of them said:
- O young man, you must have eaten the head of a wonderful bird - this dragon sleeps only if a person approaches him who has eaten the head of such a bird.
“Atalyk-ana told me that I ate the head of such a bird,” the young man answered.
In honor of the slayer of the dragon, a great jega was held, which lasted three days. On the fourth day, the king gathered those invited and said:
“I have reigned among you for many years, perhaps I have offended some of you, perhaps there are those who are dissatisfied with me.” Now I am old and want to give up my throne to the one who today has become my son-in-law.
Everyone agreed with him, and the young man became king.
The young man sent people for his father and mother. They were brought, and the son warmly greeted them, arranged a jega in their honor for seven days and seven nights.
After the end of the jegu, the young king, in the presence of all those gathered, ordered the old man and the old woman to be placed in the center of the circle and announced:
– Let them tell the whole truth about their lives. If they hide anything or lie, I will have them executed.
The old man was the first to tell about how he lived poorly, how he bought a magic bird, how he became a haji. When the turn came to tell the old woman, she hid the truth; then the young man called Atalyk-ana, and she told about how the woman behaved after her husband left.
The young king turned to the people and said:
- This is what happened to me, and now you know who I am and where I come from: this is my father, this is my mother. Oh, my mother, repent to your father for what you have done, and he will forgive you! Settle in this house, you will find everything you need!” This is the story that Nshi’s subject told.
He listened to the pshi and ordered not to execute his son, to put him in prison, and he himself returned home.
But his wife again began to demand reprisals against her stepson. In the morning, Psha again ordered the young man to be hanged, and people gathered again. One of the subjects said:
– Is it worth killing a person because of a woman’s words? You will kill him, and then, even if you want to, you will not resurrect him. You can't rush into something like this.
Suddenly people saw a man - he was running with all his might towards the place of execution. It was the atalyk of a young man. Running up, he threw himself at the feet of the psha:
- Oh, oh, all this happened because of me! - he shouted. “It was I who told the boy to be silent.” Now tell me, my boy, how it all happened.
The young man spoke. He told about everything that happened. It turned out that the Unauts of Pshi heard everything that Pshi’s wife said to the young man, and they confirmed the veracity of his words.
Pshi became angry again. He ordered to bring an unbroken seven-year-old stallion, tie a woman to his tail and let the horse run across the steppe.
So the treacherous woman died, and the rest began to live richly and happily.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru