Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife, they lived and lived, they raised a son, a boy of about fifteen. They were good people. honest, fair, but only poor.
One morning my husband went into the forest to get some brushwood. He walked and walked, choosing drier dead wood, and in his soul he kept praying to God that God would send him work that was less profitable and quieter. Suddenly, from somewhere under a rock, a terrible dragon crawled out, stood up, opened its huge mouth - well, just behold, it will swallow it! The poor man saw him and froze.
“Hey,” the dragon shouted, “man, I’ll eat you now!”
The man burst into tears:
- Oh, don’t eat, have mercy on me, brother. After all, I will leave my son and wife orphans. Who will take care of them!
- Well, what does it matter to me! - answered the dragon. “I should eat you, that’s the whole conversation.”
- Well, I’m not the first, I’m not the last! - the man sighed. “At least I’ll get rid of hard work, I won’t have to live in poverty and strain myself, carrying firewood across the mountains and valleys.”
- Hm... Well, since you're poor, I won't eat you, okay... Here's a gem for you. Sell it and you'll get rich. Come here in the morning, bring me a bucket of milk every day, and I will give you a pebble every day.
“Well, thank you very much, brother dragon, for sparing my life and giving me the stone,” answered the poor man.
They came to an agreement, and the dragon returned to his lair. The man picked up more brushwood - but quickly went home. He dropped his burden in the yard and went straight to the shopping arcade. He showed the pebble to the merchant, and he paid ten liras for it.
The poor man received money and bought everything he needed for the household, and bought all kinds of food. Both his son and wife were very happy with all his purchases. And in the morning he filled a bucket with milk and went to the mountains. There he called the dragon, he crawled out, lapped up all the milk and again presented him with a valuable stone. The man again sold it to the goldsmith, again bought a lot of all sorts of supplies for the house.
He visited the dragon for a long time, received a lot of gems from him and decided to make a journey to the Holy Sepulcher. Before leaving his native place, he called his wife and took her to the cave - he wanted to show her the dragon and agree with him that she would bring him milk and receive gems from him.
Well, he called the dragon, he crawled out, drank all the milk, and gave away the pebble. The couple said goodbye to the dragon and went home.
My husband began to prepare for the pilgrimage.
“My lord, shouldn’t we marry our son before you set off?” - asked the wife.
“That would be nice, mistress,” answered the husband. - Will the guy want to get married? Call him, we'll ask. If he wants, we'll get married.
The wife ran and called her son.
- So, son, your mother says it’s time for you to get married, but what do you say? Agree? - the father asked the boy.
- Since everyone is getting married, why shouldn’t I get married too? - answered the son.
- Fine. Well, do you have a bride in mind? Not some kind of spinner, but a good girl, so that we all will like her and join our family as if she were one of our own?
- Yes, perhaps there is. I liked my neighbor's daughter
“Well, I know her,” the father replied. - Beautiful girl. I just don’t know what breed that snake is - water or maybe sand... If you don’t believe, son, that all the girls are of the snake breed, get up, take a pot, scoop up water from the pond and bring it to me.
The guy left the house, took a pot with him, scooped up water and brought it to his father.
“Put your hand in the water, son, and take it out, whatever you catch without looking,” said the father.
The boy put his hand in the water and pulled out the snake.
“You see, son, here’s a snake for you.” Don't be afraid, she's a merman and won't sting. And also dangerous: it’s a snake! If you come across a snake in the mountains that looks like it’s covered in ashes—they call it “ashes”—run without looking back, don’t try to catch it like you caught a water snake. Remember, son: all women are snakes, just of different breeds. You try to find the water one, but run away from the sandy one... Recognizing them is not an easy task: you need to find out everything - who is the father and who is the mother, what kind of people are the grandfather, grandmother, uncle of the bride. Only then will you understand what the girl herself is like.
But the son neglected the smart advice and did not want to find out anything. I fell in love - and that’s all! And it’s true, the girl was beautiful: beautiful, stately, tall, and white, and rosy-cheeked! The fellow became stubborn: either he will take this one, or he will not marry at all. The father saw that his rebellious son did not want to listen to reasonable advice. Well, they did it as the boy wanted. He got engaged to his neighbor's daughter.
Well, after the wedding was celebrated, the father went to the Holy Land. He traveled for a long time.
The old woman secretly carried milk to the dragon in the morning, and sold its gems to the merchant for ten liras.
The daughter-in-law entered the house. The cunning old woman instantly noticed that the old woman was leaving the house somewhere just before dawn, and decided to find out (no wonder she was a snake!) to whom her mother-in-law carried a bucket of milk every day. She was very angry that all the money was in the hands of her mother-in-law. Why not have them in her husband’s pocket or even in her own hands, so that she can sew plenty of outfits for herself! One day she got up at dawn and quietly followed her mother-in-law. I checked everything! And the mother-in-law, returning home, as always, went to the goldsmith, sold the gem and returned with the money.
The daughter-in-law saw all this and quickly went home. She returned first so that her mother-in-law would not find out.
So she got into bed with her husband in the evening - and began to nag him: why did you get married, what kind of man are you? After all, you are not the owner of the house! Your mother brings money and demands an account for every half-ruble, but you just wander around the upper room and throw up your hands like a fool. I really need a husband like that! Enough! Enough! And if you want me to remain your wife, then please obey me. This morning I sniffed everything out, scouted everything out, I know where your mother goes and why. Tomorrow we’ll go together, I’ll show you everything, and as you know, good or bad, but make sure that it’s not your mother, but you yourself who goes into the forest with milk and gets profit from the goldsmith.
The damned woman buzzed all over her husband’s ears, and he really began to envy his own mother. And the next morning he pestered her: say yes and tell her where you take the bucket of milk and how much they pay there.
“You can’t answer me, son,” the mother responded. - I swore to my father. If I break my oath, I will immediately get sick.
“Whether you’ll get sick or not, I don’t know.” If you don’t tell me kindly, I’ll force you to do so.
- Oh, son, you weren’t so unkind before... Where did this come from? Maybe someone whispered something bad to you?
She talked like this for a long time, asked, begged, but the son, taught by his evil wife, did not want to listen to anything. What to do! I had to take him to the dragon in the morning, show him the gem, and introduce him to the merchant who bought the precious stones. The old woman returned home and immediately fell ill.
The next morning the mother could no longer carry milk.
Seeing that the mother-in-law was ill, the daughter-in-law was delighted and ordered her husband to take the milk to the dragon himself. Well, he went to the dragon and placed the bucket at the entrance to the cave. The dragon crawled out, lapped up the milk and gave away the gem. The guy took the stone and sold it, received ten liras, and brought them to his wife.
- Now you look like a man - not like before! - said the wife. “You used to be a woman, and your damned mother was a man.”
- Yes, wife, it’s good that now I’m a man. But you see how the mother fell ill. It’s all because of me... When he dies, a curse will fall on my soul.
“There will be no curse,” answered the evil wife. “And even if your mother disappeared completely, then I would breathe freely!” Don't wish her well! She’s lived in the world, enough, she can’t stop grumbling at me: I broke a cup, spilled milk, burned my apron... She teaches and teaches that I’m such a fool that I don’t know how to manage things!
A malicious woman poisoned her husband with her speeches; she inflamed him so much that he would be glad to drown his mother in a spoonful of water.
The guy carried milk to the dragon for a long time and received a gem from him every day. The greedy woman saw that the money was still coming, and it came into her head (probably, the devil gave her the idea) - wouldn’t it be better to kill the dragon and take all the gems at once, than to go to him every morning for one single stone!
The guy resisted for a long time; he didn’t want to kill the dragon: after all, his mercy and his gems brought wealth to their house.
But the evil woman did not know any gratitude for good - neither to the dragon, nor to her father-in-law, nor to her poor mother-in-law; She kept tyrannizing her husband to do her will. Finally the guy agreed.
He made himself a pole with an iron handle, hid it under his clothes and, as always, carried the milk and placed a bucket at the entrance to the cave so that the dragon would lap it up. As soon as the dragon crawled out and bent down to the bucket to drink milk, the guy pulled out a pole and hit the dragon on the head.
The dragon's head was as strong as iron. He swung his mighty tail and hit the offender in the legs! The guy swayed, fell to the ground, and roared obscenities.
- Ha! Are you planning to kill me? - said the dragon. - What meanness! Who taught you? Mother, lying sick, or maybe wife? Well, here’s your punishment: I’ll bind your legs now, they’ll go numb, and you’ll suffer until the pain in the crown of my head, where you hit, subsides.
The dragon wrapped itself around the guy's legs, then crawled away into its dark lair. And by the time he got home, the guy’s legs became like logs. He lay down and couldn't move. And the damned woman, his wife, is with her husband alive! - I found another, but I didn’t even want to look at the first one, torment yourself, they say!
Well, time has passed,” the father returned from his pilgrimage. He sees that things are bad! And the wife fell ill, and the son’s legs were like logs. His wife told him about her illness, and his son told him everything about his misfortune.
- Eh, son, you didn’t find a water snake, you took a sand snake as your wife! - the father said sadly.
And the next morning he got up early, chose a larger bucket, poured milk to the brim and went into the forest, to the dragon. So he placed a bucket in front of the entrance to the cave and waited to see if a monster would appear. But the dragon doesn't come out! The old man began to call him, asking him, begging him to come out. At the third call, the dragon came out, greeted him, told how the ungrateful guy hit him on the head with a six-feather and what punishment he was now suffering for his treachery.
The pilgrim listened to him and began to beg that the dragon would forgive his son: it was not with his own mind that the guy came up with such bad deeds; at the instigation of his villainous wife, he began to hate his mother.
The pilgrim asked for a long, long time. The dragon finally took pity and said:
“I know, friend, that your daughter-in-law is a fierce snake.” If she is alive, your whole house will go to dust. There is only one salvation for you: your son will recover, but let her die. Make her cut her little finger and let a drop of her poisonous blood fall into the patient’s mouth. The poison of the snake daughter-in-law will overcome my poison, and your son will immediately recover. If you want peace and quiet to return to your home, do as I tell you. Now be healthy and take the pebble from me again.
The pilgrim took the gifted gem and, returning home, told his son everything he had heard from the dragon. He called his wife and told her to cut her little finger. The damned woman does not agree. However, the guy was also cunning: he called her again, asked her to put a piece of some food in his mouth, and as soon as she raised her hand to his mouth, grab it! — he bit her little finger and quickly sucked the blood from the wound. He immediately got up healthy, and the damned woman died instantly.
This is how the whole family got rid of the fierce snake. Health returned to both the son and mother. The guy got married again, but first he thoroughly found out about the bride’s close and distant relatives. He took into the house a meek and quiet girl - even though she was a snake, and from another snake tribe.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru