Gtsontsemdima lived with her mother and husband. They migrated, lived there, and then migrated again to another place and set up a new camp. The mother-in-law was annoyed by her son-in-law, and his little child told his father how his mother-in-law had insulted him. Then the son-in-law went and killed the old woman. At this time, Gtsontsemdim was not at home; she went to collect tubers and plants.
Returning to the camp and seeing what had happened, Gtsontsemdima killed her husband. She then took his sandals and threw them into the sky. The sandals flew away and turned into vultures. They became vultures that flap their wings up and down, up and down.
Well, the husband’s younger brother wandered after them. He followed in their footsteps and finally caught up with them.
“Who’s that there flapping its wings and flying away—could it be a vulture?” I'll go have a look! He was surprised:
- What do they want there?!
And so he approached the vultures - and suddenly he saw the corpse of his brother there! And then he saw the corpse of his mother-in-law! He asked himself: “How could this happen?!” Time and time again the younger brother and his family asked themselves this question.
Meanwhile, Gtsontsemdima took the child and left there. The boy refused to leave his father and grandmother, but she still took him with her. Gtsontsemdima abandoned her old mother, and she remained lying there dead, and Gtsontsemdima herself ran away to her grandparents. She and her son began to live with them.
One day her husband's younger brother came to visit them. He said that he wanted to take Gtsontsemdim as his wife, but it was a trick - he deceived her in order to take her away from her grandfather and grandmother. He then killed Gtsontsemdim to avenge his brother's death.
But before leaving, Gtsontsemdima said to her grandmother:
- Look, here is my heart! Listen - my words are as true as the fact that we are standing here now. As soon as the sun goes past noon, you will see something flying towards you like an arrow - it will be my heart. And you grab him and don’t say a word to anyone!
The grandmother did as she was told, took Gtsontsemdim’s heart and put it in a bag. She put it in a bag and it lay there and grew. When it grew up, it became a human again - a beautiful young girl. It was Gtsontsemdima, and she again lived in her grandmother’s camp, as before.
The next one who wooed her was the elephant - he said that he would like to marry this beautiful girl when she reaches marriageable age. And one day he came and took her away.
One day the elephant found water, but kept it a secret. and alone drank water and did not say anything to Gtsontsemdima and her family. But Gtsontsemdima found out and told her brothers about everything. Her brothers were ghashehmsi - little birds who cry "shaba! shaba!" before the rain and "shaw!" - after the rain.
And so Gtsontsemdima, surrounded by a crowd of her brothers, accused the elephant of greed. The elephant rushed, snatched her from the crowd and said that he would kill her. But her brothers rushed to her aid and killed the elephant.
Again and again they pierced him with spears and stabbed him with knives, and those who watched this battle shouted "Ah! Spears! Spears! Spears!" Then they grabbed this huge thing and threw him to the ground, dead.
This is how the elephant died.
Well, Gtsontsemdima turned into a stone goat antelope. Her heart became an antelope, and the people killed this antelope and took it home to roast and eat.
The stone goat was once the heart of man, the heart of Gtsontsemdim.
This is what happened in ancient times. The old people told us about this, and we listened and said to each other:
- Ah! These are the stories that once happened to the people of the ancient people!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru