There lived an old man and an old woman. One day, seven children were found. We lived with these children. Then life became unbearable. We decided to abandon the children. They took the children into the forest and ran home.
In the morning we woke up and saw that the children had returned home and were sleeping.
Again they took me into the forest and abandoned me, but they themselves came home. And the children got lost in the forest. Then we saw some kind of plague. We entered the chum. The old woman lives in the plague.
“Grandma, feed us,” they asked. And the old woman answers:
“As soon as I feed you, the devil will come home and kill you.”
“Grandma, feed us,” the children said again. Grandma fed them and hid them. Then the devil came home. This is what he said:
- What does that Selkup spirit smell like?
The old woman says:
“You flew across the sky and picked up the Selkup spirit.” He sniffed for a long time, then said:
- No, it smells here!
The old woman showed him the boys. The devil then said this:
- Feed these guys.
The old woman fed the children. The devil said this:
- Let these guys sleep on the doorstep. The children went outside. They see the devil’s seven daughters sleeping on the threshold. The guys put their hats on their damn daughters’ heads and left.
In the evening the devil went out into the street and cut off the heads of all his daughters. Then he said this:
“Old woman, take these guys’ guts out, we’ll eat them tomorrow morning.”
In the morning the old woman saw that the devil had cut off the heads of his daughters.
Then the devil put on his flying boots and flew away. He flew for a long time, always chasing the guys. And the children climbed into a deep crevice. The devil is looking for:
-Where did the children go? The devil flew for so long, he flew all over the sky. Then he returned back and sat on a bent tree. And the tree grew next to the place where the children hid. The devil sat down, put his legs down and fell asleep.
And the eldest of these guys quietly crept up and pulled the devil’s boot off his foot. I put it on my leg. Then he pulled off the second boot and put it on the other foot. Then he flew to that grandmother:
“Grandmother, grandfather was captured by Russian merchants, quickly bring a bag of gold, grandfather said so.”
Grandmother filled a bag with gold and gave it to him. He shouldered the bag and flew away. He flew to his brothers, put them on top of him and flew home. And the devil remained sitting on that bent tree. The children returned home and began to ask the old man:
- Grandfather, tell us some true story! The old man told this tale:
“We lived and lived and one day we found seven children. Then life became unbearable. We took the children into the forest and abandoned them.
Then these children said this:
“You left us to die in the forest, and we brought you a bag of gold.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru