There lived a husband and wife. They had seven sons. The eldest sons spent all their time hiking, and the youngest son - his name was Edizh - played in the dust on the side of the road with his peers from morning to evening.
There was never a time when Edizh didn’t beat his comrade, take his alchiki from him, and even beat him. Gradually, his peers stopped playing with him. Then he began to scare them and take away the alchiks. But even after that, none of the guys agreed to play with Edizh. He became bored and went to his father.
“Father, if I am your son, send me along with my brothers on a campaign,” he said.
His father looked at him and laughed:
- So, you want to go on a hike - get on a horse and ride to distant lands. You’re still young, Edizh, you’ve only been wearing pants for two years. When you grow up, I’ll let you go hiking.
Edizh was offended and cried for a long time and bitterly, but this did not help either - his father did not let him go.
Another year has passed. But again his father told him to stay at home. Then another year passed, and the son said to his father:
“Father, I ask you, let me go on a hike with my brothers next time.”
“My son, you are still too young to travel, wait a little longer, your turn will come.”
- No, father, I've waited enough. If you don't let me go, I'll leave on my own.
“You thirst for exploits,” said the father, “but you are still very young.” When you are thirty years old, you will become a man. Then glory will come to you. Now your bones are flexible, like cherry branches. If I let you go, your ribs will be broken. A man will face many difficulties, you are still too young to bear them.
“I can bear anything, father,” said Edizh. “Once I climbed a plum tree - almost to the very top, a branch broke and I fell, but I didn’t even say a word to you, although my arms hurt after that.” Do you remember how My older brother Pat fell from a low cherry tree, broke his arm and cried. But you allow him to go on a hike, but not me.
No matter how much he tried to persuade his father, it was all in vain. Then Edizh decided:
“I’ll go on a hike myself, without the permission of my father and brothers.” When I return with rich booty, then let my father tell me whether I am still small or have already grown up.
At this time, my father was performing his daily prayer.
“Father, ask Allah to make me courageous,” said Edizh and went out into the yard.
Before the father had time to finish the prayer, he had already saddled his horse, rode up to the threshold, said: “Don’t worry about me,” hit the horse three times with a whip and rode away.
He traveled a lot, he traveled a little, and he came to one village. He set off his horse along a deserted street. The horse could barely move its legs, and Edizh was tired. Suddenly he met a man of average height on the street.
“My son, it’s dangerous to drive on this street at night, come into my yard, you will be a guest,” he said to Yedizh.
- No, thank you, I went on a journey, and it wasn’t fitting for me to sit in one place. “I’m in a hurry to move on - my horse can overcome any road, as long as it runs on land and not on the sea,” Yedizh answered and rode past.
Saddened, the man returned home.
- What happened, what trouble came to us? – his wife asked.
Her husband told her about the meeting with Edizh.
My daughter heard their conversation and wanted to see that guy. She went out into the street, but the rider was no longer visible.
“He must be a real man if he talked to my father like that. It would be a pity if he died on this ill-fated street,” she thought and returned to the yard. The girl stood under the kitchen canopy and thought for a long time about the unknown horseman. At this time, her father came out of the house - he wanted to close the gate - and saw a man standing under the canopy.
- Well, who is that standing under the canopy on a dark night? - he shouted, but seeing that it was his daughter, he added: “Are you standing in the yard at night, scared me, have you gone crazy?”
- Why do you say that, father! – the girl answered offendedly. “You don’t know how to talk to people at all.”
- Why, my daughter?
- Yes, because I missed the guest, and if I knew how to speak properly, I would have invited him into the house.
- So, should you have brought him in your arms to our yard?
At this time, Edizh was driving along this street. A man was walking towards him with a lantern in his hands - he illuminated his path. He had a silver pipe in his teeth.
The man spoke:
- Come to my house, my son! I have not met a braver person than you on this street - not a single horseman has passed along it for four years. Be my guest, stay with me! I have been walking along this street for a long time in search of a real man, now it seems that I have finally met him.
Edizh answered him like this:
– You’re wrong, tat*, you haven’t met the man you need yet. If you tell someone my name - Edizh - no one in these places will say that he knows it.
- No, my son, I see you came from distant lands - if you weren’t looking for real things to do, you wouldn’t have gone so far from your home. If you don’t want shame, you should listen to the elder and go into the house.
Yedizh could not offend the elder, he could not refuse the invitation. He tied his horse to the hitching post, and he himself entered the kunatskaya.
They immediately brought him a chitlibzh, fed him and prepared his bed. The owner gave him his beautiful daughter as his wife.
Two weeks passed, and one morning the owner of the house called Yedizh to his place and said:
“My son-in-law, you’ve already rested, now we have to go on one errand.”
“I’ll get ready now,” said Edizh.
“There’s no need to get ready—get in the cart and let’s go,” said the owner. He didn’t say where and why they were going.
They drove and drove up to a high mountain.
Here they stopped, killed the only horse that was tied to the cart, and skinned him. Then the old man said to Yedizh:
“I gave my daughter to you as a wife because you are a courageous man.” If so, will you allow yourself to be sewn into horse skin. On this mountain there is a nest of an eagle, which takes people and livestock, horses and cows to its nest. He will take you up the mountain, and you will see there a countless amount of gold and silver, a lot of weapons. You will throw them down. And then I'll figure out how to get you back.
“What kind of a man am I if I don’t do this,” he said; Yedizh allowed himself to be sewn into horse skin.
As soon as the eagle saw the horse, it flew down and carried Edizh up the mountain. Soon the eagle flew away, and Edizh took out a dagger, cut the horse's skin and went out. He looked around and realized that he had entered another world*. There was a lot of silver, gold and weapons here. Dzhigit began to throw it all down. He heard heavy ingots falling down, but the old man didn’t even raise a voice. Then Edizh shouted:
– There is no more eoloth or silver here!
He did not hear an answer. And the old man took everything that Edizh had thrown away and left. The day passed, the night passed, and the old man was not there. Edizh really wanted to return to earth, but did not know how to do it.
He decided to go explore the area. He walked for a long time and finally saw a beautiful castle with a garden, surrounded by a high fence. There was a single entrance to the palace, at which a guard sat.
Edizh became very hungry and began to ask the guard to let him into the castle. He allowed him to enter, but warned him that under no circumstances should he damage even a small branch on the trees, that the fruit should be eaten immediately and not put in his pockets. He also said that soon three pigeons would fly into the garden and sit on a tree, but you should not approach them.
Edizh picked several apples and ate them immediately, without putting a single fruit in his pocket. He began to walk around the garden and suddenly saw three doves fly in and land on a tree.
Yedizh wanted to see them - he came closer to the tree on which the pigeons were sitting, and heard their conversation.
“Let’s take a swim,” said one of the pigeons.
“Why are you talking, because they can hear us,” answered the other.
– Who can hear us, there are no people here! “Let’s fly to where we usually swim,” said one pigeon and took off into the air. Two others took off after him. Edizh traced their path and followed them. Soon he saw how the pigeons turned into girls of extraordinary beauty and went to swim. While they were swimming, Edizh crept up on their clothes and took away the plumage of the most beautiful of the beauties. The girls came out of the water. Two turned into doves again and flew away, one remained naked and cried bitterly.
- Why are you crying so bitterly, girl? – Edizh asked her.
- They stole my plumage - so I’m crying. My sisters flew away and I'm sitting here.
- If you fulfill my request, you will receive your plumage, no, you will go home naked.
What could the girl do? She asked:
- What is your request?
“Become my wife,” said Edizh.
- If you like me, go to my father and woo me - I’ll tell you where my father’s house is.
But Edizh stood his ground. Then she agreed to become his wife if he returned her pigeon clothes.
He gave her clothes - he kept only the dove mask, without which she could not fly away.
They came to some village and stayed with one owner. Edizh announced that he had married the daughter of Goli.
They were received well in the village and stayed to live there. But no matter what he did to his wife, no matter how hard he tried to appease her, she remained cold towards him. As soon as Yedizh returned home, she fell ill. Soon they had a daughter.
Once Edizh asked his wife:
– Why do you get sick for so long and often?
“I’ll be sick until I get the pigeon mask.”
Until now, Edizh said that he threw her mask into the river, but now that they had lived together for so long and a daughter had already been born, he trusted her, took out the mask and returned it to his wife. And she immediately stopped hurting - she just needed him to return the mask.
When Edizh left home one day, his wife put on a dove mask, took her daughter and flew away.
Edizh returned home and did not find his wife; he realized what had happened. He felt bitter and offended, and he set off on his way.
He walked and came to a river. In search of a ford, he walked along the river for a long time and turned into a small village. I stayed there for three days and moved on. He walked during the day, he walked at night, when he gets tired he lies down and sleeps, when he gets up he moves on.
So Edizh came to another village. A feast was in full swing in that village. Edizh went there and sat down at the edge of the table, watching. Suddenly he saw his wife. She was dressed not as a prince’s daughter should, but like a unautka, and behaved like an unautka - she served food, brought firewood. Edizh asked the man who was sitting next to him:
– What kind of feast is this and who is this unaut girl?
“For a girl, this feast is not fun.” She is the daughter of a psha, but she is dressed like a nautka. And here's why. Several years ago she disappeared. And all this time her father-pshi was grieving. Now she has been found, and on this occasion the pshi declared a holiday. But he forbade her to wear princely clothes, because she returned with a child, and she does not know where his father is. Because she disgraced her father, he deprived her of his princely rank and now she is a nautka.
“Then go up to this girl and tell her that Edizh is among the guests.”
The man approached Yedizh’s wife and said:
- One guest sent me to you. He asked me to tell you that he wants to see you - his name is Edizh.
“This is my husband,” the woman exclaimed joyfully and ran to her father.
Pshi, her father, ordered Yedizh to be called to him and talked with him for a long time. Edizh told him everything as it happened, and Pshi ordered him to announce:
– My son-in-law, my daughter’s husband, has arrived, now let our feast continue in honor of my dear guest and son-in-law Edizh.
The steward told all this to those gathered, and the feast lasted seven days and seven nights.
Now, according to custom, Edizh had to pay a dowry - a ransom for his wife, but he did not have it.
Where can I get bride price? And Edizh remembered what his grandfather often used to say: and the doe returns to the place where she was born. And he decided to go home.
But how to return to earth? Edizh thought and thought and came up with the idea that the same eagle that carried him to the mountain could carry him to the ground. He reached the garden, where he saw three pigeons, ate apples and moved on. Finally he came to a steep cliff where the eagle's nest was located.
He crept up to the eagle while it was sleeping and clung tightly to its back. And when in the morning the eagle took off and went down, Edizh jumped off and found himself on the ground.
He was offended that no one would believe him if he told everything that happened to him on the mountain. He collected gold and silver, covered it, took a few nuggets into his pocket and went to the neighboring village. There he bought several carts with horses, returned to the mountain, loaded them with gold and silver and returned to the village to that terrible street where he met the old man. And the old man recognized Yedizh.
“May Allah save me, my daughter,” Edizh has returned. He will kill me. Therefore, greet him kindly, humble his anger.
And the father sent his daughter to meet Edizh. She behaved as her father asked him to believe that she knew nothing about what her father Yediju had done. Edizh, like a true man, did not let her understand that he was offended by her father.
When they approached the house, her father met them at the gate:
- Oh, who do I see, you have returned to us for good luck!
“I don’t want to see you,” Yedizh answered him. “You wanted to get rich and get rid of me, but you didn’t succeed.” It was only for the sake of this woman that I tamed my anger, otherwise your life would have been in my hands. If you want to live, you will find my horse, if you don’t find it, I will kill you, even if you have seven souls.
“And your horse is here, my dear son-in-law, come into the house.”
- Bring out the horse! I am younger than you and cannot order an elder, but since you are a liar, I will allow myself to do so. Bring out and saddle the horse. And you,” he turned to the woman, “if you want to be my wife, dress quickly, I haven’t seen my family for seven years, I want to return to them.”
The wife quickly got dressed, and they went to the village where Yedizh’s father lived. They arrived when a feast was going on in the village. It was Yedizh’s father, who had lost hope of finding his son, who celebrated a funeral feast for him.
When the father saw his son alive and unharmed, he joyfully hugged him:
“Yesterday you were a boy, but today you are a real man,” he said.
Edizh brought three cartloads of gold and three cartloads of silver. To those who met him, he distributed a cartload of gold and a cartload of silver.
The feast continued for seven days in honor of Yedizh’s return home.
The stories about Yedizh's adventures reached the king. He ordered the glorious horseman to be brought to him.
Edizh came.
- How did you kill the eagle? - asked the king.
“This is how I killed him,” Edizh began and told the king everything as it happened. Then the king said to him:
“This eagle carried away many people, hundreds of horses and other livestock from my kingdom. So I promised myself: I will give a herd of horses to whoever kills this eagle. Take the best of my herds - you deserve it with your courage, bravery, and intelligence.
The king gave Yedizh a herd of horses and sent him home with honors. Along the way, Edizh gave away half of the horses to everyone who wanted to take them. He drove the rest home.
From then on, Edizh lived happily ever after in his village.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru