An old man and an old woman lived. They lived a poor, hungry life. They didn’t even know the smell of good food. When dead fish washed up on the shore, they took them and ate them.
The old man and the old woman had a daughter growing up. Unnoticed, somehow she became a beautiful girl. That's how the three of us lived. They ate what the earth gave, and what the water gave, they ate.
One day in the spring we were very hungry. There was no food in the house. The old man went down to the sea and walked along the shore for a long time:
- At least see a dead sea animal on the sand!
I walked and searched for a long time, but found nothing. A large stone lay on the shore. This one sat down on a stone and clasped his head in his hands:
- How will I go home? How will I feed the old woman and daughter?
I grieved so much and sat for a long time. Then he looked at the sea. The sea became kind of scary. The water in it began to boil like in a huge cauldron.
Suddenly a large whale washed ashore. Behind him, six sea masters - giant sea lions - jumped out of the sea. They cut this whale down with sabers and disappeared into the sea again.
Our old man hid behind a stone, barely breathing. Then he crawled up to the whale and saw that it was dead, and one saber lay nearby.
“Oh,” the old man rejoiced, “sea happiness has come to me!”
He took this saber, cut a piece of meat from a whale, brought it all home and gave it to the old woman. The old woman hid the saber in a large box, then lit a fire, cooked whale meat, fed her old man and her daughter.
They ate heartily, the old man fell asleep, the old woman also fell asleep, and the daughter left the house somewhere.
By dawn, the old man and the old woman woke up and saw that their daughter was not on the bed. They looked at each other and cried:
-Where did our child go?
As soon as the sun rose, we left the house and searched in vain for our daughter until nightfall.
When they came back, their daughter was sitting at the threshold, looking at them with sad eyes.
- Oh child, where have you been? - asked the old woman. The daughter became dumb, she wrung her hands and didn’t say anything.
Then the three of them entered the house. No one has sleep, no one has words, some kind of grief torments everyone.
Suddenly the daughter got up, went to the door, stepped over the threshold and immediately disappeared. She never came to her home again.
Spring has come again. One day an old man was fishing on the seashore and came to a familiar stone. He looked at the sea and thought about his daughter: At least she came to us from the bottom of the sea. And the sea became somehow scary again. The water in it began to boil as if in a huge cauldron.
Suddenly, with the waves, six sea masters rose up. On one of them the old man's daughter sits astride.
The old man trembled and cried:
- Oh child, child, you came to me from the bottom of the sea! Are you really going to be silent again?
Then the daughter said:
- No, I will talk, listen to me carefully. Father, you have angered the masters of the sea. You took their saber. For this I suffer. Go home and tell your mother everything. Come back to this stone again in a year.
The old man went home and said to his old woman at home:
“The sea masters took our daughter hostage. I don’t know when he will return to us. A year later she just told me to come.
Spring has come again. The old man went down to the sea again, reached a familiar stone, and looked at the sea for a long, long time.
- Oh, child, from the bottom of the sea, as you promised, come to me!
A huge wave hit the shore. Following her, his daughter, sitting astride the sea master, swam close to the shore. The old man looks and doesn’t believe himself. The daughter’s hair has become even longer, her face has become even more beautiful, and a small child is lying in her arms, smiling. The daughter pressed the child to her chest and said:
“Father, don’t come here again.” Even if you come, you won't see me. I became the wife of the sea owner, this is his son. Tell my mother that I live well, tell her not to be bored. You won't need anything now. If you want meat, go down to the shore, I will always send you seals. Don't be afraid of anything, take them, eat them!
So she said, sat on the sea owner and quietly sailed away from the shore, then plunged into the sea and disappeared.
The old man cried and went home. At home he said to the old woman:
“The sea master took our daughter as his wife. She already has a son. She will never return to us. I told you not to be bored. She also said that now you and I won’t need anything.
What the daughter said came true. The old man and the old woman lived for a long time. The sea fed them. Whenever the old man went down to the sea, he always found seals on the shore. They ate seal meat with fat. They finally recognized the smell of delicious food. They never saw their daughter again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru