In the old days, the Uratyubinsk bek decided to settle people on the border so that they would guard his bek.
“Kokand wants to go to war against us, we need to protect the country,” the bek announced to the people. “Let one healthy warrior with his family go from each of the forty houses.”
The gray-bearded elders of the village of Akhtunan began to consult:
— It’s impossible not to give people. He is a bek, he will do whatever he wants with us. But who will go? Rich people won't go. Let the poor go. It doesn't matter where they live. Life is bad here and bad there.
The graybeards collected a few tenges of money, some clothes, to give to those poor people, and from every ten houses of Akhtunan they sent one family.
But nothing is done for the rich. They bought the poor for pennies and sent them to grief and misfortune.
One Akhtunan poor man named Nazar himself decided to go with his family.
“What do I have here?” he thought. “Do I have my own garden? The quail has no home, wherever he goes, he shouts his “pit-pildyk.”
Nazar had a seventeen-year-old daughter, Tulganoy.
When she was still little, Nazar arranged Tulgana’s engagement to Pardabai, the son of a poor man like himself. Tulganoy and Pardabai grew up together and fell in love.
"But how can I leave my daughter? - thought Nazar. “After all, Pardabai has no blanket, no pillows, nothing.” So be it, let Pardabai live as he is destined to, be patient, and submit to fate. If my daughter’s destiny is to live in a foreign country, someone there will take her as a wife.”
Tulgana cried, but what can you do, you can’t go against your father’s will.
Nazar begged two donkeys from the greybeards, loaded them with his old torn blankets and felt felts, took his family and joined other settlers.
From some clans, old men and bent old women with waxy protruding ears set off from Akhtunan.
There were also those who wanted to see new places. Belted over their robes, they urged on other people's donkeys with packs.
The settlers walked like this for several days. We approached someone else's borders. The military commanders showed a place in the steppe where to live, ordered not to let the enemy in, and left for home in Ura-Tyube.
The poor settled in place. Some dug themselves a dugout in dry clay, others made a reed hut.
So they lived, subsisting on barley cakes and water.
Two months have passed. Tulganoy was completely saddened. There was no news from Pardabai.
Suddenly the Kokand people went to war on Ura-Tyube.
The Uratyubinsky Bek stepped forward to meet him. The troops lined up. The Kokand heroes rode forward with spears and began to challenge the Uratiubians to a duel.
The hero Allanazar emerged from the Uratyubinsk people. He defeated many Kokand strongmen.
Here a general fight ensued. Noise, commotion. Who was killed, who survived - you won’t understand anything.
The settlers also fought and showed their courage.
While they were fighting, the children and women hid in the reeds.
I was afraid to stay in my dugout Tulgana. “The Kokand people will notice me and seize me as their prey,” she thought. And it didn’t go very far into the reeds either. It became scary. There were many predatory animals then.
So Tulganoi sat at the very edge of the reed thickets.
Several hours passed. The sounds of battle died down. The karnai and surnai trumpets sounded. The troops dispersed to their places.
Tulgana calmed down a little, came out of the thickets, went to the irrigation ditch, washed herself, and began to drink water.
Suddenly he sees a richly dressed fat military leader in a gold-woven turban, with a saber on a gold belt, galloping on a horse.
Tulganoy trembled with fear and rushed to hide in the reeds.
But the rider noticed her and affectionately called out:
- Don’t be afraid, good girl, I’m the boss Sufibek, what’s your name?
- My name is Tulgana.
- Don't be scared. I won't allow myself anything obscene. I was in battle all day. Tired, dusty. I want to wash my hands, my feet, and drink some water. And the time for evening prayer is approaching. Look, girl, at the horse. Then we’ll talk to you, and I’ll take you to a good place myself.
Sufibek took off his turban, boots, robe, belt, weapon, went to the water and began to wash himself. Tulgana sees that Sufibek is busy and wanted to disgrace her and have fun.
She put on Sufibek's boots, a robe, tied her waist with a gold belt, and put a gold-woven turban on her head.
- Well, how? Am I a bek like you? - Tulganoi asked.
Sufibek looked at her and was surprised:
- Oh girl, you’re great, you’re so slim! Oh, you're a real beauty. But, be that as it may, it is not appropriate to skip prayer. I'll pray, and you watch the horse.
Sufibek began to perform evening prayer.
And Tulganoy thought: “He wants to benefit from both sides: first he will pray so as not to remain in debt to Allah because of a missed prayer, and then he will make me his prey. Prayer is enough for him.”
Like a dashing horseman, Tulgana jumped onto her horse; turned to the side and galloped away. The girl urges the horse on with a whip, but keeps looking around.
Let her go, and you listen about Sufibek.
Sufibek prayed and did not look around, so as not to disturb the beauty of the prayer.
So he finished, ran his hands over his face, fingered his rosary, ran his hands over his face again, stood up, turned his head: no horse, no weapons, no girl.
“Where did she go?” he thought. “She’s a mischievous girl, she loves to play pranks. I’ll take her to my place, she’ll be an adornment to my harem. Isn’t she hiding in the reeds?”
Sufibek went to look. I pricked all my legs, but never found him. He ran barefoot up the hill. He got up and looked around, there was neither a horse nor a girl.
Sufibek tucked both ends of his robe, runs here, runs here, rushes in all directions. Whoever he meets, he asks and runs on.
So tired that I lost my mind. He saw a scabby, mangy goat and asked:
- Hey, goat! Did a domestic goat with scabies pass by Tulganoy?
“Uh-uh,” the goat answers.
Sufibek ran further, saw the old woman, and asked:
— Did the poor girl Tulganoi pass by here? Oh, what did she do to me, just don’t lead me astray, Satan, otherwise it will be bad for you.
“No,” the old woman answers, “I didn’t see it.” The trail was lost.
Sufibek did not know where to go, he was out of breath and exhausted. Shame and annoyance tormented him: he lost his horse, his weapon, and even let Tulganoi slip out of his hands.
Sufibek went back. Sweat pours from your forehead, tears flow from your eyes. He cannot go to his troops in such a pitiful form.
"How will I show myself to them?"
And he went to seek refuge in the Mirzachul steppe.
Let Sufibek, crying and groaning, walk across the steppe, and you listen about Tulganoy.
A mischievous girl rides and gallops on a horse. The golden embroidery on the turban glitters, a golden belt cinches her waist, a saber in a golden sheath hangs from her belt.
Dekhkans, grain gatherers, seeing a horseman on a Bek pacer, stepped off the road, bowed low, and thought:
“Oh, oh, the bek himself is coming.”
So Tulganoy galloped across the steppes, through fields, through hills, drove through Koshbormak, and approached the city of Jizzakh.
At the gates of the city, military commanders saw Tulgan.
They thought:
“A horse covered in foam, a horseman galloping from afar, luxuriously dressed - this is the envoy of the Emir of Bukhara himself.” They ran up to Tulgana, helped her get off her horse, and reported to the bek.
The bek came and said hello. He took him to his place, sat him down on luxurious carpets, and treated him to delicious dishes:
-Where are you coming from? - asks the bek.
“The Kokand bek went to war against the Uratyubinsk bek,” Tulganoi answers importantly. “I took the letter to the bek, and now I’m coming back.”
The next day, after tea, Tulgana was brought to a horse and sat down.
Tulgana was in a hurry, driving her horse. She stopped for a while in Yangi-Kurgan and then rode on. I arrived in the village of Akhtunan right at the bazaar. The people were surprised:
“Why did the emir’s man come and inspect everything? What would happen?”
Wherever Tulganoy directs her horse, everyone looks at her and gets scared.
Tulgana drove through the market. Everyone follows her with their eyes: “Where will this person go?” The curious follow behind.
She galloped along several Tulganoi streets and drove into the poor courtyard of the poor Pardabai.
“Wai, this unfortunate Pardabai has done something,” people thought. “The Emir’s man must have found out. Now he will take Pardabai, or else he will put him in prison.”
As soon as he saw Pardabai at the gate of the horseman, he rushed into the barn.
“Now I’m lost!” he thought. In the barn he buried himself in adobe and lay there, motionless, holding his breath: “Maybe he won’t find him and will leave.”
- Is Pardabai at home? - Tulganoi asked in a male voice and drove into the yard. Pardabai's old mother came out of the room.
“Son,” she said fearfully, “why do you need Pardabai?” About two months ago he went to the mountains to reap and gather ears of corn. He wants to earn something for his meager livelihood.
Tulganoy got off her horse. She tied him up and went into the house.
The old woman trembled with fear: “Something bad has happened,” she thought bitterly. “Apparently, our meager life is too good!”
Tulganoi hung her belt and saber on a peg. Then she took off Sufibek’s gold-woven turban. Her braids fell over her shoulders.
- Here you go! Who do I look like? she asked. The old woman looks - Tulgana is in front of her.
- Oh Tulganoy, is that you? — the old woman was delighted and pressed Tulgana to her chest.
Then she ran into the yard.
- Hey, Pardabai! Your fiancée has arrived.
And Pardabai lies buried in the hay and thinks: “What kind of betrothed is there? Are there girls like that? There’s a saber hanging at her side, a golden turban on her head. No, my mother is deceiving me.”
The old woman entered the barn, threw off the adobe that was covering her son, and took him by the hand.
- Get out! Look! Your missing happiness has returned - Tulganoy, - said the old woman.
Since the bride left, Pardabai had not taken up work, and now, when he saw her, his joy was endless.
Mother says:
- Tulganoy has arrived. Do you have a few pennies? Go to the market, buy something. We need to arrange a wedding, wow, this is poverty, there’s nothing at home.
- We know each other's poverty. Take a horse, sell it at the market, whatever it costs. And then buy what you need,” Tulganoy said.
Pardabai was happy, got on his horse, went to the horse market and sold it for as much as they gave him.
I bought meat, lard, carpet, soft bedding, and did everything that was needed.
“Let everyone know that Tulganoi got married,” Pardabai decided and arranged a small feast for ten people.
This is how they lived with Tulgana and achieved their desire.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru