Two children lived with their father. The father was thinking whether to teach his sons to read and write or to teach them to hunt. Then I decided that I would teach them to hunt. The father began to teach his sons how to recognize the tracks of different animals, how to recognize the voices of birds, how the sun and stars can show the way in the taiga.
One day my father bought two balls, two daggers and said:
- When I die, hang these balls over me, and then each of you take one for yourself; When you go far away to hunt, always keep a ball in your bosom in the taiga.
When the father died, the sons hung balls over their father, and after the funeral each took a ball for himself.
One early morning the brothers went hunting together. They walk, walk through the taiga, and suddenly they see a bear coming towards them. They began to watch for the bear. They just wanted to shoot at the bear, and the bear said:
- Don't shoot me! I will give you two of my children! He gave his two children.
Let's move on. Suddenly they saw a tiger. They started creeping up to him, just wanted to shoot, and the tiger said:
- Don't shoot me! I will give you two of my children! He gave his two children.
They move on. We saw a wolf. They just wanted to shoot him, and the wolf said:
- Don't shoot me! I will give you two of my children! As he said, so he did.
They move on. We met Lisa. They just wanted to shoot the fox, but the fox said:
- Don’t shoot at me, I’ll give you my two children! She gave her two children.
Let's move on. We met the hare. They just wanted to shoot the hare, and the hare said:
- Don't shoot me! I will give you two of my children! The hare gave birth to his two children.
So the two brothers walked and walked together, then they began to argue over the animals. Then they divided all their animals.
Then the younger brother went in one direction, and the older brother went in the other direction.
The younger brother walked and walked through the taiga, then began to climb the mountain. At the top of the mountain he stopped, looked down and saw a city below. There is a black flag on every house in the city. The guy thinks: “We need to see this city.” I walked towards the city. Came there. I entered one small house. An old man and an old woman lived in this house. Well done old woman asks:
— What kind of flags were hung on the roofs of houses? And the old woman answers:
— The twelve-headed snake wants to marry the king’s daughter. The snake said that the bride should be brought to him in fifteen days. If they don’t bring him, that snake threatens that he will kill all the inhabitants of the city. Only seven days left.
Well done says:
- I'll kill that snake!
And the old woman asks in surprise:
- Are you really going to kill me?
- I’ll really kill you!
The old woman ran to the king and told him what the daredevil had said. The king went home to the old woman and said to the brave young man:
“Is it true that you can kill a twelve-headed snake?”
The brave fellow replies:
- That's right, I'll kill you!
The king then says:
- If you kill the snake, I will give you my daughter as a wife!
Well done, he went to the Tsar’s daughter. And then he and she went to kill the snake together. And the king thinks, probably, my daughter will be taken to another, foreign place. He says to his servant:
- Take the gun and follow them quietly, look. If the guy moves away from the kite, shoot him!
And the brave fellow walked a little and sat down. Then I heard something rattling. Suddenly I saw a snake crawling. The snake just wanted to jump, the brave fellow swung his dagger, slashed, and immediately cut off six of the snake’s heads. The snake rose up, jumped on the young man, and he swung again, slashed, and cut off three more heads. Gathering his last strength, the snake once again jumped on the brave young man, and he once again slashed with his dagger and completely finished off the snake.
The brave fellow was tired after such a battle and went to bed. And when I went to bed, I said to the bear:
- You protect me so that some kind of person doesn’t come! The bear guarded and guarded, and began to doze. Then the tiger said:
- You guard the brave fellow, and I’ll sleep! The tiger began to guard the brave young man. The tiger guarded and guarded the brave young man, and suddenly dozed off. Then the tiger says to the wolf:
- You take care, and I’ll sleep!
The wolf began to guard the brave young man. I watched for a while and also dozed off. Then the wolf says to the fox:
- You take care, and I’ll sleep!
The fox began to guard. She guarded and guarded and also dozed off. Then the fox says to the hare:
- You, hare, take care, and I’ll sleep!
So the hare began to protect the brave young man. He guarded and guarded, and also dozed off. I dozed and dozed, and then completely fell asleep.
After the hare has fallen asleep; The royal servant, who was watching them, crept up, took the young man’s dagger and cut off his head. The king's daughter woke up and went to the shore. She saw how the brave young man went to rest. And the king's servant says to her:
- You will say that I killed the snake. If you don't say so, I'll kill you!
Let's go together to the king. There they began to feast. Suddenly the bear woke up, looked at the brave young man, and saw: the young man’s head had been cut off. The bear woke up all his comrades. Then the tiger asks:
- Why was the young man’s head cut off? Tiger says:
“When I went to bed, I told the wolf to protect the young man.”
And the wolf says:
— When I went to bed, I told the fox to guard him.
Lisa says:
“When I went to bed, I told the hare to protect the brave young man.”
Then all the animals began to judge the hare. And the hare says:
- Just let me go for one minute, please!
I'm not going to run away at all. I'll go look for something to help the person.
Bear says:
- If you run away somewhere, we will find you everywhere!
They released the hare, and he started to gallop.
A little time passed and the hare returned. He brought two bottles of medicine. Then they began to treat the daredevil’s head with medicine. The bear took the young man’s head and glued it to his neck. The young man stood up, but it turned out that the young man’s head was placed in the wrong way. Then the young man’s head was removed, and then put back correctly. The good fellow has become the same. Then he decided to go straight to the king.
Here the daredevil enters the tsar’s house, and the tsar’s daughter runs to meet him, hugs the young man and says to her father:
- That's who killed the snake! This brave fellow killed the snake! And your servant intimidated me.
The king said that the servant should be executed. The king gave his daughter to the brave young man as his wife. The brave young man married the king's daughter.
One day a daredevil went hunting. He goes and sees an old woman sitting on the top of a tree. Delete says:
- What are you doing there? Why are you sitting on a tree? Get down quickly! The old woman says:
- How to get down? I'm afraid of your dogs!
- It’s okay, come down, the dogs won’t do anything. You shouldn't be afraid of them! The old woman broke a branch, gave it to the daredevil and said:
- Beat your dogs a little with this branch!
Well done, the old woman listened to her words. He beat his dogs a little. Then he looked at the dogs and saw that his dogs had all begun to petrify. He himself also began to petrify...
The brave fellow quickly pulled out his ball from his bosom and barely had time to hang it up. Then he became a stone.
After a little time, the daredevil’s elder brother suddenly came. He looked at the old woman and said:
- What are you doing up there? Hurry, hurry, get down! And the old woman says:
- I'm afraid of your dogs!
The brother of the brave young man tells her again:
- Come down quickly! If you don't come down, I'll kill you! The old woman answers:
- You’re wrong to say, I still won’t come down! Then the brother of the brave young man loaded the gun with lead and shot at the old woman. The lead bullet bounced back. Then he loaded the gun with a steel bullet and shot the old woman again. Then he killed the old woman on the spot. After this, his younger brother became a man again.
The brothers made peace here and did not argue anymore. The brave fellow went to his wife. Together with my brother they began to live in this city. We always went hunting together. They began to live well. Both became good hunters. Many different animals were hunted. Bears, tigers, wolves, foxes, badgers, raccoons, otters, sables, moose, wapiti, wild boars and hares were killed a lot.
That's how it was. Whether it was close or far away.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru