There was a tent at a fork in the river. There lived in that plague a woman with two little sons. One day a woman left to get food and did not return. What happened to her is unknown. Maybe the bear killed her, maybe she drowned in the river. Only her little sons were left alone in the plague.
At first everyone cried, they called for their mother. Then we got used to it. We picked mushrooms and berries and caught fish in the river. So we lived, growing little by little.
They don’t know how many years, how many winters have passed; they couldn’t count.
One brother once said to another:
- Why do we live alone? I remember my mother said there are still people. Let's look for people! The second brother asked:
- How will we search?
- Yes, like this: you walk along the bank of the left river upstream, and your name will be River on the left - Dyakha setano. I will go upstream along the right river, and I will take the name River on the Right - Dyakha Makhano. Let's find people, see how they live, and come back. We'll meet in our plague.
We agreed and went.
Dyakha makhano walked all day. In the evening I made a hut out of branches and went to bed. He lies and thinks:
“Dyakha Setano also made a hut for himself. It’s a good hut! If it rains, my brother won’t get wet!”
I got up in the morning and continued on my way. Many days go by.
The river led him to the lake, to the place where it originated. This is a large lake, its shores are low, swampy, and go off to the right and left.
Dyakha makhano stopped and thought:
“How can my brother, Dyakha setano, get across such a lake? He, too, is standing on such a low bank, like me, and doesn’t know what to do.”
Then Dyakh saw a gnarled log, its butt stuck to the shore, its top swaying on the water. He sat down on a log and pushed off from the shore. He paddles with his hands and swims.
“Does Dyakha setano have such a log?” thinks Dyakha makhano. “Yes! If I found it, it floats!”
Crossed the lake. Just wanted to land, suddenly some animal jumped out and jumped from the shore into the water. Dyakha makhano got scared and almost fell off the log. Then I realized: it’s an otter, a simple otter! Laughed:
- My brother is stupid, Dyakha setano! What can an otter do to him?
Dyakha makhano looks: there is a path leading from the lake. Exactly the same one that she and her brother trampled from their tent to the river.
“Aren’t people living here?” - thinks. I walked a little, and sure enough, I met a man. It was a girl. She was collecting cloudberries. The girl saw Dyakha makhano and treated her to the berry.
“My brother, Dyakha Setano, also loves cloudberries,” said Dyakha Makhano and popped a whole handful of cloudberries into his mouth.
The girl was surprised.
- Where is your brother? — she asked. “I don’t mind the cloudberries either.”
“And he went along another river to look for people.”
- So you're looking for people? - said the girl. - Let's go to our camp, to the camp of the Tau tribe.
Dyakha Makhano thought:
“Did my brother, Dyakha setano, go after the girl? That’s right, he did. That’s why we left the tent to find people. I’ll go too!”
Here is the camp. It costs a lot of money. Men and women walk between the tents. Children are running.
- Oh-oh-oh! There are so many people in the world, it turns out!” said Dyakha Makhano. “And not so many, but twice as many.” It was none other than my brother, Dyakha Setano, who came to the same camp. I saw a lot of people too!
The girl took Dyakha makhano to her tent, to her father, to her mother. He began to live with them. Yes, people do not live idle. The girl's father told him:
- You will herd deer!
- How is it to herd deer? - Dyakha makhano asks. - The deer run wherever they want. Just ask my brother, Dyakha Setano. He and I saw deer in the forest more than once.
It turned out that you can herd deer. You can ride them! Dyakha Mahavo liked the domesticated deer. He began to graze them. They say I passed well.
Dyakha Makhano learned a lot from people. And I learned to count. He estimated that he lived in the Tau tribe's camp for seven years.
“That’s how long!” he thinks. “I wonder how many years my brother, Dyakha setano, lived in that camp? More or less? It turns out that’s the same amount! He and I set off on the road from our tent on the same day.”
Seven years is a long time. Dyakha grew up and became a man. And the girl who treated him to cloudberries also grew up and became a girl. He married her.
The girl's father gave them riding reindeer and riding reindeer. Dyakha makhano was delighted and thought:
“My herd and my brother’s herd, Dyahi setano, will graze together. It’s okay, however, it won’t be a small herd!”
I thought so and said to my wife:
- Get ready, it’s time to go. My brother, Dyakha setano, is already returning to our tent with his wife and his reindeer. How can we not be late!
Let's go. It was winter. Deer run quickly, not like measuring the ground with your feet on foot! And the lake froze. Makhano easily drove the reindeer herd across the ice of Dyakh.
So I saw a tent ahead, standing at a fork in the rivers.
Dyakha makhano drives the reindeer and hurries to his native place. He sees: an argish is also moving along the bank of the second river. A man sits on the front sled, driving reindeer. A woman is sitting on the second sled - apparently her wife.
“Look,” Dyakha Makhano says to his wife, “my brother, Dyakha Setano, is coming!” We weren't late!
The Argish came together. Dyakha Makhano jumped off the sledge, and the second one jumped off. They look at each other. Dyakha makhano sees not his brother, Dyakha setano, but a completely stranger. He got angry.
- What are you doing here? - asks. “Why did you come here?”
“I came to see my tent,” he answers. “I’m looking for a meeting with my brother.”
“If you want to be called my brother,” says Dyakha Makhano, “tell me how you lived, what happened to you.” Then I will see whether this chum is yours or not, whether you are my brother or not!
The man began to say:
“I walked up the left river, as my name instructed. I don’t know how many days I walked, I couldn’t count then...
“My brother!” Dyakha makhano nods. “And so I walked!”
“Then I went out to the high shore of the lake. There the crane got scared and flew up from the reeds...
“Not my brother,” Dyakha Makhano is upset. “The shore on the lake was low, and he should not have been afraid of the crane, but of the otter!”
— I swam across the lake on a snag... “It’s all true!” - Dyakha makhano rejoices.
“I swam across and met a girl.” She picked blueberries and treated me to them.
- You forgot! - Dyakha Makhano shouted. “It wasn’t a blueberry, it was a cloudberry.”
- Did she treat you to cloudberries? - asked the visitor. - So you are not Dyakha makhano, not my brother.
- I am Dyakha makhano, your brother! You are not my brother, not Dyakha setano! Well, go ahead and tell me more.
— This girl turned out to be from the camp of the Somathu tribe.
- And I belong to the Tau tribe. It doesn't work again!
“She brought me to her parents.” I lived with them for seven years. I went hunting with her father...
- Why didn’t you graze the deer? - Dyakha makhano got angry.
The second one doesn’t listen, he continues:
- I have become a good hunter. I caught a lot of sables, arctic foxes, and foxes. And when he married the old man’s daughter, he traded the skins for reindeer and came here.
- Well, that's it! - says Dyakha makhano. - You are not my brother. My wife's father gave me deer. He answers:
“Maybe you’re not my brother either!” But only I will live here, my thing is chum.
- Why is it yours? How do you know? How can you prove it?
“When I left here, I hid the white stones against the left wall.”
- Right! - Dyakha Makhano picked up. - And I hid the black stones near the right wall. Let's see, shall we?
We went into the tent and had a look. Indeed, there are pebbles - white on the left, black on the right.
- It turns out that we are brothers after all! - said Dyakha makhano.
They hugged, then called their wives. They began to live together.
Dyakha Makhano grazes deer. Dyakha Setano goes hunting. We lived a good century, raised children and saw grandchildren.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru