Once upon a time there lived a beautiful puddin. She had seven brothers, one better than the other. They are all dexterous hunters, sharp shooters, jacks of all trades. The barns are full of them. Their reserves of meat and seal fat were never transferred. And they loved their only sister most of all. They took care of it, everyone brought it from the hunt
a gift, made her happy as best he could.
And time went on and on and on. Their sister is growing and growing, becoming slimmer and more beautiful. Animals and birds often visited her and admired her beauty.
Then one day her older brother says to her:
- Our dear sister! Everyone around you knows about your beauty. Soon matchmakers will come and ask for your hand. Prepare for their arrival, put on wedding robes, hang silver jewelry, and be friendly.
And she doesn’t want to hear anything. Her eyes flashed like stars in the dark night, her long braid darted from side to side, the copper pendants on her breastplate jingled indignantly.
It was time for the brothers to go hunting. They see that their sister does not want to part with them, and they began to think about how to protect her from the suitors. They thought and thought, and then the older brother turned her into a needle. The brothers themselves turned into white-winged birds and flew into the taiga to hunt.
The needle waited for the suitors for a long time, she got tired of it, she turned back into puddin. I just wanted to leave the house when I heard the creak of skis and sleds sliding on the snow, and someone’s voices. Pudin got scared, climbed onto the bunk and turned into a needle again, but before she had time to hide, she stayed on the mat.
The sleigh stopped near the house. The deer are snoring, waiting to be unharnessed, to be given salt, and the bells on their necks jingle occasionally. But the matchmakers don’t pay attention to them, they rush into the house, they want to admire the puddin po” as quickly as possible. They were in such a hurry that they got stuck in the door, barely entered. They entered and froze in amazement. One of them says:
- What is this? There are no brothers, no beauty, or their sister in the house. Why were we so deceived?
They began to look in the corners and shout:
- Who is in the house, show yourself!
But no matter how much they called, no matter how much they shouted, no one appeared, no one responded. And suddenly they heard someone’s thin voice. He kept squealing:
- I know! I know! I know!
The matchmakers ran up to the bunks and began to look at who could speak these words.
Suddenly they noticed how the cap of one of the carnations in the bunk rose, turned around offendedly, and the squeak was heard again:
- I know where the beauty is! The brothers and she didn’t treat me, I’ll tell you everything! The brothers turned it into a needle, and they themselves went fishing in the taiga.
The matchmakers rushed throughout the house and began looking for a needle. They look here and there - there is nowhere. And suddenly one of them groped with his hand along the mat on the bunk and came across a protruding needle.
- Oh, oh! - he screamed in pain, but did not let go of the needle. The matchmakers were delighted, grabbed a needle and left for their camp.
We arrived at our home, put the needle on the bunk, but it didn’t turn into a girl. For ten days they carried it back and forth, laying it on something soft, now on something hard, but it still remained a needle. They're tired of messing with her.
——What are we going to do? - says the groom. - Maybe the carnation deceived us? Maybe she will never turn into a girl at all?
The groom and the matchmakers gathered and began to talk among themselves, so that the needle could not hear them.
One of the matchmakers says:
- Let’s leave the needle somewhere, and we’ll hide and take a look. If it's puddin, then she'll turn into a girl, if not, then she'll stay that way.
And others began to make noise at him and waved their hands:
- Why bother with it, we’ll throw it away, and that’s all. Let's go and woo the new bride ourselves!
And everyone agreed with this. They took it and threw the needle and left.
Puddin' needle was just waiting for this. She turned into a beautiful girl. I decided to look for a way to her dear brothers, to her home. He walks through the taiga and hums a song. And her voice is beautiful, so clear and clear and iridescent that even the forest birds fell silent, and the nightingale began to whistle to her. She goes and sings about how she cleverly led the matchmakers and the groom along with them. And suddenly she heard the voices of people very close. Scared-
Pudin got away, hid behind a neighboring house, and so as not to be noticed, she turned into a wooden shovel. She stands near her house and thinks: “What should I do?” While she was thinking this, a man came out of the house. I saw the shovel and was delighted:
- That's good, it turns out I have a new shovel!
He took her and carried her to the barn.
The girl was frightened: “What should I do now? I was free, but now I’m in prison. How can I escape from here?”
She thought and thought and decided: “Tomorrow the owner will take a shovel, he will start shoveling snow on the street, he will gape, and I will turn into a stump. Nobody needs him, he’s just in the way of everyone. If the owner leaves me, I’ll be free!”
The next morning the owner came into the barn and began looking for a new shovel. I searched and searched and couldn’t find it.
- What miracles! - he says out loud. “Yesterday evening I put a new shovel here, but today it’s gone!” Didn't the devil steal the shovel?
He left the barn, in frustration did not even close the door, and wandered home. I was afraid of miracles. And the stump in the barn immediately turned into a girl. Pudin rushed as fast as she could into the taiga. She ran and ran, tired, but afraid to rest. Suddenly the owner of that house will notice the tracks and follow her. Then she will no longer escape marriage and she will never see her brothers.
The sun has long since set. It got dark. The wind blew. It became scary. And suddenly she saw a light in the distance. She began to come closer to him, and saw that there was a lonely house... She could not pass by. “Finally I can rest,” I thought. She went to the door and knocked.
Quiet. Nobody answers. She knocked harder: “Tra-ta-ta-ta!” The doors swung wide open, and an ugly daredevil appeared on the threshold.1 She opened her mouth wide:
- Kwa-kwa! Who's there? — she asked, peering into the darkness with her bulging eyes.
No matter how unpleasant it was, there was nothing to do. She came out of the darkness and began to ask the frog:
- Let me go to your house for the night, Udala! I walked all day, I was tired, I had no more strength. I want to sleep!
- Come in! Kwa-kwa-uvah! Come in! - the frog croaked. - There's enough space.
The girl came into the house, and there was nothing there except the wet bed of a frog.
The girl thinks: “Where am I going to spend the night? And what kind of strange daring frog speaks with a human voice?” But she didn’t say anything, she just sat down in the corner and dozed off.
The frog boiled the kettle, woke up the girl, began to treat her, and talk to her affectionately. And she keeps looking intently at the girl. And then he says:
- Let me try on your clothes, puddin! What a beautiful robe you have. What a warm scarf and comfortable mittens!
The girl was even more surprised. She took off her clothes and was left in only her underrobe. The frog put on the girl's robe, scarf, mittens and immediately. turned into a beautiful puddin. And the puddin girl stood undressed and remained in only a robe.
Udala-pudin laid the girl on her bed, covered her with her blanket of green mud, and left. The girl immediately fell asleep.
And she has a wonderful dream. The puddin became a frog, and the daring girl became a girl. The daredevil began to talk like a human being, but the puddin just croaked and croaked.
She opened her eyes. I looked at myself in the mirror. And indeed, she became a frog! She jumped out of bed and saw: the daredevil, who had become a girl, was trying on her earrings, braiding her black braid, putting on her elegant clothes. And then the puddin frog says:
- Hey, beautiful frog, go get some water! It's time to drink tea!
She took a puddin rocker and a birch bark bucket and went to fetch water. She feels offended, she goes and thinks: “How did it happen that I became a frog? If I
If I hadn’t given her my clothes, she would never have taken my form, and I would not have become a frog!”
She rolled down the bank and suddenly saw: a dressed-up groom and matchmakers were riding along the river on a festive sledge. They drove up to the ice hole where the frog was getting water, and they asked:
- Is there a beautiful girl here? The frog answers them:
- Don’t go to this house: it’s dirty, damp, everything is overgrown with mud. A daredevil frog lives in it, and it has taken on my appearance.
They laughed in response from the sled and hurried to the house. The deceiver Udala was already waiting for the matchmakers there. She called them tenderly:
- Come in, dear guests, into the house. Food has been steaming on the table for a long time and sweet drinks have been standing.
Everything in the house suddenly changed: it became clean and beautiful. The bunks are covered with reed mats. The groom and the matchmakers liked Udal. But most of all they liked her clothes, sewn by the skilful hand of a craftswoman, a puddin girl.
They married Udal to one of the fellows and had a feast. For three days they had fun, sang, played, and then began to get ready for the journey.
Meanwhile, the puddin girl brought water and turned into one of the cross poles on which the hook for the cauldron was hung over the fireplace. During the feast, no one remembered the frog with the rocker. But one young man became sad before leaving. He believed the frog's words and began to look for her. A rocker and two birch bark buckets stood at the door of the house. The frog was nowhere to be found.
The guests gathered to leave Udala-pudin. They went out into the street and sat down on the sledge. The young man went back into the house, walked up to the wooden pole above the fireplace, looked at her, and it seemed to him that she sighed so sadly and so pitifully. He pulled out his hunting knife from its sheath and lightly ran it across the stick. Droplets of blood on it. spoke. He realized that it was not a crossbar, but an enchanted girl. They shouted to him from the street:
- Ek, friend, why are you delaying there? Have you really found a bride and can’t leave her?
The young man imperceptibly threw his knife onto the bunk and ran outside to the sledge. The sledges began to disperse. The last of them had just left when the fellow said:
- Oh, I left my knife in the house. And without a knife, what kind of person am I, what kind of hunter? You go further, and I’ll catch up with you on skis!
He jumped off the sledge as he walked and walked into the house. He comes in and can’t believe his eyes! A beautiful puddin sits on a bunk in only a lower robe, holds her hand to her mouth and blows on it, and she cries bitterly. The young man ran up to her, took her hand and did not let go. And because of this, she cannot turn into anything. Witchcraft does not work; the hunter’s love cannot be overcome. And she told the hunter everything that happened to her. And they fell in love with each other so much that Udala’s spell disappeared, and she again became a girl, and Udala became a frog. The groom and his matchmakers brought home to their camp not a beautiful maiden, but an ugly frog with a rocker, but it was already too late. They drove Udal to the swamp, she still lives there. If you listen, you will hear her voice, if you look, you will see her in the muddy water. So she sits in the swamp and still complains to everyone:
- Kwa da kwa! Kwa da kwa!
It is now impossible to make out anything from this croaking alone.
And a few days later a fellow who had lagged behind arrived at the camp. He came not alone, but with his beautiful young wife. Since then they have been living together. What a wonderful miracle there is in the world!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru