In the very center of the Middle Land, called by the Evenks Dulin Bug, there lived one person. To call: “Mom!” - he didn’t have a mother; to address: "Dad!" - he didn’t have a father; to say: "Cho!" — he didn’t have a deer. He lived on this middle land - Dulin Buga - alone, and he had never even heard the word “man”, he did not know what it was. He lived like this alone for many years.
And then one day he sat down by his fireplace and thought: “How is it that I live alone? Is there really not a single creature like me on my beautiful land, called Dulin Buga? If I came out of the water, then at least droplets of it would remain on my heels; if I fell from the sky, then at least droplets of fog would remain on the top of my head; if I came out of the ground, then grains of sand would stick to my sides! No, I want to find people, like me!"
Having said this, he went to look for people. He quickly ran along his native Dulin Bug, covering enormous distances, jumping over large and small rivers, climbing high ridges. Seeing a huge mountain in front of me, I thought: how to overcome it? Suddenly he heard some sounds from above - it was someone singing, but our hero heard human speech for the first time and could not understand what it was. Suddenly, from behind nine clouds, he saw a bird, it
Dulin Buga - Middle Land. According to the ancient ideas of the Evenks, the earth consisted of three tiers: the Lower, where evil spirits lived; Upper, where the gods lived; The middle world was the homeland of humans.
circled in the air and sang, sang in a human voice. Although Umusliken had never heard human speech and did not speak himself (how could he talk alone!), he understood the bird. Whirling around, the bird sat on a tall tree and sang:
- Daken, Daken, Daken!
Umusliken looked at her - and in front of him a beautiful girl was sitting on a tree, her hair was so long that it hung down to the ground. The girl sank to the ground and said:
- Lonely hero Umusliken, fly after me. You probably want to know who your parents were. Fly with me, fly with me!
Having spoken, she soared into the air, turning into a bird again, and threw two wings to him.
Umusliken grabbed a wing in each hand and flew after the bird. Flying further and further away from him, the bird sang: “It was I who destroyed your parents and your people!”
Hearing this, Umusliken flew like an arrow after the bird, first rose to a height beyond seven clouds, but seeing how quickly the insidious bird was moving away from him, he rose to a height of nine clouds and began to pursue it, trying not to lose sight of it.
He didn’t know how long they flew, because he recognized summer by the rain, winter by the snow, autumn by fallen leaves, spring by melted snow.
Suddenly, in the distance, our hero saw a huge sea, there was no end or edge to it, ninety-nine large rivers, seventy-seven small rivers and eighty-eight lakes flowed into it, merging together, replenishing this sea with their waters. And our Umusliken had been flying without rest for three years, during which time he was completely exhausted. He landed on the shore of this huge sea to rest. Sitting on the shore, he thought about how he could fly over it. Suddenly, raising my head up, I heard someone singing. This was a squirrel. She sang:
- Kumi-kumikeken, kumikeken! Listen to me carefully, hero Umusliken, understand my words with your heart, bring them deep into your soul, into your
put your ears to it! I, your sister, want to help you. Many, many years ago, an evil Avakhi attacked our people, destroyed them, killed our parents, and took me captive. They managed to hide only one boy in the forest - it was you. That's why you grew up alone, not hearing a human word, not seeing a mother's affection, not knowing a father's care. But it turns out that you are not dead, you are alive, now you must avenge us. You will have to fight a strong opponent, the bird that brought you to these lands is that enemy - the Avahi. He specifically flew to our land - Dulin Buga - to find out if anyone was alive there, he deliberately lured you here to destroy the last person on our land. I see that you have grown into a strong hero and are not afraid to fight him, but you cannot defeat him alone. I'll help you. And now you fly beyond this sea, there you will see a huge city where your enemy lives.
Having said this, the squirrel disappeared. Our hero soared up and flew in the direction of nine winds, eighty-eight currents of small rivers and ninety-nine currents of large rivers, straight to where the land of his enemy was.
He flew for a long time, recognizing summer by hail, winter by snow, autumn by frozen rivers, spring by melting snow, and finally heard a noise in the distance. Our hero had never heard such a noise, never heard such a heavy groan. His heart trembled with impatience to fight the enemy, violent blood rushed in, his fingertips became heavy with tension and hatred. A huge city was in front of him, and only half of the lights were burning in it. The cries of hundreds of people, the groans of thousands of people and the loud cries of ferocious Avahi monsters were heard. There were all kinds of monsters there: with two heads, and with seven heads, and with nine heads. If there was a monster with seven heads, then a ferocious growl would burst from each head; if there was a monster with nine heads, then each of the nine heads spewed fire. And as soon as the monster inhales air, each of its mouths swallows a whole person.
[Avakhi (Evenk) - monster.]
Because of the height of nine clouds, our hero rushed down and entered into battle with the monsters. And this way he fought, and this way he fought, cut off the heads of all the two-headed monsters, cut off the heads of all the seven-headed monsters and entered into battle with the nine-headed Avahi. He fought with him for a long time: he would cut off two of his heads, and they would immediately grow back; he would cut off three heads at once, and they would fall back into place. Our hero began to lose strength, his broad back decreased in width, his tight muscles lost their elasticity, he began to sink into the hard earth up to his ankles, into the soft earth up to his knees. His bright thoughts were shortened, his clear mind became clouded.
Suddenly, from behind nine clouds, he heard singing, singing in his native Evenki language. He looked up and saw that a kidak bird, all in golden plumage, was circling at the height of nine clouds, descending to the height of seven clouds, approaching the heights of three thunderclouds, and calling to him, circling in the air:
- Kumi-kumiken, kumi-kumiken!
Our hero perked up, and by the chanted words he recognized his sister soaring in the sky. His broad back expanded with joy, his stormy blood rushed to the tips of his Ten Fingers, his muscles filled with strength three times greater than before, his bright thoughts lengthened, his clear mind brightened. He hit the Avahi monster with all his strength at the very base of his ear, and he fell unconscious. He looked up - and a kidak bird, all in golden plumage, was throwing him two golden eggs from the height of three thunderclouds. Our hero grabbed them on the fly and smashed them to pieces on the ground. Here the evil Avakhi died.
The crying of people stopped, the groans subsided, the noise fell silent. Umusliken sees a man come up to him and say:
- Geredevun, geredevun! Brave hero, said
live your name, where your tribe comes from, from what land you came to us and saved us from destruction. For many years, terrible monsters devoured my people and destroyed my tribe. Thank you for freeing us. Stay, we will give you a lot of cattle for your feat, we will give you the best girl as a wife. But Umuslikan answered:
“I am a hero of the Middle Land, called by the Evenks Dulin Buga, I grew up completely alone, not hearing my native word, not knowing the affection of my birth mother, not knowing my father’s care. Many years ago, this monster destroyed my people, he wanted the name of the Evenk-Urankai to disappear from the earth and my land to be empty. But I grew up thanks to the care of my Dulin Bug, she nurtured me, sending me an animal so that I could eat, covered me with the soft moss of reindeer moss, gave me the dew of nine fogs, fed me so that, having grown and become stronger, I would take revenge on the enemy. Thank you, but I see that you are not my people, people not of my tribe and language. I'm coming home. My sister, the kidak bird, must be somewhere, I must find her.
Our hero turned into a bird and soared into the air, rising to the height of three thunderclouds, then to the height of seven clouds, and then disappeared behind the height of nine clouds. He flew for a long time, recognizing winter by the snow, summer by. hail, autumn with yellow leaves, spring with melted snow. But then his native places appeared in the distance, and his native Uten appeared below. He sank to the ground, turned into a hero and addressed his native home-uten with these words:
- My native home, uten, uteken! So I returned home. I saw another land, fought with the Avakhi, destroyed it, liberated another people, but will I really not find my relatives, people related to me by blood and language, will I really live here alone again? O native hearth, called Kulumtan, I have returned to you!
[Uten is the dwelling of the Evenks.]
Having said this, he entered his uten, rushed to the cooled fire pit and dug it open, under the ashes he found a door, opened it and saw a girl, it was his sister. She spoke:
- Hello my brother, Umusliken. It’s good that he grew up to be a brave and courageous hero and avenged his father and mother. Your homeland saved you, now the two of us will live together.
She fed him and gave him something to drink. Our hero did not sleep all night, he kept thinking about how to find his people, close in blood and language. The next morning my sister woke up and said:
- Listen to me carefully, my brother Umusliken, let my words pass through your sensitive ears, think deeply, comprehend. In the direction of sunrise, set out on a journey to where our sun rises. Good people live there, close to us by blood and language, you will find many people there, you will hear speech that is familiar to you and me, songs that are familiar to us. The mother of our peoples lives there, her name is Enin Buga, Mother of the Earth, thousands of peoples live under her protection. If you want to see the end of the earth, the root of people, the best heroes, then go there, there you must find your destiny.
Umusliken said goodbye to his sister, turned into a bird, soared up, made a circle over his native uten and shouted to his sister:
- Wait for me in seven years. When seven times. The snow will fall and melt, when the trees will bloom seven times and shed their leaves, I will return home!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru