Once upon a time there lived a rich prince Akhmat. He had a son named Salbi. When Salbi grew up and the prince grew old, he married his son. They played a wedding. A week passed after that. And so the prince decided to test his son and daughter-in-law - after all, after his death, his son would have to manage all his possessions, and his wife should be his adviser.
Prince Salbi called and told him:
“My son, tomorrow early in the morning we will set off on a long journey. Make sure that everything is ready for the trip by then.
“Okay, father,” replied Salbi.
He began to get ready, and instructed his wife to prepare everything necessary for the journey. The young wife was busy all night without sleep or rest - collecting various supplies.
Early in the morning, before dawn, Salbi saddled his horses and stored supplies in the khurjin.
[Khurjin – travel saddle bag.]
Prince Akhmat examined the horses and was pleased. Salbi supported him with the stirrup, and his father jumped into the saddle. Then Prince Akhmat looked around and shouted to his son:
- Leave the khurjin, why did you put him on the horse? We can manage without stocks!
The son obeyed, and they set off.
They drove for a long time, forded a stormy river and moved further along a steep mountain path.
Salbi was expecting his father to stop by for something to eat, but
Akhmat continued driving further. And so, when they reached the fir grove, the father stopped his horse and said to Salbi:
- My son! We drive for a long time, and the end of the road is not visible. I was hungry and tired. Shorten the path, feed me and lead me to a place where I can learn what I don’t know!
What was Salby to do? He was very surprised to hear his father's wish.
- How can I satisfy your hunger! - he answered. “You yourself ordered to leave the khurjin at home.” And how can I shorten the path when I don’t know the way, and how can I lead you to a place where you can learn what you don’t know?
Before he could finish speaking, Akhmat exclaimed:
- Woe is me! It would be better if I had no son at all than a son without ingenuity!
At the same time, Akhmat lashed his son with a whip, and he galloped home. Salbi trudged after him.
Returning home, Salbi unsaddled his horses and went into the vault of the house. His wife sees that he is upset about something and asks:
- What's wrong with you, honey? Why are you so sad?
“Why tell you about this... You can’t help me anyway,” Salbi answered her.
– But still, share with me what you are concerned about. Maybe I can help you! - the wife insisted.
And Salbi told her everything that happened to him.
“Has your father lost his mind?” What does he want from you? In the morning, when you were leaving, I brought the khurjin, but he did not allow me to take it with me. What could you do? How to shorten the path without knowing the road, and how to lead him to where he could learn what he does not know?
Meanwhile, the old prince put his ear to the door and heard a conversation. He said nothing and went home.
And the next morning the prince called his neighbors, allocated a share of his property to his daughter-in-law in their presence, and sent her to her parents’ house.
Less than a week had passed before Prince Akhmat remarried his son. We played a wedding again.
A few days later, Akhmat called his son and said!
“We have to hit the road early in the morning, so be ready!”
All night long, Salbi’s new wife, without rest or sleep, was busy getting her husband ready for the trip.
At dawn, Salbi brought the saddled horses to his father. Prince Akhmat examined them and was pleased, and ordered the khurdzhip to be left.
Father and son drove along the same road. We reached the place where Akhmat drove his son away. Then Akhmat turned to him with the same words:
- My son! I was hungry and tired. Feed me, shorten the path and lead me to where I can gain my mind!
What could Salby do? He hung his head and was silent, and his father became more angry than before.
- Oh, you fool! - he screamed and whipped his son with a whip.
Then he turned his horse and galloped home. And his son trudged after him, burning with shame and resentment. Salbi returned to his place neither alive nor dead.
Salbi's wife immediately noticed that something was wrong with her husband.
- What's wrong with you, honey? – she asked her husband. -What saddens your soul?
“Why do you need to know about this,” Salbi answered her. “You can’t help me anyway!”
“Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to help,” the wife insisted.
Then Salbi told her about what happened to him during the trip with his father.
“Your father must have lost his mind!” - exclaimed the wife. - After all, he himself ordered to leave the khurjin here! How could you feed him, shorten the journey, and even make him smarter?..
And the old prince came to the door and overheard what the husband and wife were talking about.
The next morning he called the neighbors, allocated his daughter-in-law her share of the property and sent her to her parents' house.
A lot of time has passed. Akhmat often thought about the fate of his son: “I’m already old. My life is coming to an end. How will my son reign and rule the people? We need to get him married soon. If he gets a smart wife, she will be a good adviser to him, and if not, you won’t count the mistakes and stupid things they will do!”
As the old prince decided, he did so. The next day he ordered Salbi to bring a saddled horse and went to look for a bride for his son.
Akhmat rode for a long time, and then one day he was caught in bad weather. Akhmat was hungry and tired. He was not averse to visiting someone and relaxing. Akhmat stopped, looked around and noticed a crowd of people far away on a hill.
“I’ll go there!” - Akhmat decided and galloped off at a trot.
On the way, he met a boy driving cows.
-Where are you going, son? – asked Akhmat.
The boy replied that he was going home. Then Akhmat began to ask:
-What happened there? Why did people gather on that hill?
The boy replied that his neighbor had died and was being buried.
- Well, son, did he die completely or not completely? – asked Akhmat.
What could the boy answer? He was embarrassed, but still answered:
- Yes, he’s completely dead, that’s why they’re burying him.
- Son, I want to spend the night somewhere. Can you tell me where I could go? - said Akhmat.
“Come to us, we live close here,” the boy said and went with Akhmat.
The boy's father was a peasant. When Akhmat rode up to the house and got off his horse, the boy said:
- Welcome! - and tied the horse to the hitching post.
The owner greeted the guest. And the girl, the boy’s sister, took the whip from Almat and took off his cloak. The guest sat down by the fireplace. The girl prepared a delicious dinner and fed Akhmat.
The conversation lasted for some time. Then the girl made a bed for the guest, and he went to bed. Akhmat did not sleep and heard what his brother and sister were talking about. The girl asked:
– Who is our guest and where did you meet him?
“I met him when I was returning from the field,” the boy answered. “He stopped me and asked: “Son, what’s happening on the hill, why are so many people gathered there?” Joum-lata was buried. I said that they were burying a neighbor. He asked me again: “Well, did he die completely or not completely?” I didn’t know what to answer him, but then I said: “Yes, he’s completely dead, that’s why they’re burying him.”
- Well, you’re stupid! – the girl exclaimed. “The guest asked you that way not because he didn’t know that the deceased died completely or not completely. He wanted to know if the deceased had any relatives left.
- How could I know? - said the boy. Akhmat heard all this and thought:
“The girl is smart, I’ll marry her to my son!” However, tomorrow we will have to take a closer look at it.”
When dawn broke, the girl helped the guest wash, prepared food and set the table.
After breakfast, Akhmat called the boy and said:
- Here's a stalk of flax for you. Take it and give it to your sister. Ask her to ruffle this stem thoroughly, make yarn out of it, weave cloth from the yarn, bleach this cloth, sew linen out of it and bring it to me. Ask her to deal with all this before evening!
The boy laughed:
How can she do all this in one day?
“You take this stalk, and she’ll manage somehow,” answered Akhmat.
The boy took a stalk of flax to his sister and handed over everything that Akhmat had entrusted to him. The girl took the flax stalk from him and said:
- Okay, I'll do it!
Her brother began to ask her how she could do all this in one day.
- Eh, you don’t understand what’s the matter! The old man wants to test whether I am stupid or smart. Take this bamboo stick, take it to him, give it to him and say that your sister ordered: “Make a loom out of this bamboo stick and send it to your sister before noon - then by the evening she will have time to do everything and send you linen.”
The boy took a bamboo stick to Akhmat and conveyed his sister’s words.
Akhmat took a bamboo stick and said to the boy!:
- Son, find an egg somewhere and bring it to me.
The boy went to the barn where the chickens were laying, took an egg and brought it to the guest.
Akhmat gave him a new assignment:
- Take this egg to your sister and ask her to put it under the chicken. Let the hen hatch the chicken, and your sister will feed it, slaughter it and roast it, while I make the loom.
The boy took the egg to his sister and gave her everything that Akhmat had entrusted.
“Okay,” answered the sister. - Tell the prince that I will have time to hatch the chicken, but what will I feed it? Give him this millet grain and say: let him sow it, reap the harvest, thresh it and send it to me, otherwise the chicken will die of hunger!
The boy ran to Akhmat, conveyed what his sister had said, and gave him a grain of millet.
Then Akhmat became convinced that the girl was indeed unusually smart. He asked the owner to give his daughter in marriage to his son. He agreed.
A few days later, Akhmat sent his friends, who brought the girl and had a wedding. The wine flowed like a river, the tables were bursting with food. People ate and drank until the morning. And then the horsemen showed their skills in horse riding. And the prince’s daughter-in-law - her name was Rasidats - gave gifts to the winners.
A month has passed. Akhmat called his son and told him:
- Bring the saddled horses early in the morning, before dawn. Let's hit the road!
In the morning, Salbi brought the horses and they both set off. We drove for a long time. And so, when we reached the place where the father drove his son away twice, Akhmat stopped his horse and again said to Salbi the same thing as before:
- I'm hungry, tired. Feed me, shorten the path and lead me to a place where I could learn something.
What was Salby to do? And now he didn't know what to answer.
- How will I feed you, how will I shorten your path and where will I take you, where could you learn something?..
As soon as he finished speaking, his father again called him a fool and ordered him to go home.
Akhmat rode into the yard first, followed by his son at a jog.
Rasidats saw that her husband was very upset about something, and began to ask what happened to him.
Salbi told her everything. She laughed and told him:
- What a poor fellow! And that's why you're sad? How come you didn't realize?
“Yes, I didn’t understand what my father said, but you obviously understood everything!” – Salbi answered with annoyance.
“If I hadn’t figured this out, then I wouldn’t have anything to live in the world!” – Rasidats said.
Then Salbi asked:
– If you really understand, then explain what your father wants? Rasidats said:
- Okay, listen: when your father complained of hunger, you had to take the pouch from his belt, fill the pipe with tobacco and give it to him. He would light a cigarette and forget about hunger. When he ordered to shorten the road, you had to tell him something interesting, and, listening to you, he would forget about the long path. When he asked to take you somewhere where he could learn something, you would take him to someone's house where he could hear something new. That's what he wanted!
All this time, Prince Akhmat stood at the door and listened to what the husband and wife were talking about. When Rasidats finished, Akhmat thought: “I finally found a good daughter-in-law! And if you have to go on a long journey, you won’t have to worry about home.” After that he went and fell asleep peacefully.
And they lived in peace and friendship. But one day, foreigners attacked the prince’s possessions, took Prince Akhmat himself prisoner, destroyed the villages, and stole the cattle.
Akhmat languished in prison for a long time. And he began to ask the guards to allow him to see their prince - the evil Jat-kar.
They brought Akhmat to Jatkyar.
– Did you want to see me? What do you need? – asked Jatkyar.
“I have a request for you,” said Akhmat.
- Speak! - Jatkyar shouted.
“You are a brave and powerful prince,” Akhmat began. “Your land is vast and rich, your warriors are glorious. But listen to the old prince. What good will it do you if I sit in prison? Release me and you will receive a rich ransom!
- How can you, unfortunate one, pay off? What do you have that I don’t have? – Jatkyar asked mockingly.
“If you let me go,” Akhmat continued, “I will give you five hundred rams with straight horns and five hundred with curved horns, five hundred bulls with straight horns and five hundred bulls without horns.”
- How can you believe this? – Jatkyar was surprised. - And where will you get, if I let you go, such unprecedented cattle?
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll stay here, and you choose three people loyal to you and send them to my home.” But earlier they sent them to me - I will explain to them how to find the way.
“Okay,” Jatkyar agreed.
After this conversation, Akhmat was again put in prison.
Prince Jatkyar called three of his men and told him what the prisoner had offered him. Prince Jatkyar's people, without hesitation, prepared to go for the ransom.
Jatkyar sent them to the prisoner's prison so that he could teach them how to get there.
Akhmat looked at Jatkyar's envoys from head to toe and began to tell them how to get to his possessions.
“When you come to me,” he said, “you will find an ax under the balcony.” Sharpen it properly on the whetstone - it lies there. Then cut down the middle porch pillar of the balcony, and only then tell us who sent you and why you came.
“Okay,” said the messengers and set off. When they reached the possessions of Prince Akhmat and approached his house, they found an ax, sharpened it on a whetstone and cut down the middle pillar of the balcony.
Rasidats, the prince's daughter-in-law, saw all this, but did not interfere with them. On the contrary, she invited the messengers into the house, and she herself began to prepare food for them. Having finished this, she gave them water to wash their hands and fed them.
After that, the envoys of Prince Jatkyar told the young master that they had come on such and such a matter. Salbi listened to them carefully, but could not imagine how to cope with such an assignment.
“We still need to free our father,” Salbi decided. “Tomorrow I will call the people and order them to gather the cattle that the PB-slates spoke about.”
He called his subjects and told them about the mission with which the envoys of the evil Jatkyar had come.
- Where can I find five hundred rams with straight horns and five hundred bulls without horns? - the people were surprised.
We discussed this for a whole week, but came up with nothing. They collected only five hundred rams with curved horns and five hundred bulls with straight horns.
Smart Rasidats heard people in the yard making loud noise and shouting:
“We cannot carry out Prince Akhmat’s order!” Then she came out to them and said:
- I will explain to you the words of old Prince Akhmat. But for now, take the envoys somewhere else - they don’t need to know what I’m going to talk about.
When the messengers were taken away, Rasidats said:
“Prince Akhmat asks us to crush the enemy and save him. But for this we need to send an army. Prince Akhmat spoke about bulls and rams so that neither the evil Jatkyar nor his messengers would guess his intention. To save our old prince and defeat the enemy, we need a squad of five hundred soldiers with guns and the same number of soldiers with sabers. This is what the words of Prince Akhmat mean about five hundred bulls with straight horns and five hundred rams with curved horns. And in order to lead the prisoners to bring back the cattle that were taken from us, we need another five hundred people armed with sticks, and five hundred unarmed people. This is what the words of Prince Akhmat mean about five hundred rams with straight horns and five hundred bulls without horns. Prince Akhmat tells us that one of the messengers is a treacherous and dangerous person and he must be killed, and his companions captured and taken with him so that they can show the way. The most dangerous one can be recognized by the fact that it was he who first rushed to cut down the porch post.
People agreed with everything that the smart Rasidac advised. They gathered an army, led by Salbi, and unexpectedly attacked the evil Jatkyar. Having freed Prince Akhmat, they returned home.
I was there at that time and saw and heard everything.
When I returned home, I told my neighbors about everything. The first one told me:
- Live until we see everything you said with our own eyes and return home on all fours!
Another said:
- Live until we jump to the sky, pick off a star and make handles for our knives out of them!
The third said:
- Live until we go to the sea and bring back a full sieve of water!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru