Once upon a time there lived a lonely man in his small house. And he had only three horses. One horse was red, another was brown and the third was white. But no one had such horses: a red horse could catch up with an elk, a brown one could catch up with birds, and a third, white one, could catch up with wolves and foxes.
One day a man went hunting. He left the horses, tying them well, and propped up the house with a stick.
He left the house in the morning. Having walked until noon, he sat down to smoke tobacco. A little later someone began to say:
- Why are you tormented by your thoughts, huh? You are lonely, you have good horses. What more do you need? Go and rest!
He was surprised by what he heard. "Who could it be?" - I thought. I looked around, there was no one. And he went home, surprised.
Before reaching the house, he looked and saw that one horse was missing. And what! The best, fastest red horse that could catch up with the elk.
The man began to feel very sorry and cry, but what can you do! And who stole it is unknown, not even a trace was left on the grass.
And, left with two horses, he began to think: “I won’t hunt anymore, it’s better, however, I’ll guard the horses.”
But the man stayed at home for a while, and again he wanted to go to the lei. Leaving the horses again tied near the house, he went hunting overnight.
Returning from hunting the next day, he saw that one horse, the most beautiful and fastest, brown, was missing again.
Again he began to cry, saying: “Now I don’t have a beautiful and fast horse. How can I kill birds without it?”
He cried for a long time, and then, going up to the remaining horse, he began to talk to it:
“Do you know who took your friends away, who took them: a man or a wolf?” There are no traces! The horse answered him:
- Don’t be too sad, master. The one who took my comrades will give you payment. You will start living better, you will become rich. There’s only one bad thing: you won’t have us. They will probably take me away too, and I really feel sorry for you.
She said, and tears began to fall from her eyes. The owner cried even harder, hugging the white horse.
After a while his sadness passed. But he didn’t go far to hunt.
One day in late autumn, I woke up in the morning and saw that it had snowed. He began to think: “Should I go to the edge of the thicket, it’s close!” And, quickly getting dressed, he took the gun and went out. Approaching the horse, he looked at it, stroked it and left.
Having walked until noon, he sat down to rest on the bridge. While I was lighting a cigarette, someone said:
“Whoever you want to do good to, you keep going.” Is your friend missing, is he hungry? Go home and rest.
The man, surprised and frightened, quickly went home.
Arriving home, I saw that the last horse was gone. Only huge wolf tracks remained near the leash.
A man followed these steps.
After walking through the forest for three days, on the fourth day he came out into a large clearing and saw a small house in the distance. He walked all day to that house and only reached it in the evening.
There is one huge house in a clearing, and there is nothing else around it.
When I came closer, I saw an open door, and a large, large woman was sitting near the door.
The woman looked closely at the stranger and thought:
“Who is this? She lived seventy years and never saw anyone!” But when she found out that it was a man, she was delighted and began to call:
- Go, go, tell us who you are, where you are coming from and what you need.
A man entered the house. The woman sat him on her lap and, giving him her breast, began to examine him. The man began to suck and fell asleep. Waking up at night, he told everything: why he came, where he came from, how it happened.
Then the woman said:
“The one who took the horses from you is my son-in-law.” Wolf Miroz is his name.
And the woman taught how to find his house:
- When you leave here, go to the sunrise. By noon you will approach one house, but do not open the door. There will be a lot of livestock in the yard. Catch one bull, hit him with your chest and go into the house. But when you enter the house, do not sit down immediately, but ask for payment for the horses. He will begin to give you all the cattle, a wife, but you don’t take anything, just ask for a wooden box, and your happiness will come true. So the woman said and released the man. The man went and reached home exactly at noon. As she said, so I did. Walking around the house, he caught the bull and hit it.
When I entered the house, it was very dark. Although nothing was visible, he said hello, and the house brightened. He sees a nice little box standing on the bed.
The man began to say:
- You ate my horses, how will you pay me now? Wolf Miroz, without looking at the man, answered:
“I wouldn’t have taken your horses, but when I started to fight with the upper god, I took them because they were fast, and then I ate them.” I’ll give you nine horses for this, the best ones.
But the man did not agree and began to ask for his box. Then Mirosa began to say:
- Take half of the cattle and your wife. The man did not agree. Then the wolf, taking his box, began to say:
“When I look up, the tears are running like water; when I look down, they’re bloody.” And, giving it away, he said: “Take it, but don’t let it out of your hands.”
The man took the box, immediately left and went back home.
Walking through the forest, he felt tired, lay down and fell asleep.
When he stood up, it was as if someone said: “Get up, it’s late.” When he looked back, he saw that he was standing in the house, and a beautiful girl was sitting on the bed. He went out into the street - a yard full of cattle, the fences were made good and strong.
Surprised, he went into the hut, and the girl said to him:
“My father married me to you, consider me your friend.”
The man was very happy and kissed the girl. And from then on they began to live richly and cheerfully.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru