There lived a nomad with four sons, and his daughter was the fifth. The sons and daughter are all adults. The sons constantly hunted a lot of wild deer. One day the eldest son said to his father:
“We found a dead wolf in the tundra, but didn’t take it. What's the use of a dead wolf? Father said:
- Why didn’t they bring it? For the edge of clothing, wolf skin will come in handy. Next time be sure to bring...
Indeed, the next time the sons brought the wolf skin. When the skin had dried, the father ordered his daughter to sew a kukhlyanka with a wolf skin trim for his eldest son. My sister sewed a tunic with a wolf skin trim for my older brother. The elder put on this kukhlyanka in the morning, blood flowed from his nose, and by the evening he died.
The next day, the second brother put on a tunic with a wolf skin trim, blood flowed from his nose, and by the evening he died. The same thing happened with the third brother. The reindeer herder has only one youngest son left.
The father understood why the children died and forbade his daughter to sew clothes with wolf skin trim for his youngest son. The rest of the wolf skin was hung on a pole. The father did not order his youngest son to graze the deer, but ordered him to always stay at home. The son and daughter are always at home, and the father is in the reindeer herd.
One day the father returned from the herd very angry: it turned out that the wolves had killed a lot of deer. The angry father said to his son:
-What will you do? Or do you always intend to stay at home? I am constantly at work alone, and you do nothing! You can’t live with me anymore, go wherever you want now! Either fly down, or rise high, or make your own edge out of wolf skin!
When the father said this, the son was very offended and turned to his sister:
“Sew me all the white clothes, and make the edges out of wolf skin.”
His sister was frightened and, crying, began to sew him white clothes with a wolf skin trim. While his sister was sewing clothes, the young man made himself a stick with a bell. This time my father decided to spend the night at home. When his father fell asleep, the young man began to get dressed, humming. I got dressed and left the yaranga with a stick. The father woke up, but his son was not there. I got scared, jumped out and ran after my son. When he began to catch up, the son fell to the ground and disappeared. The father started to go back, but turned around and saw his son again. I quickly ran after him. As soon as he began to catch up, the son took off from the ground and... rose into the air. When he got up, the father said:
-Where are you going? Come home! Who are you leaving me with?
The son answered him:
- No, I won’t come back. After all, you told me that I was not doing anything, but you yourself left me at home, did not let me into the herd. You wanted me to die or go up. So I got up.
The father, weeping bitterly, left his son. The young man walked very slowly and for a long time along the upper ground. Finally I reached a small yaranga. The owner of the yaranga asked where the young man was going.
He replied:
“I’m looking for a good village where life would be happy.”
The man replied:
- In a little while you will reach that village.
Only from here you will first reach a large village. But you are unlikely to pass this village. The people of this village are bad.
The young man spent the night with this man and moved on. It took a long time. Having rounded the hill, I saw a man catching fish. He came up, stopped behind this man, and began to watch how he fished. When he was fishing, he pulled the baby out of the hole. At first the baby moved, then froze. When it froze, the catcher broke off its handle and ate it. The young man rang a bell on a stick. That catcher turned around. Turning around, I saw a young man in white clothes. The man said to the young man:
-Where did you come from, beautiful young man? I’ll go quickly and tell people at home to prepare something for you, and you should take care of my prey.
When the man left, the young man followed his trail. That man reached the dugout. Having reached it, he climbed up to the vent and shouted:
– Spread out the skin for skinning. There, good food came to me on its own. Wait, I’ll bring it now!
When he finished speaking, the young man pressed himself to the ground, afraid that they would see him. A man walked past the young man to the shore. When I approached the ice hole, I did not find the young man there. He approached the other catchers and said:
“It’s amazing, good food just came on its own, and while I was going to tell them to get ready for skinning, it ran away somewhere without permission.”
Other catchers responded:
- Why do you fish separately? So I missed the food that was coming.
Meanwhile, the young man reached a large village. There, opposite the large dugout, boys and girls were playing ball. The young man approached the players. One of the guys playing was very handsome and ran the fastest, and with him were three girls. They saw a young man playing, and the local guy said to him:
-Where did you come from? Be my guest. Let's go eat at my house.
We entered a large dugout. An old man and an old woman are sitting there.
The old people were delighted and asked:
- Beautiful young man, where did you come from? At least you turned out to be our son!
The young man told them where he came from. The old man said:
- Live here with us. Here in front of you are our three daughters. If you want to get married, choose any of them yourself.
The young man stayed here to live and married a younger girl. The old man said to his son-in-law:
- Take a walk there at the exit, but I warn you, if you hear a whistle, don’t turn around, otherwise you’ll feel bad.
The young man was always walking on the street. One day I heard a whistle, but didn’t turn around. I went further. I heard the whistle again. I turned around and saw a dugout in the distance. A woman is standing at the entrance to the dugout. She saw the young man and smiled tenderly at him. When evening came, the young man went home. Just as we were about to eat, a ringing sound and someone’s footsteps were heard at the end of the dugout. The old man said to his son-in-law:
- That's how naughty you turned out to be! After all, I told you not to turn around when you hear the whistle. Now you are dead!
After a while, a woman in beautiful clothes came in with a bucket and a dish filled with food. The woman smiled tenderly at the young man again, and he also smiled back at her. The woman said:
- Eat this!
The young man ate what was on the platter and drank water from the bucket. The woman said:
- Get dressed, let's go home now. The young man threw his outer pants to the old man:
- Here, take it, you’ll wear it! He took off his top coat and threw it to the old woman:
- Here you go, you can wear it!
After this, the young man and the woman who had come went to the small dugout. Near the outer passage are two large polar bears sitting on chains. As soon as the young man and the woman approached them, the polar bears rushed at the young man with a growl. But the woman covered it. the bears' eyes, and the young man passed. There were two large brown bears on leashes near the inner passage. Seeing the young man, these bears began to rush at him. The woman also covered the eyes of these bears, and the young man passed by. We entered. The woman, it turns out, lived alone. The dugout was very high, the vent was at the very top, and the large grease pits burned dimly. When night came, they lay down next to each other. The woman covered herself with her kukhlyanka, and the young man with his. Immediately the young man fell asleep.
At midnight, he sensed danger in his heart and woke up. I opened my eyes and saw: a very small woman came out from under the grease pit, and in her hands she had a huge woman’s knife. She approaches the young man and sharpens the knife, while she looks keenly at the young man. Pretending that he had just woken up, he turned over on his other side. As soon as he turned, a ringing sound was heard, and the little woman disappeared somewhere. Standing up, he cut off the young woman’s braids. Having cut off her braids, he slowly dragged the woman to his place and dressed her in his kuhlyanka. He himself lay down in the woman’s place, attached her braids to his hair and covered himself with her kuhlyanka. Again he pretended to be asleep.
After a while, a small woman came out from under the grease pit with a knife in her hands. Approaching the sleeping people, she sharpened the knife. Here she comes. She touched the woman: Here is my son-in-law, because he doesn’t have braids. Of course, my daughter ordered him to cover himself with his own kukhlyanka. She approached the young man: Here is my daughter with her braids and her kukhlyanka covered. She brought her knife to the neck of the hairless woman: Of course, this is my son-in-law, if I had a daughter, then the braids would be in place. Once again she checked the heads of the sleeping people, and again brought the knife to the neck of the hairless woman. Bringing it up, she pressed the knife and cut her daughter’s neck.
Then the young man jumped up, took the knife away from the little woman and cut her neck. He threw the bodies of the women into the vestibule of the dugout to the brown bears. When I looked at the outlet of the dugout, it began to narrow. With all his strength he jumped up to the vent and grabbed its edge with his hands. I barely managed to crawl through the hole when it completely shrank. When I looked at this dugout, I only saw a round mound: there was no entrance or outlet. At this time, dawn came. The young man went to the large dugout. When he arrived, he jumped out of the hallway and the old people were very happy and shouted:
- Oh, where did you come from? Are you really saved? The young man replied:
“I killed them both there.” The old man got dressed. Coming out, he climbed onto his dugout and shouted loudly:
- My son-in-law killed the cannibals. From now on, young guys will grow well and without fear.
The young man remained in this village forever.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru