Padishah Bakhrom had forty sons - forty strong and handsome heroes.
One day Bakhrom and his sons went falconry. He took a large retinue with him, went far into the steppe and hunted for several days.
Bakhrom returned home with rich booty. Suddenly he sees: far, far away, on the edge of his kingdom, forty girls with large jugs on their shoulders are descending in single file from a high mountain. They went down to the river, filled jugs with water, climbed the mountain again and disappeared from sight. Surprised, Bakhrom stopped and, when the last girl disappeared behind the mountain, he said to his vazir:
“Now send messengers to find out who it is: peri or ordinary girls?” And why do they carry jugs of water from the river across the mountain?
Like a whirlwind, the messengers rushed on horses to a distant mountain and quickly disappeared from sight. Bakhrom went home. The returning messengers caught up with him at the entrance to the city.
This is what the messengers said to Bakhrom:
“Behind that distant mountain lives Padishah Diyor, he has forty daughters and not a single son. The kingdom of Diyor is poor and deserted because there is no water in it. Its fields, gardens and pastures are drying up without water. And the forty girls who were seen by the hunters going down to the river for water were the daughters of Padishah Diyor.
And the messengers also learned that Padishah Diyor promised to give his daughters to the one who has forty sons and who will help him cut the mountain and bring water to his country.
Bakhrom was happy that he had found brides for his sons. The next day, he sent matchmakers with rich gifts to Diyor and ordered them to convey that he was wooing all his forty daughters in marriage to his forty sons and that he agreed to bring water from his abundant river to his country.
Messengers ran throughout the country of Padishah Bakhrom, calling people to work. From early morning, the inhabitants of the country of Diyor also came to the mountain.
For forty days and forty nights the people dug a passage through the mountain. When the water flowed through the dissected mountain, a nationwide festival was organized, which lasted forty days and forty nights.
At the same time, the wedding of forty sons of Bakhrom and forty daughters of Diyor took place. The eldest sons married the eldest daughters, and the youngest son of Bakhrom, the handsome Bakhodur, married the youngest and most beautiful daughter of Diyor, Zarina.
Zarina, the younger sister, was not only beautiful, but affectionate and smart. She loved animals and birds. Gazelles, peacocks and ostriches lived in her garden, and she fed them herself. The birds greeted Zarina with a joyful squawk, and the peacocks followed on her heels.
But most of all she loved pigeons. A dovecote was built above the window of her room. Zarina threw grains to the pigeons right from the window. When she went out into the yard, pigeons would land on her shoulders and arms. They were not afraid of her, and she could pet them. Often, having filled her mouth with water, she fed the dove from her mouth. She did not want to believe the fairy tale that the diva hides her soul in a beautiful dove.
When water flowed into the kingdom of Diyor through the mountain, joyful Zarina walked along the bank of the new river and watched how the fields and meadows, irrigated with water, turned green.
Zarina looks around and can’t see enough of the flowering expanses that were once desert.
Suddenly Zarina saw a gray-haired, long-bearded old man with a kind face coming towards her. With one hand he leans on a staff, and in the other he holds a large dish with various seeds.
“Here, daughter, take this dish,” the old man said to Zarina. “Go along the river bank and throw a grain into the ground.” But don't look back until you've scattered all the grains!
Zarina took the dish from the old man’s hands. She walked along the river bank and, without looking back, threw everything and threw a grain into the ground. There was only a handful of seeds left on the dish. Suddenly she wanted to look back and see what was happening behind her.
“I’ve scattered almost all the grains!” - she said to herself and looked around.
And behind her, along the river bank, where she scattered grains, a whole garden had already grown: apricots, almonds, apple trees, cherries, peaches. The fruits of these trees quickly filled
juice and ripened. Zarina ran through the garden, laughing with happiness at the sight of such an abundance of fruits.
She began to pick them and try them. Each new fruit was sweeter and tastier than the previous one. But then she came across a small fruit, full of small golden grains, which seemed sweeter to her than honey. It was a fig. Then another, large, full of grains, red as rubies. Its juice was like thick, sweet wine. It was a pomegranate.
“These fruits are the best!” said Zarina. And she began to look for trees with these fruits, but there were only two of them. She looked at the dish and thought: “Apparently, there were just fig and pomegranate seeds left on the dish!” She quickly grabbed the remaining grains and scattered them on the shore. But the wind came and carried them into the river. Zarina regretted that she looked back too early, but there was nothing to do. That is why in the country of Diyor, fewer figs and pomegranates began to grow than other fruit trees.
The wedding celebrations are over. Bakhrom with forty sons and forty daughters-in-law returned to his kingdom. A long caravan of camels and horses stretched across the hot desert for a mile.
When the caravan had already passed half of its journey, a sand tornado appeared in front of it on a sultry afternoon. The tornado stood in one place, swaying from side to side, blocking the path of the caravan.
Horses and camels stopped, snorted and huddled together anxiously. The riders dismounted, people and animals stood like a dense wall, clinging tightly to each other out of fear. Nobody dared to move forward.
Then Bakhrom's youngest son Bakhodur, who married Princess Zarina, came forward, bowed to his father and asked permission to go and see what terrible force was blocking the path of the caravan.
When Bakhodur approached the tornado, the sand pillar shook, spun, grew and turned into a thick cloud, from which a terrible beast-like diva suddenly appeared.
“I’m waiting for you, Bakhodur!” - said the div. - Did you marry the daughter of Diyor, who planted gardens in my desert and wants to turn the whole earth into a blooming paradise? This should not happen! Give me your beauty now, or I will fill up the canal you dug, stop the river, and bury both kingdoms under the desert sands!
Bakhodur returned to the caravan and said that their road was blocked by an evil diva who demanded that Zarina be given to him.
“Otherwise he will fill up the dug canal and destroy both kingdoms!” - he said.
- Take me to the diva. It would be better for me to die than for the whole people to suffer! - Zarina said to her husband.
But Bakhodur did not agree to part with his wife and decided to go with her to the diva. They said goodbye to their father, sisters and brothers, went to the diva and said:
- We are ready to die together, just so that you do not harm our
peoples.
Div quickly picked them both up, rose high up and flew to the edge of the desert. There he sat down with the captives on the ground and led them to his home. In an underground cave, a huge monster, barely visible in the darkness, guarded the passage. When the diva appeared, the door opened and immediately slammed behind those who entered. Pushing Bakhodur and Zarina into a corner, the div said:
- I'm tired, I'll go to bed now. And in the morning I'll eat you both!
Div went deep into the cave, fell to the ground and began snoring. Bakhodur and Zarina began to wait for death.
“The day is already ending, our last night will soon come,” they thought, “and in the morning we will die...”
Zarina whispered to her husband:
- You see: in the corner on a stone stand there is a box. I heard from my grandmother that the soul of a diva is kept in a box hidden underground. There must be another box in this box. And in it the dove is a diva soul. If the box is broken, the diva will die immediately.
Bakhodur stood up quietly and with silent steps approached the stone stand where the box stood. Above her on the wall hung a huge sword. Bakhodur took it in his hands and struck the box with all his strength with his sword. The box broke. The wild roar of the awakened diva echoed throughout the cave.
The dungeon shook. Div rushed around the cave and rushed at the hero. But Bakhodur, seeing a second one in the broken box, swung his sword and hit it.
Div fell to the ground dead.
Bakhodur unlocked the heavy door of the cave and cut the monster that rushed at him with his sword. Holding hands tightly, Bakhodur and Zarina made their way out of the dungeon... It was deep night, the stars sparkled brightly in the sky.
Looking at the stars, Bakhodur and Zarina walked through the vast desert. At dawn they met a herd of horses, caught themselves two of the best horses and rode on.
The next morning they caught up with their caravan. From afar they heard the crying and screams of their relatives.
But when everyone saw Bakhodur and Zarina alive and unharmed, grief gave way to joy. Padishah Bakhrom ordered food to be prepared for everyone, organized a holiday - music thundered, singers sang, soldiers beat drums.
Suddenly a messenger from the country of Fringe rode up in a cloud of dust and announced:
— While you and your forty sons-heroes were visiting the kingdom of Diyor, foreign hordes attacked our city. They captured the capital, robbed
village The enemies set up an ambush near the city and are waiting for your return to take everyone prisoner.
Bakhrom prepared for battle. He placed forty sons-heroes at the front of the army, and at their head was his youngest son, Bakhodur, who defeated the diva himself.
With shouts, Bakhrom's army rushed towards the enemies. The warriors fought bravely, the heroic brothers fought bravely. But there were ten times more enemies.
The beautiful Zarina, without taking her eyes off, looked at the battle. Suddenly she became alarmed: “Has Bakhodur weakened? Will his brothers, the entire heroic army, have enough strength?
She could not bear it, jumped on a horse standing nearby, rode around the caravan and persuaded her sisters and all the women to quickly change into men's clothes and mount the horses. Then she hid them all behind a hill, biding her time. When it seemed to her that the enemies were about to defeat Bakhrom’s army, she shouted, beat the tambourine and led her female squad to help the tired warriors.
The enemies thought that a fresh, strong army had arrived to help Bakhrom.
The enemy warriors mixed up and turned back. Some were killed, others fled, others threw down their weapons and surrendered.
So the brave and smart Zarina helped her husband and saved the people from captivity.
The forty sons of Bakhrom and the forty daughters of Diyor lived a long time. Their descendants still live and tell the tale of the brave Bakhodur, who defeated the wonder of the desert, and of his beautiful and intelligent wife, who planted orchards on the banks of the river.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru