Zembeni is a great woman. She gave birth to two daughters. But she ate people in the country where she was, until she finished them off, ate them and animals; killed! man together with the beast; cooked the meat of man and beast together. It so happened that the people were completely finished off, leaving her with her two daughters. Her daughters were famous among the tribes, they were famous
A young man came, the chief's child. The name of that young man was Sikulumi, he came to choose a beautiful girl from among these girls. He came in the afternoon. Zembeni was not there, she had gone hunting. Another name she was called by was Zvanide; for her toe was terribly long; because of him she was visible; when she appeared, dust rose; while she had not yet appeared, dust appeared, raised by her finger; for the finger appeared first, where Zvanide walked. When it happened that Sikulumi came; That's right, he found these two girls; he saw, of course, that they were beautiful. He loved them and they loved him; for he was a chief's child, worthy of a glance. “But they shed a lot of tears because of him, they said: you came here in the wrong place.” We are afraid; We don’t know what to do with you, because our mother eats people. We, you see, are only afraid. “One said: look at my cheek.” Is she my mother? We don't know where to put you.
So Sikulumi came there to the girls, he came alone. He left the house walking with his pack of dogs; but he left them in the reeds. “The girls came up with a trick, saying: if we tell him to leave, Zvanide will pursue him; They dug a hole in the middle of the house, put him inside, closed it and sat on top of it.
As the sun set, dust appeared. “They said: here she comes.” The finger came first, followed by Zvanide. As soon as she arrived, she laughed, she laughed, she laughed and rolled on the ground, saying: eh, eh! My house smells delicious today. My children, what did you do? Where does this smell come from? She came in, she laughed, patting them, saying: my children, what is happening here in the house? — The girls answered: enough! Stop bothering us; we don't know where we could get anything. “She said: let me look, my children.” “They said: we don’t know what you want to find, there’s nothing like that here.” “She said: okay, get up, I’ll look.” - They answered: we will not rise. We don't know anything. Do as you please. We don't know what you will do to us, since this is how you are
disfigured us, that's what we are. The girl spoke, showing her her cheek, which she had eaten. Zvanide fell behind and fell asleep. At dawn she went out and went hunting. When she came out, they saw because the dust had ended that she was out of sight. They pulled out Sikulumi. “One said: let’s go.” “The other one said: oh, child of my father, go yourself.” I cannot go with you, go with such shame. You see what I am like; my mother mutilated me. Go alone. I myself will stay so that Zvanide can finish me off.
And the girl went with Sikulumi; They walked until sunset. He walked along the reeds, looking for his dogs; he caught them, the dogs went with him. Finally it got dark. At dawn they walked tired, saying: if we sleep, she will overtake us. We will walk day and night until dawn; maybe we'll leave her behind.
Zvanide came home. She found her daughter alone. - Without asking, she went further, saying: where did my child go? She walked until dawn. At noon, Sikulumi and the girl saw dust. “The girl turned to Sikulumi, she said: here she is Zvanide, here she is; she caught up. Where will we go? They saw a tall yellow tree; they ran and climbed onto it; the dogs remained below. Zvanide came - a woman of great strength. She came with her axe. She looked up and saw them. Without asking, with an ax on wood; While she was cutting down the tree with force, the dogs bit her; she hacked at him with force. When the sound of wood breaking was heard, the dogs grabbed her with force: one tore off her head, and the other her arm; the others tore off all her limbs, they scattered her far to all sides; others pulled out her guts.
The tree immediately grew, it became as it was in the beginning. Zembeni stood up again, all her limbs united; she stood up, took an ax, and chopped down the tree with force; when its crack was heard, the dogs again tore off her head and limbs; each of them ran with one part of the body, ran to the river, to the rock; everything was done in a similar way; They took pebbles, rubbed their members and made flour.
After this, Sikulumi and the girl came down from the tree; they ran, they went to the people of Sikulumi. The dogs poured powdered Zembeni meat into the water. They went and followed Sikulumi. And Zembeni died, she ended. Sikulumi arrived at his home; a mourning was arranged. - The bulls were slaughtered, they rejoiced greatly, saying: where did you get such a beautiful girl? We didn't think you were here. We thought you were dead.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru