Ossetian fairy tales in English. Александр Юрьевич Кожиев

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      – Put the wheat grain in the barns before morning, but make sure that the stacks are not moved.

      The poor man thought about it and became sad:

      – “He makes me do the impossible! He’ll have my head on the stake of the wattle!”

      And he was no longer an old man: the one who pulled his beard made him a young man, and when the daughter of the Jinn King saw him, she liked him. She saw that he was sitting sad, and asked:

      – “What's wrong with you? Why are you sitting sad?”

      – “What makes me sad?” he answered. “Your father has given me a task that is utterly impossible to accomplish. I will fail, and my head will be cut off.”

      – “Don't let it make you sad,” said the daughter of the Jinn King. “We shall accomplish everything! In the evening I will call all the mice I have, and they will pour all the wheat grain into the barns.”

      In the evening, the daughter of the Jinn King calls the mice with a shout:

      – “Mice, wherever you are, come here and pour into the barns until morning all the grains that are in the haystacks, so that not a single grain is lost and that the haystacks are not moved from their places.”

      All the mice gathered, which only existed in the world, and did not leave a single grain in the haystacks, poured them into the barns, and the haystacks were not even moved.

      The Jinn King got up in the morning and asked the young man:

      – “Well, did you do anything?” And the king's daughter warned him:

      – Your father will ask you naggingly, but don't be afraid, do your work, and let it be what pleases God.

      The Jinn King, without saying anything, gave him a second task:

      – “A church must appear in my courtyard overnight, but it must be made of wax and nothing else.”

      The young man, poor man, became anxious and thought, “God has cursed me.” He sits sad again, and the king's daughter said to him:

      – “Don't despair, it's easy to do. Today I will gather all the bees I have, and by morning the church will be ready.”

      She called out to the bees and said to them:

      – “Build a church of pure wax overnight!”

      The evening came. The bees began to work so hard that by morning the church was ready.

      In the morning, the Jinn King got up, went outside, looked around the courtyard and saw the church of pure wax.

      And the king's daughter warned the young man in advance:

      – “Don't wait for the third task, it's impossible, and I can't help you. We must both run away from here!”

      The young man got into the boat with the girl, and they started to flee; the Jinn King found out about it when they were already far away, and sent a large chase after them.

      Meanwhile, the fugitives came to the shore of the lake, and the daughter of the Jinn King, who had a magic gift, made it so that they turned into a pair of ducks, a male and a female, they began to frolic in the lake.

      The chase also went to the shore of the lake – there was no one. They searched everywhere, but found nothing, and they paid no attention to the ducks.

      The chase turned back to the Jinn King. He asked them:

      – “Well, what did you come back with? Didn't you catch up with them?”

      – “We didn't see anything anywhere!” – They answered. “We only noticed two ducks, a male and a female, in one lake.”

      The Jinn King was saddened:

      – “I forgot to warn you, so you did not recognize them. It was them. Chase them down, catch them and bring them here.”

      And the daughter of the Jinn King had a gift of prophecy. She said to the young man:

      – “Father has recognized us! There is a new chase after us, let's run!”

      They ran, looking back, and saw a chase behind them in the distance. The girl said to the young man:

      – “We can't run any farther. I will make a church appear here; one of us will become a priest and the other a deacon, and we will not be recognized.”

      A church appeared and they became a deacon and a priest.

      The members of the chase saw the church and thought that the fugitives might hide there. But seeing only the priest and deacon there, who were performing divine service, they were ashamed to interrupt them and turned back on their way. And on the way back they looked everywhere for the fugitives, but found them nowhere; so they returned home.

      The Jinn King asked:

      – “Well, have you found them?”

      And they answered again:

      – “We did not meet even local people on the way. Only in one place a priest and a deacon were performing divine service in a church, and we did not see anyone else.”

      The Jinn King said:

      – “It was them, but you did not recognize them. Now you won't be able to find them anymore! My daughter failed to recognize herself! She was a rascal and she ran away like a rascal! There's nothing we can do about her now, let's leave them.”

      The daughter of the Jinn King recognized that the chase had turned back, and said to her husband:

      – “Now let's go without fear!”

      They came to his house. The old woman had already died, but her house under a thatched roof stood as before.

      – “Here is our house for you!” – said the young man to his wife. “This is how poor I have lived!”

      And his wife replied:

      – “Property is a matter of time. Don't worry about that.”

      She made a request to God:

      – “Let there be tall houses on this spot before morning!”

      And in the morning they woke up and saw tall houses. And the daughter of the Jinn King said again:

      – “Let these houses be filled with gold ornaments as needed! Let there be garments for my husband of costly fabrics to dress himself from head to toe! And let the best of women's garments appear for myself, with two shifts!” And she also asked: “God, let there be a table the whole length of our house, filled with abundant food and drink!”

      The husband and wife sat down at the table, partook of their food, and had heartfelt conversations with each other about their love. And they would not admire each other. Then she said again:

      – “Let a guard stand at our doors, that we may be rid of idle visitors.”

      So СКАЧАТЬ