Copper Man
One day, a landowner caught a copper man in a field and locked him in a barn. There is a small window in the barn, it is completely dark inside. And the landowner went to other countries to invite guests to come and see the copper man.
The copper man saw the landowner's adopted son through the window.
Take the keys from your mother in your pocket, open the door for me, I’ll do good for you,” he says to the boy. brass man.
The foster child quietly took the keys from his mother’s pocket and released the copper man into freedom, and put the keys back in his pocket.
Here is a landowner riding down the street in a large cart on three stallions, smoking a pipe. Overseas landowners follow him. Everyone wants to see the copper man. More than a hundred carriages stopped at the gate. The servant opened the gate and let everyone into the courtyard.
Gentlemen, stand in order. Otherwise no one will see the copper man.
The landowner put all the invited guests in line. The adopted child is neither alive nor dead from fear. The landowner opened the barn doors, searched all the corners - the copper man disappeared. The landowner attacked his wife:
Who allowed it to be released?
He grabbed an ax from under the bench and swung it at his wife. The foster boy grabbed the landowner's hand:
Don't kill her, it was I who released the copper man.
The landowner immediately attacked him. The guests in the yard saw the brawl and laughed. The landowner took off the velvet clothes from the adopted son and dressed him in rags.
Go wherever your eyes look so that I don’t see you here anymore.
The guests laughed and laughed, turned the horses and rode back home.
The adopted child walks around the world, looking for work. He finally hired himself to another landowner, and after two months he liked the owner’s daughter. People laugh:
The landowner's daughter became friends with the beggar!
From shame and anger, the landowner does not know where to go. Then he decided to get rid of the employee.
“Here, Vaska,” he says, “I’ll give you three dozen birds to guard.” If you lose only one, you will receive a spear in your heart.
Vasily only managed to take the hares outside when they all ran away in different directions. That's why they are hares! And I want to cry, but the tears won’t flow. He sat down on the edge of a steep ravine and thought: “The copper man promised me good things, but things got worse.” And he burst into tears.
Hearing the crying, the copper man came to him.
Why are you crying?
He spoke about his grief.
Don't cry, I will do good for you.
The copper man led him along a deep ditch. A golden hut appeared ahead. We went there. Unprecedented dishes are on the table.
“Sit down at the table,” said the copper man.
Vasily sat down and ate his fill. When they left the table, the copper man gave him a handkerchief.
If you need to do anything, unfold the scarf and all your wishes will come true.
True, as soon as Vasily unfolded the handkerchief, the hares immediately came running. In the evening he brought the hares home. The landowner cannot utter a word in surprise.
“Fill this bag with sheep tongues,” the landowner ordered, pulling out a large bag.
Vasily unfolded the handkerchief, and the bag was filled to the top with tongues.
“Nothing can be done with him,” thought the landowner. And he had to give his daughter to a worker.
Categories:One day in late autumn a hunter was returning from the forest. Tired, hungry and decided to rest.
He sat down on a stump by a frozen stream, threw off his pester - a birch bark bag - from his shoulders and took out of it a large flat cake - taban. As soon as I took a bite, something rustled close to the shore.
The hunter parted the sedge and saw a whip lying on the ice. He wanted to lift it. I took a closer look, and it was not a whip at all, but a snake.
The snake raised its head, saw the hunter and said plaintively and plaintively:
- Save me kind person. You see, my tail is frozen to the ice. Help me out, otherwise I’ll disappear here.
The hunter took pity on the snake, took an ax from his belt and broke the ice around the snake's tail. The snake crawled ashore, barely alive.
- Oh, I'm cold, buddy! Warm me up.
The hunter picked up the snake and put it in his bosom.
The snake warmed up and said:
- Well, now say goodbye to life, your sheep's head! Now I'll bite you!
- What you! What you! - the hunter was scared. “After all, I did you a good thing—I saved you from certain death.”
“You saved me, but I will destroy you,” the snake hissed. “I always pay for good with evil.”
“Wait, snake,” says the hunter. “Let’s go along the road and ask the first person we meet how to pay for the good.” If he says - with evil, you will destroy me, and if he says - with good, then you will let me go.
The snake agreed.
So the hunter walked along the road, and the snake curled up on his chest.
They met a cow.
“Hello, cow,” says the hunter.
“Hello,” the cow answers.
Then the snake stuck its head out from the hunter’s bosom and said:
- Judge us, cow. This man saved me from death, but I want to destroy him. Tell me, how should we pay for good?
“I pay for good with good,” answered the cow. “My landlady feeds me hay, and I give her milk for it.”
- Do you hear? - says the hunter to the snake. “Now let me go, as agreed.”
“No,” the snake answers. - A cow is a stupid beast. Let's ask someone else.
“Hello, horse,” says the hunter.
“Great,” the horse answers.
The snake stuck its head out and said:
- Judge us, horse. This man saved me from death, but I want to destroy him. Tell me, how should we pay for good?
“I pay for good with good,” answered the horse. “The owner feeds me oats, and I work for him for it.”
- You see! - says the hunter to the snake. “Now let me go, as agreed.”
“No, wait,” the snake answers. “A cow and a horse are domestic animals, they live near people all their lives, so they stand up for you.” Let's go into the forest and ask wild beast whether I should destroy you or not.
There is nothing to do - the hunter went into the forest.
He sees a birch tree growing in the forest, and on the lowest branch there is a wild cat sitting.
The hunter stopped near a birch tree, and the snake stuck its head out and said:
- Judge us, cat. This man saved me from death, but I want to destroy him. Tell me, how should we pay for good?
The cat flashed green eyes and says:
- Come closer. I'm old, I can't hear well.
The hunter approached the very trunk of the birch tree, and the snake stuck out even more and shouted:
- This man saved me from death, but I want to destroy him!.. Do you hear now? Judge us...
The cat released her sharp claws, jumped on the snake and strangled it.
“Thank you, cat,” said the hunter. “You helped me out of trouble, I will repay you kindly for that.” Come with me, you will live in my hut, sleep on a soft pillow in the summer, and on a warm stove in the winter. I will feed you meat and give you milk.
The hunter put the cat on his shoulder and went home.
Since then, a man with a cat great friendship live.
Udmurt fairy tales.
Tales about animals.
Fairy tales.
Realistic fairy tales.
“When a person’s inquisitive gaze begins to penetrate into what surrounds him, fairy tales about animals and plants appear. ancient man tries to explain the reason for this or that peculiarity of representatives of the surrounding world. This is how fairy tales arise about why a bear hides in a den for the winter, why rye does not have a whole stalk of ears, why a pea consists of two halves, etc. Of course, these explanations are still a pure figment of fantasy, but they are already evidence of that that a person wants to know everything, that it has become impossible for him to live in ignorance.
In ancient times, man was largely dependent on the ability to recognize the habits and morals of animals. In tales about animals, the Udmurt - a hunter and nature lover - preserved and brought to the present day observations of the natural behavior of animals and animals. He treated them as his smaller brothers, although sometimes in some ways - in strength, agility, speed - they were superior to humans. Observing the successes and failures in communicating with the animal world, he began to pass on his experience to other generations through fairy tales about animals.
We now call fairy tales what for the first listeners were lessons in hunting and natural history, which taught us to respect the power of the bear, calling him “master of the forest” and even worshiping him in order to appease him and win him over. On occasion, however, he can be deceived: he is strong, but simple-minded. The wolf is weaker than the bear, but more impudent and stupid. In addition, he is always hungry, or rather, insatiable. The wolf is so stupid that even such harmless animals as a hare or a kid can outwit him. The long-tailed fox Vassa in the Udmurt fairy tale is cunning, as in the fairy tales of other peoples, flattering with the strong and arrogant with the weak, but she is also stupid. A rooster, a dove, and a cat defeat her without much difficulty. Over time, these tales ceased to be lessons in natural history: humanity has stepped far forward towards true knowledge. And fairy tales remained fairy tales.
Why do we still love fairy tales about animals? Is it because, firstly, they help us get to know our “younger brothers” - animals better and, secondly, allow us to critically and not without humor evaluate our own behavior and the actions of the people around us. Arrogance, bragging, arrogance, cowardice, deceit, attributed in fairy tales to the bear, wolf, fox and other animals, don’t they help us take a stricter look at ourselves and the circle of our acquaintances? Don't they instill in us modesty, benevolence, integrity, and selflessness? Yes, yes and yes! Not by chance characteristic feature A modern Udmurt fairy tale about animals is the victory of a weak character over a strong and cruel one: a kid defeats a wolf, a rooster or dove defeats a fox, a cat defeats a bear. The heroes of fairy tales about animals, having retained their traditional habits and characters, have now acquired new life and perform a noble task: they help raise a new person to be kind, strong, generous, ridiculing everything inert, alien, backward.
Fairy tales are younger than fairy tales about animals. They contain what has been achieved by man and what has so far seemed unrealistic. In other words, fairy tales capture the people’s dream of an omnipotent, omnipotent man living on earth and conquering time, space, fire, and water. He managed this with the help of magical means obtained through labor and kindness. The world of the Udmurt fairy tale amazes with its ordinariness and fantasy. Her heroes experienced hunger and cold, injustice and deception. Struggling with need and untruth, they perform miracles: they climb into the sky, descend underground, do not burn in fire, do not drown in water. Thanks to wonderful items and helpers, they defeat the strongest opponents. These tales reflect one of the first stages of a person’s struggle with evil forces nature, the victory of the tireless seeker and worker over them, the wealth of the soul and his moral beauty.
The wonderful gift received by the hero of a fairy tale is taken away from him by cunning and deceit by envious and evil people: merchants, priests, rich people. However fairy tale hero in the end, he achieves punishment for the offenders and again becomes the owner of the magical gifts intended for him. Why? Yes, because the people-creator and worker, at a time of lawlessness and oppression, believed in their creative forces and in the inevitable triumph of justice. True, he did not know in what ways this would be achieved, but he dreamed about it in fairy tales. He dreamed of wonderful helpers: a self-cutting axe, an invisibility scarf, rejuvenating apples, a self-assembled tablecloth, a self-dancing pipe, self-propelled bast shoes and others. They promised him a worthy reward for his work, relief from hard work, longevity, reduction of distances, good rest and much, much more, which would make life wonderful and amazing.
The hero of an Udmurt fairy tale is neither a king nor a prince, neither a king nor a prince. Most often it’s just Ivan or Poor Ivan. Sometimes it is a nameless soldier who has served the Tsar for a long time as a soldier and remains an orphan in this world: not a stake, not a yard, not a penny for a rainy day. And this is what is characteristic: the disadvantaged hero is not embittered, not bitter, but on the contrary, his heart is kind and sympathetic, his mind is bright and clear, his hands are dexterous and skillful. Such a hero confronts enemies strong and powerful. Yes, he not only fights, but also wins, as, for example, in the fairy tales “Poor Ivan”, “Gundyr Inmar and Prok the Headman”.
Why is the hero of a fairy tale omnipotent, omnipotent? Is it only because he became the owner of fantastic helping gifts? After all, these same gifts, falling into the wrong hands, almost lose their good power. Probably, the point is not in them, but in the fact that the hero of a fairy tale usually acts not only on his own behalf, but also on behalf of those whose interests he defends more than his own - on behalf of the family, fellow villagers, and people. This is what makes him invincible and omnipotent. Evil forces opposing the hero in fairy tales appear either as traditional fairy-tale kings or merchants, or are personified in the form of a serpent, devils and the god Inmar himself. These forces stand in the way of the hero to happiness and prevent him from living honest people, dooming them to troubles and extinction. But the hero overcomes them.
So, we can say that in fairy tale the main and indispensable moments are struggle, exploits, and extraction. Therefore, all the forces operating in it are sharply divided into two camps: the heroes themselves, heroes in the literal sense, and their enemies. A feature of fairy tales is the technique of exaggeration and hyperbolization. The difficulties in them are exaggerated so much that they seem impossible, the carriers of an evil principle - insurmountable, the possibilities of magical objects - innumerable or inexhaustible. But main character For the time being, he doesn’t particularly stand out in terms of intelligence, strength, and skill. All he has is kind heart sensitive to injustice and people's grief. It is this kind heart that makes him omnipotent. Thanks to him, he receives magical assistants, magical objects or a magical skill as a reward. That is why fairy tales are called magical.
The youngest of all fairy tales in science are considered realistic, or everyday. When a person was completely dependent on nature, when his immediate future depended on luck in hunting or fishing, legends, myths, and fairy tales about animals served him as a living book of life, they reflected his experience. The experience was replenished, and the oral book about it was replenished. In a fairy tale, an ancient man begins not only to share his life experiences, but also to dream about such helpers, objects, such a skill that could make him many times stronger and more powerful. A poor man, in order to achieve a little prosperity, had to be dexterous and cunning, resourceful and quick-witted. Then tales began to appear about the poor - deceivers and cunning people who cleverly deceived the self-righteous and greedy rich. The heroes of these fairy tales have no magical helpers, no miraculous gifts or skills. They don't need to make their way to the sun or go down into underground kingdom. And their goals are earthly and their means of achieving them are also everyday. They, driven to extremes by need, seek elementary justice, forcing the rich man, against his own desire, to return to the poor man what he or his brothers have earned. Their only wealth helps them in doing this: dexterity and intelligence.
The themes of everyday fairy tales are exceptionally diverse. You can find an example for literally all occasions in Udmurt everyday tales. Among them there are fairy tales on favorite themes, and they have their own favorite heroes. Thus, in most fairy tales the themes of the hero’s marriage, happiness, and fate vary.
Tales about the clever Aldar Ivan or Aldar Agai are especially popular among the Udmurt people. This is certainly a poor, but smart man. IN lately he was somewhat displaced by Lopsho Pedun. Interesting story is happening before our eyes with this amazing hero. The antics of Lopsho Pedun remained as a memory of past times, as an example of humor that testified to the moral health of the Udmurt people.
An everyday fairy tale is a generalization, a typical reflection of life phenomena. And yet she is a fairy tale. Not a true story, not a separate fact of reality. It clearly shows the fairytale beginning, the fairytale essence. What is being told may have happened in some detail to someone somewhere in life, or rather, could have happened. A deft, smart worker, for example, could outwit the owner once, twice, several times. But this happened extremely rarely. In the overwhelming majority, it was the other way around: the owner would not be the owner if he did not profit at the expense of others, that is, at the expense of those who worked.
Some fairy tales show their age, that is, individual details can be used to tell approximately the time of their creation. However, for the most part, the tale does not reveal age. Only a specialist can sometimes figure it out. The fairy tale itself has no use for this: it is always young, always beautiful, just like the people who created it."
Candidate of Philological Sciences N Kralina.
Udmurts are a people in Russia, indigenous people Udmurtia. Udmurts also live in Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Perm, Kirov, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions. The traditional occupation of the Udmurts was agriculture and animal husbandry, they were engaged in hunting, fishing and beekeeping. Udmurt villages were located along the banks of rivers and were small - a few dozen households. Traditional housing The Udmurts had a log hut with a cold entryway under a gable roof. The decoration of the home included many decorative woven items. Udmurt clothing was made from canvas, cloth and sheepskin. There were numerous decorations made of beads, beads, and coins.
Folk tales tell about fictitious events, but are connected with the history and life of the people. Like fairy tales of other peoples, there are Udmurt tales about animals, magical, heroic, everyday.
Swallow and mosquito
Tit and crane
Tit and crow
Mouse and Sparrow
Cat and squirrel
Hunter and snake
Silly kitten
Hare and Frog
Black Lake
The fisherman's son and the vumurt
How a hunter spent the night by the fire
Old man with old woman and birch tree
To the 155th anniversary of the birth of G.E. Vereshchagin
Teddy bear hero
Three sisters went into the forest in the summer to pick lingonberries. In the forest they separated, and one got lost. The two sisters searched and searched for the third, but they did not find it. So the two of them went home. They waited and waited for her at home, but she didn’t come. We grieved for our unfortunate sister and forgot. Meanwhile, the sister, having gotten lost in the forest, wandered until nightfall and stopped for the night; climbed into the hollow of a large linden tree and slept. At night, a bear came up to her and began to caress her like a man: he stroked her on the head, then patted her on the back, making it clear that he would not do anything bad to her. The bear inspired confidence in himself, and the girl did not fear him. The girl cried and sobbed and resigned herself to her fate. In the morning the sun has risen and the bear leads her to his den. The girl went and began to live in a bear’s den. The bear first fed her berries, and then began to feed her all sorts of things. The girl gave birth to a son from the bear, and he began to grow by leaps and bounds. A year later, the son says to the bear:
- Come on, daddy, fight!
- Let's.
They fought and fought, but the bear overcame.
- Feed me sweeter, daddy! - says the little bear to the bear.
The bear feeds his son sweetly, and the son grows by leaps and bounds.
The next year the cub again invites the bear to fight.
We fought and fought, and again the bear overcame us.
- Feed me sweeter, daddy! - the little bear says to his father.
The bear feeds his son, and the son grows by leaps and bounds.
In the third year the son again says to his father:
- Come on, daddy, fight!
- Let's!
They fought and fought - the son took his father by the leg and threw him up. The bear fell and was killed.
- Didn't you kill your father, shooter? - the mother asks her son.
“We fought with him, I overcame him, and he died,” says the son.
The mother sends her son to the snakes to weave bast shoes. The son took the pester and set off. He came to the snakes and saw many of them. He beats them and tears off their heads, which he places in the pestle. He puts on a motley of snake heads and goes to his mother.
- Well, did you weave? - asks the mother.
- Woven.
- Where?
- In the pester.
The mother put her hand into the pestle and screamed in fright.
- Go take them back to where you took them! - says the mother.
The son carried away the heads and returned.
The next day, the mother sends her son for bast shoes to her neighbors (brownies). The son went to his neighbors and sees many neighbors. He beats them and tears off their heads, which he places in the pestle. He puts on a full pestle and goes to his mother.
- Well, did you bring it?
- Brought it.
- Where?
- In the pester.
The mother put her hand into the pestle and was even more frightened.
“Go, shoot, take them back to where you took them,” the mother says to her son and scolds him.
The son carried away the heads and returned.
The son did not want to live with his mother and wanted to travel around the world, to measure his strength with whomever he could.
He went to the forge and ordered himself a cane worth forty pounds. He took his cane and went looking for adventure.
He walks and meets a tall man.
- Who are you? - he asks the man.
- I am a hero! - the latter answers. -Who are you?
- I am a strong man.
- Prove your strength.
The strong bear cub took a strong stone in his hand, squeezed it - and water flowed out of it.
- Well done! - exclaimed the hero and called him a strong man, and himself only a hero.
They move on and meet a man.
- Who are you? - they ask the man, announcing to him that one of them is a strongman, and the other is a hero.
- I am also a hero, but with little strength.
- Come with us!
The three of them went on their way. They walked and walked, you never know, they reached the hut. We went into the hut, and it was empty; We looked everywhere and found meat in the closet.
“Well, we’ll live here for now, and then we’ll see what to do,” the heroes consult among themselves.
“We’ll go to the forest to work, and you cook dinner for us here,” two heroes say to the third, with little strength.
“Okay, your order will be carried out,” says the hero.
Two went into the forest, and the third stayed to cook in the hut. He cooks dinner for the heroes from ready-made provisions and does not think that the owner will come. Suddenly the owner enters the hut and begins to pull the hero by the hair. He pulled and dragged him - almost pulled out all his hair; ate lunch and left. Bogatyrs come home from work and ask:
- Well? Have you prepared lunch?
- No.
- Why?
- There is no dry firewood, nothing to cook with.
We cooked it ourselves and ate it.
The next day, the hero whom the strongman met for the first time stayed to cook dinner.
Two heroes went into the forest to work, and the remaining one cooked dinner from ready-made provisions. Suddenly the owner appears and starts beating him. He beat and beat - he left him barely alive; ate lunch and left. Bogatyrs come home from work and ask:
- Well? Have you prepared lunch?
- No.
- Why?
- There is no clean water; Yes, but it’s muddy.
We cooked lunch ourselves and ate ourselves.
On the third day, the strong man stayed to cook dinner. He filled the cauldron with meat and cooked it. Suddenly the owner of the hut appears and begins to beat the hero. As soon as the hero hit the owner on the seat, he shouted with good obscenities: “Oh, don’t hit me, I won’t do that.” The owner left the hut and disappeared. The heroes come home from work and ask for food. The strong man fed them and told them the story of the owner of the hut; Then those heroes admitted that the same story happened to them. We ate and went to look for the owner. They found a large board in the yard, lifted it - and there turned out to be a large hole, and a belt was lowered down into the hole, serving as a ladder. The strong man descended by strap into the hole, ordering his comrades to wait for him at the hole, and found himself in another world. Under the ground there was a kingdom of three twelve-headed snakes. These snakes held captive the three daughters of the king of this world. The hero walked and walked through the kingdom of snakes and reached a huge palace. He went into the hallway and there he saw a beautiful girl.
“I am a strong hero,” he answers, “I came to look for the villain who offends us, heroes, in the hut.”
- He is the devil, in this kingdom he appears to be a twelve-headed serpent, and there he appears to be a human man. I have been living in his captivity for several years now. Won't you defeat him?
The girl gives the strongman a sword and says: “With this sword you will defeat him.” But the snake was not at home at that time. Suddenly he appears and says: “Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! It smells like an unclean spirit."
The strong man raised his sword, struck the snake on the heads and cut off twelve of its heads at once.
The strong hero took the princess with him and went to another twelve-headed snake. They went into the house, and there the hero saw an even more beautiful maiden.
- Who are you? - the princess asks the strongman.
“I am a strong hero,” he answers, “I came to look for the villain who offends us, heroes, in the hut.”
- He is the devil, in this kingdom he seems to be a twelve-headed serpent, but there he appears to be a simple man. I have been living in his captivity for several years. Won't you defeat him?
The girl handed the sword to the hero and said: “With this sword you will defeat him.” But the snake was not at home at that time. Suddenly he appears and says: “Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! It smells like an unclean spirit." The strong man raised his sword, hit the snake’s heads and chopped off all twelve heads in two blows.
The strong man took another girl, even more beautiful, and went to the last twelve-headed snake, who was stronger than the others.
They went into the house and there they saw a girl of extraordinary beauty.
- Who are you? - the girl asks the strongman.
The strong man answers the same as he did to the first two girls.
“They are all devils,” says the girl, “one is stronger than the other, here they seem like snakes, and there like people.” This last snake is the strongest. I have been living in his captivity for several years now. Won't you defeat him?
The girl hands the hero a sword and says: “With this sword you will defeat him.” But the snake was not at home at that time. Suddenly the strong man hears a voice in the entryway that says: “Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! It smells like an unclean spirit." He came out with a sword into the hallway. There he met the serpent and began to fight with him. The strong man cut off only one head of the snake, and the snake returned back to gather his strength. The strong man says to the beautiful princess: “If the snake defeats me, the kvass on the table will turn red, then you throw your shoe in front of me, and I will kill the snake.”
So, having gathered his strength, the snake appeared again and said: “Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! It smells like an unclean spirit."
The hero came out to meet the snake and entered into battle with him. The serpent began to win. The princess looked into the vessel with kvass and saw that the kvass had turned into blood, then she took her shoe, left the house and threw it in front of the hero. The hero struck and immediately cut off all eleven heads of the snake. The hero collected the heads of all the snakes and threw them into a rock crevice.
The strong man took the girls and went to the hole to climb the belt into the local light. He shook the belt and put the girl on it. The fellow heroes lifted the girl up, and the girl said that there were three more people in the other world. They picked up all the girls one by one. Having raised the girls, the heroes decided not to raise their comrade, thinking that he would take the girls for himself, and did not raise him. The heroes have left and cannot resolve the dispute - who should own one of the maidens that the strongest of all snakes had: she was so beautiful that it could neither be said in a fairy tale nor described with a pen. The heroes came with three maidens to their father king and said that they had freed the maidens from the snakes, and at the same time each asked the beauty for himself. The girls said that the heroes only raised them from another world, and they were freed from the snakes by another who remained below under the hole. The king sent his swift-winged eagle for the hero. The eagle mounted the strongman and flew to the king. There, at the king's house, a dispute arose between three heroes over a beauty: everyone wanted to marry the beauty. The king sees that one is not inferior to the other and says: “I have a big bell with which I notify the people about major events in my kingdom. Whoever throws this bell further, I will give my daughter for him.” The first one came up and didn’t touch the bell, the other one came up too, and finally the strongman came up... he kicked the bell with his foot - and the bell flew off behind the royal palace.
- Take my daughter - she is yours! - the king said to the strongman.
And the hero-bear cub took the king’s daughter for himself, took her and lived happily ever after, while his comrades were left without wives. The cane is worth 40 pounds and now lies in the hut.
(Yakov Gavrilov, village Bygi.)
Finger and tooth
Two brothers went into the forest to chop wood. They chopped and chopped and chopped up a big pile. We need to chop wood, but there are no wedges. One began to make wedges and inadvertently cut off his finger; the finger galloped along the forest path. Another brother began to chop wood... The wedge bounced off - and right into the teeth; one tooth was knocked out with a wedge, and the tooth jumped after the finger.
They walked for a long time, for a short time, close or far - they reached the priest's house. It was already night, and the priest’s family was deep in sleep. Here the finger and the tooth are consulting among themselves on how to steal the priest’s knife and stab his bull. Suddenly I saw a fan in one of the windows and climbed into the hut. He looks for a knife there but doesn’t find it.
- Well, will you be back soon? - asks the tooth under the window.
- I can’t find it! - the finger answers.
The priest heard a human voice in the house, stood up and searched, but his finger got into the priest’s shoe, and the priest didn’t see it. Again the priest lay down and fell asleep. The finger came out of the shoe and looked for the knife.
- Well, how long? - the tooth asks again.
“I can’t find it,” the finger answers.
The priest heard the scream again and woke up; he got fire and is looking for it; the finger again climbed into the toe of the shoe and from there looked out to see if he could see a knife somewhere. I searched and searched for the priest, but I couldn’t find him; Meanwhile, the finger spotted a knife on the bench by the closet. So, when the priest went to bed, he got out of his shoe, took a knife and ran out into the street.
- Well, which one will we kill? - a finger and a tooth ask each other when they go to the bulls’ barn.
“Whoever looks at us, we will kill him,” says the finger.
“Okay, but we won’t stab here, we’ll take the bull into the forest, and no one will bother us there,” the tooth expresses his opinion.
They caught the bull that looked at them and took him into the forest; there they stabbed it, and the finger was left to be gutted, and the tooth went to get firewood to cook the meat. The tooth hauled a full pile of firewood, tied it up, but couldn’t carry it. Suddenly a bear comes and the tooth says to him:
- Clubfoot! You put the burden on your shoulder and carry it.
And the bear was hungry like a wolf and ate the tooth. The tooth passed through the bear and shouted to the finger:
- Brother, help me out quickly, the bear ate me.
The bear got scared and ran, jumped over the block and hurt himself to death. They both went out to get firewood and somehow dragged the load. While the finger was starting the fire, the tooth went to the Votyak’s hut to fetch the cauldron and began to cook. They boiled a whole bull and ate it. Having eaten to our fill, we went to bed. A hungry wolf came and ate them both while they were sleeping.
(Vasily Perevoshchikov, honorary Vorchino.)
Fearless Noble
The soldier served for twenty-five years and saw neither fear nor the king. His superiors send him home. Having seen neither fear nor the king during his service, he says to his superiors:
- What would it take for you to show me the king at least once!
They reported this to the king, and the king demanded the soldier to come to his palace.
- Hello, serviceman! - the king tells him.
- I wish you good health, Your Majesty! - the soldier answers.
- Well, why did you come to me?
“I served, Your Majesty, for twenty-five years and saw neither fear nor you; So I came to look at you.
“Okay,” said the king, “go to the front porch and rub my chickens!”
And this meant not allowing any generals without money into the king’s palace.
The soldier came out and stood at the front porch door. Various high-ranking officials, generals, etc. come. The soldier does not let them in without money. There is nothing to do, they give him money.
The next day the king calls the soldier to him and says:
- Well? Lost my chickens?
“I lost it, Your Majesty, it will be on my way,” answered the soldier.
- Well done, be you for your courage “Fearless nobleman.” In addition to this rank, I give you Ermoshka as a servant, a pair of horses from my royal stable and a golden carriage; I provide you with a ticket - go to all four corners of the world.
The Fearless nobleman got into the golden carriage, took Ermoshka on the box and rode off to another kingdom. We drove and drove - we reached two roads, and between them there was a post with the inscription: “If you go to the right, you will find happiness, if you go to the left, you will be killed.” Where to go? The fearless nobleman thought and said to Ermoshka:
- Go left.
Ermoshka was frightened, but there was nothing to do: you will not be taller than the master. And they went along the left road.
We drove and drove and saw the road is dead body. The fearless nobleman says to Ermoshka:
- Bring this dead body here.
Ermoshka is coming... he approaches the body and shakes his whole body in fear. The Fearless nobleman sees that Ermoshka is afraid of the dead body, like a cowardly woman, and goes after the dead body himself. He took it and put it in the carriage next to him.
They're coming again. We drove and drove and saw a man hanged on a birch tree, already dead. The fearless nobleman sends his servant:
- Go, Ermoshka, cut the rope and bring the body here.
Ermoshka is walking, shaking all over with fear. Fearless got out of the carriage and went to dead body myself; crossed the rope on which the body was hanging, took the body, brought it and put it in the carriage on the other side of himself.
“Well, don’t be afraid now, Ermoshka: there are four of us,” says Fearless.
They are all driving through the forest. We arrived at a huge house, which, as it turned out, belonged to robbers. Fearless, without asking anyone, he drove into the yard; Ermoshka ordered the horses to be taken to the stable, and he himself went into the hut. Robbers are dining at the table in the hut, as can be seen from their fierce faces; The chieftain himself sits in the front corner with a large spoon in his hand. Ataman says to Fearless:
- You’re Russian, we’ll make you hot: hare meat is delicious - he eats a lot of bread.
Fearless, without saying anything, approaches the table, snatches a large spoon from the ataman’s hands and tries the cabbage soup.
- Sour, rubbish!.. Here's a roast for you! - Fearless says to the ataman, hitting him on the forehead with a spoon.
The chieftain widened his eyes and looked, what kind of person is so impudent? Ermoshka enters the hut...
“Bring a good pike perch from the carriage, Ermoshka,” says Fearless to Ermoshka.
Ermoshka brought in a dead body. The fearless one took a knife from the robbers' table and began to cut the dead body... he cut off a piece, smelled it and said:
- It smells! Rubbish! Bring another one.
Ermoshka brought something else. Fearless cut off a piece, sniffed and spat:
- Ugh! And this pike perch smells.
The robbers went mad with fear.
- Let's get some fresh ones! - Fearless shouted to Ermoshka... Ermoshka himself shuddered in fear, and his pants slipped off.
- Come on quickly! - Fearless shouts.
Ermoshka goes to the table, lifting his pants, and shaking like a leaf. The robbers ran out of the hut, leaving only one chieftain. Fearless hit the chieftain on the forehead with a large spoon and killed him; then he raked out all the stolen gold from them, sat down and rode forward.
We drove and drove and reached the kingdom. They drive up to the city, and there on the balcony of the palace the king looks through the telescope and wonders: who is this guy riding in the golden carriage? We reached the palace, and the king asks Fearless what kind of person he is, where he comes from and what has been given to him? Fearless, calling himself the Fearless Noble, said that he travels to other kingdoms looking for adventure.
“These are the ones I need,” says the king. “Not far from here, on an island, I have an excellent palace, but the devil settled in it and stole my eldest daughter, whom I loved most of all; go to the island, save the devil from my palace, bring your daughter to me. If you do this, take any of my three daughters and in addition you will receive half of my kingdom; If you don’t fulfill it, say goodbye to your head.
“Okay,” says Fearless, “I’ll carry out your orders.”
Fearless left the carriage with money and horses with the king and went with Ermoshka to the lake, among which there was a palace: he got into a boat and sailed along the lake, and Ermoshka remained on the shore. He swam across the lake and reached the palace. He entered the palace and saw a copper pipe from the devil in the hallway on the window. He took the pipe and lit it and smoked it; the smoke spread into other rooms. Suddenly in one of the rooms he hears the voice of the devil, who says:
- Ah, Rusak! The Russian spirit has not yet been heard here. Go ahead, little devil, take a good look at his sides.
The little imp ran to Fearless. Fearless took him by the tail and threw him out the window. The devil sends another little devil. Fearless threw that one too; sends a third - the third suffered the same fate. The devil sees that the little devils are not returning, and he goes himself. Fearless, taking him by the tail and horns, bent him into a ram's horn and threw him out the window. Then he went through the rooms to look for the royal daughter. I found her sitting by the bed and next to her there was a guard - an imp. He threw the little devil out the window, and took the king’s daughter by the hands and led her out of the hut. I got into the boat with her and sailed back. Suddenly, many little devils grabbed the boat to capsize it. Fearless, in order to scare the little devils, shouts:
- Fire! Let's fire quickly, I'll burn the whole lake!
The little devils got scared and dived into the water.
Fearless brought his daughter to the king. And the king says to the Fearless:
- Well done, Fearless! Choose any of my three daughters and get half of my kingdom.
Fearless chose the younger daughter and received half the kingdom. He lived a little with a young woman and said:
- Why do I live at home? I’ll go wander around the world again, see if I see any passions.
Wife says:
- What other passions do you have? There are no worse passions in the world than devils, and it didn’t cost you a damn to survive the devils from the palace.
“However, I’ll go and take another walk, maybe I’ll see something.”
And Fearless went to look for terrible adventures. He wanted to rest on the river bank; lay down not far from the river, laid his head on a block of wood and fell asleep. While he was sleeping, a cloud rose and heavy rain began to pour down. The river overflowed its banks, and the water surrounded him too; A few more minutes passed and he was covered with water, only his head remained at the top. Here one brush sees a good place in the bosom of the Fearless; climbed there and lives there. Meanwhile, the rain stopped falling, the water went into the banks, and everything became dry, and Fearless was still sleeping. Suddenly he turned over on the other side, and the fin of the ruff began to prick him. The fearless one jumped out of his seat - and let’s run, shouting at the top of his lungs:
- Oh, fathers! Oh, fathers! Someone is there.
A ruff fell out of his bosom.
- Well, I don’t think anyone has seen such passion! - he says, walking back to his wife.
And they live well and make good money.
(This tale was recorded from the words of the peasant, honorable Arlanov, Pavel Mikhailov.)
Kukri Baba
In the spring, the mother sent her three daughters to the forest to get brooms to sweep up litter, and the girls got lost in the forest. We wandered and wandered in the forest and were tired. What to do? One of the sisters climbed a tall tree and looked around to see if she could see any clearing. She looked and said:
- Far from here, blue smoke rises to the sky, like a thread.
The second sister didn’t believe it and climbed the spruce tree. He looks in one direction and says:
- Far from here, a blue smoke as thick as a finger goes to the sky.
The third sister did not believe it and climbed the spruce tree. He looks and says:
- Far from here, a blue smoke as thick as an arm goes to the sky.
We noticed this place, got off the spruce tree and went. They walked and walked and reached the hut. We went into it.
An old woman, Kukri Baba, of a disgusting appearance, sits on the stove and breastfeeds a child, and the child has a severe scab on his head. She saw the girls and said:
- Don't you want to eat, girls?
“We should probably eat,” the girls answer her.
Kukri Baba came down from the stove... scraped the scab off the child’s head and treated the girls, saying:
- Well, eat, girls.
The girls turn their eyes away from the disgusting sight of the scab, which causes them to vomit. Kukri Baba says:
- If you don’t eat, I’ll eat you myself.
What to do? She took one and vomited it; She took another, and a third - she also vomited. The girls want to leave.
“No, I won’t let you in,” says Kukri Baba. - Jump over the big stupa - I’ll leave.
She has a large wooden mortar in the corner of the door, so she brought the girls there and told them to jump over it. Two sisters jumped over and left, but the third could not jump over and stayed with Kukri-baba.
Kukri Baba left the hut and said to the girl:
- You, girl, rock the baby and sing: “Eh!” Eh! ABOUT! ABOUT! Sleep, sleep." Don't leave the hut.
She came out of the hut, and the girl was rocking the child and crying. Suddenly a rooster comes to the girl and says:
- Sit on me, girl, I’ll take you away.
The girl sat down and rode the cock.
Kukri Baba came home and saw one child, but no girl. And she went in pursuit of the girl. She caught up and threw a wooden pestle at the rooster, the rooster dropped the girl. Kukri-baba took the girl and took her back to her hut.
The hare comes and says:
- Sit on me, girl, I’ll take you away.
The girl sat on the hare and rode. Kukri Baba caught up with them and threw a wooden pestle at the hare - and the hare dropped the girl.
Again the girl rocks the baby and cries.
A thin horse arrives, covered in dirt and droppings.
“Sit on me, girl,” says the horse.
The girl got on a dirty horse and rode off. They see that Kukri Baba is chasing them. We reached the water, and there was a large log lying on the water. The girl got off the horse and walked along the log. So Kukri-Baba is walking along the log... The girl went ashore, shook the log - and Kukri-Baba fell into the water. And so she, the villainess, ended.
The girl came home at night, when everyone in her household was asleep. She grabbed the door ring... she knocked and knocked, but they didn’t open it: no one heard. She went to sleep in the hay field, and there someone ate her at night, leaving only her hair.
In the morning, the girl’s father and the boy went to the hay field to give food to the horses. The boy found the hair and said to his father:
- I, darling, found the strings.
“Okay, child, take it if you find it,” the father answers.
The boy brought the hair into the hut and put it on the table. Suddenly the hair began to lament in the plaintive voice of the eaten girl:
- Father, mother! Hands and fingers knocked on the door - you didn’t open it.
Everyone got scared and threw their hair into the oven. In the furnace, the ashes speak too. What to do? The family is not happy to live, even if you leave the house.
So the women raked out all the ashes... took out the remains - and threw the ashes in the forest. From that time on, there were no more lamentations in the oven.
(Recorded from Pavel Zelenin.)
Once upon a time there lived two neighbors in the same village. Both had one daughter. Their daughters grew up and became brides. One neighbor’s daughter is being wooed by rich and poor, but he still doesn’t want to give his daughter away; No one is wooing the other, despite the fact that his daughter is the most beautiful of beauties; and her father really wanted to give her away.
- If only the devil came to woo my daughter! - says the latter when he saw his neighbor’s matchmakers.
The next day, matchmakers came to him in rich outfits, like city merchants, and wooed his daughter.
- How can I marry you rich people when my means are meager? After all, marry off to rich people and have a rich feast,” says the man.
“We don’t know who is what, we only need a suitable, hard-working bride, and we found such a girl in your daughter,” the matchmakers answer.
The man agreed and betrothed his daughter to a merchant groom who was right there. They had a wedding and are going home with the bride, or rather the newlywed.
- Where are you from? We betrothed a girl, had a wedding, you are already taking the bride away, but we ourselves don’t know where you are from or who you are,” a quick-witted old woman, the bride’s grandmother, decided to ask.
- In fact, we don’t know at all where our fiancé and our matchmakers are from. It’s as if we sold our daughter. “This matter is wrong, we need to find out everything,” all the family members say and ask the matchmakers.
“We are from Moscow, the city, we are engaged in trade,” say the matchmakers.
The old woman offered to accompany her granddaughter even to the transport, which was not far from the village. Grandma got into the cart and off we went; We reached the river, and the grandmother was ordered to get out of the cart. As soon as grandma got out, the whole train went down into the water and was like that. Grandma howled like a wolf here, but there’s nothing to do, you can’t turn it back.
“We gave the poor thing for a wumurt, we’ll never see her again,” the grandmother lamented, returning home.
She returned home and with tears in her eyes told her family about what she had seen. The family grieved and stopped.
Seven years passed, and they began to forget their daughter.
Suddenly, at this time, the son-in-law appears and invites the grandmother to be a midwife at the birth of her granddaughter, who, the son-in-law says, is in the last stages of pregnancy. The grandmother got into her son-in-law's carriage and drove off. The son-in-law reached the same river and went down into the water. The grandmother only had time to gasp when she found herself in the river, but did not drown; there, in the water, the road is the same as on land. We drove and drove and arrived at a large house; They got out of the carriage and went into the house. There they took the grandmother into her granddaughter’s room, and they threw themselves into each other’s arms. It's time to give birth. They heated up the bathhouse. The pregnancy became pregnant, and the grandmother accepted the baby. They went to the bathhouse, and there other women gave the grandmother a bottle of ointment to smear the child’s eyes, and warned the grandmother that she should not apply this ointment to her eyes, otherwise she would go blind.
When there was no one in the bathhouse, the grandmother smeared her right eye, and suddenly a miracle happened: the grandmother began to walk in the water and on the water, like a special animal. After visiting her granddaughter, she began to get ready to go home. He also invites his granddaughter with him, but she says that she cannot go to them; go yourself more often. The grandmother began to say goodbye to her in-laws and matchmakers, but they did not let her walk: “Let’s harness the cart,” they said. They harnessed the cart and sent the grandmother away.
At home, the grandmother told about her granddaughter’s life and life, about her visit to the matchmakers, she praised them as best as possible, and the family could not be surprised.
The next day, grandma went to the store to do some shopping. Entering the shop, she asks the merchant about the price of the goods, but no one sees her. They look back and forth - there is no one.
“What a miracle,” says the shopkeeper. - Who is speaking?
The grandmother guessed that she was invisible to strangers and that the ointment made her invisible. She took from the store what she needed, without any money, and went home. Grandmother was glad that she took everything for nothing.
The next day she went to the store again. In the shop he sees people carrying goods out and putting them in a cart.
-Where are you taking the goods? - asks the grandmother.
“To another merchant,” people answer and ask her how she sees them?
“I see it as you see,” the grandmother answers.
-Which eye?
- Right.
Then one approached the grandmother and tore out her right eye, and then a miracle happened again: the grandmother became visible to everyone, but with her left eye she could not see the goods being taken out of the store. The grandmother howled from pain in her right eye and walked home crookedly. Only then did she realize that they were the Wumurts, with whom she might have been visiting, but for some reason she did not recognize them.
Now let's say something about the Wumurts. These vumurts transported goods from shop to shop. Whoever believed in the faith of the Wumurts, they carried goods from the shop of an unbeliever, and carried only those goods that were placed without blessing, that is, without prayers. In this way, goods passed from shop to shop, and from this one merchant became poor and another became rich.
(Elizar Evseev.)
Grigory Egorovich (Georgievich) Vereshchagin (1851-1930)
The first Udmurt scientist and writer who left a rich and varied creative heritage. He wrote the well-known poem “Chagyr, chagyr dydyke...” (“Grey, gray dove...”), which was distributed in the form folk song, the centenary of whose publication the public celebrated in 1989 as the anniversary of the first original printed work of art on Udmurt language and all Udmurt literature.
G.E. Vereshchagin wrote poems, poems, plays in the Udmurt and Russian languages. Of these, during his lifetime he published only more than a dozen poems in native language. Four of his poems (“Lost Life”, “Skorobogat-Kashchei”, “ Goldfish" and "Batyr's Clothes") first saw the light in our days, thanks to the efforts of researchers.
During his lifetime, G.E. Vereshchagin became famous not only in Russia, but also abroad (in particular, in Hungary, Finland) as an ethnographer and folklorist who collected, researched and published materials relating to history, language, customs, traditions, beliefs and religious practices, as well as artistic culture(songs, legends, traditions, fairy tales, riddles, proverbs, sayings, etc.) of the Udmurts and Russians, who lived mainly in the Glazov and Sarapul districts of the Vyatka province, located between the Vyatka and Kama rivers. His ethnographic essays include not only the necessary scientific information. Despite the fact that they were written in Russian, they were essentially the first works of Udmurt literary prose and received high recognition, however, not as artistic experiments, but as scientific works. In particular, each of his monographs: “Votyaks Sosnovsky region", "Votyaks of the Sarapul district of the Vyatka province" are unique essays (or even stories, as some researchers call them) of an encyclopedic nature about the life of the Udmurt people of that time, which were awarded a silver medal of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, known at that time scientific center on the study of the ethnography of the peoples of Russia. At the age of thirty-seven, in 1888, as a teacher of a provincial primary school, taking into account the value of the materials provided by him from the place of observation, G.E. Vereshchagin was honored to be elected as a member-employee of this most authoritative scientific society at that time.
The linguistic research of G.E. Vereshchagin turned out to be fruitful. He compiled Udmurt-Russian and Russian-Udmurt dictionaries, which remained unpublished, and published the book “Guide to the Study of the Votsk Language” - “the first original research work in the field of observation of the Votsk language,” as stated in the preface to the book, signed by the Votsk Academic Center. Regarding the works of G.E. Vereshchagin, the words “first”, “first” have to be used quite often.
G.E. Vereshchagin was not a scientist in our traditional understanding: he did not defend dissertations, did not receive academic titles and degrees; being simple school teacher(later - a priest), actively collected ethnographic and folklore material, and these scrupulous and systematic local history research formed him as a general ethnographer. The Udmurt people, the region inhabited by them, became for him a kind of “training ground” on which he comprehended the science of complex study folk culture. It was this desire that turned G.E. Vereshchagin into a scientist with a wide range of interests, combining an ethnographer, folklorist, religious scholar, and onomastics researcher.
The good name of G.E. Vereshchagin also went down in history in connection with the Multan trial (1892-1896), which was sensational throughout the world and shameful for the tsarist authorities, during which at two sessions of the district court he acted as an expert ethnographer on the side of the defense. The very fact of his involvement in this role testified to the recognition of his competence in the field of ethnography of the Udmurts. V.G. Korolenko, who took an active part in protecting the defendants, the honor and dignity of the entire Udmurt people and in exposing the criminal actions of the authorities during this process, highly appreciated the role of G.E. Vereshchagin’s examination in the court’s acquittal.
In extensive scientific heritage Grigory Egorovich Vereshchagin’s book “Votyaks of the Sosnovsky Territory” occupies a special place. It marked the beginning of an intense and purposeful scientific search to which the scientist devoted his entire life.
The work was first published in 1884. Since at that time there were no ethnography departments at scientific institutions and universities, all research in the field of ethnography of Russia was concentrated in learned societies. One of these centers was the ethnographic department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, in the News of which the scientist’s monograph was published.
Exactly 120 years ago, in 1886, G.E. Vereshchagin’s book with minor additions was republished. It was highly appreciated by contemporaries and has not yet lost its value as a collection of the richest ethnographic material about the Udmurt people. Thanks to the uniqueness of the materials contained in the work, the reliability and detail of the factual descriptions, G. Vereshchagin’s monograph constantly continues to attract the attention of Udmurt scholars. We can find references to this work and references to its factual material in a significant number of modern publications devoted to issues of economics and material culture, public and family life, religion, spiritual culture and art of the Udmurt people. It has become almost a rule to check your knowledge of the facts of Udmurt ethnography “according to Vereshchagin.”
(Published from: Vereshchagin G.E. Collected works: In 6 volumes. Izhevsk: UIYAL Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1995. Vol. 1. Votyaks of the Sosnovsky region / Responsible for the issue G.A. Nikitin; A word to the reader: V. M. Vanyushev; Afterword by V. M. Vanyushev, G. A. Nikitina. T. 2. Votyaks of the Sarapul district of the Vyatka province / Responsible for the release of L. S. Khristolubova.)
