– “I'm Gazza's goat.”
– “What's that on your head?”
– “Those are Gazza's pitchfork tips.”
– “What's that dangling between your legs?” – he asked her.
– “And that's a soft udder full of milk for my goat.”
The wolf pounced on the goat, grabbed her and ate her. Meanwhile, the five-bellied goat has had enough and turns to the six-bellied one:
– “Let's go home! It's time for us to go back!”
– “Wait for me a little, my belly is not quite full yet”, – asked the six-bellied one.
– “No”, – replied the six-bellied one, “I'm leaving, I won't wait for you.”
She went home along the familiar road. And the well-fed wolf is already waiting to see if anyone else is coming, and thinks:
“If there is no one else, I will leave here.”
The wolf sees a five-bellied goat coming.
– God has given another one”, – said the wolf to himself. “I'll wait for that goat too. I am fed, but how can I refuse eating it? I'd rather have a stomachache than let that goat live!”
– “Whose goat are you?” – asked the wolf, when the five-bellied goat is close to him.
– “I am Gazza's goat.”
– “And what kind of man is Gazza?”
– “Gazza is a modest man, a hard worker”, – replied the goat.
The wolf was afraid that Gazza might come out of the village and kill him. He looked around and asked the goat:
– “What is that on your head?”
– “Those are Gazza's pitchfork tips.”
– “And what is that dangling between your legs?”
– “Those are round stones used to kill wolves.”
– “I'll show you now how to kill wolves!” – said the wolf. He jumped on a five-bellied goat and ate it.
The six-bellied goat felt that it has had enough and speaks to the seven-bellied goat:
– “It's getting dark, it's time for us to go home. If I leave, you'll be alone here.”
– “Wait a bit!” – asked the seven-bellied goat. “Now I'll fill my seventh belly and then we'll go together.”
The six-bellied goat replied:
– “I'll walk slowly, you'll catch up with me on the way.”
She walked slowly along the road, and the seven-bellied goat got carried away and stayed in the pasture.
The six-bellied goat reached the wolf. The wolf saw that goat and thought about it:
– “I'll pull it up, of course, but I've had enough of it. All right”, – he said to himself. “I'll eat a little, and let the rest be for tomorrow.”
It was already getting dark. The wolf killed the goat, ate as much as he could, and put the rest for tomorrow. He stretched out on the road and thought like this:
– “From such satiety it will be difficult for me to go home, I will rest here, and then I will go.”
Meanwhile, a seven-bellied goat appeared on the road.
– “Another goat”, – said the wolf. “And how should I deal with it? Well, I'll hold her up, or she will run away, and tomorrow morning I'll eat her together with the rest of the other goat.”
The seven-bellied goat came to the wolf.
– “Whose goat are you?” he asked.
– “I am Gazza's goat.”
– “And what kind of man is Gazza?”
– “Gazza is a hunter who beats wolves.”
– “And what's that on your head?” – asked the wolf.
– “And these are iron sticks used to kill wolves.”
– “What is that dangling between your legs?” asked the wolf.
– “These are round stones used to kill wolves”, – replied the goat.
– “Ah”, said the wolf to himself. “Things are not going well!”
He decided to run away, left the goat alive, forcibly went to the roadside and, heavy with satiety, stretched there. The seven-bellied goat saw the scraps on the road and said:
– “Ah, that's what the wolf has done! He ate all my friends! Only at dusk, the seven-bellied goat reached home.”
Gazza asked her:
– “Why did you come home so late? Where are your friends?”
The goat answered to him:
– “My friends were torn and eaten by a wolf, I was the only one who escaped.”
– “Tell me, where, on what road did all this happen?”, – asked Gazza.
The goat told him where the wolf was.
Gazza grabbed his gun and hurried on his way.
But the wolf was lying there, unable to get up, just looking up from below, watching. Gazza can't see him yet because the wolf is stretched out on the roadside.
When he reached the place, the goat had mentioned, Gazza looked around. He was sure that the wolf was somewhere near him.
When he saw Gazza approaching him, the wolf tried to run, but he could not run fast, weighed down with exhaustion. Meanwhile, Gazza noticed him and started to catch up with him. It is hard to catch up with a satiated wolf! Gazza quickly caught up with him, shot him with his rifle and killed him.
Gazza returned home. He was left with one saved seven-bellied goat. He began to live happily ever after and has lived until today.
A deer, a bear and two hedgehogs
Once upon a time there were two hedgehogs. They lived in the forest in a hollow tree.
One day a woodcutter went to the forest and cut down the hollow tree. He brought it home and cut it into big pieces to make it easier to stoke. The woodcutter's wife took some logs and heated the stove with them. She wanted to cook a meal for her hungry husband.
The hedgehogs felt the heat and prayed to God:
– “O God, save us, and we shall give you thanks with ahsarfambalams from the lungs of the deer and honey on the chest of the bear!”
A stench came from the hedgehogs.
– “What stinking wood is this!” – said the mistress and threw the wood out of the stove.
The hedgehogs were afraid to run away during the day, so they hid, and at night they got out of the village. By morning they were already in the steppe and there they agreed that one of them would settle on one mound, and the second – on another, which was far away from the first.
So they did. Each lurked on his own mound. Meanwhile, a deer approached the first hedgehog. The hedgehog talked to him and offered him a wager:
– “Let us race against each other”, – he said. “On this condition: whoever of us reaches the next mound first can slaughter and eat the one who has fallen behind.”
And he pointed out to the deer the mound on which the second hedgehog was sitting.
The deer thought to himself: “How can that hedgehog outrun me?” And so he agreed.
And they lined up and said: “Let's run!” and they started running. The deer rushed forward with all his might, and the hedgehog ducked into the hedgerow and hid there.
When the deer reached the mound, the hedgehog said to him:
– “Where did you disappear? I am already waiting for you!”
The deer was very surprised:
– “Let's run again!” asked he the hedgehog.
– “All right”, – said the hedgehog. “Let's run back to our mound!”
The deer started to run, and the second hedgehog also snuck into the bush and hid. The deer ran as fast as he could, but when he reached the mound, he was surprised to see the hedgehog there.
– “Why are you so late”, – the hedgehog said to him, “I've been here for a long time!”
So the deer lost the bet, and the hedgehogs slaughtered him. They hid the carcass of the deer and went to the forest to look for honey. They found honey in a high hollow tree, took out the honeycomb and sat down in the tree.
Meanwhile, a bear was passing by the area. When he saw the hedgehogs, they had already been eating the honey.
– “Give me some honey too!” – asked the bear.
And they answered him:
– “Get it yourself!”
– “Show me where the honey is!” – said the bear to them.
– “There, you see, in the tree, the bees are flying there.” The bear climbed up the tree, took out some honeycomb and asked the hedgehogs:
– “How do I get them down?”
– “Lie down on your back and put the honeycomb on your chest, so you can bring them down to the ground.”
The bear obeyed the hedgehogs' advice. He lay down on his back, flew down from the top of the tree and crashed to his death.
The hedgehogs slaughtered the bear; they also brought the carcass of a deer. They made ahsarfambals from the deer's lungs, piled the honey on the bear's chest and prayed to the God:
– “O God, we thank Thee! You saved us, and we fulfill our word to you: we give thanks with honey on the bear's chest and ahsarfambals made of reindeer lungs!”
Widow's son
Once upon a time there lived a sorceress and Verahan the beautiful, the daughter of an aldar, a recluse of the tower. She was an unusually slender girl. Word about her spread throughout the world. The aldar did not give her away to anyone, though many people were trying to marry her. He kept her in a tower, and the tower was such that no one could find its doors without destroying its top.
One day the aldar announced:
– “I will only marry my daughter to the man who can destroy her tower.”
And the tower was unusually tall. The aldar gave a deadline of two days:
– “Whoever can destroy the tower will be my son-in-law”, – he said. “Let everyone try his prowess!”
