Samruk is the giant black bird

(a fairytale of kazakh people)

There was a king in the ancient times. The king had three sons. The name of the eldest is Asan, the name of the middle sun is Ussen, and the name of the youngest is Hasan. Hasan grows up to be a very handsome, smart, brave and cheerful child.

While the king was sleeping, he had a dream in which he sees a wonderful bird. When a bird laughs, flowers come out of its mouth, and when it cries, pearls come out of its eyes. The king is in love with this bird. Getting up from his place, he immediately called Asan and Ussen and said: “I saw a beautiful bird in my dream, which I had never seen in my life. You can find this bird somewhere and bring it to me. “If you don't find it, I'll take your head”- he said. Asan and Ussen are afraid of their father, so they promise to find him somewhere and leave.

Hassan does not know about this incident. Forty days later, Hassan found out that his father had used Asan and Ussen on a bird that laughed, flowers came out of its mouth, cried, and pearls came out of its eyes too. He sends Asan and Ussen on such a long journey, he is sad that he stayed at home and cries for his father. – “Father”, says Hassan, – Why didn't you send me to the place, where you sent Asan and Ussen, or do you hate me or do you not believe me?” The king says, “No, my son, it is not so, I have sent Asan and Ussen on a very dangerous and difficult road. And I didn't want to send you on that difficult journey!” Hassan begged his father, agreed to look for the bird, said goodbye to the people and followed his two brothers. Hassan catches up with his brothers, who left the place forty days ago. The three brothers continue to stay in the same road. One day they had lost three roads: one to the right, one to the left, one way straight to the road. At the beginning of each road there is a large stone with an inscription on the stone. In the first road, there is written – “If he goes, he will come”, in the second road – “If he goes, maybe he comes, maybe not”, in the third road – “If he goes, he will not come”. Then Asan followed the road “If he goes, he will come”. Ussen follows the road “If he goes, maybe he will come, maybe he will not come”, and Hassan will follow the road “If he goes, he will not come”. After a few months and a few days, Hassan imagines a big city in front of him, and a lot of deer are grazing around the city. At that time, Hassan had not eaten for several days and was very hungry. When he took a bow to shoot one of the deers, all the deers surrounded Hassan in a daze and left him in a sad voice. Hassan doesn't shoot the deers, he also thinks “What happened to these animals” and enters the city without understanding anything. He entered a large palace and asked, “Who is there?” – he shouted, but no one has answered. He looked around and saw a golden plate full of fried meat. Hassan, who was very hungry, ate the meat and put his hand on the plate and said, “O humankind, pull your hand!” – said an old woman with a frown on her face and white teeth, and she is scared of people in her dreams, muttered something and kicked the ground. At that moment, Hassan turned into a deer. An old woman led Hassan by the neck and led him to the deer that came out in front of Hassan. Even though Hassan lost his moral character, he still did not lose his mind. Being separated from many deers, the new one goes the way it came and goes in the same direction. A few days later, a large newly built palace appears in front of it. Having a deer besides, Hassan entered the palace and was met by a beautiful girl who looked at the deer and said, “You are not a deer, you are a human. If I make you a human, will you take me?” – he asked, but the deer – Hassan did not speak. Then, the girl said, “It is my cruel mother who turned you into a deer, and she did not even speak your language”. The deer sprinkled a handful of dirt on Hassan's face, and Hassan became more handsome than before. After the recovery, Hassan politely greeted the girl, thanked her and told her story. A girl also told Hassan about her experience. She said, “I was the only daughter of the savage old woman who turned you into a deer. I couldn't stand my mother's hostility to man, so I took my inheritance and left. I was sad that I would die alone without seeing a human being in my life, God has met you and I will not follow you”, he said. Hasan also stated, “I cannot marry you without fulfilling the promise I made to my father”. Then she asked, “What did you promise your father?” Hassan said that he saw a beautiful bird in his father's dream, and when he laughed, flowers came out of his mouth, and when he cried, pearls came out to his eyes. He told his father that he wanted to see the bird and sent his two brothers to “Find it”. The girl cried when she heard Hassan's words. “If you are looking for this bird, I'm not there. This bird was my bird, it could talk like a human. I was abducted by Kulzhamal, the daughter of the fairy king, who wanted to steal this bird from me. You will find the land of that fairy, but the bird will not let you down easily”, he said. Hassan noted, “I have to endure any hardship, it is my duty and duty to find any bird and bring it to my father, and if I find the bird safely, I will come to you first, and I will not marry anyone but you”. When she found out that Hassan would not back down, she allowed Hassan to go. – You will go west for ninety days, and then you will meet a high mountain in front of you, and you will cross that mountain for at least ninety days. At the far end of the mountain there is a large single lone of baiterek, at the top of which there is a nest of a samruk bird. Maybe that samruk will take you to the land of fairies”, he said. Hassan took a bow and shot without delay, and the bullet hit the savage old woman in the forehead and she died instantly. After that, Hassan said goodbye to the girl and headed to the west. According to the girl, after walking for the ninety days, Hassan came across a large mountain that was in conflict with the sky, and he climbed to the other side of the mountain for at least ninety days. A big lone man came to the baiterek and rested in the shade: “Oh humankind, save us from the death, save us!” – Samruk heard the chirping of the chicks. Hassan: “What happened to these homeless people?” He saw a big dragon snake crawling towards the head of the baiterek, preparing to swallow the chicks. Without hesitation, Hassan immediately drew his sword from his vagina and killed the dragon in several places. Samruk thanked Hassan for knowing that the chicks had escaped the death, and the hungry chicks ate the dragon's meat. At that moment, there was a strong wind and heavy rain. Hassan asked the chicks, “What is the wind doing, what is the rain?” – he asked. The chicks said: “It's not the wind, it's the wind of our mother's wings, and the rain is our mother's tears. Every year our mother lays eggs and chicks on the head of this baiterek. When our mother went in search of food for her chicks, the dragon came out of the nest of the dragon you killed and ate the chicks printed by our mother, and hid in her nest until our mother came. Now our mother is coming back from hunting, crying that she will see us alive or that the dragon has eaten her. This is not rain, it is our mother's tears”, – she said. – Our mother, - said the chicks, - she is so fond to the human`s flesh. If she sees you, she can swallow you immediately, so you should hide under our wings. Hassan hid under the wings of the chicks. After a while, a samruk bird came and landed on the head of the baiterek. Samruk bent down under the weight of the bird and fell to the ground. They brought a lot of deers, pollard and other animals to feed their chicks. She was overjoyed to see her chicks alive and it really got her a teary-eyed. At the same time, the sun was shining and the strong wind was blowing. At one point, the samruk bird looked around in amazement and said, “It smells like humanity, don't you see?” – he asked. The chicks said, “If you shed a spoonful of blood, we will show humanity”. Samruk nodded in agreement, pointed to Hassan under the wings of the chicks, and Samruk almost swallowed Hassan. The chicks squawked and grabbed their mother's food. Then, the Samruk asked from the chicks, “What good has this man done to you?” he asked. The chicks said, “This human being killed the dragon and saved us from the death”. Samruk thanked Hassan and asked him what he was doing and what kind of help he needed. Hassan told the story openly and asked to be taken to the land of fairies. Samruk said “Yes” and started to take care of the road. He gathered enough food for his chicks until he returned, took the food he ate on the way, put Hassan on it and flew to the fairy's land. Samruk flies one by one, crosses the ocean, dessert, and as he approaches the river of fire, he runs out of food, begins to feel himself dizzy and blushing. – Oh, humankind, we can't reach our destination, my world is ruined, I have fallen! – he said. Hassan immediately cut two leaves from the meat of his thigh and put it in the mouth of the samruk. Samruk comes to the power by eating the meat given by Hassan. Then Samruk asks Hassan, “Where does this meat come from?” It is such a tasty and invigorating meat”, – he said. Hassan said, “I cut you the meat of my thighs”. Samruk immediately rubbed Hassan's wound on both thighs, and the wound healed. Afterwards shortly, Samruk and Hassan have arrived at the land of the fairy. Samruk said, “If the fairies sleep once, they usually sleep for forty days. It has been three days, since the fairies have slept. I will wait for you here for three days, and if you do not return in three days, I will fly away without looking at you”. Hassan promised to return in three days and left the city. A city is very beautiful, always made of gold, Hassan, who has never seen such a beautiful city before, forgot about the birds and samruk. Once Hassan walked around the city and entered a large magnificent palace. The fourty girls were sleeping in the palace, and another girl was sleeping on a golden bed in a secluded room on the other side. Then, he went into another room with a cozy table and a variety of dishes. When something snapped, he was about to eat: “Man, why do you eat someone's food without permission?” – he laughed and a bunch of flowers came out of his mouth. Hassan saw that the bird, he was looking for, was in a golden cage. Hassan was very happy. He picked up the bird and tried to return to Samruk as soon as possible. “You can't take me away. If I sing in a bitter voice, all the sleeping fairies will wake up in this city. If he hears that my father and I have been hired to take care of livestock, he may say that he has tarnished my reputation. “In any case, Hassan must be killed, and then we will find the bird and bring it back”. The two people have agreed and came to Hassan. “Bring us water from the well” – he said. Hassan said “Yes”, tied a rope around his waist and went into a deep abyss. Asan and Ussen cut the thread with a knife and threw Hassan to the middle of the well. After throwing Hassan into the well, Asan and Ussen quarrel for the girl, saying “I will take”, “I will take”. The girl wanders in the desert without touching either of them. Asan and Ussen came home with a bird. He tells his father that he brought a bird. The king asked Asan and Ussen, “Where is Hasan?” – he asked. Asan and Ussen said, “Hassan disobeyed us and swallowed while swimming in the sea. “But we killed him and took revenge on Hassan”. When the king heard that Hassan was dead, he was very sad and lay down the whole day and night. That same day, the fairies woke up, and the fairy king's daughter announced to the city that there were no birds in the cage. When she saw the letter in her pocket and realized that the bird had been taken away by humans, the fairy king's daughter and her army flew to the sky in search of the bird. One day, Hassan's father did not get up and said, “Sing the bird!” – he orders. The bird is placed in a golden cage and sings. The bird sings during the sad and mournful moments, with a bitter voice. At the same time, the army of the fairy's daughter, who was flying in the sky in search of birds, descended on Hassan's place in human form. When it rained from the sky, the people of Hassan's place became frightened and hid in the king. The fairy king's daughter and her army came to the bird's place and called the king to them. The king gets up, puts on his clothes, bends his back, prays to God, and comes to the fairy king. The fairy's daughter asks the king, “Oh, the king of humankind”. “Show me which child you have brought, and I would talk to your child”. “Oh, fairy girl! It is true that I saw this bird in a dream and wanted to see it. It is true that I sent my three children in order to fetch them. And two of those three children came back alive, and the youngest son, whom I loved, did not return, he said that he had swallowed a fish on the way, I have not found out the lie yet. And this is the first time I have seen this bird because of my son's grief. Now, you must ask the two children who are still alive!” He went to the king's house. A fairy called her daughters Asan and Ussen and said, “Tell me how you took them”. Asan and Ussen said, “Well, there's something about how you took it. We went on a fast horse and took it”. A fairy's daughter said, “You are not telling the truth. Anyway, I will tell the bird now. The bird will tell the whole truth, and if your words are false, I will cut off your head!” – he said and motioned to the bird to “Speak”. The bird told the story of what happened on the way: “Hassan is a good-natured, kind guy, I didn't cry, so I followed him, Hassan took me to the house of my former owner. Then, we met Asan and Ussen on our way here, who were emaciated and hungry. Hasan fed them and clothed them, and they tricked them into throwing them into the well. Then my ex-husband and I were arguing, “I will take it”, “I will take it”, and the girl wandered into the dessert without touching either of them. They have not died of starvation, they may still be alive”, - he said. One of the fairies` army was a sprinter who could go around the world in an hour, and the fairy used that sprinter, and cut off the heads of Asan and Ussen. The king did not object when he heard that the fairy's daughter was there. When Asan and Ussen's heads were cut off, the swift fairy had brought Hassan and the girl. The fairy`s daughter is pleased with Hassan's bravery and morality, and presents the bird to Hassan's father. The king thanked his fairy daughter and made a feast for forty days and the game for thirty days. The fairy girl was a guest with the army. Thus, the faithful ones have achieved their goals and lived happily life after.