Читать книгу Ossetian fairy tales in English онлайн

– 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!”