Very, very Ions ago there lived an old married couple. They had no
children and that made them very sad. Once they decided to make a boy
out of dough and did so. After that the old woman went out to milk
their cow and the old man started chopping wood in the yard. When they
came back into the house they gasped : the dough-boy was playing with
kids on the floor. They called the boy Kamyr - Batyr. He was shooting
up like a beanstalk. The old man made him a kind of smooth wooden bat.
The boy leaned on it and it broke into two parts. Then the old man went
to the black-smith who made an iron bat for the little boy. Kamyr took
the iron bat and ran out into the street to play with other boys. On
the first day he broke one boy's leg, on the second — another boy's
back. Then the villagers gathered and said to the old couple: «Your
boy does not behave like a child at all. He has injured our children. Do
what you like but Kamyr should leave the village immedi-ately.» And the
boy left the village and went roaming about the world. He walked day
and night. A month passed, then a year but he had not gone very far
from his house. Once he got into a thick forest. There he met a man
whose legs were tied. Kamyr asked the man: «Why have you tied your
legs?» «To slow down my speed. If I don't tie them, I'll be faster
than a bird,» he explained. Kamyr took him along and they went on
together. On their way they met a man with one of his nostrils stopped. «Why
have you stopped one of your nostrils?» «If I open both nostrils,
there will be a terrible storm,» said the man. «Even with one nostril
open I can turn a windmill for five days running,» he added. Kamyr
asked him to join their company. Some time later they me-t a very old
man with a white beard. He was wearing his hat on one side. «Why are
you wearing your hat on one side?» Kamyr asked him. «If I put it on
in a regular manner, a blizzard will start. It will bury everybody under
the snow. And if I wear my hat very low, the earth will be covered with
a cake of ice two meters thick.» Kamyr took the old man into their
company too. On their way they met one more man who was aiming his
bow... «What are you aiming your bow at?» Kamyr asked him. «Can
you see a fly sitting on the lowest branch of a thick tree growing on a
high hill at a 60 kilometer's distance from here? I want to knock out
its left eye,» replied the man. Kamyr asked the archer to join them.
They kept walking and suddenly saw a big fellow with a beard who was
busy doing something. Kamyr asked him-. «What are you busy with?» «I
am hiding my hands in the ground for if I strike with my left hand,
there will be a mountain here, with my right hand — a mountain there,»
replied the bearded one. Kamyr took him along too. Some time later
they came to a landowner and Kamyr asked him to give them his daughter.
The landowner turned out to be very stubborn and offered resistance. He
said: «My daughter's standing is as high as that of a padishah's
daughter, and she is too good for you. However, I am a kind man. If you
can catch up with my fast runner, I'll let you marry my daughter.» The
landowner's fast runner and the man with tied less raced each other.
The latter jumped and immediately covered sixty kilometers in one jump.
He decided to have a nap while waitins for the fast runner to catch up
with him. He lay down on a hill and fell asleep. The landowner's fast
runner was already returnins while the man with tied less was still
sleepins. Kamyr was distressed. «The fast runner seems to be
winnins.» And he turned to the archer. «Do me a favour and aim your
arrow at him.» The archer aimed and his arrow hit the fast runner's
right lobe. The tied-legsed man woke up, jumped forward and was in the
startins place ahead of the fast runner. The landowner tried all
kinds of tricks. He manased to lure the company into his bath-house made
of cast-iron and lock them there. His servants put chopped wood round
the bath-house and set fire to it. The landowner wanted to roast the
company alive. When they began to feel heat, Kamyr put the old man's hat
straisht on his head, and a blizzard started blinding all of them. Then
he moved the hat lower on the man's ears, and at once it was freezins.
The walls of the bath-house were covered with a thick layer of ice. The
next day the landowner opened the bath-house and was taken aback. The
company were alive and sat with their teeth tattering. Kamyr said to the
landowner: «Don't play tricks on me. What are we going to do:
wrestle of have a fist fight?» «We shall do both. None of my
daughters will marry you. Take one by force if you are strong enough,»
suggested the landowner. Then they started a fight. A real slaughter
it was. They used so much force that the ground under their feet cracked
and the surface was all distorted. They fight day and night, beat each
other morning and evening. Kamyr's friend who stopped one nostril was a
very deft fighter. When he breathed through the open nostril, the
landowner's twenty servant went upside down. When the bearded one struck
with his left hand, there emerged a mountain on his left. When he
struck with his right hand, there appeared a mountain on his right
burying the landowner's thirty servants under it. When Kamyr raised his
iron bat, he immediately defeated forty servants. The landowner could
not stand such beating and let his daughter marry Kamyr. And there was a
great feast!
