A great Beg (chieftan)had a daughter. She went to dig out vegetables. After she had gone and dug out vegetables, she got near a stone pyhrqan (shape-shifter). As she got there, she rested. She rested, and the girl’s foot hurt.
As it hurt: “If you take the vegetables and deliver them home, I will be your wife!” Thus the girl said to the pyhrqan.
Then the pyhrqan said: “All right, I will send you.” And after he had said thus, he sent her.
When he had send her, he came near the girl at night. He slept at the girl’s side at night.
The girl used to kowtow to her father on the fifteenth of the month. As she kowtowed, her belly had become big, she was pregnant. Then her father noticed it, and was about to kill her.
Then the girl used to kowtow for her father, imploring him. Her father still wanted to kill her, but her mother did not let her get killed.
The girl said thus to her mother: “After I dug out vegetables, a pyhrqan came to me, and I got pregnant.” But her father still wanted to kill her.
There was also the girl’s maternal uncle. The girl’s uncle came and took the girl away with him. In her uncle’s house she gave birth to a boy.
When the boy had become six years old, this boy was able to take up whatever other people could not take up because of the weight.
One day a tiger there used to eat the people who tended the sheep. This boy went to tend sheep. As he had gone, the tiger came to eat this boy. Then he killed the tiger with one blow.
Then the khan’s people heard about it, and intended to take this boy. Thereupon two horsemen of the khan came and said to this boy: “Why have you killed the tiger?”
“It was about to eat me. So I killed it.”
“In that case, put this tiger down on my horse for me!”
“Certainly!” said the boy. Thereupon the boy took up the tiger and threw him on the horse. Then he killed the horse, as the tiger pressed it down.
Thereupon: “Give me another horse, you have killed my horse.”
Thereupon the boy said thus: “Certainly; you go to my home.”
Thereupon he said thus to his grandfather: “I have killed my tiger, and two people of the khan will bring me to the khan’s place,” he said. “Give me a horse, as I have killed their horse.”
“If that is the case, catch a blue horse among my horses for him,” he said.
The khan’s people took the horse, and said to his grandfather: “Give this boy to me!”
“Certainly,” he said.
The khan’s people set off, taking the boy with them. But while the boy was walking, as they stayed the night, he ran away during the night. He walked and got at a temple. As he got at the temple, there was an old monk.
Thereupon the boy said thus to the monk: “Let me be your adopted son, I will become a novice.”
“Certainly,” said the monk, and he dressed him in a yellow garment. Thereupon, on the fifteenth of the month, he used to teach scriptures every day. When he had taught for two days, this boy had learned all the scriptures.
“Sweep the temple’s inside on the fifteenth of the month,” said he. There was also an older novice. “You sweep the other temple’s outside. Let this young novice sweep underneath the pyhrqans.”
This young novice said to the pyhrqan: “Lift up your foot! Let me sweep.” Thereupon, when he had said thus, the pyhrqan lifted up his foot. And after he had swept: “Put down your foot.”
Thereupon he got at a sleeping pyhrqan. “Lift up your head! Let me sweep,” he said. He lifted up his head. But after he had swept, he did not say ‘sleep!’
The older novice saw that the pyhrqan was not sleeping. He saw it and told it his monk.
As he told it his monk: “Don’t you lie!”
“Go see that it is true: the sleeping pyhrqan has got up!”
Thereupon the old monk went to see. As he went, the sleeping pyhrqan had truly got up. As this was the case, the old monk reproached his novice. As he reproached him, the novice killed him.
Then the novices of this temple were many. As they were many, they tucked this young novice in a box and threw him away into the water.
Thereupon, as a monk of the Chinese went near that water, a red box floated by. Thereupon the Chinese said: “If you are a pyhrqan, come, and I will get you out!”
The red box came floating hither. He got it out, and as he opened the box, there was a novice in it. He took him with him.
After the Chinese had taken him to the temple, these Chinese novices used to tease the young novice. So these Chinese novices said thus: “We have taken you out of the water. You have no father, and you have no mother!”
This young novice cried. While he was crying, he made the temple’s door collapse.
Thereupon the temple’s monk said: “You made this door collapse.” As the monk intended to beat him, the smal six-year-old novice killed this monk.
The Chinese novices send a letter to the khan. As they had send a letter, then the deity Sunwukun knew. He came to kill this novice. But come as he may, this novice also killed Sunwukun.
The khan ordered this small novice to come to the khan’s place. As he came, the novice was a strong man.
Thereupon the khan said: “Stay here, I will give you a great beg’s office.” He also became the son of the khan. And after the khan had died, this novice became khan.

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From “Uyghur Folk-lore and Legend”

January 6, 2012 in Fairy Tales, Folk Tales and Folklore | Tags: fairy tales, folk tales, folklore, shape shifter, sheep, uyghur folklore, uyghur legends, vegetables

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