Once upon a time, there lived two khans next to each other. Each of them had a son. From childhood, they taught their sons everything. One day, during a conversation, the sons said to each other: “We have learned a lot, but we do not know the language of birds and animals.” And they decided to go to a sage.
The sage advised them to find a steppe parrot and eat its tongue to understand the languages of all living things on earth. So the khan's sons set off to search for the parrot. They were very exhausted by the time they killed one parrot. They returned home. But they could not agree on how to divide the catch and went back to the sage for advice. He advised them to slaughter a ram, cook the meat together with the parrot's tongue. Whoever gets the tongue will eat it.
The sons ordered the poor boy to do all this. When the meat was cooked, he chopped it finely and added the parrot's tongue. The khan's sons were satisfied, while the empty bowl was given to the poor boy. He began to lick the bowl, and he got the tongue of the little parrot. The khan's sons did not realize anything. The next day, they began to ask each other: “Do you feel any changes in yourself?” But since they noticed no changes in themselves, they decided that the sage had deceived them.
The poor boy, after licking the bowl, went out into the yard and saw the horses. The horses were talking to each other: “If this boy sits on us and rides away, he will become free.” The boy, hearing these words, was surprised, sat on one of the horses, and rode away, leading another one with him on a tether. The sons of the khans tried to catch up with him, but they could not.
Thus, the poor boy came to know the language of animals and birds.
