Once upon a time, there lived three orphaned brothers. Every day they went to the forest to gather firewood. One day, a heavy rain caught them. They took shelter under a large tree. By chance, the youngest brother found a large burrow in the ground beneath the tree, which turned out to contain a lot of honey. The brothers were delighted with the find and kept sending the youngest for more honey.
When the honey ran out, the older brothers went home, leaving the youngest in the burrow. The boy saw a terrifying one-eyed scorpion in the darkness, which showed him the way to the kingdom of snakes. The king there was the snake Shamerendi. He took pity on the boy and spared his life.
The boy spent a long time in the kingdom of snakes, learned their language, and his skin became scaly. When he began to miss home, Shamerendi understood this and let him go.
At home, he found his brothers rich and greedy. They cruelly laughed at his skin.
At that time, the old mullah in the village fell ill. He announced to the villagers that the cure for his illness was the snake Shamerendi. Only a person with skin as scaly as a snake could find this snake. Soon they found this person. It was the youngest of the three orphaned brothers. He went to Shamerendi and told him about the illness and the mullah's words. "Very well," said Shamerendi, "I will do you a favor once more. First, kill me, boil my head, and give it to the mullah, and then eat the rest yourself." The orphan fulfilled Shamerendi's words.
The mullah soon died anyway. And the boy's skin became smooth like that of a baby. From then on, everyone learned about the healing properties of the snake.
