The Legend of the Extermination of the Kyrgyz and the Mother-Deer
Mother-Deer
An ancient unwritten law of human existence states: when a person is mourned and honored on their final journey, people must forget about enmity and revenge. No matter how strong the motives may be, on such a day, blood cannot be shed. But the dishonorable and conscience-less people violated this law. Hiding in the forest, the enemies waited for the right moment...
... No one had time to grab a weapon, mount a horse, or call for help. An unprecedented massacre began. They slashed men, women, frail old people, and helpless children were lifted on spears, while those trying to escape were struck down by arrows. The enemies were satisfied. They came to destroy the defiant Kyrgyz, to wipe them into dust and scatter them to the wind. So that not a single living soul would remain who could remember, mourn, or take revenge for them, to erase the name "Kyrgyz" from the memory of people forever. Having loaded their loot and driven off the cattle, they left, content.
The dust had barely settled on the road when two children emerged from the forest - a boy and a girl. In the morning, they had gone into the woods to gather berries. They wove a basket from tree bark, filled it to the brim with berries, and didn’t notice how time flew by.
They returned home, saw their empty and plundered native camp, the dead bodies, and burst into terrible cries, calling for their mother and father, not understanding that in an instant, the enemies had made them orphans. In a frenzy, they ran down the road after the enemy: “Stop, take us with you!” But the weak children's cries were drowned out by the thundering of thousands of horses and the clanking of weapons. The children ran with all their might but could not catch up with the retreating ones. Finally, exhausted and drained, they collapsed on the ground. In fear, they huddled together and fell asleep.
The sun was already high in the sky. The children woke up. Rising, they again followed the road after the enemy army. Suddenly they heard a crunch: from behind the trees, a deer looked at them with its big eyes. The gaze of the Mother-Deer was radiant and gentle. Recently, people had killed two of her newborn fawns. The back of the deer was white, like the colostrum of a first-time mother, her belly padded with brown fur, like that of a small camel, and her antlers were enormous, sprawling - with eighteen branches.
The noble Mother-Deer, stepping gracefully, approached the children and spoke in a human voice:
- Children, now I will be your mother, and you will be My children. I will lead you to a distant land, where there are snow-white mountains of Ala-Too, silver mountains of Tien Shan, on the slopes of which grow dense forests, and in the middle lies a lake as clear as the tear of a celestial deity, Issyk-Kul. I have begged the god of Heaven for you, so that you may continue the lineage of the Kyrgyz, so that your descendants will have a homeland.
The children jumped for joy and ran after the Horned Mother-Deer...
