did not go to the enchanted castle. I say it again, my sons! Be on the alert, God forbid that your foot set foot in the city of Nigaristan and you went to the enchanted castle!
The sons bowed low to him, kissed the ground in front of him and said:
– We obey! With our soul and heart we heed the order of the Padishah!
The Padishah kissed everyone and said:
– Go, be healthy, may God protect you!
The next morning, the sons got up early, mounted good horses, rode out of the gates of the city and drove along the road. But every time they remembered their father’s speeches and his strict order, they began to think: «Is the city of Nigaristan and the enchanted castle such a dangerous place? Why didn’t Father tell us to go there? How does he know everything? Have you been there yourself, heard from someone or read in books? Why didn’t he tell us more, didn’t he explain what kind of city Nigaristan is and what kind of enchanted castle it is?»
Such seductive thoughts came into their heads all the time and deprived them of peace.
Days passed, months passed, they passed through towns and villages, until one day they came to a green, cheerful plain, which beckoned from afar with lush gardens. One could guess that behind the gardens there was a city, abundant with water and fertile. They drove a little further, entered the gardens and between the trees saw the battlements and towers of the city walls rising to the sky. People coming from the city began to come across them. The sons of the Padishah asked them: What kind of city is this?
They were answered:
– This is the city of Nigaristan.
Then all three remembered their father’s speeches, shuddered and froze in place… Finally Afruz said:
This is the same city standing on the border. Father strictly ordered us not to go to these places. However, as you can see, the city is worth a look. I don’t know what we should do, enter the city or not enter?
The younger brother, Behruz, answered him:
– How do you not know what to do? It is necessary to fulfill the father’s order and, without looking at this city, immediately turn back.
The middle brother said:
– Since we are already here, it would be nice to drive up to the city gate and look there, and then leave.
Then the elder brother spoke again:
– I don’t think this is the same city where our father didn’t tell us to go. That city should lie in ruins, but in this one, so beautiful and blooming, in my opinion, anyone can enter. We left home to see everything worth seeing, and this city is certainly worth seeing. I think we need to go there, and if this is the same Nigaristan that father spoke about, we will not go to the enchanted castle, we will not spend the night in the city, we will ride through this gate and, without dismounting, we will leave the other gate.
For a long time they argued like that, until suddenly they noticed that they had already arrived at the very city gate. As they saw the gates and the decorations above them, they bit their fingers in surprise. And when they looked through the gate into the city itself, they were just dumbfounded… They see: yes, this is the same city of Nigaristan, standing on the border, about which my father spoke.
Afruz, the oldest brother, said:
– Our father did not tell us to go to this city. But he either did not know what kind of city it was, or he thought that we were still helpless children and if someone attacked us, we would be defeated and captured. He doesn’t know that if someone comes face to face with us, he won’t be able to. Each of us is worth ten heroes in archery, swordsmanship and wrestling!
He said and added:
«Come what may! I’m going to the city! The middle brother said,
«I’m coming with you!»
And the youngest says:
– I have to go with you, because we are going together. If there is a road in front of us, we must go along it together, and if there is a pit in front of us, we must fall there together!
And so all three brothers entered the city. They’ve never seen anything like this before! Palaces and houses, gardens and flower beds amazed the eye, over every door, at every intersection, on every wall such pictures are painted – you can’t take your eyes off! But listen, what kind of people are there! Some are white, pink, strong, they are dressed in new beautiful clothes, they talk, laugh, are cheerful, they have a holiday from evening to morning, they do not know grief. These cheerful and beautiful people are more often found on the streets, and others, who are much more numerous than the first ones, work for them, and they, unhappy, hungry, ragged, thin, live in dilapidated houses on the outskirts, no one pays attention to them.
The brothers really liked the city, and they decided to spend a few days in it. We stayed there for two or three days and became completely different – just drunk. They didn’t care about anything, had fun, and only wanted to sing and dance.
One day, being in a cheerful mood, the elder brother Afruz said to the two younger ones:
– I keep thinking about why my father didn’t want us to go to this city. Was he jealous of our pleasures?
The middle brother replied:
– Maybe this city was destroyed earlier and the father knows about it since then, but does not know anything about today?
The younger brother said:
– Maybe he knows about something bad in this city that we haven’t met yet?
I won’t bother you with transmitting their conversation, but they talked for a long time. In the end, they got quite settled in the city.
One day Afruz says:
– Brothers! The place here is not bad and probably the enchanted castle is the same, and my father just told us not to go there in vain. We need to look into it too, and if you don’t come with me, I’ll go alone and come back soon.
Shahruz replied:
– I will not enter the castle, but I will go with you to its foot. Behrouz replied:
«If you’re both going, then I’m going with you.»
The brothers got up here, mounted their horses and went to look for the enchanted castle. But they didn’t ask anyone how to get to him, they all showed him the threshold, and then gave the same advice: «It’s better not to go there, it’s a bad place, they say; of the young men who went there, no one returned the same way they left.» And every inhabitant of the city of Nigaristan, who met them, reported something new about the enchanted castle. One said:
– In winter, instead of snow and rain, stones and lightning fall from the sky, and in summer, flames shoot out of doors and windows.
Another said:
– Padishah divov (Divas, devas – slav. «marvel» – supernatural humanoid beings, present in Turkic, Iranian, Slavic, Georgian, Armenian, mythologies, in Zoroastrianism – evil spirits) imprisoned in this castle the daughter of Shah Peri (Peri – Persian. in Persian mythology, creatures in the form of beautiful girls, a kind of analogue of European fairies) and wants to persuade her to become his wife. But the padishah is afraid that if some hero finds the way to the castle, he will take the beauty away, and therefore anyone who comes to the castle is attacked by divas.
Many said:
– The daughter of the Chinese emperor has been kidnapped and is being held there in chains. A strong guard is assigned to her so that no one can free her.
Others said:
– In that castle, in the dungeon, a girl named Chilgis is imprisoned (Chilgis is a Persian. «Forty braids», the «sacred» number 40. Science does not believe that some numbers are «bad»