holy spirit borrowed from Zoroastrianism. 13. The damn dozen. The devil is a representative of the «wrong» pagan religion, who wore animal skins, horns, and a kind of hooves on his feet – initially in order to get closer to animals and catch them. 12 – «dozen», from «squeeze» – that is, «be able», the number 12 is divided into many numbers, and 13 it is not divided into anything – it turns out «a damn dozen». 40. Ancient tribes of Indo-Europeans lived for thousands of years in the Arctic Circle, where the polar day lasts 40 days, and the Sun was God. 666. Apocalypse, the number of the beast. In many ancient peoples, including the Jews, numbers were denoted by different letters of the alphabet, in Hebrew words are read from right to left: nun (50); vav (6); nes (200); nun (50); nes (200); sameh (60); kuf (100) in the sum of the numerical values and give the number 666, it turns out the emperor «Caesar Nero»). She was tied by her braids to a post so that she would not run away. She will be there until the hero Jahantig (Jahantig – Persian. «avalanche») and will not free her.
One or two people said:
– This castle belongs to the daughter of the Chinese emperor. She is very beautiful, but she does not marry anyone and will only marry someone who will answer all her questions. Until now, no one has been able to answer her questions, and those who have wooed, but have not answered the questions, are beheaded, impaled on spikes and put their heads on the battlements of the fortress walls. In addition, many young men there were bewitched, and some of them were petrified to the waist, and others – from head to toe.
The people they met told the three brothers about all this, and they wanted to see the enchanted castle more and more. It takes a long time to retell everything here, and, in short, Afruz asked those people who told about this castle:
– Have you seen everything you are talking about with your own eyes? Answered:
– No! We heard from our fathers, but none of us went there, because there is a Chinese border and a fortress behind the famous Chinese wall.
In the end, Afruz, Shahruz and Behruz left the city of Nigaristan in the direction of the enchanted castle. From a distance, they saw a castle rising to the sky on a hill behind a powerful stone wall… We reached the top of the hill. At the very wall they got off their horses and tied them to a tree. With great difficulty, they climbed the wall, descended from it and found themselves on the other side of the wall at the foot of the castle. The castle gates were closed and no one was there. For some reason, the brothers were seized with fear, they wanted to return, but Afruz thought and said:
– Since we came here, we should still look into the castle. If you’re afraid, stay here and wait for me. I’ll go there and come back quickly.
Shahruz and Behruz said:
– No, brother, let’s get out of here! We can’t go in there, this castle scares us, let’s get out of here!
Afruz replied:
– No, as the man said, that’s what he should do. Stay here, I’ll be back soon.
With the end of his sword, he lifted the bolt, opened the gate and entered the castle. Shahruz and Behruz, trembling with fear, were waiting for him at the castle gate. Two or three hours have passed, and he’s still gone. They were alarmed. Shahruz said:
– In my opinion, an accident has happened to our brother. Stay here, and I’ll go to the castle. If we come back from there with him, we’ll leave right away, and if I enter the castle and don’t come back either, don’t follow me, go straight to our city, to your father, and tell him everything.
Behrouz asked:
– Why don’t I follow you if you don’t come back?
Shahruz replied:
– Because I’m afraid you will also disappear with us, and more grief will be added to the grief of the father, he will be left completely without sons, his house will be empty, the hearth will go out. In any case, you alone should stay with him, so that in his old age he would have support!
With these words, Shahruz entered the castle gate and also disappeared… Behruz, when he saw that the middle brother also did not appear, wanted to do as he said and return to his father, but then he thought: «That would be ignoble! I’ll go to the castle, and if they are captured, I may be able to free them!»
Behruz entered the castle gate and saw: there is a huge building, there are a lot of ayvans (Ayvan is a covered terrace) and rooms, the walls are covered with paintings everywhere, the floors are made of marble and porphyry (Porphyry is a volcanic rock. Porphyry (fabric) is a purple – colored material used for the manufacture of outerwear of royal persons and other important persons). He really liked looking at all this at first, but then he suddenly thought: «After all, I came for my brothers and immediately lost my head in front of these paintings, so much so that I forgot about my brothers! I stand as if bewitched! That’s right, they called this castle enchanted!»
He moved from his place and went to look for his brothers. He moved from ivan to ivan, from room to room, until he reached a room that was larger than the others, and saw his brothers standing there confused, biting their finger in surprise, in front of some painting. He was delighted at the sight of his brothers. Looked around and sees: what beautiful paintings! He said to himself:
«We need an expert here to figure everything out! It seems that these paintings were drawn by the hand of the prophet Mani himself!» (Mani is a semi – legendary prophet, the founder of the religion of Manichaeism (III century AD). Manichean temples were decorated with wall paintings, and therefore Mani himself was considered a skilled artist).
Then he went up to the brothers and looked at the image they were looking at. Then his heart sank, and he, too, was numb with surprise. The three of them stared at the painting until it got dark. We spent the night there, in the castle, suffering from hunger and thirst. When the sun rose and it became quite light, they came up to the painting again. This time Behrouz examined her and saw next to her an inscription in Chinese, going from top to bottom: «Mei-Kui-Gul, daughter of the Chinese emperor.» As soon as I read it, I turned to my brothers and said:
– This is a portrait of the daughter of the Chinese padishah, and she herself is now in this country, and we are not sure why we were stunned here in front of her soulless image!
Afruz said this:
– That’s right you say! I fell in love with the one that is painted here, and until I come to her doorstep, the sweet drink of life will be bitter to me! Come what may, I’m getting on my horse right now and I’ll drive him day and night until I get to China. There I will go to the Chinese emperor and tell him that I am a prince and ask for the hand of his daughter and add: either take this sword and cut off my head, or give me your daughter! And both of you go back to our father from here right now and tell him everything about me.
The younger brothers themselves fell in love with that girl, but they did not dare to say it openly and therefore said nothing:
– No, we can’t let you go alone. We’re coming with you.
No matter how much he tried to persuade them not to go, they answered:
– We have to go!
In the end, the three of them headed out of the enchanted castle towards the Chinese capital. They traveled through many different cities until they reached the capital of China and stopped there in a caravanserai. The next day Afruz went to the bathhouse, washed himself thoroughly, anointed his hair and was about to go to the emperor. But then the middle brother Shahruz told him:
«You can’t do it that way. After all, the emperor probably won’t want to give his daughter to some alien. You better get to his daughter and make her love you. When you lure her and catch her in a snare, then – whether her father agrees or does not agree – she will still become your wife. Afruz replied to this:
– No, I won’t do that. I know