Реклама. ООО «ЛитРес», ИНН: 7719571260.
Chapter 1. In the Mountains
Chapter 2. First Encounters
Chapter 3. Troubling Secrets
Chapter 4. Wedding in the Mountains
A day passed, and Shurik had time to get a bit settled in the aul. Together with Ali and other children, he went to the river to watch how the old-timers catch trout in the cold rapids. They showed him the terraced fields on the slopes, where corn and barley ripen on narrow strips of land. He saw how women baked fresh lavash in a clay oven—a tandoor—right in the yard. They deftly took out the hot flatbreads using a special long stick, and the aroma of bread spread throughout the area.
In the evening the whole aul gathered in the square—the little flat courtyard in front of Jabra’il’s house. The neighbors organized a small celebration in honor of the visiting guest. The tamada—the toastmaster of the feast—turned out to be a mustachioed neighbor named Ruslan. He announced loudly:
.....
A short, slender old man with silver at his temples came to the center. In his hands was a stringed instrument—a saz. He sat on a stool and plucked the strings, tuning them. Silence fell. Shurik realized that this man was an ashug, a folk singer-storyteller.
The first sounds of the melody rang out—sad and beautiful. The old man began to sing in a low voice, a song in an unfamiliar language. Shurik didn’t understand the words, but he felt each note with his heart. It seemed as if the very soul of the mountains was singing of love and separation, of the bravery of jigits (mountain warriors) and the beauty of maidens. The wind caught these sounds and carried them to the peaks, and the stars appearing in the sky twinkled in time.
.....