A long time ago, there lived a young man, Aldar-Kocey, in the Kazakh steppes. He was so poor that did not have his own house - yurt. He earned his living by working for any wealthy landowner - Bai. But his cheeky character was a pain in the neck for rich people, so he did not stay long in the same place.
One day Aldar-Kocey lost his job again. He walked to the nearest village down the steppe and found there a bare mutton shoulder-blade. Aldar-Kocey thought, `Ah, if it had a piece of meat, I could roast it and satisfy my hunger.' He picked up the bone and went on.
In the evening, he came to a yurt where there lived a greedy old woman. At that time she cooked meat for dinner. Aldar-Kocey understood that if he, a poor wanderer, asked her for dinner, he would not get any dinner and could not stay overnight under the roof. So he told the woman:
"Grandma, be so kind and put this mutton shoulder-blade in a pot with your meat."
"Well, give it to me," - agreed the old woman.
"Granny, keep an eye on your pot, - what if he eats meat of the shoulder-blade!"
The old woman was very surprised at this remark:
"I've never heard that a pot could eat meat or bone! Don't be afraid, put your blade in the pot, let it boil."
Aldar-Kocey raised a lid of the pot and put the shoulder-blade to boil, so that the old woman did not notice that the bone was bare.
When the meat was cooked, it turned out that there was no meat on the shoulder-blade. The old woman was struck by this unbelievable case! But what could she do with it? She could not hurt her guest and gave him a big piece of meat from her pot in return. And she allowed him to spend the night at her house. Aldar-Kocey took his meat and said:
"Granny, can I hang my meat somewhere? Tomorrow morning I will take it with me."
"Hang it wherever you want. It could not disappear," - replied the woman.
Aldar-Kocey hung his meat on the wall above the place, where the old woman kept her lambs, and said:
"Grandma, what if your lambs eat my meat?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Lambs cannot eat meat!" - angry became the woman.
Finally, the night fell in the steppe and all became calm in the yurt. When the woman fell asleep, Aldar-Kocey got up and secretly ate up his meat. Then he smeared the mouth of a lamb with fat and lay down to sleep...
In the morning Aldar-Kocey woke up, looked around and said to the hostess:
"Grandma, you see, your lamb ate up my meat!"
The old woman examined her lambs and saw, that one of them had greasy lips. She did not presume to argue and gave Aldar-Kocey a lamb for the eaten meat.
Aldar-Kocey took his lamb and went to a local landowner - Bai. He came into his house, bowed to the host and said:
"Master, may I leave my lamb in your pasture with your flock of sheep for a night?"
"Yes, you may," - replied the master.
"I'm just afraid, what if your sheep eats my lamb?" - asked Aldar-Kocey.
"I hadn't heard until now, that sheep can eat each other," - said the master. - "Don't be afraid, it couldn't happen, they wouldn't eat your lamb!"
Aldar-Kocey left his lamb with a shepherd to graze on grass, and he stayed for the night at the yurt for Bai's labourers.
The night had fallen and the shepherd fell asleep. Aldar-Kocey came to the flock of sheep, found his lamb and slaughtered him. He smeared lips of some sheep with blood, then hid his lamb in the yard and lay down to sleep...
In the morning Aldar-Kocey got up and went to the pasture to look for his lamb. He did not find the lamb, came back into the house and said to Bai:
"Master, it looks like your sheep have eaten up my lamb!"
Bai sent a servant to the flock. The servant noticed blood on the lips of some sheep and thought, `it must have been the real case - they ate up the lamb!' Then he reported to Bai about the case. The master had to show his fairness, so he told Aldar-Kocey:
"You can take those sheep, whose lips were stained with blood."
Aldar-Kocey took eight sheep, thanked the master and hit the road. He decided to return to his village - aul. On his way home he met a man, who was carrying a dead girl on a horseback. Aldar-Kocey offered him:
"Hey, good man, give me the dead girl, and I'll give you eight sheep!"
The man agreed immediately. He took eight sheep and gave Aldar-Kocey the body of the dead girl and a horse for the bargain.
Aldar-Kocey continued his way. Here he drove to his aul. One girl saw him from afar and said to her girlfriends with a smile:
"Hey, girls, Aldar-Kocey came home! He has grown rich and got married!"
The girls ran to look what happened. At that time Aldar-Kocey took an awl and hit his horse in the flank. The horse got frightened and threw off Aldar-Kocey and the dead body. Aldar-Kocey rose from the ground and walked to the place of honour, where the elders, aksakals, usually argued different cases, basking in the sun. Aldar-Kocey pretended to be heartbroken and told the elders, with a shake in his voice:
"Fathers, look, what your daughters have done to me! They had scared my horse, which threw my wife off the horseback and struck her to death!"
Aksakals conferred among themselves and decided:
"It's our fault, and we should reward you! Choose yourself any of those girls to marry her."
Aldar-Kocey was just awaiting for this. He chose the most beautiful girl and then married her. There was a magnificent wedding! The girl's father gave the newly married a yurt and a flock of a dozen sheep.
![The Tale about How Aldar-Kocey Got Married [Славянский Владимир Владимирович]](/img/s/slawjanskij_wladimir_wladimirowich/thetaleabouthowaldar-koceygotmarried/thetaleabouthowaldar-koceygotmarried-1.jpg)