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» and others are «good», but such an opinion exists in religious and mystical thinking. Some examples. 3. The idea of the «divine trinity», being a reflection of the fact of the existence of a monogamous family. Dad, mom and child, the role of mom is downplayed due to the rule of patriarchy, instead of mom, the 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
