 |
| Manzan Gurme and Geser |
Those were the remotest times when there were neither celestial gods, nor sun, nor moon, nor stars. Instead of the sky there was some misty haze and beneath there was only water. The Great Mother-Goddess was all alone. And she decided to create a world and fill it with the creatures. For the beginning she made the earth from a piece of clay brought from water by the duck created by her earlier and put it on back of turtle. Then there appeared mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes; moreover, there appeard beasts, birds and fish. Having risen up the goddess makes the sun and the moon. From the rays of the sun and the light of the moon she gives birth to two daughters Manzan Gurme and Mayas Khara who afterwards become foremothers of the kind western and evil eastern sky-dwellers or deities - tengris. The goddesses’s daughters had then many children and grandchildren who were fond of having merry open-air parties and festivals with games – naadan. On the first day of the naadan there were wrestlers’ competitions, on the second – those of archers, on the third day - horse races, on the fourth day people devotedly listened to singers and rhapsodes-uligershins, on the fifth day there were contests of sages, etc. In a word, there was a joyous festival which might be also called “yokhor”.
 |
| Khara Zutan and Atai Ulan |
In the western part of the sky there live fifty five tengris, their head being Khan Khormusta. He has three sons, the middle of them being future Geser. In the eastern part of the sky there live forty four tengris, the head over them being Atai-Ulan, who also has three sons. Living in the middle place of the sky is Segen-Sebdeg tengri. He has a daughter - Seseg-Nogon by name, she is a beauty and sews skillfully. The eldest sons of the heads of both the skies eagerly wish to take her as wife. The western and eastern deities want to get possession of the middle sky, there bursts out a quarrel between them. In the battle that followed the western tengris win and having cut Atai-Ulan into pieces they throw him down to the earth which causes people numerous troubles and misfortune. From the parts of Atai-Ulan’s body there appear various monsters: from chest – Gal-Durme khan, from thigh – Lodsogoldoi mangadkhai (monster), from neck vertebrae – Sherem-Minata devil, from stomach – Mitagar Khara Mila, from liver – Ganga Bured khan, from right hand – Abarga Sesen mangadkhai, from left hand – Asurai Shara mangadkhai, from right leg – Khitad Gumen khan, from left leg – fourty-eyed Dume, from kidneys - Edir sagan tree and spotted deer Taril Eren, from lungs – Black Guma Mitan who had a thousand white eyes. Apart from them, there were other monsters that caused innumerable troubles, among them Arkhan Khara devil, fifteen-headed Asurai mangadkhai, ninty-five-headed Yenkhoboi mangadkhai, one-hundred-eight-headed Zuudag Shara mangadkhai.
 |
| Zasa Mergen and Seseg-Nogon |
In order to save people from all those misfortunes Khan Khormusta’s middle son Erkhe Beligte (future Geser) gets down to the earth. To complete his mission he is to be re-born on the earth because being of celestial origin he is too pure and sacral for earthly life. He gets born into a poor childless family of an old man Sengel and an old woman Sengelen. The old woman gets pregnant in a magic way and gives birth to three children. Two daughters get up onto the sky, remaining is the son who is far from being nice-looking and stains all around at that. He gets the name of Nyukhata Sura (Snot Sura). He does a lot of trouble to his elderly parents.
 |
| Geser in childhood |
Being quite small future Geser does away with the envoys of monsters. Having completed a lot of noble deeds, he gets three wives. After his just another visit to the sky Nyukhata-Sura becomes bogatyr (mighty warrior) Abai Geser Bogdo khan, the tengris give him a magic horse, bator’s (mighty warrior) clothes and miraculous weapon and armour. When he comes back he learns that his native place was attacked by three Sharyn khans. He sets out for a fight to save his wife. On his way he comes across a she-mangadkhai Moyil-Khara who desecrates him with dirty felt and turns him into a donkey. Geser’s celestial sisters set him free and make him a human being again. Geser-bator punishes all the monsters and saves the earth from all evil. Each chapter of the epic is devoted to his struggle against the enemies of the people. Then there comes the happy end.
