Poleshchuks and Poleviks

Once upon a time, a father had twelve sons, all strong and brave young men.

They lived on a large clearing in the middle of a dense forest. They tended to their household, hunted wild animals and birds.

The old father, as gray as a dove, sat even in summer wearing a fur coat, giving orders. And there was harmony and love in the family.

The sons got married, and they had children of their own. The family grew large. Everyone obeyed the old father, and each did their own work.

But then, after some time, the father passed away. And discord began in the family. The brothers' wives quarreled, one biting at the other, and there was no agreement. Such strife arose among them that even the husbands could do nothing. The wives shouted, demanding to divide the property.

"Well," thought the brothers, "we must divide." And so they began to divide. But it wasn't as easy as they thought. Somehow, with shouting and noise, they divided the goods and livestock. But when it came to the land, they almost killed each other: they couldn't divide their clearing in a way that would be fair to everyone. The brothers quarreled over the land and became enemies to one another.

Only the two youngest brothers lived in great harmony: where one went, the other followed. They didn't want to fight with their brothers over the land, so they left their father's house and set out into the world to find another place to settle.

The brothers made large sleds out of two oak trees, harnessed six pairs of oxen to them, loaded their belongings, placed their wives and children on the sleds, and set off on their journey, dragging the sleds across the sand. The cows and smaller livestock followed behind.

The oxen pulled the oak sleds a short distance across the sand and then stopped as if rooted to the ground. The brothers had no wheels and knew nothing about them. After all, they had never left their forest, not even in winter.

The brothers began to saw round logs and place them under the runners. The logs rolled, and the sleds moved forward. The younger brother grew tired of placing logs under the runners, so he said to the older one:

"Let's make it so the logs roll by themselves under the runners."

And so they made the first wheels in those parts. The oxen moved more easily now, and the brothers even climbed onto the cart themselves. They rode on, marveling at how they had managed without wheels until then.

They rode and rode until they reached a large river. They examined the river—it was deep everywhere, with no convenient place to ford. And then such a storm arose that the forest roared like a beast. The storm broke trees like straw and threw them into the river. They floated down the river in whole piles.

The younger brother looked at them, thought, and figured out how to cross the river.

He and his brother gathered trees, stripped them of branches, tied the logs together, and made a sturdy raft. When the storm subsided, they loaded their cart onto the raft. They stood on the raft, steering with long poles, and the raft floated like a ship.

The cows saw the oxen crossing to the other bank and rushed into the river after them. Only the pigs and sheep were afraid to jump into the water. They stood on the bank, grunting and bleating. The brothers returned with the raft and fetched them.

And so they all crossed the wide and deep river.

They traveled further and entered a wilderness so vast that it seemed endless.

The brothers began to cut paths through the wilderness and lay wooden causeways. But the further they went, the denser the forest became, with such ravines that there was no way out.

The older brother grew weary and weak.

"I'll stay here," he said to the younger brother, "I don't have the strength to get out of this forest."

And so he stayed to live with his family in the forest. From that time on, he and his descendants were called "Poleshuks."

But the younger brother didn't want to stay in the forest. He was as strong as an aurochs and relied on his strength. He alone cut paths, laid causeways, and traveled onward.

And to this day, those paths and causeways remain in Polesia, made by the younger brother.

Whether it took him a long time or not to escape the dense forest, he eventually began to come across clearings and sandy glades. The younger brother settled on these glades, plowed them, and sowed grain.

And from that time on, he and his descendants were called "Poleviks."

Later, the Poleshuks and Poleviks spread out, occupying other forests and fields, and became good neighbors.

And so they live to this day.

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Poleshchuks and Poleviks

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