A Long Name

No one knew what Tolkochon's real name was.
The thing is, when he was born, his mother began to think of a name for him. Someone told her that people with long names live long lives. So she started to come up with a very, very long name. She thought of a name twice as long as his father's—no, that wasn’t enough. She thought of one seven times longer—still not enough. "Let me think of an even longer one!" She thought day and night, and another day and night, and yet another day and night, until she was so exhausted from thinking that she completely wore herself out. Finally, she came up with a name so long that nothing like it had ever existed in the world. She was overjoyed and told her family: "Let the boy be called Chon..." But as soon as she said "Chon," she weakened and died. So no one ever found out what the long name she had thought of for her son was.

"Well," the relatives said, "she only managed to say 'Chon,' so let the boy be called Tolkochon."

Soon, Tolkochon's father remarried, and his second wife also gave birth to a son. Tolkochon's stepmother was a strong and healthy woman. Although she also spent three days thinking of a long name for her son, she didn’t get tired at all, and on the fourth day, she pronounced the entire name from start to finish. And she didn’t die afterward—she remained alive.

And the name was indeed very, very long.
Here it is: ONYUDO KONYUDO MAPPIRANONYUDO HIRANYUDO SEITAKANONYUDO HARIMANOBETTO HEITOKO HEITOKO HEIHANOKO HEMETAKAMETA... ICHOOGIRIKA CHOCHORAGIRIKA CHOONI CHOONI CHOBIKUNI CHOTAROBITSUNI NAGANOBITSUNI ANOYAMA KONOYAMA AMOOSU KOMOOSU MOOSU, MOOSU MOOSHIGO YASHIKIANDONI TEMMOKU TEMMOKU MOKUNO, MOKUNO MOKUZOBO CHAWANCHOOSUNO HIHIZO-EISKE

That’s how long the name was!
Both boys grew up together and often quarreled. The younger brother would constantly tease and offend the older one:

"Ah, you, Tolkochon! Chon-chon! Tolko-tolko! Tolko-chon!" Tolkochon would get angry and start teasing his brother back:

"Ah, you, ONYUDO KONYUDO MAPPIRANONYUDO HIRANYUDO SEITAKANONYUDO HARIMANOBETTO..."

But here his tongue would get tangled. And by the time he started over, his younger brother was already far away.

The long name indeed brought the younger brother good fortune. To call him, one needed a lot of free time. So whenever someone needed to be sent somewhere for something, they always called Tolkochon:

"Tolkochon, bring water quickly! Tolkochon, run and get some coal!"
And Tolkochon would bring water, run for coal, and do everything he was told. Meanwhile, the younger brother only did what he felt like doing.

Even when the younger brother was at fault, the father always called the older one:
"Tolkochon, come here! I’ll teach you a lesson!"
But the younger brother always got away with everything.
And his mother thought:
"How good it is that I gave my son such a long name!"

One day, the older brother was playing with his friends in the yard and fell into a well. The friends shouted:

"Tolkochon fell into the well! Tolkochon fell into the well!"
Adults immediately came running, lowered a rope, and pulled Tolkochon out of the well.

The stepmother thought:
"It seems it’s true that children with short names are unlucky. Look, Tolkochon fell into the well!"

Two days later, the children were playing near the well again. The younger brother jumped onto the well’s edge and shouted:

"Tolkochon fell into the well because he has an unlucky short name. But I have a lucky long name. That means I won’t fall into the well."

At that moment, he slipped and fell into the well. His friends rushed to his parents' house and started shouting:

"Quickly! Quickly! Your ONYUDO KONYUDO MAPPIRANONYUDO HIRANYUDO SEITAKANONYUDO HARIMANOBEKKAI (NO, NOT BEKKAI!) HARIMANOBETTO HEITOKO HEITOKO HEIHANOKO KOKETAOTITA... HONETATOKETA..."

Here they got confused and started over:
"Quickly! Quickly! Your ONYUDO KONYUDO MAPPIRANONYUDO HIRANYUDO SEITAKANONYUDO HARIMANOBETTO HEITOKO HEITOKO HEIHANOKO HEMETAKAMETA..."

They got confused again and started once more:
"Quickly! Quickly! Your ONYUDO KONYUDO MAPPIRANONYUDO HIRANYUDO SEITAKANONYUDO HARIMANOBETTO HEITOKO HEITOKO HEIHANOKO HEMETAKAMETA... ANOYAMA KONOYAMA AMOOSU KOMOOSU MOOSU, MOOSU..."

But then one boy shouted:
"Wrong, wrong, we skipped the whole middle part!" And they started over again:

"Quickly! Quickly! Your ONYUDO KONYUDO MAPPIRANONYUDO HIRANYUDO SEITAKANONYUDO HARIMANOBETTO HEITOKO HEITOKO HEIHANOKO HEMETAKAMETA..."

Here they paused, rested a bit, and continued: ICHOOGIRIKA CHOCHORAGIRIKA CHOONI CHOONI CHOBIKUNI CHOTAROBITSUNI NAGANOBITSUNI ANOYAMA KONOYAMA AMOOSU KOMOOSU MOOSU, MOOSU MOOSHIGO YASHIKIANDONI TEMMOKU TEMMOKU MOKUNO, MOKUNO MOKUZOBO CHAWANCHOOSUNO HIHIZO-EISKE

fell into the well!
The parents heard this, grabbed a rope, and ran to the well.
But it was too late: the boy with the long name had drowned.

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A Long Name

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