Myths and legends of Kyrgyzstan

Jety-Oguz

1. Jety-Oguz - a valley of seven oxen
Once upon a time there were two very famous and powerful khans, who had many tribes at their command. Once the greedy and vicious khan stole a beautiful wife from his neighbor. After this case tow tribes began to have a war. Some smart people gave an advice to the vicious khan:
- If your enemy asked to return his wife, let it be. Kill the woman and give her body to him. What he will be able to answer, because you will carry out his desire.Your heart will be quiet because he will not be able to possess the woman, who`s body will be returned.
The advice was liked by the khan he arranged big memorial feast in the mountains.
A lot of guest came and 7 oxen were killed to be prepared as a food.
When the last ox was killed, the khan put a knife into the heart of stolen woman. Some hot blood came out of the injury and covered all mountains around and has been watched till our time. Together with the blood hot water appeared and sank the valley with the guests and tribes of vicious khan. The waves of the hot stream took the dead bodies of seven oxen far from these place, that is why this valley is called �Jety-Oguz�, which means in translation from kyrgyz
�the valley of seven oxen�.

2. Broken Heart
In times gone by, many years ago there was a khan who was reputed to be very cruel. He had plenty of everything. There were many wives in his harem. He had reached the age of seventy-five.
One day when the khan was hunting around his camp, he suddenly saw a girl who was as lovely as a daughter of the Sun. She walked in a graceful way, and she had long plaited hair. Without thinking twice, the khan made up his mind to have her for his own by any means, and he sent his men to seize the girl and deliver her to him.
The girl came from a poor family, and she had been engaged to a young man from her childhood. The young people loved one another dearly; they could not bear to be out of each other�s sight or to separate. As soon as they learned that the khan�s warriors had been sent after the girl, the young lovers decided to fly away up the mountains to hide there. They set off on their way, but the envoys, obedient to the khan�s will, seized them, killed the young man, put the girl on horseback and started to the khan�s camp.
On the way across the mountains, the girl was overwhelmed with grief and hopelessness. Her heart gave way, and she died.
By and by, on that very place, appeared a mountain. If you stand at the foot of it, high against the sky you will see the shape of a broken human heart. In the middle of the mountain there is red clay. It seems that the heart is bleeding.

3. The seven bloody rocks (Jety-Oguz valley)
Once upon a time there was a rich khan with 7 sons. He was getting older, but his sons were getting as real men and taking courage. He decided to share his richness between the sons. While dividing of many herds of horses and sheep he lost 7 calves .They were looked for everywhere but in vain they were lost. Very soon the khan died. The sons became to live separately. After the deaf of the khan the 7 calves were found, but they turned into the 7 big bulls. Watching them, the brothers became to share them and everyone wanted to get the biggest quantity of the herd. They began to fight and shed their blood for the goal of the possession of the bulls. One wise old man-wizard predicted the deaf of the brothers and in order to prevent this even, he turned them into 7 giant rocks, covered by blood. They are located nowadays not far from the south side of Issyk-Kul lake and called Jety-Oguz - which means 7 bulls.

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