The Story of the Twins

A long time ago at the village of Serki a woman gave birth to twins - both boys. They were very nice children.

One of the twins, Eiba by name, had a white spot on his right hand. The other one - they called him Saiba - had two white spots on his left hand. Father and mother were very happy and very sad at the same time. You will ask - why? Because there was a very bad custom in Serki - to kill twins. And the chief of Serki said: "Those twins must die too." But their father and mother did not want to kill the twins.

"What?" said the chief angrily. "You do not want to kill them? Go away from the village and never come back or I shall kill you together with your children."

So the poor family went away from the village.

For many years the family lived in a forest. Life was not easy there, but the children grew up strong. When they grew up, they helped their father and mother with their work. They were good and handsome young men.

One day they found a man in the forest. He was dying. They tried to help him, but he said: "Do not help me. I shall die soon. I came from Serki. There is a war on there now. We fought bravely, but the enemy is stronger than we are. Go and help my people if you can." With these words he died.

Eiba and Saiba wanted to go to Serki and help to fight, but their father and mother were against it and said: "The Chief does not want you there. He wanted to kill you when you were small children. That is why we went away from Serki and came to live in the forest."

But the twins wanted to go and help Serki. They said: "This is our country. We must help the people of our country."

So the boys went to Serki and fought against the enemies. They fought bravely. The people of that country won the fight and made the enemy run. So the war was over.

Then a feast at the chief's house began. Saiba and Eiba were at the feast too. Then one of the men stood up and said: "There are two young men here, two brothers. I think they are very brave soldiers. But we do not know who they are."

The twin's uncle was at the feast too. He said to the chief: "Do you remember two little twins - one with a spot on his right hand and the other with two spots on his left hand? Eighteen years ago you told their father and mother to go away from our village as they did not want to kill the twins. These are the same twins."

The chief stood up and asked the twins to forgive him. Then he sent the two young men back to theirs father and mother with many presents and a letter in which he asked them to come back.

From that day on, they stopped killing twins in Serki.


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