Karikyz

(Source: Katonkaragay – the land of legends: electronic resource / compiled by Zhumagulova Gulzira Dauletkhanovna. – Ust-Kamenogorsk: Reklamnyy daydzhest, 2024. – 176 p.)

In ancient times, an immensely rich bai had an only daughter. Beautiful, but arrogant-she didn’t even want to listen to matchmakers. She rejected everyone indiscriminately: the poor and the noble. Many young men who fell in love with her died of mental anguish, without waiting for reciprocity.

Time passed. The girl’s beauty began to fade. Her peers got married a long time ago, found families, and took their place in life. And now only widowers and old people were courting her. Dismissing them with contempt, the girl said, «It is better to become a dry weeds in the steppe than to belong to one of them!» Before she could speak, the Almighty, hearing her words, turned her into a weed.

Since then, she has been growing up alone in the steppe, and longingly clings to anyone who passes by, as if she wants to follow him. People called her Karikyz, «the old maid». To this day, they avoid this grass, pulling away and saying: «Don’t cling like a Caribou!». It is believed that God does not forgive pride.