Science confirms – 3. Collection of scientific articles

Days passed, months passed, they passed through towns and villages, until one day they came to a green, cheerful plain, which beckoned from afar with lush gardens. One could guess that behind the gardens there was a city, abundant with water and fertile. They drove a little further, entered the gardens and between the trees saw the battlements and towers of the city walls rising to the sky. People coming from the city began to come across them. The sons of the Padishah asked them: What kind of city is this?

They were answered:

– This is the city of Nigaristan.

Then all three remembered their father’s speeches, shuddered and froze in place… Finally Afruz said:

This is the same city standing on the border. Father strictly ordered us not to go to these places. However, as you can see, the city is worth a look. I don’t know what we should do, enter the city or not enter?

The younger brother, Behruz, answered him:

– How do you not know what to do? It is necessary to fulfill the father’s order and, without looking at this city, immediately turn back.

The middle brother said:

– Since we are already here, it would be nice to drive up to the city gate and look there, and then leave.

Then the elder brother spoke again:

– I don’t think this is the same city where our father didn’t tell us to go. That city should lie in ruins, but in this one, so beautiful and blooming, in my opinion, anyone can enter. We left home to see everything worth seeing, and this city is certainly worth seeing. I think we need to go there, and if this is the same Nigaristan that father spoke about, we will not go to the enchanted castle, we will not spend the night in the city, we will ride through this gate and, without dismounting, we will leave the other gate.

For a long time they argued like that, until suddenly they noticed that they had already arrived at the very city gate. As they saw the gates and the decorations above them, they bit their fingers in surprise. And when they looked through the gate into the city itself, they were just dumbfounded… They see: yes, this is the same city of Nigaristan, standing on the border, about which my father spoke.

Afruz, the oldest brother, said:

– Our father did not tell us to go to this city. But he either did not know what kind of city it was, or he thought that we were still helpless children and if someone attacked us, we would be defeated and captured. He doesn’t know that if someone comes face to face with us, he won’t be able to. Each of us is worth ten heroes in archery, swordsmanship and wrestling!

He said and added:

«Come what may! I’m going to the city! The middle brother said,

«I’m coming with you!»

And the youngest says:

– I have to go with you, because we are going together. If there is a road in front of us, we must go along it together, and if there is a pit in front of us, we must fall there together!

And so all three brothers entered the city. They’ve never seen anything like this before! Palaces and houses, gardens and flower beds amazed the eye, over every door, at every intersection, on every wall such pictures are painted – you can’t take your eyes off! But listen, what kind of people are there! Some are white, pink, strong, they are dressed in new beautiful clothes, they talk, laugh, are cheerful, they have a holiday from evening to morning, they do not know grief. These cheerful and beautiful people are more often found on the streets, and others, who are much more numerous than the first ones, work for them, and they, unhappy, hungry, ragged, thin, live in dilapidated houses on the outskirts, no one pays attention to them.

The brothers really liked the city, and they decided to spend a few days in it. We stayed there for two or three days and became completely different – just drunk. They didn’t care about anything, had fun, and only wanted to sing and dance.

One day, being in a cheerful mood, the elder brother Afruz said to the two younger ones:

– I keep thinking about why my father didn’t want us to go to this city. Was he jealous of our pleasures?

The middle brother replied:

– Maybe this city was destroyed earlier and the father knows about it since then, but does not know anything about today?

The younger brother said:

– Maybe he knows about something bad in this city that we haven’t met yet?

I won’t bother you with transmitting their conversation, but they talked for a long time. In the end, they got quite settled in the city.

One day Afruz says:

– Brothers! The place here is not bad and probably the enchanted castle is the same, and my father just told us not to go there in vain. We need to look into it too, and if you don’t come with me, I’ll go alone and come back soon.

Shahruz replied:

– I will not enter the castle, but I will go with you to its foot. Behrouz replied:

«If you’re both going, then I’m going with you.»

The brothers got up here, mounted their horses and went to look for the enchanted castle. But they didn’t ask anyone how to get to him, they all showed him the threshold, and then gave the same advice: «It’s better not to go there, it’s a bad place, they say; of the young men who went there, no one returned the same way they left.» And every inhabitant of the city of Nigaristan, who met them, reported something new about the enchanted castle. One said:

– In winter, instead of snow and rain, stones and lightning fall from the sky, and in summer, flames shoot out of doors and windows.

Another said:

– Padishah divov (Divas, devas – slav. «marvel» – supernatural humanoid beings, present in Turkic, Iranian, Slavic, Georgian, Armenian, mythologies, in Zoroastrianism – evil spirits) imprisoned in this castle the daughter of Shah Peri (Peri – Persian. in Persian mythology, creatures in the form of beautiful girls, a kind of analogue of European fairies) and wants to persuade her to become his wife. But the padishah is afraid that if some hero finds the way to the castle, he will take the beauty away, and therefore anyone who comes to the castle is attacked by divas.

Many said:

– The daughter of the Chinese emperor has been kidnapped and is being held there in chains. A strong guard is assigned to her so that no one can free her.

Others said:

– In that castle, in the dungeon, a girl named Chilgis is imprisoned (Chilgis is a Persian. «Forty braids», the «sacred» number 40. Science does not believe that some numbers are «bad» and others are «good», but such an opinion exists in religious and mystical thinking. Some examples. 3. The idea of the «divine trinity», being a reflection of the fact of the existence of a monogamous family. Dad, mom and child, the role of mom is downplayed due to the rule of patriarchy, instead of mom, the holy spirit borrowed from Zoroastrianism. 13. The damn dozen. The devil is a representative of the «wrong» pagan religion, who wore animal skins, horns, and a kind of hooves on his feet – initially in order to get closer to animals and catch them. 12 – «dozen», from «squeeze» – that is, «be able», the number 12 is divided into many numbers, and 13 it is not divided into anything – it turns out «a damn dozen». 40. Ancient tribes of Indo-Europeans lived for thousands of years in the Arctic Circle, where the polar day lasts 40 days, and the Sun was God. 666. Apocalypse, the number of the beast. In many ancient peoples, including the Jews, numbers were denoted by different letters of the alphabet, in Hebrew words are read from right to left: nun (50); vav (6); nes (200); nun (50); nes (200); sameh (60); kuf (100) in the sum of the numerical values and give the number 666, it turns out the emperor «Caesar Nero»). She was tied by her braids to a post so that she would not run away. She will be there until the hero Jahantig (Jahantig – Persian. «avalanche») and will not free her.

One or two people said:

– This castle belongs to the daughter of the Chinese emperor. She is very beautiful, but she does not marry anyone and will only marry someone who will answer all her questions. Until now, no one has been able to answer her questions, and those who have wooed, but have not answered the questions, are beheaded, impaled on spikes and put their heads on the battlements of the fortress walls. In addition, many young men there were bewitched, and some of them were petrified to the waist, and others – from head to toe.

The people they met told the three brothers about all this, and they wanted to see the enchanted castle more and more. It takes a long time to retell everything here, and, in short, Afruz asked those people who told about this castle:

– Have you seen everything you are talking about with your own eyes? Answered:

– No! We heard from our fathers, but none of us went there, because there is a Chinese border and a fortress behind the famous Chinese wall.

In the end, Afruz, Shahruz and Behruz left the city of Nigaristan in the direction of the enchanted castle. From a distance, they saw a castle rising to the sky on a hill behind a powerful stone wall… We reached the top of the hill. At the very wall they got off their horses and tied them to a tree. With great difficulty, they climbed the wall, descended from it and found themselves on the other side of the wall at the foot of the castle. The castle gates were closed and no one was there. For some reason, the brothers were seized with fear, they wanted to return, but Afruz thought and said:

– Since we came here, we should still look into the castle. If you’re afraid, stay here and wait for me. I’ll go there and come back quickly.

Shahruz and Behruz said:

– No, brother, let’s get out of here! We can’t go in there, this castle scares us, let’s get out of here!