The Hordune-Din

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The legend of the “Hordune-Din”, the “Sea Stallion”

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The Vainakh believed in the existence of a sea-horse, [not a hippocampus!, but a real horse, a stallion,] which emerged from the sea once a year to mate with ordinary mares, thus strengthening the breed of horses; the mares gave birth to horses “as strong as lions and as fast as falcons.”

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The legend reads:

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In the olden days, in the lands of the Nakhtsho [Chechens] where great dark forests grew and where the Nakhtsho lived in peace, there were three brothers: Baurz-Kant [“Brave Wolf”], Kuir-Kant [“Brave Falcon”], and Lom-Kant [“Brave Lion”].
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The elder brother, Baurz-Kant, owned a herd of cows; the second, Kuir-Kant, owned a herd of goats, and Lom-Kant a herd of horses. […]
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The elder brother had good cows: large and powerful, with strong horns. A dagger thrust into their milk remained upright, and did not fall over. The second brother owned fine goats: Their meat was as white as sugar, their milk soft as honey, their fleece was like a soft down on the cheeks of beautiful girls… But the horses of the youngest brother, Lom-Kant, were the best: Lion-horses! Falcon-horses!
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People from distant lands came to find horses. The khans and the sultans promised gold and precious stones for these horses, but for nothing in the world would Lom-Kant part with any of his mares. He preserved this marvellous stock, and treasured the purity of their blood.
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Every Spring, Lom-Kant secretly took his mares into the thickets of the forest which lies behind the Khankala Gorge. Lom-Kant rode a fiery steed and led the entire herd quickly, like an arrow. He led them through the lands of distant Itshkeria, to the blue Sea in the East, where a marvellous stallion with a golden mane emerged from the waters once a year.
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One day, Lom-Kant faced a difficult choice: Either he must take his herd to the Sea in the East, or kidnap his belovèd K’khok’khu [“Dove”], whose father refused him her hand in marriage. Lom-Kant’s brothers agreed to help him by taking care of his herd, and bringing it to the shores of the Sea, but – jealous of their younger brother’s happiness – they decided to kill the sea-horse.
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With bows aimed and ready, Lom-Kant’s brothers waited for the horse with the golden mane to emerge from the sea and come closer to the herd. When the horse, risen from the sea floor, lit up the darkness like a crescent moon rising over the sea, the brothers fired a shot of blue balls [sic] from their bows. The wounded horse reared up and threw itself into the sea which boiled with fury. The entire herd of Lom-Kant’s mares plunged into the sea, following the horse with the golden mane. Having heard of what had happened to his herd of horses, Lom-Kant decided not to part with them, and threw himself into the sea.
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People say that at the very spot where the Hordune-Din was wounded stands a great rock of the same name; in Spring, one can hear the neighing of the horses and the cries of their master rise up from the bottom of the sea.
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This legend is related by Mariel Tsaroieva in her excellent Anciennes Croyances des Ingouches et des Tchétchènes ("Ancient Beliefs of the Ingush and the Chechens", published in 2005). Ms Tsaroieva cites V. Gattsuk's Morskoi Kon' (1907) as her source.

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For more information related to horses, please go to these two previous posts: "A Batsbi Poem and Some Notes on Horses and Horsemanship" and "Zezwaoba - Dalaoba"

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