It was so long ago that no one remembers exactly when it started, but they say it happened one summer night. A nomad family was traveling to a new pasture, and on the way their daughter was born.
She was fair and lovely, with shiny, silken hair, which is extremely rare among Children of the Steppes. The mother named the girl Beauty, and the father sighed, “This is not a name for a child of the steppe.” But the mother praised the girl and told everyone how pretty and plump she was.
From morning to evening, all their neighbours listened to what a wonderful daughter the mother had. The girl grew up, and her mother stroked her head all day long and praised her. She abandoned household chores and could not tear herself away from her daughter. Finally, the husband sighed, “Instead of praising her beauty, it would be better that you taught her how to make milk tea,” and he left early in the morning to graze cattle.
One day, a breeze flew past the family’s ger and heard the mother again praising her daughter. The wind picked up her words and spread them all over the Steppe. The words about such a good girl were overheard by Shulmas, the Evil Steppe Spirits, and they decided to go see this girl for themselves. The Shulmas looked into the ger and found the mother again stroking the girl on the head and singing her praises. They sat down to listen and stayed for a few days. “And what is she good at?” the Shulmas thought, “She sits all day and does nothing.” “Her mother is stroking her hair, maybe she has magic hair?” they thought, and each Shulma took one hair from the girl’s head. The next morning, the girl’s braid fell off. Then the Shulmas decided that maybe the girl had magic teeth. In the morning, the girl’s tooth fell out.
The mother was frightened and called the old Shaman into the ger. “Look what has happened to my beloved daughter! Is she sick?” the mother cried. The Shaman looked at the girl. He burned steppe herbs to cleanse the air and said, “Your daughter was surrounded by Shulmas because you praise her too much. They think that the girl is special. Tell me, does your daughter know how to do something for which you praise her every minute? Embroider, make tea, clean up, graze cattle?” “No,” replied the mother, “she’s just my gold and my life.”
The old Shaman spat into the fire and said that the mother was a foolish woman who had not taught her daughter anything, and the girl was bad because she couldn’t do anything. So the Shaman named her Mu Kukn, which means “bad girl”. The Shulmas overheard the Shaman calling the girl Mu and immediately dropped everything and ran away.
Ever since this time, when the Children of the Steppe get sick, they are given a second name as protection from Evil Spirits. This confuses the Shulmas, and they run away.
