This article is an experience of slow reading, actualized by the need in the «hurried» era to slow down the pace of perception of a literary text in order to increase the information volume. The said reading technique acquires a special degree of appropriateness when analyzing ancient folklore texts, which, as a rule, contain many archaisms, mythologemes, ethnographisms, not always understandable to the modern reader. The purpose of the article is to prove the productivity of «slow reading» on the material of the Karachai- Balkar folk hunting poem “Bijnöger”. The work uses a combination of cultural-historical, mythopoetic, comparative-contrastive and hermeneutic methods. The method of textual digressions has also proven effective, allowing in the process of analyzing the general line to «distract» ourselves with side effects associated with clarifications, clarifications and interpretations of contexts, subtexts and intertextual parallels. The work is written with methodological support on the works of E.B. Virsaladze, G.D. Gachev, M.A. Khabichev, M.N. Epshtein. The following theses can be considered the final result obtained using the slow reading method: 1) “Bijnöger” is an ethnospecific Karachai-Balkar folk hunting poem that reflects the peculiarities of the mountain and Caucasian Cosmo-Psycho-Logos; 2) intertextual analysis revealed typologically similar works in the Western European (English), Georgian and Kyrgyz folklore systems; 3) the example of Chingiz Aitmatov’s story «Farewell, Gulsary» notes the fact of a smooth transition of a folklore hunting plot into the literary element; 4) the semantic volume of the poem “Bijnöger” increased due to the interpretation of ancient pagan and Muslim anthroponyms, toponyms, and euphemisms («Dzharatkhan», «Altynly», «Dog disease»). The practical significance of the article is related to the actualization of environmental issues in the modern world, increasing the environmental culture of the younger generation. The article can be useful in developing university special courses on the history of North Caucasian folklore, as well as in comparative analysis of typologically similar works in the artistic arsenal of different peoples of the world.