The Nenets Autonomous Okrug has its own legends and myths. One of the most famous tells about a small people - Sikhirtya or Siirtya. According to legend, he lived in the polar tundra before the Nenets (“real people”) appeared there. Representatives of the Sihirt are described as stocky and strong people. They were allegedly very short in stature, with white eyes. Sikhirta came to the polar tundra from across the sea.
The way of life they led was different from the Nenets way of life. They did not breed deer, preferring to hunting wild animals and fishing. Sometimes the Sihirta are described as the guardians of silver and gold; in some legends they are called blacksmiths, after which "pieces of iron" remain on the ground and underground.
During the development of the North, the Russians called the local population the collective name Chud, while highlighting the white-eyed Chud, which was engaged in the extraction of gold and silver in the mountains. The ancient mines in Siberia, where gold, silver and copper were mined, were popularly called the Chud mines. It is believed that the Sihirty inhabited vast areas from the Kola Peninsula to the Gydan Peninsula. As for short stature (scientifically "nanism"), according to modern ideas of scientists, nanism is an adaptation to various factors environment, including low temperatures. Sikhirta lived in large peat-turf houses, shaped like a hill. It is assumed that they led a sedentary lifestyle. The entrance to the houses was located at the top. Probably for this reason, the Nenets, who first saw the sihirt, got the impression that they were hiding, going underground.
Legends about dwarfs living in caves or underground existed among all Finnish peoples, of which the Laplanders are the oldest inhabitants of the North. The latter were nomads. Spreading out the dwelling in a convenient place, they sometimes heard obscure voices and the tinkling of iron reaching them from under the ground. Then the yurt was moved to another place, as it blocked the entrance to the underground dwelling of the Uldra.
Tales of underground inhabitants, who knew how to process iron and possessed supernatural abilities, were preserved among all the peoples of the North of Russia. According to legend, miracles were magicians and could see the future. The wise and good-natured old man in fairy tales, who helped Ivan Tsarevich with the help of a magic ball to find the way to the beauty kidnapped by Kashchei, serves as an echo of the legends about sihirt among Russians.
The reason for the departure of the sihirt under the ground is the invasion of the Nenets reindeer herders. It is believed that inter-ethnic conflicts broke out between them. At the same time, goods were exchanged between peoples, marriages were concluded. The languages of the Nenets and Sikhirta were related. According to one version, the Sihirta lived among people until the 20th century.
So, in the article "Blonds of Sikhirt: the missing people of the Arctic", published by the resource "Krasnoyarsk time", the memories of one of the inhabitants of the North are described. “Some of my classmates themselves came from a sihirt - but for some reason they all had roots along the female line (the sihirt was a grandmother or great-grandmother, but I never saw any mention of a sihirt-grandfather). As a rule, these guys and girls differed from the rest in their short stature and roundness of facial features, which are especially pleasant in girls - such, you know, a cardioid - i.e. the face is shaped like a heart. I took it all for granted.”
Unlike modern local residents of the tundra, who roam behind reindeer herds and live in tents, ancient people lived in semi-dugouts, the area of which sometimes reached 150 square meters. This suggests that they led a sedentary lifestyle. Sikhirt's companions were a dog. Sikhirta settled in families and had strictly limited land; such a management system did not contribute to communication between residents.
There were many legends about Sihirt. According to one of them, once the Nenets drove past the hill, who decided to make a halt and give the deer a break. They went into the hill, finding a sleeping girl of small stature there. She was very beautiful and dressed in a dress decorated with painted buttons. Near the girl lay a cloud - a bag for sewing, decorated with shiny beads sparkling in the sun. Bronze openwork pendants emitted a subtle melodic ringing. When the girl woke up and saw strangers, she jumped up and immediately disappeared into the nearby bushes. The search for the stranger was unsuccessful. People decided to take a cloud-bag with them. They continued on their way and after a while put the plagues in a new place. And closer to the night, a female plaintive cry began to be heard: “Where is my cloud?” "Where is my cloud?" They say that the cry was heard until the morning, but no one dared to take the sewing bag to the tundra. The family who took the pouch died soon after. And relatives still kept this precious find. The bag has become a sacred attribute. During a person’s illness, relatives hung this cloud on a trochee until the patient recovered.
It is not known for certain whether the Sihirty lived in our area, but small legends about the mysterious people are passed down from generation to generation.
In many cultures, white is considered the color of death and evil. Having been in the far north, it's easy to see why. The polar night steals the sun. The icy desert stretches in all directions in the flickering light of the moon and the aurora. The frost burns, the blizzard howls like a horde of ghosts. And there are no flowers, except white, on the frozen, snow-covered earth. Snow is white even in the dark.
Demons of the Siberian taiga
The north is stunning not with beauty or splendor, but with grandeur. Taiga and tundra are like the ocean. Tibet and the Norwegian fjords can be hidden here and no one will find. But even in crowded England, where even in the Middle Ages there were twenty inhabitants per square kilometer, there was room for the people of the hills and bizarre forest creatures. What then to say about Yakutia, where the population density even today is a hundred times less?
People have never really owned this land. A handful of hunters and ranchers struggled to survive in a vast world owned by ghosts. In a country where snow lies for seven months a year, and the temperature in winter drops below minus 60 degrees, the invisible rulers of the taiga did not forgive insults and could dictate conditions.
Master of the taiga Baai Bayanay
The bulk of the ghostly population of Yakutia are ichchi, the spirits of nature. Like Japanese kami, they can be both personifications of mountains, trees and lakes, as well as patrons of the area, embodiments of ideas and phenomena. But if in Japan an old pine becomes the embodiment of the idea of a tree, in Yakutia spirits are not identified with objects. Ichchi just lives in a tree and if his house is cut down, he will not die. But he gets very angry.
Fortunately for lumberjacks, only a few trunks are "occupied" with spirits. But the taiga, meadows, swamps, mountains, river overflows and lake expanses are controlled by the Ichchi so tightly, as if Yakutia is one big sacred grove for them. Until now, trees decorated with ribbons can be seen along the roads of the republic. Spirits collect a small tribute from people - it can be a souvenir, a coin or a sip of koumiss. Tribute is not taken for the use of land, but simply for entering the territory.
Incorporeal, invisible and without the appearance of ichchi, they managed to survive even the Christianization of Yakutia without loss. The traditional means of exorcists do not work on them - the spirits of the taiga have developed complete immunity to holy water, the cross and prayers. But fortunately, the ichchi are not evil. The most powerful of them, the ruler of the forests and the prankster Baai Bayanay, even patronizes the hunters. Even if not for everyone, but only for those who have passed the necessary tests and observe customs. True, this god has a specific sense of humor, and even the worthy are not always protected from his jokes.
The real evil spirits of the Yakut expanses are the abas ghosts. They are also incorporeal, but unlike the ichchi, they can appear to people in a diverse, invariably frightening guise. Classical Abas prefer appearance in the spirit of Irish fomorians - one-legged, one-armed and one-eyed giants. In the last couple of centuries, they are said to have come into fashion in the form of a three-meter, impenetrably dark, often headless silhouette. If abas appear during the day (and they are not afraid of light), then you can see huge black eyes on a deadly white face. Abasa, as a rule, have no legs - ghosts simply glide above the ground or gallop along the roads on monstrous horses. And in any form, the abas emit an unbearable smell of decomposition.
You can save yourself from abasa. Its main weapon is fear, and if the ghost fails to frighten the victim and put her to flight, then he himself becomes confused.
Abasy illustrated by Elley Sivtsev
Ghosts of this type are able to manipulate gravity - to make a weapon or load incredibly heavy, or even press a person to the ground. The most dangerous thing is that the Abas are able to drink the soul. People who encounter evil spirits in the forest or in an abandoned house die without receiving any external damage. But the consequences for the victim can be even worse than death. Sometimes an evil spirit enters the devastated body, and a zombie wrestler appears.
The Siberian dead are so severe that African zombies are no match for them. The wrestler is not only bloodthirsty and incredibly strong - he is also fast as lightning. It is very difficult to stop him: the wrestler has never heard of silver, garlic and holy water, and he, as befits a zombie, is philosophical about bullets and ax blows. To incapacitate a warrior, he must at least be decapitated. And so that the dead man does not become a wrestler, it is necessary to decapitate him and bury him with his stomach down, holding the severed head between his legs. Fortunately, the wattletail is short-lived. The presence of the abasa accelerates the decomposition of the corpse so much that the zombie literally rots before our eyes.
Rice. Eve Wilderman
Even more dangerous are the Yakut ghouls - the Yuyers. Buried without the necessary rituals, suicides and criminals return in the form of a bizarre cross between a vampire and a werewolf. During the day, the yuer lives under water, where he can’t be reached in any way (Dracula would not have thought of this!). Going out on a night hunt, the ghoul takes on a human form and easily persuades the victims to let him spend the night. Well, at the time of the attack, the yuer turns into a monster covered with hair, which is almost impossible to kill. The wounds only force the yuyor to retreat.
Not all Siberian vermin are indifferent to Christian shrines. The Syulyukyns, an analogue of Lovecraft's Deep Ones, living in the cold lakes of Yakutia, converted to Orthodoxy. And now at Christmas time, when all the water becomes holy, they have to evacuate to land. And since, along with religion, the Syulyukuns borrowed vices and a way of life from Russian watermen, the fishmen spend their time on the shore playing cards. In underwater mansions, they leave bags of gold, which a clever diver can try to snatch.
This pandemonium is ruled by Ulu toyon, the god of death and evil, who lives high in the icy mountains. In the form of an impenetrable mist, he sometimes descends into the valleys to destroy the forests with fierce storms and send pestilence on the herds. Ulu Toyon devours the hearts of captives and turns the souls of people into his tools, instilling them into the bodies of predators. This is how possessed bears appear, ready to attack a person. Or Bigfoot.
Chuchuna
The legends about the "snowman" usually describe two types of this creature: bigfoot and yeti. But in the mountains of Yakutia and south to Sikhote-Alin, there are legends about a third, unique species - chuchuna. Chuchunu is distinguished from other "relic hominids" by long hair fluttering on the run. Slender, of average height and athletic build, among other "bigfoot" he stands out for his civility. Chuchuna is covered with wool and is afraid of fire, but wears coarse clothes made of skins and hunts using weapons - stones, bone knives, and sometimes bows. And if Bigfoot and Yeti are always silent loners, then Chuchun usually appear in two or three, talking with a piercing whistle.
Horrors of Chukotka
In the game "Berserk" rakken for some reason turned out to be a swamp creature
The Norse sagas mention the utburds - the undead, into which babies turn, abandoned in the forest in famine years. In Chukotka, such demons are called angjaks. But compared to the Arctic, Norway can be considered a resort. Even an adult exile cannot survive in the icy desert. Therefore, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, there are also rakkens that have no analogues in warm Scandinavia.
People expelled from the camps for greed, anger or cowardice become rakkens. After death, the criminal turns into a gnome with an extra mouth on his stomach. The details of the description depend on the area: black-headed dwarfs hide under the hills, gray-headed dwarfs hide in the rocks, and blue-headed dwarfs hide in the sea. Crab claws are sometimes mentioned among the signs of a rakken.
Of course, rakkens hate humans. And they invent much more sophisticated forms of revenge than those of the Angyaks and Utburds. On tiny sleds drawn by invisible dogs the size of ermine, they carry diseases and other misfortunes to the camps. And there is nothing more terrible than the disease for the militant Chukchi. After all, only those who died in battle can get into the Arctic Valhalla - the “Cloud Country”. The men who die in bed are sent to the frozen wasteland of the Nether.
The horse in Yakutia is a sacred animal. Good gods most willingly take the form of undersized and shaggy horses
Canadian Eskimo Bestiary
Inupasukugyuk by artist Larry MacDougall
The Inuit Eskimos, whose settlements are scattered from the Chukchi Peninsula to Greenland, are the most numerous people in the Arctic. They got closest to the pole, surviving in conditions that the Nenets, Evenki and Chukchi would find too harsh. But the Tuniites were even braver. This legendary tribe, according to the legends of the Eskimos, lived in ancient times on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and with the advent of "real people" (Inuit), they retreated to completely lifeless icy deserts. It was two thousand years ago. Even today, however, northern hunters occasionally encounter tall, incredibly muscular strangers wielding crude Paleolithic tools and clad in unstitched skins. The primitive language of the Tuniites resembles childish babble. Tuniites are easily enraged, but generally peaceful.
Much more dangerous is the meeting with the Inupa-Sukugyuk giantesses. They are so powerful that they kill a bear with a stone throw, and at the same time they are so simple-hearted that they take people for living talking dolls and try to play with them. Giantesses value their toys, so the unlucky hunter does not manage to escape from captivity for many days. It is difficult to say how dangerous a meeting with a male inupasukugyuk is, because so far no one has survived after it and has not told about their adventures.
But there are benefits to giants. big luck if you manage to tame their dog, then you won't need a kayak. A huge dog can swim in the sea with a hunter on the back of his neck and bring dead narwhals to the shore, as a spaniel drags ducks from a lake. True, the happy owner of the mighty beast will have to lead a secluded lifestyle, the giant dog will definitely eat the neighbors.
To contrast with the giants, there are tiny ishigak - gnomes that do not reach a person up to the knee. But they are difficult to find, for dwarfs do not leave footprints in the snow. Despite their small stature, ishigak are great bear hunters. They defeat the beast with cunning: first they turn the clubfoot into a lemming, then they kill it, and only after that they turn it back.
Ishigak, arctic gnomes (fig. Larry MacDougall)
Eskimo monsters have one thing in common: they are all dangerous, but not evil. The monsters of the ice world do not wage war against people - they leave this care to the harsh nature. They only pursue their goals, not always clear. So, kwallupilluk (or aglulik) - skinny, scaly mermen living in polynyas - often steal children who play near the cold sea. But they don’t eat them, as you might think, but, on the contrary, they protect them from the cold with witchcraft and feed them. Therefore, in famine years, the Eskimos voluntarily give babies to the inhabitants of the waters, and then occasionally see their children when they go ashore to play. Kwallupilluk are not indifferent to the cubs of animals, they fiercely protect the young from hunters. But the watermen tend to help people who hunt the beast in the right season.
Takrikasiout are not evil - shadow people living in a parallel world, similar to the wondrous country of British fairies. But hearing their voices, and even more so seeing takrikasiut, is not good. This means that the border between the worlds has become thinner. One more step - and you can leave the familiar reality forever, there will be no turning back.
The Kwallupilluks can be trusted with their own children. Seriously!
Iyrat werewolves are not evil either, they can take the form of a raven, a polar fox, a bear, a caribou deer, a man, but they always give themselves out with the radiance of blood-red eyes. They often harm people, but not of their own free will: the Iyrat fulfill the will of the spirits of the Inuit ancestors. Istitok - a giant, all-seeing flying eye - circles over the tundra, looking for taboo violators. To those whom he complains about, the ancestors send ijrat. First with a warning. Then with evidence that the warning was worth heeding.
Even the insane demon mahaha is somehow angry in a special way, atypically. White-haired, blue-skinned, wiry and practically naked, armed with impressive claws, he chases victims through the ice with laughter. And having caught up, he tickles them with cold fingers until the unfortunate ones die with a smile on their faces.
Mahaha is the only ticklish demon in the world. Even his name hints at something
The only typical monster seems to be the amarok, a giant wolf that devours hunters foolish enough to go hunting alone. But the descriptions of this beast are so detailed that many consider the Amarok not a mythical creature, but a cryptid - unknown to science, but a real or recently extinct beast. It could be canis dirus - "terrible wolf" - or even more ancient predator, the common ancestor of canids and bears.
Giant dog in the service of the Eskimos
Tuunbak
The demonic bear from The Terror is a fantasy by Dan Simmons, but based on real Inuit folklore. The name of the monster, Tuunbak, means "evil spirit", and mythical giant bears - nanurluk and ten-legged kukuveak can be considered its prototypes. Yes, and an ordinary polar bear makes an impression on the Inuit - his name is none other than “nanuk”, which means “respected”.
Floors of the world
The mythology of the tribes, whose camps are separated by hundreds of kilometers of tundra, is related only by the most common motifs. Shamans meet too infrequently to develop a single version of the adventures of their ancestors. As a rule, the legends of different tribes are united by cosmogony - fundamental ideas about the structure of the world, as well as the key characters of legends - heroes and deities. They remain recognizable, despite the inconsistency in descriptions of appearance, details of the biography and assessment of actions.
The cosmogony of the most ancient peoples usually says that souls go through the cycle of rebirth without leaving the material world. Later concepts were supplemented by parallel dimensions: the "upper world", inhabited by the spirits of ancestors, and the "lower" - a gloomy abyss that gives birth to monsters. The views of the peoples of the Arctic belong to the second category and stand out in only one. Here in the afterlife there is no change of seasons.
According to Chukchi belief, the northern lights flare up in the sky when dead children play ball. Rice. Emily Feigenshuch
In the upper world it is always summer, horses and deer are forever galloping through the flowering meadows. Only the astral twins of shamans have a way to a happy country. On the sacred sharp mountain in the Lena delta, where the waters of the great river flow into the icy ocean, there are guards of the upper world - giants with bear heads, birds with human faces and copper people. They meet those who are worthy to enter the first of the nine layers of the heavenly realm, located beyond the ordinary, visible sky. The Chukchi also describe the afterlife in a similar way, placing worthy dead in the "Cloud Country".
The Yakut underworld is located underground and, due to the pitch darkness prevailing there, has been studied extremely poorly. Much more interesting is the lower world of the Inuit - Adlivun. Winter rules here, but the darkness of the polar night is softened by the radiance of the stars and the unquenchable northern aurora. Not fiery furnaces, not sulfuric smoke, but eternal cold and blizzard fill the hell of the northern tribes. The frozen desert is a purgatory through which the Tupilac - the souls of the dead - must pass before they find their rest in the silvery light of the moon.
The upper, middle and lower worlds of the Yakuts. Illustrations by Elley Sivtsev for the epic "Olonkho"
The nether world is ruled by Sedna, the "Lower Woman", who is served by werewolf adlets with a human face and body, but with wolf legs and ears. From Adlivun she sends demons to the land - tuurngait. Those that are called pumpkin are the personifications of frost. Others, like the Chukchi rakken, bring disease and bad luck in hunting until they are driven out by shamans.
In the view of the peoples of the Arctic, every living being and every object is endowed with its own soul, which the Eskimos call anirniit. At the highest level, the ideas of beings, objects and phenomena are combined into Silla - the world soul, which gives form and meaning to matter.
Sedna is a cross between the Scandinavian Hel and the sea queen
Pohjola
The Kola Peninsula is not only apatite deposits, but also Pohjola from Finnish mythology, a country ruled by powerful shamans, from where cold and disease come into the world. At the same time, however, Pohjola and the "thirtieth kingdom" - a world where magic is as common as the aurora. Somewhere out there, in the midnight mountains, the World Tree connecting the upper and lower dimensions pierces the Earth. Climbing up the branches of the tree, you can get to Saivo, an abundant "country of eternal hunting", inhabited by the spirits of virtuous ancestors. It can sometimes be seen reflected in the crystal surface of the sacred lakes. From below, stunted wizards and blacksmiths, similar to the Nenets sihirta, make their way into the world of the living. There are other guests, much more unpleasant: ravkas, Sami ghouls, spirits of evil shamans. As befits the undead, Ravq is incredibly strong, afraid of the light, and forever tormented by hunger. Unlike European vampires, Ravk is not limited to blood and devours his victim with bones.
Even the evil tuurngait - component Silla. The world is one, and therefore does not require management. The concepts of justice and goodness are inapplicable to him. Sedna, the strongest of evil spirits, the mistress of marine animals, and Tekkeitsertok, the patron saint of caribou, are hostile to people, since deer and walruses have no reason to love hunters. But at the same time they are revered as gods - givers of food. Life and death are parts of cosmic harmony. That's how it's intended.
"The Legend of Narain"
A long time ago, far, far away, in the snow-covered tundra, in the middle of a wide laida, the chum of the old man Irimbo stood alone. And he had a beautiful daughter Nara (Spring).
Years flew by like swift-winged birds. The days flew by like a sled behind a fast team of reindeer.
In a dark winter time, when wolves howled behind the hills, when the night, like two crows' wings, embraced the world, and even during the day it was dark, dark, when an evil blizzard howled and sang in all voices, rejoicing in its power over people , then it became terrible and terrifying in the plague of the old man Irimbo.
However, the old man Irimbo was not a shy person. He lived openly in the world, walked confidently and boldly, never cursed his fate, no matter how difficult it was for him.
Irimbo's arrows were always sharp and sharp. Bowstrings are strong. It is unlikely that there would be a person in the tundra who would know how to shoot from a bow in the same way as old man Irimbo, a brave and successful hunter.
They knew in the tundra that Irimbo - skilled craftsman. Whether to make sleds, whether to plan a trochee, whether to make poles for a plague, to make a harness, to hollow out a boat, to make skis - Irimbo, a artisan man of the tundra land, can do everything.
And Irimbo also knew how to catch a running deer with a lasso on the go. More than once alone he beat a bear, geese in flight, ducks accurately shot. In winter, he set nets under the ice, caught sturgeon the size of a human being, fat, weighty chirs, broad-sided peled, silvery whitefish, ruddy taimen.
Irimbo also knew how to sing songs to the sound of a tambourine. And when his tunes swept through the endless tundra lays, over the thick thickets of willows and alders, tundra woodlands, over the hills, when the songs flew across rivers and lakes - the troubles that Irimbo and his daughter guarded at every step, away from the plague were carried away, lost in the snow, drowned in rivers and lakes.
Day after day, summer turned into winter. More than once snow fell on the ground, more than one year the flow of ice carried away to the icy sea-ocean.
In the neighboring camps, young guys heard about the old man's daughter, about the beautiful Nara, about Narain. By this time, the girl had grown taller than larch. Nara's eyebrows are like the semicircles of a bow, eyelashes are longer than arrows, Nara's body was slenderer than the chorea, and her face was brighter than the dawn. On her chest swayed like two rivers, two tight black braids. Faster Oleshka ran Nareine, and if she sings, she can hear it in the neighboring camp. Good, to everyone's wonder, to the joy of her father, was the girl Spring, the daughter of the old man Irimbo.
Here grooms began to visit the old man in the tent.
Once, snow on a tundra path rose like a white blizzard - a ruddy-cheeked handsome man arrived on a team as fast as the wind. “Because of his shoulders, the team cannot be seen.” "The guy raises the blizzard with his feet." Okay, quick-footed, sharp-eyed, what a peregrine falcon to you.
He said this about himself: “In our tundra, there is neither far nor close bolder, more courageous, stronger than me. Recently I defeated one bear.
Can you compare to the sun? - asked his girl-Spring. And added: - The sun is better than you!
The broad-shouldered young man was embarrassed by such an answer-hello, fell silent, and left silently, with nothing.
The following spring, another suitor came to the chum of Irimbo to woo. He was even stronger than the first. Tall, slender, eyes burning with fire. The step is firm, as if he could walk around the entire tundra on foot, faster than on reindeer. Not only fast on his feet, but also smart.
There is no faster than me and my deer in the world! - the guy boasted to the old man Irimbo and his daughter. - If you want, I'll drive to the stars, grab one star and come back!
But the sun is still better than you! Nara answered. The brave rider fell silent at these words and rode off to
his camp with nothing.
Came once and the third groom. He said so; "Beautiful Nara! Look for at least a hundred years, look for at least two hundred, but a guy with a voice louder than mine, more beautiful than my voice, you will not find anywhere.
To which the beautiful Nara replied: “Can you compare with the sun itself?”
Lowering his eyes to the ground, this groom also left
Days and nights fly, winter is replaced by summer. More than once snow fell on the ground, more than one year river ice was carried away to the sea-ocean.
And once a father said to his beautiful daughter: “I see that your heart does not know love, your heart does not want to love anyone. This is bad, daughter. I'm already old. The time is not far off when I will forever go to the tundra, "for cloudberries." So my mind goes: “Which of the heroes will replace me? Will there be a man in your plague?"
To which Nora answered her father: “You, father, are strong as the wind. You, like the moon, can with yourself, with your brilliance
smite the stars in the sky. I want to find a groom who would be similar in mind to you, who, like you, could do everything in the world. People would give light and joy. I love only the Sun itself. Day and night, winter and summer, autumn and spring, I think only about him, about the Sun!”
When Nareine went into the tundra, when the clear-faced sun warmed the earth day and night, the girl tirelessly whispered: “I love you, Sun! I love you, O Sun! Come down to me and give your love!”
For a long time the girl stood by the old larch, asking for strength, praying for happiness with the Sun. She sat for a long time on the river bank, admiring the reflection of the Sun in the water. For a long time she walked along the tundra, jumped over bumps, wandered along the hills and did not get tired of shouting, raising her hands to the Sun: “O Sun! Come to me! Give me love! O Sun! I love only you!”
But in the spring, sometimes the solar ball stirred, went left and right, as if trying to break away from its familiar place. Here the sun rolled down, began to approach. Closer and closer, lower and lower the sun began to descend.
Seeing this, the dark night became very angry and went away. And streams, rivers and rivers, on the contrary, sang, rustled, shone, murmured, ran more cheerfully to the sea. On the tundra hills, on the lays, on the banks of rivers and lakes, flowers bloomed, grasses, shrubs, dwarf birches, tundra larches came to life. As if they were all awakened from a dream, light and warmth woke them. Far, far away, winters and frosts, blizzards and colds have gone beyond the icy seas. The earth has come to life!
All over the tundra began to play, fun began to speak: “Nara did it - a girl named Spring! Nara brought joy to the earth! Thank you Spring Girl!
And Nara, like a light-winged, fast-winged bird, shone all over, overflowing with happiness, youth, life, on the wings of Love flew up to the groom-Sun.
In vain did old Irimbo call his daughter, in vain did he call her days and nights - the spring girl did not answer. And then, from longing and grief, the old heart of Irimbo could not stand it - he turned to stone, turned into a stone cape. And with its "face" this stone cape is turned to the Sun - light. Every day, every year, the sun's rays warm and caress.
Every year in the month of deer calving, in May, the beautiful Nara dances the dance of happiness at the Spring and Sun Festival. The sun warms gently, there is a lot of light around. The sun warms the earth In spring, greenery, grass, flowers, all life on earth will be born on earth. The sun moves life itself. The stone cape - the old man Irimbo - smiles under the warmth of the sun, glad to see his daughter, and it seems that he comes to life again.
Every year Nara celebrates the Spring Festival. Everyone rejoices, everyone sings, dances at this holiday. People have a wider and faster step. In the eyes - happiness. Everywhere there is new excitement. With spring, people are getting better and more successful in hunting, getting game, fish, grazing deer. All the work in their hands is arguable. Strength in a person is added. With spring, a person "walks a little higher than the ground." In the soul - a song, joy, new thoughts, new deeds. Fine!
Only the beautiful Nareine forgot to invite the Old Woman-Night to the holiday. Therefore, in spring and summer there is no night in the North.
And Nara - Spring has become a symbol of life, love, happiness, light and joy on earth...
SELKUP TALE
mistress of the fire
They say it happened a long time ago. It happened in that camp, where seven
births lived, where seven plagues stood!
One day all the men gathered to hunt. Let's go. Left alone
women and children in the camp.
Three days lived, everything was fine. On the third day, in the evening, this is what happened. IN
In one plague, a woman cooked her own food. I threw more firewood into the hearth, a cauldron with
hung deer meat over the fire. She herself sat down with her small child to
hearth closer. The child laughs on her lap, the woman smiles at him.
Suddenly a log cracked, sparks flew from the hearth, one hit the child on
hand. The child cried. A woman reproaches fire:
What are you doing?! I feed you firewood, take care of you, and
you hurt my child!
The child was frightened by the mother's cry, cried even more. wears it
the woman is on the plague, shakes her in her arms, but he does not let up. From pity, from annoyance
the woman spanked the baby. The child is completely gone. A woman would blame herself, but
she is angry at the fire.
See what you've done! - screams. - There will be no firewood for you, I will cut you down,
fill with water!
She put the child in the cradle, grabbed the axe. Fire cuts with an ax.
Then she took water into a ladle, splashed it on the hearth - the fire hissed, went out.
Woman says:
Now you will know how to offend my son! Not a single light
not a single spark left of you!
The fire doesn't burn. Dark, cold in the plague. The child cried plaintively: cold
The woman remembered. She bent over the hearth, raking the ashes. So after all
She herself said that she would not leave a single spark. And she didn't.
And the son is crying. Mother thought: I'm running to the neighboring tent, I'll take the fire,
fire up the hearth.
I ran. As soon as she entered the neighbors - in their hearth the flame wavered,
began to sit down. Then the last blue light emitted a puff of smoke and went out.
The woman ran to other neighbors. She opened the door a little - and they did not
became fire. She didn't even go in to them, she immediately closed the door. Bypassed everything
camp, and everywhere the fire went out. Still only in one, last plague burns.
There the old woman lived, lived a century. I knew a lot, I saw a lot. stood up
woman in front of the plague, afraid to enter. Yes, what to do? Her little son is completely
may freeze. Came in.
The fire puffed, smoked and went out. The woman began to cry. And the old woman ash
rakes, looking for a spark of coal in the ashes. I don't have coal or
sparks. Cold, dark hearth.
This has never happened before,” said the old woman. - I am my fire
shore, I feed him to his heart's content. I go to bed, I cover the coals with ashes. Why fire
went out? Have you done something, you cold frog? Haven't you offended
fire in your hearth?
The woman bowed her head, silent.
So it is, - said the old woman. - What to do now? Well let's go to
your chum, let's see.
Came out of the plague together. They go camping. Quiet everywhere, dark. Like they left
camp people, as if it had died out.
In the plague of a woman, the child screamed all over, and can no longer cry.
The old woman took a brimstone and began to make fire. Worked for a long time -
a fire is kindled.
The old woman lowered her tired hands, again she says to the woman:
Holy fire in the hearth, life gives us all. It shines, warms and feeds.
The fire went out - it's like the sun went out. Freeze, perish, evil death
will take us.
The old woman knelt down and then she saw the Mistress of the fire. She sits in
corner of the hearth. Her clothes are gray as ash, and her skin shines like coal,
that turned into ashes.
The Lady of the Fire swayed back and forth, and said to the old woman:
Why are you trying? There will be no fire for you. The woman hurt me a lot.
She chopped my face with an ax, flooded my eyes with water, shouted evil words!
The old woman began to ask:
Don't be angry, Lady of the Fire! Have pity on us! This stupid woman
guilty, others are not to blame.
The Mistress of the Fire shakes her head, her hair flutters like blue smoke.
And the old woman again prays:
Tell me what to do to make the fire blaze again in the hearths? We will fulfill everything
what you say. The mistress of the fire replied:
There are no such words, neither I nor you have such strength to fire
blazed as before. Now it can only be ignited from the human heart.
A young woman is sitting, clutching her baby to her chest, crying.
The old lady tells her:
Do you see what you did? All seven human races because of you,
unreasonable, the abyss must! Hunters are brave, like angry bears,
strong as moose will perish. Hard-working women will wither in the cold
foci. And small children will die, and old men, and old women. Because there is no life without
The woman's tears dried up. She got up, gave the child to the old woman,
Keep him safe!
And she threw herself on the stones of the hearth. Mistress of the fire with a finger to her chest
touched it, the flame shot up at once, roared, raged the fire in the hearth.
All that could be seen was how the Mistress of the Fire clasped the woman with fiery arms and
carried away with sparks into the smoke hole.
And the old lady said:
From this plague will come a fairy tale-tradition about how fire from a living heart
lit up. The Selkups will forever remember what happened in our camp. Will
keep the fire in the hearth!
TUVA TALE
Seven Mouse Brothers
Long ago, there were seven mouse brothers on earth. They had their own yurt
the size of a palm.
One morning they woke up and saw that snow had piled up during the night -
the walls are hidden! The brothers made wooden shovels and began to shovel the snow.
We worked all day, we were very hungry.
And suddenly, at the place where the snow had just been raked away, everyone saw a piece of
oils. He lay right in front of the Youngest Brother's nose. Didn't have time for everything
reveal how he ate this oil.
The Elder Brother shouted:
- What have you done?! I ate everything myself! Here I am now!
And in front of the frightened mouse brothers, he jumped and swallowed Himself
Little Brother right with a ponytail. Then five brothers attacked him,
tied up and dragged to the court to the khan. We walked for a long time, we were very tired until we got there.
to Khan. The bound brother was left at the door, while they themselves entered the yurt.
Khan sat majestically on the throne. He looked at him with a smile
sweaty, out of breath mice.
“Where did you come from?” Khan asked.
- We came from seven rivers, seven passes, - the mice answered.
- This is evident, look like tongues stuck out! - Khan noticed.
“There were seven of us,” said the mice.
- Wow, how many! - Khan laughed.
- We had our own yurt the size of your palm, - said the mice.
- A big yurt! - Khan chuckled.
- When we were shoveling snow, our Youngest Brother found a piece of butter
and ate. And then the Biggest Brother swallowed him straight up!
- Oh, how scary he is! Where is he?” Khan asked.
- We tied him up and dragged him to your court. He lies behind the doors. He
very big. When we found him, he was quite small, we took him to
themselves and began to call our Youngest Brother, but he grew faster than anyone, and soon
we began to call him our Big Brother. He began to sleep no longer in the yurt, but
outside.
"Drag him here," ordered the khan. The mouse brothers dragged the bound
The Biggest Brother.
- Ha-ha-ha! - Khan laughed. - Why, it's a cat! - And he began to untie
blades of grass with which the cat's paws were tangled.
- Khan, how will you punish him? - the mice asked.
- And here's how: untie and let go. He did well to eat the mouse! Let it go
he will devour you all! - Khan shouted.
The mouse brothers were frightened and fled in all directions.
And the Khan made their Elder Brother his cat.
Since then, the cat has not been friends with mice. He remembers how they dragged him
bound, through seven rivers, through seven passes to the court to the khan.
And the mice were offended by the khan that he justified the cat-criminal, and began
carry grain, cakes, lard, butter from the khan.
Since then, mice have become the enemies of people, and cats have become the enemies of mice.
KHAKASS TALE
Fox and speakers
Speakers lived on top of a tall larch. They had small children.
I got into the habit of walking under the larch fox. Comes and says:
- Speakers, speakers, here I come. Throw me one cub.
- Went away. We will not give you our children, the speakers answered.
- Won't you? But I'll still take it.
- Where can you get us on a tree!
“I’ll get it,” said the sly fox, “I’ll run up, jump on the clouds and
from there I will fall on you. And then not only your cubs, but also yourself
eat.
The columns got scared, believed the fox and threw one cub to her. Fox
picked him up and ran into the woods. Columns are sitting on a tree, crying.
The next day the fox came again. Again it requires:
- Throw it quickly, otherwise I'll jump on the moon, I'll go down to you from the moon and everyone
eat you.
I had to give the stupid columns one more cub to the fox.
Speakers are sad, crying. Cranes flew in, sat on a larch,
ask:
- Why are you crying?
- Lisa got into the habit of walking to us. It frightens, it takes away our cubs.
- How does the fox scare you?
- He threatens to jump on a tree and eat us all. The cranes laughed:
- A fox will never climb a tree. Yes, she is taller than a birch stump and not
jump. And if it still frightens you, you tell her: "Come on, jump" - and
see what happens.
The cranes rose from the tree and flew low along the slope. speakers
sitting, waiting for the fox. The next day the fox came running, out of breath, cub
requires.
- Throw it as soon as possible, otherwise I have no time today, - said the fox and
licked her lips.
Speakers sit and are silent, frightened look askance at the fox.
- Well, what are you doing? - the fox hurries ... - Otherwise I’ll jump on a tree - it’s bad
will.
Then the speaker-father plucked up courage and said:
- Jump and try...
The fox wagged its tail in anger, ran away, strained all its strength, but
I didn’t jump higher than a birch stump ... I fell and lies.
Speakers look at her and laugh. The fox became ashamed, she began around
trees to run. How long, how little she ran, asks the speakers:
- Who told you that I can't climb trees?
- Cranes said.
- Where are they?
- They flew down the slope.
"Well, okay. I'll pay them off," thought the fox and ran the cranes
search. How long, how little she ran, she sees: the cranes are flying low. Behind them
the sunset captured half the sky. The fox shouted:
- Look around, cranes, fire! We run to my hole to save ourselves.
The fox ran. The cranes flew after her. They flew to the hole. Become
arguing over who should climb into the hole first.
- Climb you, - said the fox, - and I will stand at the entrance; if big
the fire will reach here, I will shout to you.
The cranes consulted and climbed into the hole. The fox immediately sat down at the entrance.
- Well ... what did you say to the speakers? - the fox asked sarcastically.
now say?
Cranes say:
- What can I say now. Guilty. You at least give us before death on
look at the light, at least from under your feet.
The fox could not stand it, raised one leg. Cranes gathered as if into the light
look, while they themselves fell on the fox, pushed it and flew away. Two
the young cranes did not have time to fly away: the fox blocked their way out.
- Here I will show you the light, - said the fox.
- Don't be angry with us. If you want, we will carry you on wings across the sea
and you will catch up with the whole flock? - said the young cranes.
- Okay, bring it, - the fox agreed.
Both cranes sat down, joined their wings together, put a fox on them
and flew. They flew, flew, flew to the sea. Sky above, water below.
Cranes flew into the middle of the sea. Over the deepest place scattered in
sides. The fox fell into the sea and drowned.
In the religious beliefs of the Nenets, animistic ideas dominated (Anima - soul, hence - "animism"). The whole world around them seemed to be inhabited by spirits - hehe. Rivers, lakes, natural phenomena had their owners-spirits. People's lives depended on them, luck in crafts. The spirits were good, helping people in all matters, and evil, sending diseases and various misfortunes on a person. The propitiation of spirits and deities was performed with the help of sacrifices.
In the mythology of the Nenets, the universe is represented as three worlds located vertically one above the other - the Upper World, the Middle World, the Lower World. The upper world is above the earth and consists of seven heavens inhabited by divine creatures. The middle world is the Earth, besides people, it is inhabited by numerous spirits - the owners of everything that surrounds a person in his earthly life. The earth is flat, surrounded by the sea. The lower world is located underground and also consists of seven tiers, which are inhabited by evil spirits that bring illness and death. On the first one live Sikhirta, their sky is our land. Sikhirta graze earthen deer ( i' chora).
The creator of all life on earth, according to the Nenets, was Num, dwelling in the sky. Num governs the Universe: the changes of winter-summer, heat and cold, wind, storms.
It was believed that Numa have a wife I am Munya and sons. According to some sources, among his sons Nga is the spirit of death and disease. Every year a white deer was sacrificed to the sky spirit Numa. The sacrifice was carried out on an open elevated place. The meat was eaten. The head with horns was put on a stake and placed with the muzzle to the east.
The evil inclination was identified with the name of the spirit Nga- the lords of the underworld, where the souls of the dead went after death. The souls of sinners are doomed to an eternal and joyless existence in the kingdom Nga. He hunted for the souls of people like a hunter for an animal. Nga devoured the soul, and the body died.
In the Underworld, except Nga, evil spirits of disease dwell. Khabcha minrena- an evil spirit that brings sickness. Madna- a spirit that brings ugliness to people and animals. Ilutsyada- a spirit that deprives a person of reason. Khansosyada- an evil spirit that takes away the mind. Teri Namgae- spirits in the form of various underground creatures. Sustana- the spirit of the disease of dystrophy. Mal′ teŋga – mythical creature, without a mouth and an anus, having only a sense of smell.
When sacrificing to evil spirits, the contents of the deer's stomach are left in the form of seven pieces.
The life of the inhabitants of the Middle World is ruled by two patrons I am Heaven- bright mother earth and Guys don't- a sinner. The first directs the human race to good deeds, the second lives in sin and directs the evil deeds of man.
In the Middle World, according to the Nenets, spirits also live - the masters of elemental forces and natural phenomena. There were the following basic ideas about them. Wind ( flickering) is caused by the mythical bird Minley, which has seven pairs of wings. Thunder ( heh) is the noise of the sledges on which the sons of the North go to fight the South in order to take his daughter from him. Lightning ( hehe tu) - sacred fire. These are the sparks that fly from under the runners of the sleds of the inhabitants of the upper world. According to another version, thunderstorms are a species of birds living in the sea. They ride on clouds. When they open their mouths, lightning comes out in a zigzag pattern, and thunder is their speech. Rainbow ( nouv pan) - was represented by stripes on the clothes of Heaven ( Numa). Thunderstorm - hehe Sarah. Blizzard ( had)– usually posing as an old woman with long gray hair.
Guardian spirits of the natural environment:
Ilebyam pertya- the owner and giver of furs, game, animals, the keeper of deer herds.
Id erv" - the owner of all the water on earth (literally "the head of the water").
Yakha'erv is the owner of this river.
Siiv min erv- master of the winds.
Tu'hada- the grandmother of fire.
Nenets folklore is characterized by personification (personification): along with the heroes actor is the tale itself myneko. This technique is widespread in fairy tales, where an animated creature is called lahanako- a word.
The Legend of the Suitors
(Literary processing by Procopius Yavtysy)
It was a long time ago, when the Wind with the Moon on the Savdeysky hills drank tea, and the swans brought water to them in teapots. There lived at that time two young Nenets. One people called Merchahad - Stormy Wind. The second had the name Nermindya - Going Forward. They fell in love with one girl, the beautiful Arcata - Big Hearth. They came to her. Here, they say, choose one of us as your husband. She thought: both are beautiful, both comely. Whom to choose as a husband? And I decided so - let the competition between them show who is stronger and more dexterous. The winner will enter his chum with his young wife.
The suitors began to compete. Tynzei to catch deer. This is the most important thing for a tundra dweller - to catch a deer from a herd. Merchyakhad seems to be stronger, he will throw a tynzey on the stag, he, as if rooted to the spot, is standing. And if he twitches, he knocks him to the ground with a jerk: But Nermindya turned out to be more agile. When Arcatu fired her gun into the air, ending their contest, he had more deer caught.
Merchahad got angry. Threw tynzey - threw him over the hill. And said to the opponent:
- Try it the same way!
Three times he threw his tynzey Nermindya - he could not throw it to the tynzey Merchyakhad. The bride rescheduled the competition for next autumn.
And now a year has passed. The suitors are arguing again. The deer caught were counted equally. Merchyakhad threw his tynzey to a distant swamp. And Tynzei Nermindi fell beside him. Then Merchahad says:
- Tie my legs:
With bound legs, he jumped over the swamp in three jumps. Merchyakhad has strong legs! The opponent shouts:
- Now you jump!
And Nermindya knows that he will not succeed so cleverly. What to do? He sees that four sleds are standing near the tent. He began to jump back and forth through them. Jumped a hundred times! And when Merchyakhad started to jump, he missed on the fortieth jump. He broke the sled and limped himself! .. again no one won. The bride had to new term assign.
New autumn came, invited the suitors to the competition. And again they are equal in everything. Deer are good at catching. Tynzei is thrown far away. With two legs in three jumps they jump over the sledges. In no way inferior to each other. And then a flock of goose flies over them, flies away from the winter.
- Hey, Merchahad! shouts Nerminda. - Hit the hatchet in the goose wing!
Merchyakhad threw an ax - and missed. He flashed an evil eye and said:
- Hey, Nerminda! If you take a bird from the sky with a hatchet, your bride will be:
Said so - and lost. I did not know that his opponent had been learning to throw the hatchet all summer. Merchyakhad turned into a stormy wind from anger. Everything flies across the tundra, wants to take revenge for the offense. Anyone who walks ahead, tries to knock down. If it breaks into the chum, it will leave the hearth without fire. But the wind is powerless before a man for whom the tundra is his father's land.
Here is the legend told by the old tundra man. Deep sources were revealed in it, feeding the modest flowers of the tundra king-berry cloudberry with spring force. Five types of competitions of the Nenets are seen by me as five petals of that flower.
The Nenets are the indigenous people of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. According to the All-Russian Population Census of 2002, the number of Nenets was 41,302 people, in particular, in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug - 7,754 people (of which 3,657 were men and 4,097 were women). They inhabit the territories of the Kanin-Timan, Malaya Zemlya and Bolshezemelsky tundras. The name "Nenets" in translation means "man". In the past, the Russians called the Nenets Samoyeds. This name presumably comes from the Saami “samae-edne” (land of the Saami), since in the distant past the territory of the Nenets settlement was the area of the Saami.
The Nenets language belongs to the northern branch of the Samoyedic group of the Uralic languages. The language of the tundra Nenets is subdivided into dialects: Kaninsky, Bolshoi Zemlya, Malozemelsky and Kolguev. Despite a number of differences, they are all mutually intelligible. The Nenets script was created in 1932 on the basis of the Latin alphabet. Since 1937 - in the Russian alphabet.
The origin of the Samoyedic peoples, incl. and the Nenets are associated with the Kuloi archaeological culture in the middle Ob region. From here in the 3-2 centuries BC. the gradual advance of the Kulois to the lower reaches of the Ob and the middle Irtysh began. In the first centuries of the new era, under the onslaught of the Huns, part of the Samoyeds from the Irtysh region retreated to the forest zone of the European North, laying the foundation for the European Nenets.
The main occupation of the Nenets is reindeer herding. Along with the sedentary trend, many Nenets retain nomadic image life, wear national clothes, follow national traditions, store and transmit cultural heritage of his people.
In the religious beliefs of the Nenets, animistic ideas dominated (Anima - soul, hence - "animism"). The whole surrounding world seemed to them to be inhabited by spirits - hehe. Rivers, lakes, natural phenomena had their owners-spirits. People's lives depended on them, luck in crafts. The spirits were good, helping people in all matters, and evil, sending diseases and various misfortunes on a person. The propitiation of spirits and deities was performed with the help of sacrifices.
In the mythology of the Nenets, the Universe is represented in the form of three worlds located vertically one above the other - the Upper World, the Middle World, the Lower World. The upper world is above the earth and consists of seven heavens inhabited by divine creatures. The middle world is the Earth, besides people, it is inhabited by numerous spirits - the owners of everything that surrounds a person in his earthly life. The earth is flat, surrounded by the sea. The lower world is located underground and also consists of seven tiers, which are inhabited by evil spirits that bring illness and death. On the first one live Sikhirta, their sky is our land. Sikhirta graze earthen deer (ya′ chora).
Spoiler
The creator of all life on earth, according to the Nenets, was Num, who lives in heaven. Num controls the Universe: the changes of winter-summer, heat and cold, wind, storms.
It was believed that Num had a wife, Ya' Munya, and sons. According to some sources, among his sons Nga is the spirit of death and disease. Every year a white deer was sacrificed to the sky spirit Numa. The sacrifice was carried out on an open elevated place. The meat was eaten. The head with horns was put on a stake and placed with the muzzle to the east.
The evil inclination was identified with the name of the spirit Nga - the lord of the underworld, where the souls of the dead went after death. The souls of sinners are doomed to an eternal and joyless existence in the realm of Nga. He hunted for the souls of people like a hunter for an animal. Nga devoured the soul and the body died.
In the Lower World, besides Nga, evil spirits of diseases live. Khabcha minrena is an evil spirit that brings sickness. Madna is a spirit that brings ugliness to people and animals. Iŋutsyada is a spirit that deprives a person of reason. Khansosyada is an evil spirit that takes away the mind. Teri Namge - spirits in the form of various underground creatures. Sustana is the spirit of the disease of dystrophy. Mal'teŋga is a mythical creature without a mouth and an anus, having only a sense of smell.
When sacrificing to evil spirits, the contents of the deer's stomach are left in the form of seven pieces.
The life of the inhabitants of the Middle World is ruled by two patrons of the I of Heaven - the bright mother earth and Parna is not a sinner. The first directs the human race to good deeds, the second lives in sin and directs the evil deeds of man.
In the Middle World, according to the Nenets, spirits also live - the masters of elemental forces and natural phenomena. There were the following basic ideas about them. The wind (flickering) is caused by the mythical bird Minley, which has seven pairs of wings. Thunder (he) is the noise of the sledges on which the sons of the North ride to fight the South in order to take his daughter from him. Lightning (hehe tu) - sacred fire. These are the sparks that fly from under the runners of the sleds of the inhabitants of the upper world. According to another version, thunderstorms are a species of birds living in the sea. They ride on clouds. When they open their mouths, lightning comes out in a zigzag pattern, and thunder is their speech. Rainbow (nuv pan) - represented by stripes on the clothes of Heaven (Numa). Thunderstorm - hehe Sarah. Blizzard (had) - usually presented as an old woman with long gray hair.
Guardian spirits of the natural environment:
Ilebyam pertya - the owner and giver of furs, game, animals, the keeper of deer herds
Id erv" - the owner of all the water on earth (literally "the head of the water").
Yakha′erv is the owner of this river
Siiv min erv is the master of the winds.
Tu'hada is the grandmother of fire.
The role of an intermediary between spirits and people was performed by shamans - “tadebya” (from the verb “tadebtes” - to speak, to cast a spell). They usually determined the location of sacred sacrificial places, they were addressed in case of illness, unsuccessful fishing.
Spoiler
According to the beliefs of the Nenets, a person became a shaman if he was chosen by the spirits. Spirits force their chosen ones to become intermediaries between people and the world of spirits. People who were destined to become shamans had special marks: a birthmark the size of a fist, two or three crowns, an extra finger, and so on. The second prerequisite is the possession of certain qualities and knowledge: the shaman must be endowed with the ability to predict the fate of an individual and an entire nation, have a good memory, intuition, imagination, artistic gift, and master hypnosis.
The main shamanic attribute was a tambourine - a penzer. It symbolizes a deer, on which the shaman allegedly rides on the earth, ascends to heaven or descends into underworld. The penzer had an almost round shape with a diameter of 62-80 cm. Bells were hung on a tambourine. Another important detail of the Nenets tambourine is the beater. It is made of wood and resembles a narrow long spatula. The shape of the tambourine has a sacred meaning: it seems to connect the top and bottom, it is a kind of symbol of the earth.
Among the attributes of the Nenets shamans was also a staff. Staves were made from a specially selected tree, mainly from birch, which is considered a sacred tree by shamans.
Shaman rituals took place most often at night by the light of a fire. Birth and death of a person were accompanied by special shamanistic rites.
The dead were buried by land in a special log house. At the place of burial, one or more deer were killed, and a broken sled was left. For several years, the name of the deceased was not pronounced, although they rendered him all sorts of honors. Once a year they visited the burial site. A few years later, the shaman who took part in the funeral escorted the soul of the deceased to the afterlife.
Spoiler
The birth and death of a person, all types of economic activity, in particular everything related to reindeer herding, hunting, fishing, are accompanied by the performance of numerous religious rites. The rite of sacrifice is also performed on holidays associated with the change of seasons. An important place in these rites is occupied by the rite of sacrifice to the supreme gods and spirits. The process of performing this rite, according to the concepts of the Nenets, is a form of communication with the supreme beings. The weaker a person felt, the more plentiful were the victims. He believed that spirits can be influenced by sacrifices, pleasing and bribing treats. The sacrifices were mostly attended by men. Women were admitted on rare occasions, provided that something of copper was placed in the pima.
To perform the ceremony, a special place is chosen, which is considered sacred (Khebidya Ya). Scattered in the tundra are small sacrificial places revered by groups of Nenets belonging to the same clan, or by individual families wandering in the area.
sacrifices often there are "blood", i.e. sacrificial deer are killed on a sacred place.
Spoiler
The sacrificial animal must be strangled, not slaughtered. After strangulation, the carcass is butchered, the “mouth” of figurines depicting various spirits – hehe – is smeared with warm blood. In addition to bloody sacrifices, there are also bloodless ones, when bread, wine, pieces of cloth, etc. are left in a sacred place. According to the Nenets, the sacrifice corresponded to the feeding of the spirit, which in return could send good luck on the hunt or the recovery of the sick.
They consecrated deer to the sun and sacrificed khaer'tu or yalya'tu - deer of light. On the side of such a deer, a straight line is depicted with seven processes extending on both sides, with which the sun holds the light.
The second most important sacrificial animal among the Nenets is a dog (veneko). A dog is a creature of the Lower (impure) world. Therefore, dogs were sacrificed to evil spirits and their main owner. If they noticed that Nga (the main host of evil spirits) wanted to steal a person, then a dog is sacrificed aside from the plague of death. White dogs are sacrificed. In a serious illness, when other measures did not help, on the street, against the head of the patient, they strangled the dog. Her soul was sent in exchange for the soul of a sick owner. The noose was a garter from the pims of the patient, which was hung by a pole over his head.
In order for a person to be able, if necessary, to call for help from spirits, idols are made.
Spoiler
They are depicted in the form of human or animal figurines. The material for the manufacture of idols can be wood, leather, tin, wool, fabric. The production of idols with the image of spirits is carried out under the guidance of a shaman, then the shaman consecrates them.
Each family has its own set of idols. They are supposed to be fed periodically, to talk to them, to put them to bed. Idols are divided into local, domestic, personal, marital, family, tribal. The functions of idols are the same whose images they serve. Domestic hehe were either small stones, or images made of wood of an anthropomorphic or zoomorphic nature. Anthropomorphic images and stones (if their shape allowed) were dressed in fur or cloth clothes of the Nenets cut (up to 7 clothes).
Hehe are stored in specially designated "clean" places of the plague or in the sacred sled. These sleds are covered with the skins of sacrificial deer along with skins and hooves. Only men took care of them. Sacred sleds were placed on birch linings, from which they then made a hunting staff - yadabts (a staff of a happy hunt, with which they hunted a bear). Four deer were harnessed to the sled. They could only be sacrificed. If hehe personifies a woman, then it is kept at the head of a woman's couch, if a man, then at the head of a man's couch. It is believed that she represents the progenitor and predetermines fate. In addition, each family has sacred sledges, carefully hidden from prying eyes, which stand behind the tent, on the opposite side of the entrance. Women are forbidden to go behind the tent and approach the sacred sled. This prohibition does not apply to girls who have not yet reached the age of puberty, and older women. The sacred sledge contains images of spirits - the ancestors of the family - "nytyrma", as well as some other sacred objects. The tambourine is also stored there.
A number of hehe had certain functions. The Nenets revered the patroness of the family - Myad′ puhutsya (“old woman” or “hostess of the plague”). Meat pukhutsya was available in every tent and was in the female half on a pillow or in a bag at the head of an older woman. There were as many clothes on Myad′ as there were children of the hostess. Each panic was sewn for seven days. There is no border between Ya' Myunya (Universal Mother) and Myad' Puhutsya (Old Plague). The deity lives in the plague, because life is born and continues here. Myad′ was transported puffing on women's sleds. In the north of the Gydan Peninsula there is a sacred place Myad′ puhutsya - khebidya′
To facilitate childbirth, they turned to Ya′ of the sky (or Ya′ of the munya). I' sky did not have a stone or wooden body. Instead of them, cloth was put into clothes. After the birth of the child Ya' neba, they put the newborn in the cradle for three days. And then they put it away in a casket.
There is a sacred place associated with the Self of Heaven. It is located on about. Vaigach is called Nebya hehe. This is a high rock, a stone idol of the sanctuary - a natural ledge of a rock 2.7 m high.
In the Bolshezemelskaya tundra, a common household deity was Yar′ puhutsya, protecting children from crying (yar′ - crying). She was a wooden anthropomorphic image, dressed in several panics.
Some myad′ hehe help in reindeer herding, hunting or fishing, others with diseases.
Images of animals and birds sometimes acted as hehe.
There was a cult of ancestors among the Nenets. Images of ancestors were made 7-10 years after death and kept forever. The image of an ancestor (nytyrma) was described by a number of researchers: V. Islavin, G.D. Verbov. They made from a piece of wood, sewed clothes and planted in the chum. He was sometimes fed and always carried with him. It was believed that nytyrma is an image of the "soul" of a person. In this image continues to live among people. During a snowstorm, the Nytyrma ask for help: "Help the children find their deer."
The largest sacred places of the Nenets- O. Vaigach (Bolvansky Nose), Kozmin copse near the river. Nes, More-Yu in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra, etc. In the language of the Nenets, the sacred place is called khebidya (“sacred land”).
Vaigach Island is the main ethnic shrine of the Nenets. One of the myths about the origin of the island says that initially there was nothing but water, then a stone cliff rose from the waters, which grew to its present size. People came here to worship from everywhere. Getting to the island was not easy. They moved on the ice or in boats on the water.
At the southern tip of the island stood Vesako (an old man), a wooden idol, trihedral, very dilapidated, 2 arshins high. Upper part - 7 faces, one above the other. The face is only outlined: a mouth, a rounded nose, sunken cheeks, two features - eyes. Around it stood 14 stone and 256 wooden idols. In the northern part - Hadako (Puhutsya) - the Old Woman (grandmother). These were the progenitors of all Nenets idols.
Modified November 11, 2018 by MorelindoSpelling and layout
