Comment
The content of this text was recorded in Russian by Ljudmila Zhukova from one of the residents of the village Nelemnoe. In 1990 it was translated into Yukaghir by
Vasilij Shalugin. The story about visiting the lower world
ajbid'i: either in a dream or "in reality" is very popular among modern Kolyma Yukaghirs of the older generation and has been recorded in several versions. In this text the narrator constantly moves from the 1st person to the 3rd person.
Translation
(40-1) What we eat on this middle land, the souls of dead men also eat.
(40-2) My grandfather told me that he had walked there.
(40-3) I don't remember if he said that it was in a dream, or he said that he had really walked there.
(40-4) One day he got lost and fell down a hole.
(40-5) He wanted to get up, but kept falling down again.
(40-6) There was a corridor with a door in that hole.
(40-7) He went along something looking like a corridor in that hole.
(40-8) He walked along the hole looking like a corridor. He didn't have any matches.
(40-9) He saw that a small man had gone there a short time ago.
(40-10) He had left small footmarks.
(40-11) He went on after the small footmarks.
(40-12) The roof looked like a ceiling.
(40-13) He didn't know how far he walked.
(40-14) He saw something similar to light very far away.
(40-15) When he went there, the river appeared, the water.
(40-16) On the other side he saw a land with hills and trees.
(40-17) Behind that place with hills and trees there was a place with endless houses.
(40-18) A lot of people lived there with dogs.
(40-19) He saw boats on the bank of that river
(40-20) He saw stone houses and houses made of wood.
(40-21) While waiting and looking he felt thirsty, but the water was completely black.
(40-22) He didn't drink that water.
(40-23) He was waiting, but there wasn't anybody.
(40-24) Then he sat in a boat and went to the other side.
(40-25) There he saw children playing and dogs barking. When he looked at them, it was somewhat strange.
(40-26) He was frightened.
(40-27) When he crossed the river, he tied his boat to a pole.
(40-28) He looked and thought where to go.
(40-29) A small Russian house stood there.
(40-30) He went there.
(40-31) When he went there, he said to the children: "Hello, children."
(40-32) The children didn't answer.
(40-33) The women went past, and he said "hello" to them as well.
(40-34) They didn't answer and didn't even look at him.
(40-35) He pushed one child, so he did.
(40-36) The children didn't look at him and didn't say anything, but started saying: "Who pushed me?"
(40-37) He went to the house with a fence.
(40-38) Its grass was black. It had rotten grass around it.
(40-39) He was standing, looking and thinking: this is a house where nobody lives.
(40-40) The door opened and a Yukaghir girl went out.
(40-41) He said: "Hello, girl" She didn't talk to him, didn't say "hello".
(40-42) My grandfather was young then, not married.
(40-43) He liked that girl very much.
(40-44) When the girl went to the house, he went after her and entered the house.
(40-45) He saw the old man and the old woman sitting there.
(40-46) He said: "Hello," but they didn't answer.
(40-47) When the evening came, they started cooking.
(40-48) They cooked something black.
(40-49) He thought: "They will feed me."
(40-50) They put out three plates of the cooked food.
(40-51) He said: "And what about me?", but they didn't answer, didn't say anything.
(40-52) They put out three mugs.
(40-53) He thought: "What sort of people are they?
(40-54) Why don't they speak?"
(40-55) The old woman cut the meat and started eating.
(40-56) He took a piece from her and ate it quickly.
(40-57) It was very bad food, like moss.
(40-58) He took the second piece from the old man.
(40-59) The third piece he took from that girl.
(40-60) They started fighting amongst themselves because of that.
(40-61)"You ate my food."
(40-62) "You ate my food." The other also said: "You ate my food.
(40-63) Why are you so greedy today?"
(40-64) That boy, who ate their food, stood up and pushed them.
(40-65) Their shapes were like shadows. Even his hand couldn't feel them.
(40-66) He thought: "What if I lie with this girl? I will lie with this girl."
(40-67) They slept under a thin skin.
(40-68) When he lay down next to that girl, the girl screamed: "Mother, somebody is pressing down on me."
(40-69) She was suffocating.
(40-70) He wanted to kiss her.
(40-71) She cried: "Oi-oi."
(40-72) The old woman asked: "Why are you crying?"
(40-73) "Somebody is pressing down on me."
(40-74) He started thinking what to do.
(40-75) Then the old woman said to the old man: "Go to the shaman.
(40-76) It seems that our daughter has become ill."
(40-77) He saw that an old shaman woman came.
(40-78) Her hair was all white and shaggy.
(40-79) They put a two year-old horse skin out for her.
(40-80) She sat down and started shamanizing.
(40-81) "I can't see anything. There isn't any illness."
(40-82) My grandfather was happy that they wouldn't find him.
(40-83) Then the shaman old woman left.
(40-84) He came to that girl again
(40-85) Again she screamed terribly.
(40-86) The old woman said to the old man: "Go to the big shaman."
(40-87) Then my grandfather thought: "They will find me and kill me."
(40-88) In the absence of the old man something started shining, some kind of light. But he escaped from it.
(40-89) Then he saw: these were the shaman's eyes there, eyes like fire.
(40-90) "Where did you come from?
(40-91) How did you come? Where did you come?"
(40-92) "I got lost and fell into the hole."
(40-93) "Men do not walk here.
(40-94) We are dead people."
(40-95) That shaman told him: "We, dead people, live here.
(40-96) You will come here when you die."
(40-97) He got so frightened, as if he had cold water poured over him.
(40-98) "How will you go back?" My grandfather thought and said: "I don't know."
(40-99) "Ok, I will send you."
(40-100) The shaman went out, brought a piece of horse skin, put it on his palm, and said: "Sit here.
(40-101) Sit here as if it were a horse.
(40-102) Don't be afraid of anything. Nothing will happen."
(40-103) He sat there.
(40-104) "Hold on well."
(40-105) He blew and my grandfather flew off.
(40-106) The earth appeared far away from above.
(40-107) He flew for a very long time. Then his head pierced something.
(40-108) There he woke up and saw that he had woken up not far from that hole.
(40-109) He went aside and saw that his skis were there and his gun was also lying there.
(40-110) In the morning he got up and looked again. Smoke was coming from the place where the people lived.
(40-111) He came home.
(40-112) Then the people said: "All the people were looking for you. They didn't find you and here you have come."
(40-113) He told them where he had gone.
(40-114) They said to him: "You probably fell down into the bear's lair."
(40-115) The old men said: "You went to the dead people. What are they doing there?"
(40-116) He told them what they were doing and how he had travelled.
(40-117) He asked his father: "How many days wasn't I at home?" The latter said: "For seven days."
(40-118) He thought that it was only one day, so he remembered.
(40-119) It looked like one day.
(40-120) They asked him: "Show to us where you fell down."
(40-121) The next day, when they got up, a very strong snow storm came.
(40-112) Still they went.
(40-123) They looked, but couldn't find it. So they came back without finding anything.
Glosses