Comment
Recorded from
Vasilij Shalugin
in 1990. This variant of the myth about the spots on the Moon is very widespread among many Siberian peoples. See also Text
18.
Translation
(17-1) The stories that were around in the time of the ancient people became folktales.
(17-2) People said there were dark spots on the Moon.
(17-3) They reached the end telling different things.
(17-4) They said that a long time ago in the time of the ancient people one family with many children had found an orphan girl, who was left alone after the death of her parents.
(17-5) They wanted to bring her up, so that she stayed with them.
(17-6) They always made that orphan girl work, cut wood, carry wood, and nurse the baby. Also she always went for the water.
(17-7) She used to come to the bank of the river from their house. She did not have any clothes at all.
(17-8) She also wanted to see something.
(17-9) She asked for some food from those people who did not feed her well.
(17-10) Sometimes when she became tired, she used to go to sleep without taking her clothes off, without getting undressed.
(17-11) When the night came, if the baby was crying, they asked her to nurse it: "Please, look after our baby. Feed it and don't let it cry."
(17-12) She was sleepy, but had to take out that crying baby.
(17-13) So without sleeping she nursed the baby till the morning and then went for the wood.
(17-14) After cutting the wood she brought in the water and fired up the oven.
(17-15) Her clothes were torn.
(17-16) So one day in the moonlight she was carrying the water in a bucket.
(17-17) Holding her buckets she stood in the light of the Moon and thought: "It would be nice if I go to that other land, up there. It must be a nice, dear land.
(17-18) If only I could live on that land.
(17-19) It is always quiet there."
(17-20) One day when she was walking she got tired and asked the Moon: "Moon, take me to yourself.
(17-21) If you are close, I came to you.
(17-22) They treat me badly here: they make me nurse the baby, feed me badly and torture me."
(17-23) She walked and spoke like this with the moonlight for several nights, until one day the Moon came down to her.
(17-24) That orphan girl stepped on it, still holding her buckets.
(17-25) She stepped on it and flew up to the sky.
(17-26) When she had flown away, people started looking for her, wondering where she had gone.
(17-27) They looked but couldn't find her. They walked here and there, and wondered where she had gone or who had taken her.
(17-28) So a person was lost. All the people gathered together looking for her.
(17-29) There was one old man, the oldest among them.
(17-30) That old man said that there was a shaman.
(17-31) He went to the shaman and said: "Our child got lost.
(17-32) Look for her steps where she has gone," he said.
(17-33) That shaman called him "brother", talked to him, sat down and started shamanizing.
(17-34) He said: "That child of yours is not in this place.
(17-35) She has flown up to the sky, and there she has stuck to the Moon."
(17-36) Then that man went out and saw that she was standing there, holding her buckets and spreading them apart.
(17-37) After this, that man returned and told the following.
(17-38) "It was the Moon that took our girl. She is standing there spreading her buckets apart. How can she come back to the earth?"
(17-39) Then they understood everything and said: "It was the Moon that took our orphan girl."
(17-40) This is the end.
Glosses