|
Nikolaj Grigorievitsch Jefremov, Dschobulga. 17. Januar 1925
In past times there lived a prince called Tschömtschöj. His son's name was Üölän-Kunnjaa. This son was a shaman.
Once, in summer during the Ysyach-festivity the shaman was being offered the honorable first cup of Kumys. Before only the deities and the spirits were entertained. At the moment he drank the Kumys the evil spirit-virgin Yrya-Dujaak, the singing lady Dujaak, which lives above on purple clouds, led down a leash. (The narrator explaines that in former times the breath of the spirits was being called their leash. Yrya-Dujaak is one of the nine heavenly shaman-girls, whose ghosts bring madness to the humans and demand the offering of horses of different colors.)
Immediately the shaman Üölän-Kunnjaas mounted his horse with winglike patterns and hurried away. He took the colored rein from his stallion and hanged himself at a bent down birch. The people found his corpse and buried him.
Yrya-Dujaak guided the spirit of the shaman up to heaven and married him. Since that time until today the spirit of this shaman demand the offering of grey stallions with winglike patterns on the shoulders. If no such stallion is at hand with such patterns a mare with equal colors, winglike patterns and a special mark at haunch can be offered instead.
Of all the upper spirits which demand the offering of horses, Üölän-Kunjaas is said to be the oldest, strictest and most terrible one. He is to be asked on diseases of the head and the brain. Sometimes on diseases of the neck and the back.
|
