A long time ago there was a certain Utaqan.

Comment:
Utyxan here stands for Atyl'xan, the son of the shaman Staryj, see Text 23.

He had a house on the river Erchenej.

Comment:
Erchenej is a small local river.

Seven people lived there.

Seven people died at once, and only one was left.

An old woman was left.

That old woman got ill.

Then the river started to freeze. When it had frozen, we were told: "Go to that old woman.

Ivan Shadrin, go with your friend.

Comment:
Ivan Shadrin was a Yukaghir who lived in Nelemnoe.

Light the fire there and see if the old woman is ill. Maybe she died there, go and look," they said.

We took two fishes and went, the two of us.

We arrived. When we arrived, we saw that the fire had gone down, so we lit the fire again

The night came. It was in autumn.

A bed-curtain was there.

Comment:
Poloq 'bed curtain' is a Russian loanword. The bed curtain made of a piece of fabric is a necessary attribute of the traditional Yukaghir bed providing warmth in winter and protection against mosquitoes in summer.

There was a bed-curtain and a plank bed. On the plank bed there was a board.

A person was lying on that wooden bed.

I said: "Friend, look.

Is that old woman breathing or not?"

He went there and said: "No, I can't hear, she is probably not breathing.

She probably died," he said.

Well, I said: "Eh, we shall sit here till tomorrow."

I didn't know. I had never seen any dead people before.

Since I hadn't seen them, I didn't know.

Comment:
In this sentence the Participle is combined with the copula word. This construction is not typical of Yukaghir and was apparently influenced by Russian syntax.

Well, my friend boiled the tea. There was no light, so we warmed up the fish fat on the frying pan to make a lamp.

Comment:
L'ejkE from the Russian dialectal l'ejka is a lamp which burns animal or fish fat.

With the light of the fat lamp he said: "Prepare the frozen fish."

Comment:
C'aqa: or c'aqi: or Russian stroganina is raw frozen white fish which is shaved into small pieces and eaten with salt. Many Yukaghirs consider it the most delicious of all foods.

I shaved one fish, took off its skin right on the table.

And suddenly, when I was doing that, that bed started squeaking.

When it started squeaking, my friend jumped up and ran out of the door.

He ran out and I shouted after him: "Friend, where did you go?

Come back."

I saw: the old woman had got up on her bed.

Comment:
The narrator was illustrating his story with gestures.

She was embracing something with her hands. Her hair became like this.

It was very frightening.

She had only four teeth or something, a very old woman.

What shall I do?

I was holding a knife and standing next to the table.

I was standing and looking at her.

Comment:
In the second clause the object of a non-finite form is in the Genitive, cf. (23-4).

I threw the knife. Standing there I thought: "Where shall I go?

Will she go out if I do that?

What shall I do with her?

If she touches me, she will eat me."

So it was.

I thought: "Eh, to hell with her, whether she is dead or not."

When she was standing like this, I pushed her straight to the wall.

I pushed her and, took my knife and went to the door.

I opened the door and went out backwards. I thought she would come after me after I stabbed her with my knife.

That's what happened.

There was a precipice there. I went down the precipice and shouted.

I said: "Friend, come, what's wrong with you?"

Comment:
The 3SG form moni is here used instead of the 1SG.

He was standing there.

"Did the old woman come back to life?"

I said: "Eh, she did.

Come, come."

He came. The old woman was lying on the bed.

After I pushed her, she was lying there.

So it was.

He said: "Let's arrange the old woman decently."

I said: "What did you escape for?

Why did you escape?

Haven't you seen dead people before? You are an old man, aren't you?

You are not young like me, are you?

Why did you escape?"

"Eh, I got very frightened."

I said: "If you are so afraid, how would you bury somebody if he dies?"

He said: "I don't know. We won't bury him, when somebody dies, we'll escape."

Comment:
Traditionally the Yukaghirs placed the dead in the so-called n'ibojE, a wooden platform with a box which stands on 4 or 6 poles, see also (41-17). With the spread of Christianity burials came to be made in the earth.

That's what happened.

So, if not, I stopped it. I put her hands and legs together.

I covered her with the blanket.

I covered her and looked at her: she was not alive at all, frozen wood.

She had died a long time ago.

That's how it was. We hardly survived till the morning.

The next day, as soon as the day broke we ran to the village.

We arrived and said: "The old woman died, but we won't go there any more. Let the other people bury her, but we won't go any more."

We refused and that's all.

Two expeditions came from Moscow.

The expeditions came, three or four people. They were going to dig the old woman out, that witch.

They were going to dig her out and looked for people to help them.

They said to me: "Do you know where that old woman is lying?"

I said: "No, I don't know."

"Who knows then?"

All the people said: "Andrej Turpanov knows."

Comment:
Andrej Turpanov was a Yukaghir who lived in Nelemnoe.

"We have to take him with us.

We shall pay, we shall give him money, will he go or not?"

They went to Andrej Turpanov.

They went and said. "Grandfather, let's go, show us that witch.

We need to take her head.

We shall take it and carry it away."

Then he said: "Will you give me money?"

"Of course we will.

Why wouldn't we?"

So they went.

On the way Andrej said: "Here is where she is lying, dig her up."

They dug there with the shovel.

They dug there and she was lying there, two meters down.

They had trouble taking her out.

They put her on the ground.

They took her out of the hole, put her on the ground and said to Andrej: "Don't look, go from here.

Don't look.

Go away from here, from the hole.

Come later.

When we finish, we will call you, we will say: Andrej, come. Then come."

Well, the soon to be deceased Andrej didn't go far. He sat nearby in the bushes.

He sat and looked.

They lifted her and cut off her head with the knife.

They cut off her head, took it in their hands, and poured spirit over it.

Then they wrapped it in paper and put it in an iron box.

That's what happened.

They wrapped it completely in paper.

They made something like a small parcel out of paper, broke it in two, put the scissors in the coffin, and took it out.

Comment:
The meaning of the word s'ib'irka is unknown. The word is not Yukaghir, but is likely to come from a local variety of Russian.

They took it out and threw it away.

That's what happened.

Then they said: "Andrej, come."

They buried the body in the earth, in the hole.

Then Andrej came and they went back to the village.

That very summer Andrej went to Old Nelemnoe to put out the nets and to fish.

Comment:
Old Nelemnoe is a Yukaghir settlement abandoned in 1956. It appeared in the 1930s when the Yukaghirs moved to it from another settlement on the mouth of the Rassoxa. Old Nelemnoe is located about 39 kilometers upstream along the Jasachnaja from the modern Nelemnoe. It now serves as a place where hunters and fishermen stay overnight, but is considered dangerous because it is associated with evil spirits, see Text 42.

On the way he got ill.

Two days after he got ill, he was brought here to the village. He spent three nights here and died.

Comment:
The word jalmE remains uninflected.

That's the end.

Comment:
Andrej dies because showing sacred places to strangers is a sin.