Comment
Recorded from
Nikolaj Lixachev
in 1986. The legend explains the origin of the stone figures on the rock called Latnej in the upper reach of the Jasachnaja. See also Text
22.
Translation
(27-1) In the olden days Evens roamed near the bottom of some mountains in the upper basin of Jasachnaja.
(27-2) When they roamed one woman stayed sitting on the top of the mountain.
(27-3) When she stayed there, her relatives, her parents asked her: "What's that? What happened to you? Why did you stay?"
(27-4) "Eh, I will stay here. I won't come now, I will sew here a little."
(27-5) They said: "Well, come when you finish," and she said: "Yes, I will come."
(27-6) They waited for her, but she didn't come.
(27-7) They waited until morning.
(27-8) No, she didn't come.
(27-9) So the next day they went.
(27-10) When they left, she had a reindeer.
(27-11) She had tied down her reindeer.
(27-12) What sort of reindeer was it?
(27-13) That girl was sitting.
(27-14) She had been sewing and had put her thimble like that. Her motley bag was also there.
(27-15) She was holding her needle like that.
(27-16) So they asked her: "What happened, why didn't you come home?"
(27-17) She wasn't answering.
(27-18) They went and asked her: "What happened to you? Come home."
(27-19) No, she wasn't answering.
(27-20) Then they pushed her.
(27-21) No, she had become stone.
(27-22) Then they pushed her reindeer
(27-23) It had become stone as it had been standing before.
(27-24) Both the girl and the reindeer had become stone.
(27-25) They started asking her: "Let us go."
(27-26) Where can a stone go?
(27-27) So she was sitting as he had been sitting before.
(27-28) "Well, master of the earth, give us our child.
(27-29) If you have taken her or you spirit has taken her, give us our child."
(27-30) It was of no use.
(27-31) They bowed to different places, to the East and to the sky, but it was of no use.
(27-32) She was sitting like that.
(27-33) So they went back.
(27-34) They cried and left.
(27-35) Other people walk around.
(27-36) They walk around.
(27-37) When they walk around and roam, they always throw gun cartridges a ribbon or a kopeck to this girl.
(27-38) It was always like that.
(27-39) Many people roamed with reindeer in the vicinity.
(27-40) When they roamed, they threw everything. There was one fellow among them.
(27-41) They said to him: "Eh, you must also throw something.
(27-42) Something is needed.
(27-43) Throw a kopeck or a cartridge."
(27-44) Even if it's empty, you must throw it".
(27-45) "No, I won't throw anything."
(27-46) He hit the girl who was sitting there on her head with a stick.
(27-47) He went further to his reindeer, but immediately fell down.
(27-48) When he fell down, he broke his legs.
(27-49) When he broke his legs, people took him home. Hw died when the day broke.
(27-50) That's what happened.
(27-51) Egor Ivanovich Shadrin called this girl holy.
(27-52) There was such a story.
(27-53) They said that that stone girl must be taken away.
(27-54) "Maybe you, scholars, will understand how she had become stone and what happed in the olden days."
(27-55) An expedition came on a helicopter and took this girl.
(27-56) They took her, broke her and took it to Moscow or some other city. Nobody knows.
Glosses