5. Fortifying Incantation against the Coming of Ke´let (Tanomña´tkên ê´wġan).

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5. Fortifying Incantation against the Coming of Ke´let
(Tanomña´tkên ê´wġan).¹

 I make the house of human people into a (closed) iron ball [house]. It has no entrance and no windows, and there is only a small vent-hole (on the top). I put around (this hole) a knife-blade, a sharp knife-blade. No ke´lẹ can enter through it, no source of death knows (anything about it).

 In the evening, in the time for sleep, something bad will try to attack the house. One will say, "Let us enter this house!" — "Yes, (let us do it!)." p. 131 They go around (the house), looking for the entrance. There is no entrance, and they cannot find it, "Oh, which side shall we try? It is wonderful! We cannot find the entrance. Let us do it from below! We will enter it through the ground of the outer tent."

 They dive into the ground, but have to re-appear on the other side. There is no entrance, because the house is all iron.

 They come again (to the front). "Where shall we try it? Oh, (I) hear the people's voices inside! There, now! Let me try and climb (to the roof)!" One of them climbs (to the roof), and sees the vent-hole, "Oh, here! From here we will begin. Come, now! lower me (down this hole) upon a rope!"

 They lower him, legs down, (upon a rope). He enters (the vent-hole), But the vent-hole is narrow and (armed) with a sharp blade, it cuts him all over. The blood spurts out, (even) the bowels and the intestines (are all out). And (he cannot endure) the pain.

 "Oh, oh! Haul me up! (It is too) bad! I am dying. I am bruised. I have lacerated (my whole) body." They haul him up. His bowels and intestines are hanging out. "Oh, (it is too) bad! Let us give in! Leave them alone! My body is all cut to pieces. I have nearly met my death (here). We do not want it." They leave (the game).

Told by Ke^ɛ´ulin, a Maritime Chukchee man, in the village of Mị´s·qạn, October, 1900.

Footnotes

p. 130

¹ Compare Vol. VII of this series, p. 499, No. 5, b.