8. A Lamut Tale

8. A LAMUT TALE.

There was a man or perhaps a Monster. He prepared a fish trap of willow, and made a weir across the river. He put the fish trap in a suitable place and waited for the catch. After a while he listened, and heard the fish trap whistle. "Eh, fish trap! are you whistling?"--"Yes, I am whistling because the water runs through me." After a while he asked again, "Eh, fish trap I are you choking now?"--"Yes, I am," said the fish trap. So the man drew out the fish trap, and it was full of the choicest fish. He constructed a drying rack, and hung up the fish. Then he asked again, "Eh, fish trap! are you choking?" Again he pulled out the fish trap, and it was full of the best fish. Thus he worked for nine days. He built nine fish racks and filled every one with the precious fish. Then he built nine storehouses and stored his dried fish in them. After that he began to live on the fish. The first day he consumed one storehouse full. The second

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day he finished the second storehouse. Thus in nine days he was through with all his stores of dried fish. Then he said, "I have nothing to eat, so I will go and try to find a dwelling."

He walked about, and after a while saw a village. He felt full of joy. "Oh, now I shall have a meal!" Then he sang aloud, "Nia'hu, nia'hu, there live some people! I shall have a meal, and I shall have much joy from it!" Some Lamut boys were kicking a football. A needle case shouted from within a work bag, "Take care! The Monster is coming. Hear him roar!" "What do we hear! It is you that roar." And the Monster sang again, "Nia'hu, nia'hu, there live some people!" They heard his voice, and ran away. Only the needle case was left among the offal. The Monstrous old man came to the village and passed from house to house. Not a soul was there. Only a gray jay was skipping from one drying rack to another. "Here, grandfather! come play with us! Let us have a skipping-match!"--"I cannot skip." He skipped once and once again. The third time he tried he broke one of his legs. He drew out a small knife and cut off his leg. "See here!" said the Monster, "my marrow is quite fat." At that moment the Needle Case jumped up from the heap of offal and sang, "Goldiá, goldiá, nesoyá, koroyá. The monstrous old man has broken his leg! Ub-čub, čub!" ¹ "Oh, oh! stop your shouting! Take this little knife." "I do not want it." "Then take a little marrow of this bone."--"I do not eat it, Ub-čub-čub!" As soon as the people heard his voice, they came with knives and axes and attacked the Monster. Some struck him with axes, some cut him with knives. At last they killed him. They turned the body over and examined its back. They found that a long whetstone had entered his anus fully a foot. The end.

Told by Mary Alin, a Russianized Chuvantzi woman, in the village of Markova. Recorded by Mrs. Sophie Bogoras, winter of 1900.

Footnotes

133:1 These words represent probably an imitation of Lamut talk, though they have no particular meaning. The last word, úbču, is in the Russian-Chukchee-Lamut trading jargon, and means "food," to "eat."