The Chukchi Bible Read Free Page A

slopes. But Ulessik had recognized her home settlement from a long way off and chattered happily in her croaking, guttural native tongue. Seeing her home again, she grew so impatient to reach it that she sprang forward, almost falling out of the boat’s prow.
    Her countrymen had formed a dense row on the beach. Spearheads of sharply honed walrus tusk glinted over their heads. Behind the stretch of armed men stood the shamans, bearing gigantic tambourines, whose ominous thrumming could be heard from afar.
    The men of Uelen had brought no weapons. Even their walrus harpoons had been left behind at home. When the skin boats neared the shoreline, a host of arrows whistled over the men’s heads: it was as though the Aivanalin were warning the others to turn back.
    And then everyone heard a woman’s loud scream. It was the voice of Ulessik, Akmol”s wife. She was pleading with her kinsmen not to shoot, shouting that they had come in goodwill, without weapons. She was so anxious that more than once her voice broke into sobs. The bows fell silent yet Ulessik’s voice did not; now her shouts suddenly turned into screams
of pain. Akmol’ feared that his wife had taken an arrow, but the Aivanalin women and the older of the men in the boats could guess what the matter was: the young woman was in labor. It was to the sound of those birthing pangs that the skin boat of the Luoravetlan touched shore. The elder women delivered the newborn, cut his umbilical cord with a plain hunting knife instead of the ritual stone blade, wrapped him in a fawn pelt, and handed him to the happy mother.
    Akmol’ and Ulessik were the first to step onto the shore of Nuvuken. The eldest of the Aivanalin came closer and upon ascertaining that the child was a boy, broke an arrow over him as a sign of eternal peace.
    The newborn was given the name Mlemekym, which means “broken arrow.”

The Life and Trials of Mlemekym

    Mlemekym had several of brothers and sisters, and they all lived at the craggy foot of Uelen’s land spit in a tight family unit, for which they were given the name enmyralin , “those who live by the crags.”
    In the summer the brothers hunted walrus, whale, and marine birds, while in the winter they went after nerpa, lakhtak, and umka , or polar bears. The women would use the umka hides to sew winter pologs (the separate sleeping chamber inside the yaranga), which were warm and cozy even in the most horrific winter frosts.
    As was proper, the last of the brothers to marry was the youngest – his name was Goigoi. And as had become custom among the people of Uelen, he had taken his wife from among the Aivanalin in the neighboring settlement of Nuvuken. His young bride was called Tintin, which means “freshwater ice chip.”
    Each morning, after seeing her husband off on his long and arduous journey across the frozen hummocks, she would settle into a cold corner of the yaranga and begin to croon her song of waiting.

    One night Goigoi did not return from the sea.
    Tintin peered at the hummocks, combing each fold and crevasse of the icy sheet, until her eyes ached and watered. When another day passed and still her husband had not come home, Tintin went to the shaman, Keu.
    Together they performed the necessary ritual. Then the shaman told her that Goigoi had perished or else had surely turned into a hideous, hairy creature – a tery’ky .
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    Three frosty days, and the ice clasping the shoreline was frozen fast. The pressure of the ice had formed a ridge of hummocks, but between the hummocks and the shore spread an even, snow-covered expanse of ice.
    Tintin had decided to go and collect some freshwater ice from a small waterfall beneath the crags. She strapped herself into a light sled and set off with the dogs at a run into the deep blue shadows of the looming crags. There, silence reigned. But a kind of wariness also seemed to hang in the air. Tintin looked over her shoulder and