U’mqaqai and his companions, reindeer drivers, encounter invisible ke’le spirits while traveling. After observing a ke’le family cooking and working, U’mqaqai points at a woman, causing her to feel intense pain and fear. The group flees, but U’mqaqai’s reindeer are temporarily trapped. Eventually, they escape and return home, leaving the spirits behind.
Source
The Jessup North Pacific Expedition
edited by Franz Boas
Memoir of the American Museum
of Natural History – New York
Volume VIII
1. Chukchee Mythology
by Waldemar Bogoras
Leiden & New York, 1910
► Themes of the story
Hidden or Forbidden Realms: U’mqaqai and his companions inadvertently enter a space inhabited by invisible spirits, a realm typically concealed from human perception.
Cunning and Deception: U’mqaqai uses his wit to free his reindeer by loosening the noose over a grassy hummock, enabling their escape from the perilous situation.
Moral Lessons: The story imparts a lesson on the consequences of interacting with unseen forces and the importance of respecting boundaries between the human and spirit worlds.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Chukchee people
Told by Qo’tirgin, a Maritime Chukchee man, in the village of Mi’s-qan, November, 1900.
This, indeed, is not a story, it is actual fact concerning somewhat ancient times. A certain man lived in the olden time. In those days the ke’le evil spirits were going around visible, just like our own people, quite openly.
Then in the Telqa’p land one U’mqaqai and his companions were going somewhere, driving reindeer. There were three of them, all reindeer-drivers. They saw a herd, and passed by on the outside of it. They also passed by houses. There were three houses, but nobody noticed them. They were quite invisible, were not seen at all by the ke’let, just as at present an evil spirit is invisible to us.
After that they passed by a pile of household things, past some luggage and loaded sledges. Some had their reindeer tied up there. Then U’mqaqai untied his own thong, one of young-walrus hide. He discovered a grassy hummock on the ground. To this hummock on the ground he tied the thong.
► Continue reading…
Then he tied his reindeer to the end of this long thong, and let them go. Only the end of the thong remained fastened to the hummock. So, then, U’mqaqai’s reindeer are tied to the end of a long thong of young-walrus hide, let out to its full length.
After that U’mqaqai and his three companions sat down, with their faces toward the entrance of one of the houses. The ke’let in the house were cooking food. They hung up a kettle. One ke’le-man was working on the curve of a sledge-runner. He was bending it quite a little. A ke’le-woman was cooking food. She was very pretty.
She went out and looked around. Then she entered, and said, “Oh, oh! as compared with yesterday, we feel ashamed. Oh, my! we are terrified!” (We call superstitious terror also shame.) The woman entered, and said, “Oh, we feel ashamed, we are terrified!” — “Oh, how strange you are! Wherefore this shame? Good gracious! what is oppressing us so?” And it was only the men who came, “Oh, how strange you are! You feel terrified. But what is oppressing us so?” Then U’mqaqai pointed with his finger at the woman. Immediately she felt a stinging pain, and could not breathe freely, “Oh, oh, oh!” — “Oh, how strange you are! What is oppressing us so again? Then let us make haste! Oh, something is oppressing us!”
Then U’mqaqai and his companions fled far away. (We call such a departure to a distant point a “flight”). The others quickly untied their reindeer; but U’mqaqai’s reindeer tightened the noose, so that he could not untie them. Then he pulled the noose over the grassy hummock, and thus loosened his reindeer. They fled, all of them. The ground became soft, like water. Nevertheless they came to their house.
The end.
Running and expanding this site requires resources: from maintaining our digital platform to sourcing and curating new content. With your help, we can grow our collection, improve accessibility, and bring these incredible narratives to an even wider audience. Your sponsorship enables us to keep the world’s stories alive and thriving. ♦ Visit our Support page
Dreamtime Whispers 