Yini’a-nawgut and her sister Kilu’ went for a walk, where they encountered a Monster-Being. When Kilu’ pushed her cousin toward him, Yini’a-nawgut ended up sleeping with the creature. Kilu’, jealous and ashamed, fled, tearing her clothes in the process, and arrived in the village in a disheveled state. The villagers laughed, and Kilu’ falsely boasted that the suitor had come for her first, envying her sister’s marriage.
Source
Koryak Texts
by Waldemar Bogoras
American Ethnological Society
Publications, Volume V
(edited by Franz Boas)
E. J. Brill – Leyden, 1917
► Themes of the story
Cunning and Deception: Kilu’ deceives the villagers by falsely claiming that the suitor approached her first, showcasing the use of deceit to manipulate perceptions.
Community and Isolation: Kilu’s actions lead to her social isolation and ridicule from the villagers, emphasizing the consequences of envy and deceit on one’s standing within a community.
Transformation through Love: Yini’a-nawgut’s union with the Monster-Being transforms him into a good young man, suggesting the redemptive and transformative power of love.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Koryak people
Collected in the village of Kamenskoye, on Penshina Bay, with the help of Nicholas Vilkhin, a half-Russianized Koryak, Decmber 1900 – April, 1901.
Yini’a-nawgut and her sister went out for a walk. Yini’a-nawgut looked ahead and espied something. “What is there? Look at it!” Kilu’ looked, and it fell down. “Just now you said, ‘What is coming there?’ And it fell down again.”
They came home and made a fire. Then there was a clattering at the entrance, Monster-Being, came there. He sat down on Kilu’s side. Oh, she pushed her cousin toward him. “You saw him first! Then be at his side!” As soon as her cousin went to sleep (with him), Kilu’ ran away out of the house. Even all her clothes were torn to shreds. They caught on the trees, and she pulled at them with violence. So, when she carne to the river, she had on no clothes at all. The trees were catching even at her eyes. She pulled with violence, and even bled from the nostrils.
► Continue reading…
Then she came to the village, and the people laughed at her. “What has happened to you?” – “Indeed a kamak came and devoured my cousin. It was she who saw him first.” – “Let us go and look at her!” They set off and moved on. They came and saw those two walking together. (The new-comer was) a very good young man. They said to Kilu’, “If you had not run away, he would have married you.”
Then Kilu’ began to boast, “The suitor came first to me!” though it was not true at all. She envied Yini’a-nawgut because of her husband. He entered, (and proved to be) a very good young man, and Kilu’ envied her sister to a great extent. Her cousin was married, (and not she).
Oh, that is all.
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Dreamtime Whispers 