A family suffers a series of devastating losses. After their daughter chokes on a meal and dies, the grieving mother gives birth to a son, only to die immediately with the child. The distraught father lashes out at his wife’s corpse, prompting her to rise and strike him before dying again, ultimately causing his own violent demise.
Source
Tales of Yukaghir, Lamut, and Russianized Natives of Eastern Siberia
by Waldemar Bogoras
The American Museum of Natural History
Anthropological Papers, Vol. 20, Part 1
New York, 1918
► Themes of the story
Loss and Renewal: The narrative depicts a family experiencing profound losses—the death of their daughter, followed by the mother’s death during childbirth. The brief renewal through the birth of a son is overshadowed by subsequent tragedies.
Divine Punishment: The father’s act of striking his deceased wife results in immediate retribution, leading to his own demise, suggesting a form of divine or supernatural punishment.
Tragic Flaw: The father’s inability to cope with grief leads him to a rash action—striking his deceased wife—which precipitates his own death, illustrating a fatal flaw in his character.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Yukaghir people
Told by Marie Dauroff, a Russian creole girl, aged fifteen, in the village of Nishne-Kolymsk, the Kolyma country, summer of 1896.
There were an old man and an old woman. They had one daughter. They said to her, “Go to the roof and bring the elk’s head.” She brought the elk’s head. They chopped it up small and cooked it in a kettle. They ate of it, and in one day they finished it. Then they said again to the girl, “Go to the roof and bring the mare’s tongue.” She brought the tongue. They cut it up small, and then fried it in a frying-pan. Then they wanted to eat of it; but the first morsel stuck in the throat of the girl, and she fell down, with the rattle of death in her throat.
The old man and the old woman cried for grief, but the girl soon died. The old woman cried so much, that she brought forth a boy. The old man felt joyful, so he wanted to celebrate the birth. He kindled a large fire, and went to the roof to get a leg of elk; but before he came back, the old woman had died along with the boy.
► Continue reading…
The old man was frantic with grief. He cried at first; then he struck the old woman, and said, “Why did the ‘black ruin’ take you this time? You never even felt slightly indisposed.” The old woman was so angry, that she jumped up, struck the old man on the head, and died again. The old man fell down and scattered all around in their ashes.
The end. They lived and lived, and live till now, but get nothing good whatever.
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