Lay of Bondandi (Kolyma version)

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

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► Themes of the story

Love and Betrayal: The girls’ affectionate approach towards Bondandi and his subsequent rejection highlight themes of unrequited love and emotional betrayal.

Community and Isolation: Bondandi’s choice to isolate himself from the approaching girls reflects themes of solitude versus social interaction.

Moral Lessons: The tale imparts lessons on hospitality, social interaction, and the consequences of rejecting communal bonds.

► From the same Region or People

• North Asia
  • Yukaghir Lore

Learn more about the Yukaghir people

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Told by Helen Dauroff, a Russian creole woman, in the village of Pokhotsk, winter of 1900.

Bondandi, get up, get up!
Go and kill an elk
For our bedding,
For child’s coverlet.
A boat comes from upstream
With such nice girls,
With such long-nosed ones!
I saw the girls
And hid in the cabin.
The girls came there,
They tugged at me,
They pressed me down.

We girls we have come
To cook fat soup for you,
To pick berries for you.’
He repulsed the girls,
And hid in the cabin.
The girls wept aloud,
The girls whimpered low,
They were much frightened,
And cursed their luck,
‘Bondandi drove us off,
Bondandi drove us away.