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YASHPEH
International Folktales Collection

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Story No. 2117


Big-Raven and the Kamaks

Book Name:

Koryak Texts

Tradition: Koryak, Russia, Kamchatka

Raven-Big said, "I will slide down hill." [He slid down hill.] He went and found a mountain, which was the largest of all. From that mountain he slid down, and rolled into the porch of the house of the kamaks.[1] There he came in. Small kamaks went to the porch, and said, "Oh, human game has come to us of its own free will!" – "I am not human game, I am a man." They took him into the house, and began to eat his body joint by joint. Still he was alive. They consumed Big-Raven. Then he carne home, because he was a shaman.

He recovered his senses, and said to his wife, "Cook some soup for me!" She cooked some soup, and he ate all alone a large kettleful. Then he said to Miti', "Bring the big hammer!"[2] She gave him the hammer, and he swallowed it. He arrived at to the house of some kamaks, and vomited through the vent-hole. (He filled the whole house) and made them climb upward. The big kamak was standing in the middle of the house. Big-Raven struck him with the hammer. He killed him. Big-Raven came home. That is all.

Comments:

[1] Evil spirit (cf. W. Jochelson, The Koryak, l. c., p. 27).

[2] A large stone hammer with a narrow groove for hafting.

The text was taken down in the village of Kamenskoye, from the lips of Maritime Koryak women or girls, from Anne.

Abstract:

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