The Chukchi Bible by Yuri Rytkheu Page B

and gods!” he began. “First, God made only one man, and only one woman from the man’s rib. They lived in a warm, verdant tundra where they had large bushes with huge berries called apples. God forbade the man and woman to taste these apples, just like we are forbidden to drink the nasty fire-water at the market. The first people were happy and had no clothes, but were as warm as if they lived in a warm, fur-lined polog. The man was named Adam, and the woman Eve. But then a big worm crawled by and convinced the first people to taste the apple-berry. God was enraged that they had disobeyed, and he banished the first people
from the green tundra into a cold one, which sounds like our own native parts here. He ordered them to find food by dint of hard labor. And meanwhile the people became worse and worse – stealing, killing one another like the Koryaks and the Chukchi do, taking other men’s wives without asking. Eventually God decided to rescue the people. He went about invisibly and slept with the wife of this one man, a wood-carver named Joseph. And the Son of God was born in the likeness of man. But many evil men did not make obeisance, even though he performed miracles. He fed a crowd of people with a single fish, healed the sick, walked on water as though it were ice. And the bad people decided to destroy him, to kill him and dry his body out on a wooden cross, the way we stretch a nerpa skin to dry. But the Son of God came back to life and ascended to the sky, and now he watches us from above and teaches us how to live rightly!”
    At that, almost despite himself, Tynemlen looked up toward the ceiling of the wooden yaranga, which was wreathed in smoke.
    The baptism now began for those who wished to participate. It was a lively affair, the newly baptized joking with one another and comparing their new shirts and metal crosses with pride, blatantly showing off. Some went up more than once.
    Almost all the visitors from Uelen were baptized and received Russian names. Ony Mlerintyn and Tynemlen refrained, despite Kymykei’s attempts to persuade them; he insisted that there was nothing to it, and it was worth getting the top of your head wet in exchange for a white shirt and a cross.
    â€œIt’ll dry in no time!” he cajoled.
    But something held the father and son back from participating in the Russian ceremony. Perhaps the reason had something to do with their belonging to the family from which Uelen’s hereditary shamans were drawn.

    The main event of the fair was to begin at dawn on the following day.
    They had made a wide semicircle of sleds, both deer- and dog-drawn, though the animals themselves had been removed to the other bank of the river. The pelts for sale – bunches of red fox and white sable furs – had been laid out upon the sleds, sorted by grade; ermine-tail garlands, tied to tall poles, fluttered and flapped in the breeze. Deer-hide bedding and strung walrus tusk had been spread on the bare snow. The goods’ owners stood back a little, near their sleds, their expressions for the most part impassive. Only Tynemlen, it seemed, was anticipating something special, something he had never seen before.
    â€œIf you want to get a bottle of the bad water, do like this,” Kymykei explained to Mlerintyn in a voice of experience. And he flicked his pointing finger against his throat.
    â€œBut it’s been strictly forbidden! Remember what the chief of this fortress said, and the Russian shaman, too,” Mlerintyn, who was loath to break rules, reminded him.
    â€œLots of things are forbidden,” Kymykei chuckled. “However, the most forbidden things are also the sweetest. Think, what did the first people on earth do? Break God’s rule and eat the big apple-berry. And we just happen to be their descendants . . .”
    â€œBut the people of Uelen are descended from whales,” Mlerintyn countered, even as he felt his throat constrict with