скачать книгу бесплатно
Rest your tired little feet,
Rest your eyes, and rest your ears,
I will sing away your fears.
Hush-a-bye, my darling boy,
May your dreams be full of joy.
Hush-a-bye, and not a peep!
All your friends are fast asleep,
Dreaming, dreaming, one and all,
Dreams of wonders, big and small.
Sleep, my darling, I love you.
May good spirits come to you,
Tell you stories, sing a song,
Rock you gently all night long.
Hush-a-bye, my darling boy,
May your dreams be full of joy.
The night was so peaceful and quiet, that even the most watchful men who had undertaken to guard the camp at the furthermost fires finally dozed off.
Suddenly Yotkhee opened his eyes. He didn’t even know what had woken him. For a few seconds he just lay there, staring at the dark sky and its bright stars, but then he became aware that something was bothering him. Something was wrong, and he didn’t know what it was.
He sat up and looked around. The campfires were almost dead and gave off only the faintest gleam, so he couldn’t even see the nearest trees. Suddenly he felt that someone or something was moving around their camp, swiftly and noiselessly. What was that?
Bura the dog that had been curled up next to the sleeping Edeine, sprung up to her feet. The grey hairs on her back stood on edge, she lowered her head and kept whining and growling, looking up at the sky and restlessly turning her head to one side and the other.
«These are Nghyleka», a deep low voice said in Yotkhee’s head. «They are invisible.»
«What are Nghyleka?» the boy asked silently.
«Evil spirits. They are Nga’s servants and do his will.»
«What do they want?» asked Yotkhee.
«They roam about looking for weak and lazy people and then report back to their master. Then Nga comes to those people and blows his poisonous breath into them, so that they get sick and die.»
«Why does he have to kill people?» asked the boy, surprised. He closed his eyes so that he could concentrate and hear the voice better. «Couldn’t he simply force them to work?»
«Nga lives on those people. He devours them because he needs their souls to slave for him in his dreadful underworld lair.»
«But I don’t want any of our people to find themselves in evil Nga’s underworld! Is there any way to protect them?»
«Nghyleka roam around the world only at night, when everyone is asleep.»
«How do they know who is lazy and who is not if everyone is asleep?» asked Yotkhee, puzzled.
«Lazy people don’t do much during the day so they don’t get tired out by night.»
«And?»
«And they often spend their nights sitting or lying down near the fire, just whiling away the hours. If they are not asleep, it means they didn’t work hard during the day and didn’t grow tired. So Nga takes them away.»
«I want to protect my people. Please tell me what I can do!»
«To protect the people from inhaling Nga’s poisonous breath, in the morning you should take your reed pipe, think hard of what you want to receive from the good spirits, and start playing. Then the great Minlay bird with her seven pairs of iron wings will come to you. She will raise a mighty wind, and that wind will break Nga’s sick breath and won’t let him take any of your people. The bird will come from the same land where you’re going.»
Yotkhee opened his eyes and saw gigantic transparent shadows tearing around the camp. They were barely visible, but scary-looking, and, as they moved about, the hair on people’s heads stood on end, and all at once the half-dead fires came alive, spewing burning sparks and throwing bright splotches of light onto the trees. The shadows kept rushing among the sleeping people, now stooping down as if to peer closer, now darting off again.
«You will not take any of them!» said Yotkhee to himself with quiet certainty. «My people work hard. No one is afraid of you!»
All at once, the Nghyleka stopped in the air as one turned towards him. In a moment they surrounded him from all sides, and the boy could see them peering into his eyes as if asking: «Who is this? Who is this that has spoken to us? And how could anyone dare not be afraid?»
Fearlessly Yotkhee stared back into the enormous black holes of their eyes and kept silently saying to himself, again and again:
«Go away! You will not take a single person! Go away!»
And the grey shadowy Nghyleka vanished just as abruptly as they had appeared before.
Yotkhee got up quietly and tiptoed to the place where Edeine was, trying not to disturb anyone. The puppy was finally fast asleep, and Edeine was about to doze off too. The boy stooped to stroke good Bura’s head, turned to the girl, and carefully tucked in her blanket.
«Sleep well,» he thought, smiling down at her. «And may you have sweet and beautiful dreams.» He then got up and noiselessly returned to his own bed.
* * *
The old Yotkhee fell silent and sat staring deep into the heart of the flames, stroking his long white beard. The herders and their children were still watching the changing images on the large deep blazing screen hanging over the fire, so clear and bright that it could be seen from any side.
Suddenly the picture dimmed, became thinner, and in a few seconds vanished in the dark of the night. Khadko looked at the shaman and asked in a small sad voice:
«What happened then, Irike? What did those evil spirits do then?»
«A mere mortal cannot see these things,» the shaman said mildly, without taking his eyes off the flames, but then let out a heavy sigh.
«But if you tell us, we will know how to avoid these Nghyleka,» said one of the khasavako with polite persistence.
«You can’t avoid them altogether,» responded the shaman. «But you can guard yourselves against the consequences of meeting them.»
«How would we do that, Irike?» Khadko’s curiosity got the best of him again.
Yotkhee raised his eyes and slowly looked at the faces around the fire.
«You’re not tired yet?»
«No, no, not at all!» the herders responded eagerly. «You are such a wonderful storyteller! Do please tell us what happened next! Besides there is always so much work during the day that there is no time for conversation. When will we have an opportunity like this again?»
«Fine!» the old man said with a kindly smile. «Listen on then.»
He took the pouch off his belt again, got another pinch of the dark powder, and threw it into the fire.
* * *
The dreadful pack of the dark and ghostly Nghyleka was rushing along cold stone corridors in the depths of some rock. Water was trickling down the walls, and the whole place was damp and musty. The shadowy figures flew out of winding tunnels into enormous empty caves barely lit by smoking wicker lamps, and then dove back into one of many narrow passageways, disappearing in their impenetrable darkness. Finally they stopped at one of the entrances and wavered in the air, waiting for permission to enter from one of the huge sinister many-armed guards who stood on the threshold of the cave, barring the way with double-edged pole-axes that glinted dark-red in the murky gloom. In the slits of the iron helmets pulled over their ugly heads, their eyes glowed with ominous purple, as if threatening to pierce all intruders right through.
Suddenly another guard came up from behind the shadows, a whole head taller than the others and even more sinister. He looked over all the Nghyleka, turned around, and sauntered towards the entrance of the cave the guards were watching. Then he raised two of his massive right paws and gestured to someone within.
The cave was unbearably hot. It was lit by a dim yellow light that came from a tall flame, deep and thick. In the heart of that flame there was a high-backed black chair with someone in a long black mantle slumped in it, as if deep in thought. The chair was placed next to the wall opposite the entrance, and long tongues of blue fire shot out from the black holes in the stone floor and walls.
The figure in black nodded to the chief guard. He growled something to his helpers, and they stepped aside. One by one, the Nghyleka flew in and hovered before their master. They had no speech and could only mentally convey what they had to communicate.
Nga – for it was he – was silently staring into space, his face now distorted with rage, now twisting into an evil smirk. Suddenly he waved his hand, and in an instant all the shadows evaporated. The Lord of Darkness sat all alone. He was furious at the thought that some boy could deny him some of his slaves.
«I will grind him into dust,» Nga hissed through clenched jaws. He waved his hand again, and a huge picture appeared before him. It glimmered with a pale light and quivered faintly, like the surface of a lake under a light wind. Images came one after another, showing dismal low underground passages and thousands of people, with their eyes closed, trudging along them in endless lines. With long thick sticks in their hands they were working up the sucking bog that stretched far and wide on both sides of the lines of humans. The caves seemed interminable: there were so many of them, and they just kept coming and coming.
«My brother-in-law[26 - According to the Nenets tradition, Nga is Num’s brother-in-law since he is married to Num’s sister] is a fool!» snarled Nga, squinting at the long lines of his slaves. «He believes in the power of the good. Ha! These slackers will betray anyone if you make them the right offer! I already have more of them than one can count, and not a day goes by without adding to their number. Pathetic, miserable creatures! Soon I will cover all the lands with impenetrable bogs, and there will be no power equal to mine!»
The whole cave shook with Nga’s horrifying laughter that bounced off the walls, sprang in myriads of deafening echoes from every little corner, thundered away into the faraway depths of the underworld, and then came back, horrendously multiplied and growing even stronger, so that even the blue flames bent flat over the floor under the pressure of their deadening sound.
«Tomorrow night I will go out to look at these miserable humans myself. Let’s see what that snotty little upstart can do!»
Nga waved his hand, and his servants appeared before him again.
«If you don’t bring me that boy tomorrow, immediately after nightfall, I will send you all to work up the bog!» Nga hissed menacingly and then roared so powerfully, that the shivering Nghyleka huddled into one pathetic knot in the far corner of the gloomy cave: «Is that clear?!»
* * *
When the first rays of the morning sun tickled the eyelashes of the sleeping travelers, the young shaman was already up and busy making his fire. The grownups stretched, yawned, and quickly got up, while the children pulled their blankets over their heads and turned over on the other side, trying to snatch a few more precious moments of sleep.
«We’ll be starting on the rafts right after breakfast,» announced one of the khasavako loudly.
«Yay! We will travel by water! Hurray!» the children’s excited voices rang happily over the river, and their parents couldn’t help smiling.
«You all should watch the fires, gather firewood, and help your mothers with cooking,» added the khasavako.
«Yay! Yay! Hurray!» the children responded enthusiastically.
It took a whole day to build the rafts. The grownups barely stopped at all. The children saw how hard they were working and how difficult it was to carry the heavy tree trunks from the forest, so Edeine decided to cheer the workers up and started singing. Her song was so happy and full of life, that all the children immediately joined in, jumping and dancing around the campfires.
Pines and birch-trees, one and two,
Building rafts for me and you.
Keep your chin up, three and four,
Don’t look gloomy anymore.
To the left!
Our way is long.
To the right!
Let’s sing a song!
Down the river, o’er the sand,
We will go to our new land.
Far around the world we’ll roam
On the way to our new home.
Yotkhee got out his pipe and started playing a joyful, bouncy tune, and soon the grownups found a new spring in their step and new strength in their arms. By nightfall the rafts were ready and tied up with ropes to the wooden stakes driven deep into the river bank.
When you’re busy, time flies quickly. Before anyone could notice, it grew dark, and the tired travelers finally sat down around the campfires to have their dinner.
Edeine finished her dinner quickly, picked up her puppy, and went over to Yotkhee’s campfire. She sat down on a big log next to him and asked:
«Tell me, Yotkhee, why do stars come out only at night?»
«During the day you can’t see even the light of the fire at a distance!» the boy answered with a smile.
«Then why are they so small?»
«They are very far away so they seem small.»
«How do you know they are far away?»
«My grandfather told me,» Yotkhee stirred the coals in the fire with a twig.
«Yotkhee, what is there beyond the horizon?»
«New horizons,» the boy smiled again.
«Who came up with all this?» the girl persisted, looking slyly into Yotkhee’s eyes.
«The Great Creator.» All at once the boy grew grave and looked into Edeine’s eyes searchingly, trying to see if she was making fun.
«But why?»
