Balagan: Yakut horror story
Epos of the ancient yakut is great and splendid, but
legends and traditions are eerie and real.
The story that I want to tell you happened many-many
years ago, when our forebears lived in balagans. At that time people believed
in evils and wicked spirits, that’s why they had to give muddled names to their
children to screw the wicked spirits.
In faraway valley there lived one rich family in old
balagan. As usual, the family consists of 3 daughters and 4 sons. In summer the
parents had to go to haying and children stayed home.
Once in a hot day the elder children went to swim on a
river, but the little sister didn’t want to leave the slightly cold balagan.
She played with her wooden dolls, and all of a sudden unknown voice called her
from kamaelyuek (an ancient furnace of yakut). The little girl was frightened
with horror and didn’t answer. Then one little dirty girl appeared from the
back of the kamaelyuek (it was Tchyuetchyuekke, a little girl who kidnaped
children) and started to play with the girl’s dolls.
Nyurguyana (it is the name of the little girl) asked
her: “Are you going to eat me?” The wicked spirit answered: “If you tell me
your real name I won’t eat you”. Nyurguyana believed in her and told her real name.
After an hour or so the elder children came back, but
there were something strange about Nyurguyana’s behavior: she had an odd smile.
The average sister asked her what was the matter. The little girl said: “Look
at that beautiful birch! Let’s go!” and they went to the forest.
Then Nyurguyana started to invite her brothers and
sister to the forest. But the elder brother Bootur didn’t go with them. After
some time he started to seek his brothers and sisters. But he found his little
sister and she was sitting on the roof of balagan.
“What are you doing here?? How did you get there?” –
asked he and rose into the roof. When he got the roof, he found out that there
was nobody. He stood there in perplexity. Then Bootur saw his sister standing
at the land and glaring at him. These eyes didn’t belong to his sister. Bootur
took fright and understood that it isn’t Nyuruyana and ran away.
When the parents came from haying, their children were
waiting for them round the table. Also they were seeing on one way. It called
some suspicious on parents and they started to call the children by their
names.
“Maaya” – called the mother, and Maaya replyed, but
her real name was Aanyska, it always muddled the spirits up.
“Uigulaana!” – said mother, and Uigulaana answered,
but she was Sargy. The parents called all their children by their muddled
names, and they found out that their children were muddled by the wicked
spirits. Parents started to pray aiyy for their children were fine. At that
time serge that was in front of their balagan fell with heavy noise. The father
remembered that the place where they live was the place of great tragedy that
happened 30 years ago and told his wife: “One family lived there before us.
They had 6 children. Once the man came back from hunting and brought a
bearskin. When the parents woke up, they found out that their children were
killed and cut in pieces on the floor by bear. The wife cried, shouted and then
became insane. After that she drowned in the river at all. The man went to kill
the bear, but unfortunately, he didn’t find it and he died from a great sorrow.
They say that the soul of that man is seeking the bear, which destroyed his
family”.
At this moment Bootur came with the neighbors from the
nearest valleys. The parents immediately brought necessary things and their
children, who were reviving. Then the family left that dreadful place.
That balagan stands still, but everyone tries to avoid
that place. And also they fear to burn or ruin the balagan, it is too
dangerous. If someone passes by the balagan they will hear woman’s cry or man’s
shout…
