ALTAIC (CENTRAL ASIA) FLOOD STORY
Tengys (Sea) was once lord over the earth.
Nama, a good man, lived during his rule with three sons,
Nama, a good man, lived during his rule with three sons,
- Sozun-uul
- Sar-uul
- Balyks
Ülgen commanded Nama to build an ark (kerep), but Nama's sight was failing, so he left the building to his sons.
The ark was built on a mountain, and from it were hung eight 80-fathom cables with which to gauge water depth.
Nama entered the ark with his family and the various animals and birds which had been driven there by the rising waters.
Seven days later, the cables gave way from the earth, showing that the flood had risen 80 fathoms.
Seven days later, Nama told his eldest son to open the window and look around, and the son saw only the summits of mountains.
His father ordered him to look again later, and he saw only water and sky.
At last, the ark stopped in a group of eight mountains.
On successive days, Nama released:
- a raven
- a crow
- a rook
none of which returned.
On the fourth day, he sent out a dove, which returned with a birch twig and told why the other birds hadn't returned; they had found carcasses of a:
- deer
- dog
- horse
respectively, and had stayed to feed on them.
In anger, Nama cursed them to behave thus to the end of the world.
When Nama became very old, his wife exhorted him to kill all the men and animals he had saved so that they, transferred to the other world, would be under his power.
Nama didn't know what to do.
Sozun-uul, who didn't dare to oppose his mother openly, told his father a story about seeing a blue-black cow devouring a human so only the legs were visible.
Nama understood the fable and cleft his wife in two with his sword.
Finally, Nama went to heaven, taking with him Sozun-uul and changing him into a constellation of five stars. [Holmberg, pp. 364-365]
Holmberg, Uno. Finno-Ugric, Siberian, in MacCulloch, C. J. A., ed., The Mythology of All Races, v. IV, Marshall Jones Co., Boston, 1927.
The Mythology of All Races 4: Finno-Ugric and Siberian - Anna’s Archive
ALTAIC (CENTRAL ASIA) FLOOD STORY
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