A long time ago there lived two brothers. The youngest was called Chanker. One day the elder brother said to Chanker:
- Go, Chanker, cut some bird cherry branches! Chanker went for bird cherry. He approached the bird cherry bush and suddenly saw that the sun had blocked out something. He looked up, and there a large-winged bird was flying, about to grab him. Chanker wanted to hide in the bird cherry bush, but it was too late. The great-winged bird grabbed him, lifted him, and carried him away. She dragged him across the roof of her uncle’s tent with her feet. Then she rose high and carried it to her nest. She nested on the shore of a large sea. The bird brought Chankera and placed him in the nest with her chicks. The chicks began to peck at Chanker. He feels bad. He thought: “Under the mountain, on the mammoth reach, if only a baby mammoth would swim out!”
Look, that's right, a baby mammoth swam out. Chanker said to the bird:
“If you eat the meat of mortal Selkups, you won’t live long.” Look, there on the mammoth reach a baby mammoth swam out. Bring it back and eat.
The big-winged bird flew, grabbed the one-year-old mammoth calf, and dragged it into the nest. I fed the chicks.
The next day, the chicks again began to peck at Chanker as soon as their mother flew away. Then Chanker began to beat violently in the nest. The nest split into two sides: one half - on the side of the sun, the other - on the side of the moon. But the chicks did not fall out and pecked at Chanker again. He again began to move his elbows strongly, and the nest, along with the tree, fell into the sea. When this tree fell, a boat with seven people was broken in the middle of the sea. A large-winged bird flew in, grabbed the tree with the nest by the top, flapped its wings, and wanted to lift it up. And Chanker hit the bird and broke its wing and leg. He jumped into the water and swam with the flow, lying on his back.
So he washed ashore. He stood up and listened - as if he could hear the sound of an ax blows. He followed the sound and saw from afar that a cedar had fallen from the forest and was making a boat for himself. Chanker hid behind the top of a cedar, reached out, grabbed a handful of shavings and threw the vine in his face. The forest vine was surprised:
- What is this? No matter how much I worked before, my own shavings never flew into my eyes. Why are they sitting on my face today?
Chanker replied:
“And it wasn’t these shavings themselves that sat on your face.” I threw them at you. Loz asked:
-Where did you come from? I don't see you for some reason.
“It’s because you’re tired,” replies Chanker. “You go to sleep, and I’ll do the work for you.”
Loz agreed, lay down and fell asleep. Chanker ran up to the river bank, found a lizard and a frog, dragged them, threw them into the boat, and then the boat itself came down, standing completely ready on the water. Loz woke up. Chanker says:
- You've been sleeping for a long time, grandfather. I made a whole boat! Chanker and Loz got into the boat. Loza Chanker was placed on the stern. We went out to sea and circled around the sea. Seven beavers were killed. Loz broke his oar. We moored to the shore, lit a fire, and ate. Chanker hid the jaw of one beaver in his pocket. Loz began to make a new oar. He found a larch, hit it in the middle with a mallet and said to Chanker:
“Before, when I was young, I used to stick my arm and leg into a crevice in a tree and tear the tree in half.”
Chanker put his hand and leg into the crevice of the tree, and pulled out the mallet, and Chanker's hand and leg were pinched by the tree. Loz ran to the river, got into the boat and swam away. Floats and sings:
“Now dry here for seven whole years, Chanker!”
And Chanker pulled the beaver jaw out of his pocket with one hand and aimed it at the crevice of the tree. Immediately a huge cloud came, burst into thunder, and the tree split into splinters. Chanker freed himself. He took out a bird skin from another pocket (he had had it in his pocket for a long time). He crushed this skin, glued it to his shoulder blades, onto his back and flew to the middle of the sea. Tired, exhausted. He took the whetstone out of his pocket and threw it into the sea - a high stone cliff grew up, reaching to the sky. He took off the bird's skin, wrinkled it again, made it wider, attached it to his back, and flew off. He looks down at the sea, sees Loz in a hurry on a boat, and tries to get away. He put his daughters in a boat from the forest. He sits at the stern himself.
Chanker sat on the top of a larch that leaned towards the water and turned into a falcon. From above I lowered a snare loop made of sinew thread. And Loz on the boat sings:
“Let the chanker dry in the larch crack for seven years, a full seven years!”
Suddenly he says to his daughters:
- Hey, look, some motley bird, as if painted, is sitting on a tree! Look, daughter, what kind of bird is this?
And at this time the bow of the boat drove straight into the vein snare. Loz pulled the snare, the snare slipped off the bow of the boat and caught Loz by the chin. Chanker quickly picked up the vine. So he hung it on a tree. He himself, like a flying squirrel, flew into the boat, quietly descended, and sat down. And he sang: “Seven whole years, seven long years, hang here and dry!”
I lay down in the middle of the boat. After some time, they arrived at the house of his wife. Chanker threw one of the daughters of the vine from the boat to the shore, like a bridge, and walked across it to land. This daughter’s ribs cracked and broke. Loza came to his wife’s house and killed her. Then I went by boat to see my stepmother Vine. The second daughter Vine is sitting on the stern. We drove up to the stepmother's house. Chanker also bridged his second daughter. He went ashore across the bridge and came to his stepmother’s house. She told him:
“You’re in a hurry, your breathing is restless.” Wait, I'll get dressed first.
Chanker came out to the high bank. The stepmother Vine came there. They began to fight. During the struggle, everyone rises higher. They have already risen to the heavenly cloud. Then the stepmother Vine cut off Chanker's tail (after all, before all people had tails), he fell. Stepmother Vine told him:
“From now on, let all Selkups be born tailless.”
And Chanker fell into the water and was carried downstream. He swims lying on his back. The water carries him strongly. I carried it for a long time. Finally he was brought to the very same bird cherry bush from where the large-winged bird had carried him away. Here is his ax and other things. He took the ax and went home. People met him and asked:
- You, Chanker, seem to be in trouble?
And he is silent.
Since then, Chanker has done a lot of good for his people. Good fishing always indicated that the evil vines that tormented people in the forest were killed. That's why people remember him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru