It was a long, long time ago. The Nunak community was rich. She had her own canoe, and from year to year her hunters caught many walruses, bearded seals, seals, beluga whales and polar bears.
There was always fat and life in the community.
And a husband, wife and children lived in the Nunak community.
Every night the hunter had the same dream - as if a whale was approaching the shore, laying its head on a triangular stone, letting out a fountain, and along with the fountain, a young guy in a white camouflage made of walrus intestines came out, climbed up to their hill and entered the dugout. He asked his wife:
- Tell me, is this a dream or not? Who comes to us every night?
The wife laughed and said:
– Of course it’s a dream!
And every night the whale actually came to the shore, let out fountains, came out well and went to the dugout when the husband was fast asleep.
“Well,” the husband thinks every day, “today I’ll find out whether this is a dream or not!” But as soon as he hears the sound of the fountain, sleep attacks him, no matter how strong he gets, he still falls asleep.
One day a neighbor asked him:
-Who comes to your dugout?
“So it’s not juice!” - thought the hunter. And one night he did not go to his dugout, but sat on a stone near a cliff and heard: a whale approached, let out a fountain, a young man in a white camouflage came out of the whale and went to his dugout.
The hunter grabbed a spear, quietly approached the stone, and the whale was sleeping, barely breathing. The husband crept up and stabbed the whale in the heart with his spear. And in the dugout the young man gasped, grabbed his left side with his hand, rushed out of the yaranga and disappeared from sight.
The community began to cut and eat the whale, but the hunter’s wife turned away and pinched her nose.
And the woman gave birth not to a child, but to a whale.
“If we had children, I would kill the whale,” says the husband, “but we don’t have children, so let him be our son.”
The husband made a large trough, filled it with sea water, put the baby whale in it, and it began to swim there day and night. His mother breastfeeds him and feeds him wild potatoes. The baby whale has run out of water. The husband dug a hole, poured water into it and released the baby whale.
The hole became small - the community made a lake for the baby whale. He swims on the lake, plays, and lets out fountains. Autumn has come, and an edge of ice has formed on the lake. People say to mothers that the baby whale should be released into the sea. I feel sorry for the mother, but nothing can be done. She attached a multi-colored brush made of seal intestines near the whale's blowhole - when the whale lets out fountains, the brush rises and is visible from afar. “Now they won’t kill him!” - she thinks.
They put the baby whale on walrus skins and dragged it into the sea. He was happy, splashing, playing, and from afar you could see his multi-colored brush in the fountain.
The bowhead whales left for warm waters, the blue whales left, the sperm whales left. The baby whale also left with them.
Winter has passed. In the spring, a baby whale came as a whale, bringing with it a large flock. He climbed out onto a triangular stone and let out a fountain. A multi-colored brush rose, his mother ran out to him, and the whole community came out to meet him.
Every summer he came and brought whales. The whales splash and play, the Nunak community hunts them and gets a lot of meat and fat.
The Mumr-Akov community became envious, and they vowed to kill the Nunak whale.
- Don’t go, son, to the Mumrak shore, they will kill you there - stick to the Nunak shore! - the mother says to the kitten.
But Mumrak hunters crept in on a dark night and killed a sleeping Nunak whale on a triangular stone.
And the whales left, and there was no more fat, and there was no more life. And enmity began between the Nunak people and the Mumrak people. They began to fight, began to kill each other.
Between Nunak and Mumrak stood the Naukansky village. As soon as the war began, the Naukan community tried to reconcile the enemies, but as soon as the Nunaks failed to hunt, they went to war against the Mumrak people.
Once the Nunak people were hunting whales near the Mum-rak coast and, in order to drink hot blood, there was no tea yet! - let's go home. They came across a skiff, the hunter ran ashore and began to tease and scold the Nunaks. Finally, he shot a tight arrow and wounded another hunter. The Nunaks got scared, drove up and killed the wounded man - they covered the skiff with a stone, they just untied the walrus bladder from the skiff and took it with them. The Mumrak people rushed to catch up with the Nunak people.
The Naukans let the Nunaks pass by, and the Mumrak people returned home. They did this several times: either they would return the Nunak people, or they would not let the Mumrak people through. Both communities became angry with the Naukans and attacked them. But they had a good fortress, the village stood on a steep mountain, and the Naukans sat out.
The Nunak people heard that there were many whales near Mumrak and that all the men were hunting. The Nunaks went and killed all the Mumrak women and children. Only one old woman, who walked in the tundra and collected medicinal herbs, survived. She sees that something is wrong, kayaks are floating past - one, another. From their village, the last two Nunaks run to the shore. She bewitched them, and they remained in place. The Mumrak people returned from hunting and saw what the enemies had done. They rushed in pursuit of the Nunaks, But in Nunak the men were not at home. The Mumrakians killed everyone, took the stone god that towered in the camp, and took them home.
The Nunaks also crept up when there were no men in the Mu-darkness of the house, took from them a wooden god with a stone heart that had fallen from the sky, and took them home.
Here the Naukan community gathered all the Nunak and Mumrak people and told them:
- Here are two beautiful young men - like rays of sunshine! – take them, let them bring you peace!
And since then there has been no war between Nunak and Mumrak, because they became related. And the wooden god still stands in the village of Mumrak; he no longer has the stone heart that fell from the sky; only one tree remains.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru