Red Star Tales: A Century Of Russian And Soviet Science Fiction by Yvonne Howell

Author:Yvonne Howell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

“For about two months we tirelessly hunted for the last of the tribe of black-skinned Siberians. We learned that she was alive and was practicing something akin to shamanism somewhere. We finally caught up with her at a nomad’s camp near a village with the amazingly melodious name of ‘Taimba,’ which doesn’t sound anything like either Russian or Evenk. An Evenk brought us there, Ilya Potapovich Lyuchetkan, who once upon a time served as guide for Kulik himself, despite the fact that the shamans forbade this. Lyuchetkan was ancient, with a wrinkled, brown face and such narrow eyes that they almost always seemed to be closed.

“‘The shamaness is a strange woman,’ he said, stroking his smooth chin. ‘Forty years ago, maybe less, she came to the Khurkhangyr clan. Ruined, she was.’

“We knew that Evenks use the word ‘ruined’ for both people suffering from a concussion and the insane.

“‘She couldn’t speak,’ Ilya Potapovich continued, ‘she screamed. She screamed a lot. She couldn’t remember anything. Healing, she knew. Could heal with just her eyes. She became a shamaness. Many years she spoke to no one. A strange person. A black person. Not one of us, but a shaman… a shaman… Here, there are still many old Evenks. The Russian tsar is long gone. The merchant who took furs from the Evenks is long gone, but they still have a shaman. Other Evenks drove their shaman away long ago. They got a teacher. We’ll write a forest newspaper. But here there is still a shamaness. Why do you want to look at her? It would be better if I showed you a hunting cooperative. I’m telling you, bae.’

“Sergei Antonovich kept trying to find out what clan the shamaness came from, hoping to determine her ancestry. But all we managed to establish was that before she showed up in the Khurkhangyr clan, nobody knew anything about her. Perhaps she lost her memory and the ability to speak during the meteorite disaster, and it looked as if to this day she still hadn’t recovered.

“Lyuchetkan told us:

“‘Under the tsar, the Evenks were forced to get baptized, but they kept their shamans; they didn’t want to obey the tsar. They kept on worshipping the black loon, the taimen fish, and the bear. But now they’ve driven away the shamans.’

“He also told us about the black shamaness’ strange rituals.

“She performed her rituals in the early morning, with the rising of the morning star.

“Lyuchetkan woke Sergei Antonovich and me up. We got up quietly and went out of the tent. The stars scattered across the sky looked to me like the debris of a universal nuclear disaster.

“In the taiga, the forest never ends; there are no clearings. In the taiga there is only swamp.

“The shamaness’ cone-shaped tent stood right at the bog’s edge. The solid wall of larches parted and lower stars were visible.

“Lyuchetkan stopped us.

“‘You have to stand here, bae.’

“We watched as a tall, stately figure came out of the tent, followed by three old Evenk women who looked tiny in comparison with the shamaness.

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