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The Flood in World Myth and Folklore
Noachian Variations |
| © 2021 Mark Isaak |
There was once an old woman and old man. The old man was in habit of talking to God (Kudaj). God said to him: "Forty days from now the deluge begins! Make yourself a raft! From all-- from the animals, birds and remaining beings, put some on the raft!" The old man started to build a raft and worked on it for 34 days. On the 34th day his raft was smashed by the winds. In six more days the deluge would begin. That old man went to build the raft in six days.
When he left, the devil (Ajna) came to his wife. That woman and the devil had the same intentions. The devil said to the woman: "Prepare wine!" The woman prepared a strong wine according to his word. That devil spoke again: "Well, now the deluge will come! Today your man, after he has built the raft, will come. When he comes, you give him this wine. Then the deluge will begin. He will put all kinds of beings on the raft. You do not get on it until the water reaches your knee. Then the water will rise up to the upper edge of the underpants. Do not put yourself also [on the raft]. Then it will rise up to your breast. Then your man will say to you: 'Sit down, you devil!' When he says this, he summons me. Then we board the raft!"
That woman put the devil under the leather which was spread out under her. Then her husband came. She gave him strong wine. Then said the old man: "Bah devil, what sweet wine! Why did you not bring it earlier?" First he resisted long and did not want to drink the wine. Then he saw that the deluge begins. That old man called his old woman to the raft. Here they went together. When they came, the old man had already put everything on the raft. Only the mammoth and eagle were absent from the raft. The old man sat on the raft. The water rose to the old woman now up to the breasts. Then the old man said to his wife: "Sit down, you devil!" That woman sat down [on the raft], and with her the devil also sat down. That old man said to the eagle and to the mammoth: "Get you on the raft!" The mammoth answered: "I can withstand it if I swim thus!" And the eagle answered: "I can withstand it also if I fly thus!" When some time had passed, 3 days before the downpour of the water, all the birds, so many, existing and [now] extinct, could fly no more because their wings were tired, and sat down on the mammoth. The wings of the eagle were also tired, and he also sat on the mammoth. The mammoth sank in the water. The eagle and the mammoth both sank into the water and gave up the ghost. Then that old man sent the raven after the water of life. The raven flew and returned without water. When the raven carried the water, he spilled it on the treetops: the pine, the thorn shrub, the fir and the cedar. Therefore, the "leaves" of these trees do not become yellow and do not drop.
Walter Anderson, Nordasiatische Flutsagen, Acta et Commentationes Universitatis Dorpatensis B IV.3 (Dorpat: Druk von C. Mattiesen, 1923), 22-23 (#15).
God told Noj to build a ship. The devil tempted his wife to find out what he was building in the forest. When the devil found out, he destroyed by night what Noj built by day, so the boat was not completed when the flood came. God was forced to send down an iron vessel in which Noj, his wife and family, and all kinds of animals were saved.
Uno Holmberg, Finno-Ugric, Siberian, vol. 4 of The Mythology of All Races, ed. C. J. A. MacCulloch, (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1927), 362.