Free The Chukchi Bible by Yuri Rytkheu Page B

from which the women made thread. They also traded with the islanders and the natives of Kymgyn, on the other bank of the Irvytgyr. From time to time bits of metal made their way to Uelen via a circuitous route around the shores of the Ice Sea. They tended to be so small and were such a rarity, however, that they were seen as precious, but essentially useless, novelties.
    And now, look at all that metal before their eyes! And not just tidbits, but useful tools and instruments.
    â€œWe could take all those riches anyway.” Mekym heard a hot whisper from behind and recognized the voice of Unu.
    But the newcomers numbered several dozen. And because they all looked alike – each dressed in torn clothes and with a hairy mouth and long locks of hair that fell to his shoulders – their number seemed even greater.
    Only two of Uelen’s men were allowed to decide whether to kill the strangers or let them go: Mekym and Kalyanto.
    Yet, who knew what stood behind these people? How many of them were there in all, and what manner of weapons did they have? When they learned that their kinsmen had been slaughtered, might not the hairmouths (as Mekym had mentally named them) come in countless multitudes?
    He uttered none of this aloud, only saying quietly:

    â€œIt will be simpler to trade.”
    It seemed to the people of Uelen that the visitors did not know the true value of their metal tools. A walrus-intestine cloak and a pair of waterproof sealskin torbasses were enough to secure a large knife. In exchange for a pair of leather mittens, a woman could receive two sharp, shiny needles that pierced thick hide with incredible ease. The black iron cauldrons could be got for any kind of rubbish – like the polar fox pelts that were only good for decorating women’s outfits, since the thin fur was easily worn out and useless for proper winter clothing.
    The people of Uelen were afire with trading zeal. They brought anything and everything that might be traded. The visitors especially esteemed walrus tusk, of which there was plenty – a century’s worth of hunting, in fact. Almost every family in Uelen got themselves a metal item of some sort – a knife, an ax, a saw, a cauldron, at the very least a few metal needles.
    The hairmouths also showed an interest in Uelen’s maidens. From time to time a couple wandered off to the other side of the lagoon; the nights had gotten dark and there was not enough starlight to distinguish the squirming figures in the yellowed grass.
    The foreigners strengthened the sides of their boats with walrus hides, pinning them to the wood with enormous iron nails; they plugged the leaks and mended the sails.
    On the eve of their departure they lit large fires with heaps of driftwood to be had not far off Pil’Khyn Bay, and sang plaintive, hoarse-voiced, soul-rending songs, which belied a yearning for a homeland and kinsmen inconceivably far away. What had brought them so far from home, Mekym wondered as he leaned in to catch the unusual, heart-plucking tunes. Was it someone’s wish or an unshakeable order? Or perhaps their own curiosity, a burning desire to go beyond the boundaries of the known? Mekym knew
this feeling well. Even as a child, peering at the hills beyond the lagoon, at the far-off ridges, his imagination flew far ahead, transforming him into a bird. He would soar above the hills and the watery expanse, the plains and the rivers. In his adult life he had traveled long distances by dogsled, and had sailed to Kytryn in the south, where some of his tribesmen lived in pastures, and to the other side of Irvytgyr, which was the homeland of the Aivanalin, whale hunters who decorated their cheeks and chins with smoothly polished plates of walrus tusk.
    Those people were hostile and always on their guard, because they could still remember Uelen’s men raiding their villages for brides or just for plunder.
    The hairmouths were clearly from another land