The Tunguska Event: Eyewitness Account

Shaman Vasilii Dzhenkoul, Shanyagir Clan

Night Chant[1]

The god comes, the god comes.
The earth trembles in fear at the coming of Ogdy.
The earth rises and falls beneath my feet, like waves of water.
My place of purification is overthrown, my lodgepoles topple.
The god comes.

The god calls out.
Blinding-bright, his tongue lashes the sky.
His roar booms off the hills, the heavens ring with it.
Ogdy is calling his avatar from the Lower World.
The earth at my feet tears open at the touch of his fiery tongue.
The god calls out.

Heeding the god’s call, the avatar arises.
Night-walker, Spawn of Darkness, Beast of Evil Heart,
From the Lower World he arises.
Insatiable, All-devouring,
As wild dogs tearing at entrails of their kill,
Heeding the god’s call, the avatar arises.

— translated by Dieter Hoffman

[Notes and Further Reading]

[1] From: Innokentii Mikhaylovich Suslov, Materialien zum Schamanismus der Ewenki-Tungusen an der Mittleren und Unteren Tunguska (Materials on the Shamanism of the Evenki-Tunguses of the Middle and Lower Tunguska), collected and recorded by I. M. Suslov 1926/1928, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983.[Return to text.]

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