Khon Yush. Way From the Ob
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«Yes, there are few of them now. In some villages, there are up to five or six families. Apparently, there are so few Khanty people because they were exterminated in dense forests.»
The women looked again at the well-compacted road.
«They say that the road stretches to Tobolsk itself, past which we were taken. How much does it take to get to the Siberian capital?»
«Don't say that! Hush! Be quiet, or someone can hear you!» Whispered Pukan anki, the godmother of Khatan evie.
«In winter, the road for coaches runs down the Ob River, this one is kept only for the off-season. In autumn there are water openings (polynya) along the Ob, especially if there is a lot of snow, but still people go along the river. Until the very spring, deer argish and horse teams go until the ice is gone.
„Seems like the Khanty don't like the forest road. They call it the Royal Road.“
„Why would they like it. It brought so many troubles and adversities!“ And the women again began to cut trees.
Blizzard January and frosty February were particularly difficult for women and men at the timber works. Dark December wasn't easy for half-naked people either. They cut trees knee-deep in the snow, then pulled them out onto the wide road, and loaded them into horse-drawn sleighs. Wearing old sweatshirts and torn clothes, all day until dark they silently did the work they were told. Fortunately, it's getting dark early in winter, and the moon does not always illuminate the pain and suffering of people, so they were released home early. The couldn't stay in the dark forest, after all, they could run away.
A silent night star has seen much in its lifetime. Looking at the martyrdom of people from heaven, the moon was happy to melt within a week: it couldn't stand all of that earthly grief.
In recent years, those who made friends with the locals got warm fur kits. The settlers exchanged them from local Khanty women for beads, then for bright earrings. Pukan anki of the little Tatar worked in her kits covering her knees. Levne gave her friend fur boots two years ago. Quietly, before the guards saw, she laid them by the woodpile and sprinkled them with snow. The midwife of Khatan evie could only take them and put them at the wood works.
The woman quickly learned to care for boots with long boot-top. The main thing was that she needed to put grass insoles not only for heat, but so that they absorb moisture, and, of course, dry in time, kneading wet soles with her hands. Pukan anki looked well after her boots, and therefore Levne replaced her kit soles only once, the previous summer, sewed new ones and said:
„You care for your kits like a karkam, a dexterous Khanty woman. You can wear them for another two or three years.“
That day women have already complied with their norm. They were standing near horses laden with forest and talking:
„They don't even spare a pregnant woman, though she will give birth soon,“ Pukan anki pointed at a young woman who raised a felled tree to drag it to the road. „She'll give birth right in the snow.“
Looking down at the ground, the godmother said:
„We've already built a new village, but there is no freedom. We have to come every day.“
„We are fine, we have boots and sweatshirts. Women from the second brigade who were sent to the Kunovat river last year were all wearing shoes. They were urban. I wonder if they survived or not? It's good if the local Khanty shared their clothes, but what if there were no people there? Frost penetrates the skin, and your whole soul aches.“
„How many winters and years have passed since they sent us into these snows?“ Pukan anki pulled up her kits, carefully brushing off the adhering snow so that they would not get wet.
„It's been five years I guess!“ answered the godmother.
„Well, yes, the girl, our little Tatar, survived among the Khanty on fish. She's been almost five now, and she's only talking their language.“
„I also saw her, she's already big. I thought it was their child running around in a headscarf, in local clothes. But they said it was the little Tatar. They recognize me, call me Godmother.“
„I pray for their family every day, because they called me a midwife. When Anshem iki brought me a knife and mumbled something on their language, I got scared. I thought he came to kill me. But he shoved the knife into my hands and left.“
„Well, yes, now we know their customs. He gave me the cross, remember? I could be sent to prison for it. I was crossing myself, fighting off, but this heathen put it in my hand and left without crossing. I tried to hide many times, but for some reason I'm afraid to throw it away.“
„Keep it,“ her friend reassured her, „maybe this knife and the cross are mercifully saving us in these forests.“
„The Khanty say we protect the girl, but maybe it's the girl and the gifts from strangers that protect us among these snows?“ Khatan evie's godmother looked at the road with a blurred look.
„Why strangers? These are now our relatives, the parents of our goddaughter,“ protested Pukan anki, who was flushed from frost.
Soon the foreman came on a horse and a sled loaded with firewood, and went towards the new village. Countless villages have appeared all over the North. How many people the new Soviet power drove from their native lands?
In the old days in Russia there were villages and towns, now there were settlements. This word always came from convicts, settlers who had been driven to Siberia even in tsarist times. Now the Soviet government was doing the same.
Another hunter went to women's workplace, returning home with a hunting belt full of different game. The hunter stopped to rest, leaned on a ski stick, and cheerfully greeted the lumberjacks:
„Vushcha ulat! Juh evatty hojatat.“
„Hello, Juhur!“ The women were delighted.