Reindeer-born devourer in Bogoras’s collection

Overview

In Vịyê´nto the Blind’s version, a swelling on the largest reindeer buck’s neck bursts after nine days and releases a clothed boy already able to walk. The herd-owner refuses his eldest son’s advice to kill it, suggesting that it may be the herd’s protecting spirit. The narrative disproves that hopeful interpretation: the child is a ke´lẹ, exterminates the family at home and swallows reindeer whole. The surviving eldest son escapes into an upper world and marries the female Being to whom he has made sacrifices. On returning to earth he finds the child roasting and eating one of its own legs. After another escape and pursuit, two wolves enter the trunk the child is gnawing through and kill it. Their red blood appears first; the devourer’s black blood follows.

U´ttịqäi’s second version begins with a couple whose children die young. They adopt and nurse a boy from a buck’s neck swelling, then discover that he consumes their herd. They flee into a Thunder-Bird’s internal dwelling, where three sons survive. The devourer eventually follows the father back to their refuge. The bird refuses to betray its guests and crushes the pursuer with its beak when it attempts to enter. The family then returns home and obtains a renewed herd from piled reindeer dung. These are separate tellings with different surviving families and rescuers, not successive episodes in one child’s life.

A third, explicitly unfinished witness appears in the volume’s Tales of Russianized Natives section. Mary Alin, identified by Bogoras as a Russianized Chuvantzy woman, told it at Markova in December 1905. Here the child emerges from a doe’s ear swelling, rather than a buck’s neck. He is exceptionally heavy when carried home, walks after three days and joins the herdsman on the fourth. He calls the reindeer into his open mouth, then falsely blames wolves for their disappearance. The herdsman leaves despite his father’s objections and marries a woman who initially offers human flesh but agrees to change her diet. The surviving text stops after she attacks willow bushes that the homesick man blames for his tears. Bogoras says the teller knew no more: the child’s death, a family reunion or any other resolution cannot be supplied from the complete versions.

Origins & earliest records

Two Chukchi tellings: Mariinsky Post, October 1900, and Opu´ka River, February 1901; unfinished Chuvantzy telling: Markova, December 1905

Records & interpretation

Complete English narrative, ending and attached notes read; title page, introduction and HTML transcription limitations inspected.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Chukchee Mythology

   Waldemar Bogoras, recorder and translator; narrated by Vịyê´nto the Blind and U´ttịqäi, in separate versions · 1910

   Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Volume VIII, Part I; Chukchee Tales II.11, (Reindeer-Born.), two versions, pp. 173–176 and p. 173 footnote

2. 02

   Chukchee Mythology

   Waldemar Bogoras, editor and translator; narrated by Mary Alin · 1910

   Chukchee Tales IV.2, (Reindeer-Born.), pp. 190–191; explicitly unfinished; recorded Markova, December 1905

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical recorded narratives and English translationBogoras, Reindeer-Born, two versionsResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Historical recorded narrative and English translationBogoras, IV.2, unfinished Reindeer-Born versionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.