I, mistress of the three princes,
you called for me, offering me your catch,
by the call of the sable,
the call of captured prey.
By a long route across the earths,
a long voyage down the rivers,
I came to this place.
Three castrated reindeer, their skin thick,
My three reindeer, forked antlers,
I've bled them at the ski,
the arched blade of the sledge,
shorter than the foot of a grouse.
On my sledge with fine skis,
shorter than the foot of a grouse,
I sit, guardian goddess,
disguised as a marsh crow,
a crow of the woods, good bearing.
The firm haunch of my reindeer,
bull reindeer, solid haunch,
I punch it, guardian goddess,
with my hand, the palm with five fingers.
From the edge of the racing clouds
I catch him, I hold him tight
from the clouds, great drift.
Upon the covered enclosure
I sit down, guardian goddess,
disguised as a marsh crow
with good bearing, as a marsh magpie.
How should I come to your service,
by what swift ligament, what strong hand,
by what means to your rescue?
--
From Artturi Kannisto (ed.), Wogulische Volksdichtung, vol 1., Finno-Ugric Society: Helsinki, 1951, ch. 119; tr. Gabriel Rebourret (ed.), Chants ouraliens. Chants, poèmes et prières de trois peoples ouraliens: Mordves, Vogoules, Ostyaks, Paris: Gallimard, 2006, 362-263. Translated from the French translation of a German translation of a Mansi (Vogul) transcription of a song sung by a certain Saveliï Vingalev from the village of Sartynja, who learned it from a man at the mouth of the Vissum River, near the village of Toboldi, circa 1903.
The 12th-century Arab explorer Abu Hamid al-Gharnati offers the following description of the land of Yugra (a traditional term for the Ugrian regions of the Urals and of Western Siberia): "In summers the days are very long there, so that the Sun does not set for forty days, as the merchants say; but in winters the nights are equally long. The merchants report that Darkness is not far (from them), and that the people of Yura go there and enter it with torches, and find a huge tree there which is like a big village. But on top of the tree there sits a large creature, they say it is a bird. And they bring merchandise along, and each merchant sets down his goods apart from those of the others; and he makes a mark on them and leaves, but when he comes back, he finds commodities there, necessary for his own country" (Al-Garnati, Puteshestvie Abu Hamida al-Garnati v vostochnuiu i tsentralnuiu Evropu, Moskva, 1971, 32).
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