The closer to our time, the less frequent in history are cases when popular rumor deifies real people. According to the legends of Eastern Siberia, in the 18th century in the city of Zhigansk there lived a woman named Agrafena, who possessed tremendous magical powers, who after her death became a deity for the Yakuts.
Biography
Back in 1786, a member of the Siberian expedition of Joseph Billings, Gabriel Sarychev, mentioned a "shaman" with the Russian name Agrafena, who lived in Yakutia, who died "thirty years ago."
The first Yakut writer Afanasy Uvarovsky, a contemporary of Pushkin, left a short message about the “Russian witch” “Agrippina” Zhiganskaya in the book “Memoirs” (1848). According to him, his grandmother was personally acquainted with this woman. Having acquired the "trust of the people," "Agrippina," as Uvarovsky argued, built a house between the rocks above Zhigansk and lived in it.
The ethnographer Ivan Khudyakov, who appeared in Yakutia in the middle of the 19th century, in his "Brief Description of the Verkhoyansk District" calls Agrafena a Tatar exiled to Siberia, one of the "seven sisters-witches". The story of the appearance of a house in the wilderness in his interpretation looks different. The mayor of Zhigansk, referring to Agrafena as a "devil", did not allow her to live in the city limits and again "exiled" her, forcing her to settle on the steep island of Ostolbo (Stolb), 90 miles up the Lena.
Finally, there is a completely different version of the life of Agrafena Zhiganskaya. She was considered a local native named Chuonakh, one of the two daughters of a certain Kiktei shaman from the vicinity of Verkhoyansk. For some time she lived "in Russia" (possibly in Tobolsk), where she was christened Agrafena, and then returned to her homeland. According to this version, Agrafena drowned in her youth and since then has turned into a ghost wandering around the island and frightening travelers. However, others have argued that the sorceress lived to be 80 years old and died of syphilis or leprosy.
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Abilities
The appearance of Agrafena Zhiganskaya is described as unremarkable - she was fat, short, her face was pockmarked. However, at the same time, the woman brought unprecedented fear to the entire neighborhood. The impression she makes is difficult to explain in her sonorous voice alone.
“This woman was reputed to be a great witch: the one she loved was considered happy, the one she was offended with considered himself extremely unhappy,” wrote Uvarovsky.
Those who, passing by her dwelling, did not bring gifts, Agrafena pursued, turning into a whirlwind or a black crow. The boats sailing along the river near Stolb Island were sinking.
Posthumous cult
Even during the life of Agrafena, every word she said was perceived by local residents as "the word of God." The respectful attitude persisted even after death, even when the authorities, concerned about the strengthening of shamanism, ordered the body of the witch to be dug up and burned. Residents of Zhigansk and its environs, going up the Lena, continued to hang gifts for Agrafena (she accepted Russian goods - tobacco, candles, chintz). The legend about Agrafena spread throughout Yakutia. The Yukaghirs were especially afraid of her. It was said that a dead witch can move into people and torture them, like other wandering Yuyor spirits known in Yakut folklore.
“All local residents idolize this witch and bring sacrifices to her,” noted Sarychev.
According to Khudyakov, referring to Agrafena, the Yakuts used many "titles": "Great Chuonakh", "High Agrafena", "Mistress Wide Column", "Island with Milk", etc."
It was believed that Agrafena "is not afraid of the Russian" and "does not disdain the Yakut."
Explaining the myth
According to researchers from Yakutia, Agafya Zakharova and Snezhana Rufova, the legend about Agrafena has a threefold origin. First of all, there was a Tungus legend about the sisters - the keepers of the sacred island on the Lena River. Then the stories about the Russian or Tatar healer Agrafena, who actually lived at the end of the 17th century, were superimposed on the myth about the ghost of Stolb Island - the Yakut spirit of the Yuyor, allegedly appearing in these places when the shaman Chuonakh drowned here in the 18th century, also baptized by Agrafena. When these sources were combined, a single image of Agrafena, the pagan guardian goddess of the Arctic Circle, emerged.
