While studying Udora (Komi) local lore, in conversations with fellow countrymen, I learned a lot of unusual, incomprehensible phenomena. I would like to dwell on the incidents that took place on Verkhnyaya Vashka, on the country road from Ust-Vacherga to Ostrovo, namely in the place where the ravine with the Etashor stream crossed the road, five kilometers from the village of Ostrovo.
And the horses unharnessed
It used to be a man riding a sleigh or a cart, descending into a ravine, and here the arc of the harness, as it were, spontaneously jumps out of the shafts, the horse stops.
This is exactly what happened to a resident of the village of Loptyuga Kirill Zhdanov in the winter of 1938. He returned home from Ust-Vacherga in a sledge-sledge. It was late evening. The man dozed off. As soon as the sled drove into the Etashor ravine, the horse unharnessed. Kirill Matveyevich - a man of an awkward ten - knew about the tricks of evil spirits in this place. He quickly came to his senses, fixed the arc in the shafts, took out a knife and, swearing with the last words, began to cut the air crosswise in front of the horse's muzzle in order to ward off evil spirits. As soon as the sleigh drove to the other side of the ravine, all the rider's anger poured out on the unfortunate horse: under the blows of the whip, it briskly ran away from the "bad" place.
And in the summer of 1952, the Borisovs and their young daughter were traveling to Ostrovo in a one-wheeled cart. We were late. The road is sandy, the horse walked slowly. The child was asleep, and the adults took a nap. Already at about midnight we arrived at Etashor. When the cart rolled into a ravine and the wheels touched the edge of the bridge, a heavy and high arc flew off to the side. The harness, due to poor sealing, could fall apart much earlier, because there were no less steep descents and ascents. The spouses grumbled, but there is nothing to do, it is necessary to harness again. We found an arc and, fixing it in the shafts with special care, drove out of the ravine.
Because of such incidents, the glory of a "bad place" was entrenched behind the Etashor ravine.
It seemed, it seemed
In the summer of 1939, teacher Fyodor Mingalev walked from Ust-Vacherga to the village of Loptyug. When he reached the ravine, he noticed several hens and roosters and was very surprised: how did domestic animals find themselves in such a wilderness? Fyodor Petrovich was about to chase after them, going deeper into the forest. But the birds soon disappeared, and the teacher came to his senses and returned to the road.
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A small incident that happened to the young teacher L. Eliseeva at the end of August 1948 was also associated with birds. More than once she passed by Etashore and did not notice any oddities. So this time I calmly bent down to the water to drink. And then overhead it was loudly and distinctly rang out: "Cook-well, cook-well, ka-ka-na!" The teacher even shuddered from surprise. I looked up - there was no bird in the trees. And the cuckoo does not stay here at this time of the year. She crossed herself and the side from which the voice came. The bird's cry accompanied the girl until she got out of the ravine. And only then she started running.
And in the fall of 1952, herds of cattle were driven from two Verkhnevash collective farms to the regional center for meat delivery. When they reached Etashore, the calves and cows stopped and did not want to go further. According to the drivers, in one case the bridge over the stream was littered with heaps of reindeer lichen, and on another occasion the cattle were scared away by roosters and hens. Only a couple of days later, when knowledgeable people “tuned” the animals in a special way, the herds safely overcame this ravine.
Forest girls captivate men
In the mid-20s of the last century, at the end of summer, Semyon Eliseev from Ust-Vacherga, a man of about 50, went to the forest. On the way back, he was met by two barefoot girls. We started talking. The girls invited the man to go with them, but he did not agree. Then the forest dwellers asked him for a pectoral cross - as a gift. Semyon knew: giving up the cross is like giving up his soul. The girls, however, got stubborn. To get rid of, Semyon Nikolayevich cut out a cross from birch bark with a knife and handed it to the girls on the barrel of a gun. The forest dwellers only laughed out loud at this and disappeared into the forest. Semyon came to himself in the middle of one of the swamps, far from the country road. I couldn't remember how I got there.
Eliseev's son-in-law, a native of Vendinga, a career soldier Alexander Kalinin, in the fall of 1934 was visiting his father-in-law. And he wanted to hunt wild game. He went into the forest with a gun and a dog and disappeared. The dog returned by evening, but the man was not there. Everyone was alarmed: they were looking for a day, another - to no avail. On the third day, Alexander Nikolayevich appeared himself, emaciated and greatly changed in his face. Where he wandered in the forest and what happened to him, he could not explain.
And at the end of the 30s of the last century, a boy from Loptyuga, Vasya Zhdanov, went to Ust-Vacherga in a tarantass in the summer. In the ravine of Etashor, the cart was stopped by two barefoot girls, taking the horse by the bridle on both sides.
- Where are you going, boy, and why?
- To Ust-Vacherga, behind a mowing machine.
- Okay, go, bring what you need, but look: as soon as it gets dark, be sure to come to our forest, - the girls invited.
The boy brought the mower, took the horse to the collective farm stable. I went home for a while, and then, secretly from my family, went into the forest. And he was gone. They searched for a day or two, but the guy sank into the water. And only two weeks later he showed up in a hunting hut near the river Lopi. Vasya could not explain how he got there.
Things like this happened not only to impressionable teenagers. In the summer of 1953, Vasily Karnyshev, chairman of the Ust-Vachergsky general store, rode a horse to the village of Loptyuga. Having passed Etashor, the horseman for some reason got off the road, got off the horse and stood near a tree, wrapping his arms around it. Noticing a woman riding on horseback, Karnyshev called out to her.
- Did you get sick? - she asked sympathetically.
“I’m healthy, but I don’t know how and why I ended up here,” answered Vasily Yegorovich.
- There is no cross on you, so evil spirits carried you to their abode!
- Maybe it's true. Just do not tell anyone, people will laugh, and I am a party man, - the chairman of the general store pleaded.
The woman helped Karnyshev to get out on the road and promised to be silent.
Similar cases in these places in the first half of the twentieth century were frequent. Local residents then made various assumptions about the meeting of men with forest girls. There was even such a rumor that the forest girls are marriage time, so they lure men into the forest abode.
Having described these events, I thought that in our time, when people drive cars, this should not be the case. But I was wrong. A similar thing happens with Etashore now. There is an assumption that this is due to electromagnetic radiation in anomalous zones, where there are faults in the earth's crust. Under its influence, the human psyche gives rise to hallucinations. But then it is not clear why the animals in this place behave strangely, the arc flies out from the shafts, and sometimes electrical appliances refuse to work. Riddles still remain.
Author: Nikolay Kalinin
