This story took place in the eighteenth century near the Vilyui River.
Returning to their village, the Yakut rode on horseback through the deep winter taiga and at some point realized that he would not have time to get home before dark. In such cases, travelers, as a rule, spent the night in empty booths that stood in the meadows near the roads. Some of these booths were specially built for this purpose, while others were abandoned houses in which families once lived.
The late rider remembered that there was a clearing nearby with such a hut (in which he had stopped before), and directed his horse there. Already at dusk, the Yakut approached the familiar booth and suddenly noticed that there was someone inside: a light was burning in the windows, and smoke was curling from the chimney and sparks were flying. This discovery made the traveler very happy, because it is more fun to survive the night in the company, and it doesn’t hurt to get warm after such a cold.
A beautiful stranger
At the hitching post, the man was surprised to find a tall, thoroughbred horse of snow-white color, in comparison with which his own workhorse looked completely miserable. The alien horse was harnessed to a luxurious, skillfully crafted cart with a soft seat, which was rare for those times, and even painted with a bright pattern. Seeing all this, the Yakut realized that the hut had been chosen for the night not by someone, but by a wealthy merchant or a major headman.
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The frozen traveler did not know if the noble stranger would be glad to see him, but it was so cold outside that he decided to try his luck. You can always return to the night, but here there is a chance that you will be warmed up and, possibly, even fed.
Our hero dismounted and was about to lead the horse to the hitching post, but she began to resist with all her might and did not want to stand next to the handsome white man. Deciding that his horse was also embarrassed by his noble tribesman, the man tied it to the nearest tree. Shaking off the snow from his clothes and making himself more or less decent, he timidly knocked on the door and entered the booth.
It was really warm and cozy there. Firewood crackled in the stove, soup was boiling in a pot, and various dishes and a bottle of wine flaunted on the table. The traveler could not believe his eyes when he saw who owned all this good. By the stove sat a young Russian woman in rich clothes - amazingly beautiful, tall, with long red hair. A beautiful stranger was just combing her lush hair with a comb with gems when she saw the stranger.
There was a long pause. Not knowing the Russian language and completely embarrassed, the Yakut first trampled at the entrance, and then nevertheless decided to return outside: although the hut was nobody's, the rules of decency did not allow him to embarrass an unfamiliar lady with his presence, who, moreover, was the first to take this place.
Suddenly the red-haired beauty got up and, without any shadow of awkwardness or fear, asked the guest to stay. She did not know the Yakut language, so she expressed herself with gestures.
Of course, our hero did not refuse. He took off his shoes, took off his outer clothing. The woman invited him to sit down at the table, poured soup on plates, broke off bread for the guest, and cut ham. They began to have supper. During the meal, the stranger began to say something enthusiastically to the man, periodically pointing to the window. Apparently, she told how she managed to find herself in such a wilderness.
The guest only nodded and assented, pretending to understand everything. He liked the Russian woman's treat very much, especially considering that from the very morning the traveler had no poppy dewdrops in his mouth. When he asked for more, the hostess happily poured some soup for him.
Yakut considered that he had met a merchant's wife from Irkutsk, who was heading to Yakutsk through Vilyui. Of course, traveling alone through the taiga, with such expensive property and, for sure, money is an extremely dangerous idea for a woman, but these Russians are not capable of such recklessness …
… The red-haired beauty, meanwhile, asked her counterpart to uncork a bottle of wine. Soon it hit the Yakut in the head, and he himself began to tell the stranger about himself. She nodded with interest and burst into laughter from time to time, showing in turn that she understood what was being said. The man felt like he was in a dream, and this strange communication gave the situation even more romantic mystery.
The fire in the stove flared up, and it grew hotter in the hut. Yakut took off his tight winter shirt, the interlocutor followed his example and was left without an outer dress. When the bottle came to an end, the woman took out another one from somewhere, with a stronger drink.
In the end, the traveler got very drunk, and the "merchant's wife" began to give him unambiguous hints, and then dragged him to the trestle bed. Not completely believing that he became the hero of such a winter fairy tale, the Yakut fulfilled his mission and forgot himself in a deep sleep …
The dire consequences of an accidental meeting
He woke up in the middle of the night from the unbearable cold that pervaded his entire body. With horror, the man saw that he was lying half naked in a dark ice shed, where, besides him, there was no one else and, apparently, was not there. And the stove has obviously not been used at all lately.
The state of health of our hero was disgusting: his arms and legs had time to numb, his head was splitting with a hangover. Somehow stretching his limbs and dressing, the Yakut went outside and noticed in the moonlight that under the hitching post, near which he saw a snow-white stallion, there were no traces … Having mounted the horse, the Yakut rode in complete confusion to his village.
However, not a hangover and not even severe hypothermia became fatal for the lover of the red-haired beauty. Once at home at dawn, he realized that his headache was only getting worse. Soon, chills, fever, vomiting and terrible pains throughout the body were added to it. Yakut took to his bed and never got up. On his deathbed, in order to remove the stone from his soul, he told his family what happened to him that terrible night.
The death of the unfortunate was the first in a series of terrible deaths, like a scourge that fell on the inhabitants of Yakutia. At first, one by one, the fellow villagers of our hero began to fall ill, then the epidemic spread to neighboring villages, then covered the whole ulus - but even then the epidemic did not stop. The dead numbered in the tens of thousands, and the few survivors remained permanently disfigured. The spirit of smallpox, as the shamans concluded, appeared from the west in the form of a beautiful Russian woman with red hair to bring suffering and death. Before every outbreak of illness, she appeared here and there, and every lonely traveler whom she managed to seduce signed a death warrant to his relatives and fellow countrymen …
In pre-revolutionary times, smallpox periodically mowed down a significant part of the Yakut population, penetrating even the most remote and remote corners. Local ideas about the spirit of smallpox as a rich Russian merchant were very stable. Folklorists believe that this is not surprising, since the infection came here by trade every time from Irkutsk, and visiting Russian merchants and travelers brought it to Yakutia. Hence such personification.