This incident was told by my father, Vasily Fedorovich Tarasov, who was born and raised in the village of Verkhovye, Shenkurskiy district, Arkhangelsk region. This happened shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War. My father was then 14 years old, and he remembered everything well.
Before the war, there were about 40 households in their village, and in each they kept cattle - cows, bulls. The village herd numbered 140-150 heads. For his grazing, the owners collectively hired a shepherd for the summer.
Moreover, it must have been a man - unmarried, responsible and teetotal. And these requirements were not a formality! The fact is that the inhabitants of their village, located among the dense forests 60 kilometers from the regional center, believed in the action of some kind of amulet - a spell that from ancient times protected the herd from bears and wolves.
There were almost no weapons in the village, only two hunters. The shepherd also did not have a gun, he was only given a whip, and the dogs, of course, were to help him. So there is nothing special to fight off a wild beast with. Yes, only thanks to the spell, the beast never touched the herd!
Before getting down to business, the shepherd vowed that he would comply with certain conditions: not to drink alcohol (in the village they brewed homemade beer from oats and some drove moonshine) and not to communicate with women.
And the owners in no case should have slaughtered their cattle.
The villagers noticed long ago that the amulet worked - the bears did not fight the cattle if the shepherd complied with the agreed conditions. If you suddenly noticed that he started a trick with some woman, or that he was lying drunk under a bush, or that one of the owners took his cow from the herd for slaughter … That's all - expect trouble! A bear or a wolf will surely pick up a cow or a bull, or even two. However, the shepherds were mostly responsible. It used to be that over the summer one cow would disappear, and even then not every year.
Once the district authorities came to their state farm from Shenkursk to check. And these very inspectors wanted fresh meat. They demanded to slaughter one of the cows. Although the shepherd stuck it out, the chairman of the state farm did not dare to quarrel with his superiors. They took a cow from the herd, immediately slaughtered, skinned, and gave the meat to the inspectors.
Promotional video:
- The amulet is broken! - the locals whispered anxiously.
The trouble was not long in coming. The next day, wild animals lifted up twenty cows at once!
Alexander TARASOV