Russian Yakutia is a real Klondike in terms of all kinds of mysticism, sometimes just terrifying.
The colossal territory of Yakutia is completely covered with tundra and forests; 99% of it is virgin land, on which almost no man has set foot. And this despite the fact that Yakutia has the same area as India or, say, six Frances. When you drive from one village to another for several days, and endless tundra and hills with impenetrable forests stretch along the sides, you involuntarily begin to think: what can this untouched nature hide?..
Painted in gloomy tones, paranormalism occupies a special, one might say, honorable place in Yakut folklore. The indigenous Yakuts sacredly believe in spirits, deities, shamanism and other things that are beyond visible reality.
In the heading "Mystical Yakutia" we will tell you the most amazing, incredible, and sometimes blood-curdling stories that are so rich in local folklore. Many of the events described happened relatively recently, and we hope that you will be interested in learning how people living in the same era with us faced the ancient forces.
Who are the syulukyuns
In the first story, we will talk about the Yakut underwater spirits called syulukyuns.
To begin with, it should be said that the root faith of the Yakuts is classical paganism. According to local beliefs, every significant area of human activity and every element of nature is closely related to the various spirits that are "responsible" for them.
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However, when Yakutia was annexed to Russia in the seventeenth century, this faith was largely assimilated with Russian Orthodox Christianity, which is why it underwent noticeable changes and acquired elements of theism. However, the spirits of nature from the Sakhalar faith (the self-name of the Yakuts) have not gone anywhere, and the syulukyuns are one of these most famous spirits.
They live in lakes, ponds and swamps, without interacting with humans. Syulukyuns are not considered evil, but you cannot call them good either. The appearance of the "Yakut water" is not known in detail to anyone. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that they look like anthropomorphic devils with some signs of amphibians: scales, fins, membranes between the fingers, fish eyes …
How to steal gold from aquatic devils
Despite their unwillingness to contact people, these spirits still leave their usual habitat, but this happens only on Christmas Eve. On each of the twelve Christmas nights, the syulukyuns emerge from the water and rush to abandoned huts, booths and houses that stand apart from residential settlements. There they play their favorite games, and not just like that, but for their own - underwater - money, which on land looks like gold coins. It is believed that a person with a certain courage can take possession of the wealth of the syulukuns.
To do this, it is recommended on Christmas day to go to some empty housing in the outskirts and hide there, covered with a blanket. You should dress as warmly as possible, since in January frosts the temperature outside can drop to minus fifty, and, of course, no one is heating abandoned huts. So, if you are lucky, you will become a witness and participant in an extraordinary action …
When the gambling water spirits get into a rage and make big bets, it is necessary to scream with all your might and turn over the table at which the game is being played. "According to the scenario", the syulukyuns taken by surprise will have to get scared and rush away, leaving their wealth in the hut. Then you can safely take their gold money. But you need to spend them within three days, otherwise the gold of the aquatic devils will turn into ordinary algae, which it was originally …
How to learn from spirits about your future
It is possible to be in a company with spirits not only for the sake of material enrichment.
The fact is that during their games, the syulukyuns willingly discuss events that should happen in the near future. Very often they talk about the fate of the local people, so if you don’t spoil the fun for the devil and listen carefully, you can get hold of important information that will allow you to prepare for the future.
For Yakut extreme lovers, such a pastime is something like the water of Christmas fortune-telling. However, nowadays there are fewer and fewer daredevils who want to scare or eavesdrop on devils in the dead of night and in severe frost. This business is too risky …
A story of two brothers
It happened in the seventies of the last century in Central Yakutia. Two brothers-guys decided to listen to water spirits on Christmastide, and if they were lucky, then appropriate their gold. Since adults did not approve of such entertainments, the guys decided not to tell their parents about their plans and at night they left the house secretly from everyone.
For their purpose, they chose a booth, which has been empty from time immemorial on the outskirts of the village. There are still a lot of such ancient abandoned buildings on this land, since in the old days the Yakut people were scattered by families in separate "glades", building their own homes there.
So, our heroes dressed warmly, took a bottle of vodka with them and went to their destination. In the booth, the brothers hid under the table, covered themselves with a woolen blanket and began to whisper quietly, periodically kissing the bottle. It was impossible to light the fire: if the syulukyuns realized that there was someone inside the booth, they would never come. The spirits play either in pitch darkness or in the light of the moon looking out the windows.
The guys sat under the table for several hours. When the time passed after midnight, they began to yawn and became laconic. Suddenly, the door creaking slightly, separating the booth and the barn. The brothers shuddered and froze in fear. The Syulukyuns had only appeared, they thought. Everything was quiet for a while, then the door creaked again - there was no doubt that this time it had been opened. Neither alive nor dead from fear, the guys were afraid to even breathe loudly.
And suddenly from the barn came a strange muffled sound, reminiscent of the clucking of a chicken. The younger brother, unable to bear it, threw off the coverlet, jumped out from under the table and rushed to the exit. It is clear that the elder did not want to be left alone with evil spirits. However, he was unlucky: while the younger brother safely left the hut and rushed home, the elder tripped over the threshold and fell into the snow.
At first he began to call for help, then suddenly yelled as if his skin had been ripped off alive, after which he abruptly fell silent. The younger brother, apparently, considered that his shirt was closer to the body, or maybe he was mortally scared and did not return to the booth. He only looked back at him for a second already at the edge of the forest, but did not catch any movement in the moonlight …
These were not syulukyuns
Having reached his house, the young man woke up his parents and, with difficulty pronouncing the words, told them about what had happened. The shocked father almost pounced on him with his fists. "Are you out of your mind - to approach this place ?!" - clutching his head, shouted the man.
Later, the younger brother learned that the booth they chose was considered cursed. Long before the revolution, a family lived in it, all of whose members died one after another for no apparent reason. More precisely, the local shaman found the reason and stated that a strong evil spirit had wound up there, which killed all the inhabitants of the house. Since then, the clearing with the booth was bypassed by the tenth road and even the grass was not mowed on it. However, time passed, generations changed, and the old tragedy was remembered less and less.
Father and son started an SUV and drove at full speed to the cursed place. They got there very quickly. The son flatly refused to leave the car, and the father had to get to the hut alone. Once near her, the man burst into bitter tears. The body of his firstborn, which had already managed to stiffen, lay in the snow - apparently in the same place where the unfortunate fell.
The body was loaded into a car and taken home. When all the clothes were removed from the deceased, a huge bruise was found on his back, right under the right shoulder blade, as if someone had struck this place with all his might with a huge fist - through a sheepskin coat and several sweaters.
Subsequently, the younger brother admitted that before his flight he saw some strange and terrible creature. When the door between the stable and the booth creaked a second time, he furtively lifted the blanket and looked in that direction. To the brothers quietly and slowly, like a patient predator, a three-meter human figure crept up. It was she who made the young man run away headlong, forgetting about everything in the world …