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Myths From the Forest of Circassia
| Article
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15401 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1989 |
3,024 Words |
| Author
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John Colarusso
John Colarusso is professor in the departments of anthropology
and of modern languages and linguistics at McMaster University
in Hamilton, Ontario. He has studied the Circassians and
other Caucasian peoples for the past twenty years and has
advised various Circassians regarding their aspirations to
maintain their identity and return to their homeland. He was
made an honorary member of the Holland Cherkess Cultural
Society in 1991. |
In the southernmost part of European Russia, near the Soviet Union's border with Turkey and Iran, rise the highest mountains in Europe, the mighty massif of the Caucasus. In the complex topography of this region live many tribes and ethnic groups, most of whom speak languages unrelated to any others on earth. One of these groups is the Circassians, famed for the beauty of their women and the bravery of their men, not to speak of the bewildering complexity of their language. Since remotest antiquity their homeland has been the northwest region of the Caucasus (though today, many live outside the Soviet Union). In the Caucasus the Circassians have pursued a pastoralist way of life on the plains abutting the mountains, and an existence based on animal husbandry (especially horse-breeding), farming, hunting, and metalworking if living higher in the foothills. These foothills, with their dark gorges--many of which have never been penetrated by man--are covered by dense forests of hardwoods, conifers, and undergrowth such as rhododendron, well watered by rains carried from the west off the Black Sea.
Although the majority of Circassians are Sunni Muslims, they still preserve heroic mythlike tales called Nart sagas, two of which reflect older practices of venerating trees and forests. Given the nature of their homeland and the widely dispersed Eurasian traces of tree worship (for example, the English word true ultimately derives from the same root as that for tree), these myths are not in themselves surprising. The rich insights they provide into cultic practices surrounding trees and groves, however, are astounding.
Here, with the help of my Circassian friend Hisa Torkacho of Hillside, New Jersey, I present translations of two of the more interesting tree and forest myths. The first is from the collection of Circassian Nart sagas by the Soviet scholar Asker Hadaghat'la. The Second was collected by Mr.Torkacho himself.
Tlepsh and Lady Tree
As god of fire and the forge Tlepsh had been very kind to the race of heroes, the Narts, inventing many useful tools and implements for them. Despite his great skill and wisdom he was plagued by the feeling that the Narts still needed something vital to ensure their well-being and survival. He went to the wise Lady Satanaya to ask her advice, but she was in a stingy mood and told him to set off about the world to see how other peoples lived, to search to the very edge of the earth itself and perhaps by that means fulfill his
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