Going to the campsite where the Great Shaman Kudai Kam was staying, Saosh Yant didn’t know where the shaman would be this time, for the wise man, driven by the Power known only to him, often changed his encampment, moving from one spirit of place to another. He respectfully called these spirits the Ayami, the guardians of the land. Every area had its own Ayami, each with her own character. In the Altai foothills and as far as to where the Katun River and the Chuysky Trakt crossed, dwelled a merry, young, cheerful, rosy-cheeked beauty, as fine as the Goddess Umai, patroness of fertility and abundance. On the Ukok Plateau, near Kosh-Agach, lived a wise, sublime and majestic woman with piercing look and proud bearing, to match the God Tengri, patron of the Celestial World of Eternity. On Lake Teletskoe and in its surroundings, in the Chulyshman River Valley was a stern, strict and unapproachable spirit with black fierce fathomless eyes, just like the God Erlik, patron of the shadowy world, the realm of the dead. And in the Uymonskaya Valley and Ongudaysky District was a benevolent spirit, easy-going, friendly and creative like the God Ülgen, master of the Future World.
There also were a lot of other lesser Ayami, patronesses of mountains, rivers and valleys, each subordinate to her own mistress, one of the elder Ayami. There was a huge invisible hierarchy between them all, which was as yet known only to Kudai Kam. So Saosh Yant was burning with curiosity, eager to know how they interacted with one another.
Young, active, ardent and daring, he wanted to have it all. The powers, the knowledge, the ability to command the spirits, to help people, to cure diseases, to fly freely in all the worlds. To become whatever he liked and whenever he liked. All of these! But for now, there was a rather difficult trial ahead of him – to find the Great Shaman and continue the apprenticeship. Kudai Kam never stayed in one place too long. He would follow the call of an Ayami spirit, moving to another place and communing with her. After a certain time, known only to him, he would leave the lived-in place and move somewhere else. For this reason no one could know where he would appear next time and how to find him. And that was exactly what the novice shaman Saosh Yant had to do. He’d had a hard time undergoing this test for the first time. He got lost in the taiga, led astray by the evil spirits. He had all his body severely scratched by the thorns, and his clothes torn to shreds. He nearly broke his leg falling down a high rock in the dark when he was running away from a wild boar. Hungry and utterly exhausted, desperate and sore, he was hanging between life and death. He didn’t know where to go or where he was at the moment. His victuals had run out, his matches wet with rain. Being stretched to the breaking point, in a frenzy, he called upon all the Ayami that he could remember. The young man dropped down on his knees in despair and, weeping, screamed at the top of his voice:
“He-e-elp me, great Ayami, patronesses of the sky and earth! I beg you, please, he-e-elp me!”
The good spirits answered his call. They led him out into the astral world, and before him appeared the majestic, proud and beautiful woman in the national festive finery, the patroness of the Ukok Plateau.
“Why are you shouting?!” she asked sternly, piercing him with her black eyes.
“I’m dying,” Saosh Yant whispered through his dry lips. “The spirits have led me astray.”
“Don’t you lie to me! You have been misled not by the spirits, but by your conceit.”
The young man was literally agape with wonder.
“You’ve had too much belief in your OWN powers. And thought that you could somehow get by ALL BY YOURSELF, without the spirits’ help, that you’d find the way. Found it?”
“But how do you…”
“I know all about you,” she interrupted him imperiously. “You even haven’t held a xomus[1] in your hands once! And thought that you know all things yourself. Do you?”
“No, of course not,” Saosh hung down his head. “You know all things. Nothing can hide from you.”
“So why are you sitting then?”
“But what should I do?”
“Take your xomus and begin to play. Summon the assistant spirits. Let them show you the path.”
“But how can I…”
“And remember that without the spirits’ help you are NOTHING!”
“But what should I…”
The majestic woman didn’t wait until he finished, and disappeared. And the young man was again all alone in the dark. After a moment’s consideration, he took out his xomus, got in the right mindset and began to play. The abyss of hopelessness was so deep that he felt and understood that if it didn’t help him, nothing would, for he didn’t have the energy to walk farther. Not to mention that he just had no idea which way to go. Gathering his last strength and fighting down the despair, he started playing the xomus. After a while his breath evened out, his heart stopped throbbing, the stream of his thoughts now flowed in its ordinary grooves, and he entered that special state of clarity, light and understanding which you can never mistake for another. It is a special feeling of insight and clarity when you understand everything that is going on inside you and around you. The state of integrity and harmony with the entire world, when everything that surrounds you becomes clear and obvious. And what was most important, the young shaman’s heart was filled with HOPE and certainty that now he would surely find the right way! He produced some more sounds with his xomus and suddenly began to distinctly feel that he was falling into an abyss, having absolutely no power to resist it. The next moment he dropped to the ground and passed into a deep slumber. When he woke up in the morning, it took him a while to understand what had happened. Just then it began to dawn. The first rays of the rising sun flooded everything with soft pink light.
“What’s happened to me?” asked Saosh, shaking off the night drowsiness. “Ah! I guess I’ve got lost. And then!..” his face brightened. “Now I remember! Ayami! Of course! She helped me. And another thing: ‘Without the spirits I am nothing!’ That’s what she taught me.”
He took the xomus in his hands again and started playing. Soon a cry of a bird was heard nearby.
“That’s where I should go, right?” Saosh asked hopefully.
The bird cried again, as if it were showing him the way.
“Good,” he said joyfully and went where the spirits were showing. The bird had flown away, and for a while he was just walking in that direction.
“Wow! I’m feeling so strong!” he wondered.
His body was indeed filled with incredible energy which he couldn’t explain. He felt as if he hadn’t gone through that awful night when he had reached the most abysmal depths of helplessness and despair. He was now full of youthful, lively and active power. He had a feeling that he’d got wings on his feet and was HOVERING above the ground.
Saosh was just enjoying his journey. Having come to a river, he quenched his thirst, washed his face, sat on a stone and started playing the xomus to call the spirits for help. The wind immediately began to chime in the tree crowns higher up the river on his left.
“Thank you, spirits, for helping me,” said Saosh and went on his way.
He’d been walking for several hours until he came to a picturesque valley, girdled about with the girth of unscalable snowy mountain peaks. At that very moment he felt the Power that had been driving him the whole time, vanish. Now he had difficulty telling where to go next. Before him spread the picturesque mountain valley, blanketed with yellow leaves which made a surprisingly good match with the distant white peaks and the crystal-blue sky.
“WITHOUT THE SPIRITS YOU’RE NOTHING?” he suddenly heard the painfully familiar voice behind his back.
“Kudai Kam! Is that you?!” the young man jumped with joy. “But how did you know?”
“I haven’t known it just now, my boy. I know everything that has happened to you. How are you?”
“Good! Very good!” Saosh Yant still couldn’t calm down.
“Good?” Kudai Kam gave an ironic look at the ragged clothes and the bare knee that was shining through the torn pants.
“Oh, this? I fell,” Saosh Yant covered the knee embarrassedly. But the next instant his bare elbow showed treacherously through the torn sleeve.
“HA-HA-HA!” the Great Shaman broke into a merry laughter, showing his healthy teeth.
How much vigor and goodness there was in that laughter! It was a laughter of a truly happy man. Integral, joyous, powerful and great!
“All right, let’s go into my chaadyr. You would do well to change your clothes…”
That was the first real meeting of Saosh Yant and his Teacher, the Great Shaman Kudai Kam.
[1] A Yakut word for Jew’s harp (translator’s note).
