RUSIN-006 - ethnographic attestation

Enets

Russia - Taimyr - lower Yenisei (forest and tundra Enets) - Asia - Arctic Siberia

Weather / fertility magic

On the lower Yenisei, where the river spreads toward its Arctic gulf, the Enets whirled a hummer carved in the shape of a spindle or a feather. The forest people around Potapovo called it поси; out on the tundra it was вырвыр, a name that is simply the sound itself, vyr-vyr. Swung on its cord, it possessed the magical ability to summon the wind — no small power on a peninsula where a rising breeze means relief from the mosquito swarms of summer. The Enets named it in one breath with the киука, a button spun on a twisted loop, but the two were different tools: the button buzzed between the hands, while the feather-blade flew on its cord. Both belonged to the same sound-world as the shaman's celestial musical bow and the bell rung to address the soul of the dead — instruments for speaking with things that have no ears.

Вихревая жужжалка из пуговицы или винта киука и вращаемая гуделка в форме веретена или пера поси (лесн.), вырвыр (тундр.) обладали магическими способностями вызывать ветер.

The vortex buzzer made from a button or screw — kiuka — and the rotated hummer in the form of a spindle or feather — posi (forest), vyrvyr (tundra) — possessed magical abilities to summon the wind.

Arctic Megapedia, «Музыка энцев», after Sheikin 2002

Object

A whirled hummer in the shape of a spindle or a feather.

Function

Whirled to summon the wind; magical weather work named alongside the киука button-buzzer

Map confidence

medium - Potapovo on the Yenisei, the main forest-Enets village, anchoring both dialect terms; the tundra-Enets community sits downriver around Vorontsovo (71.70 N 83.57 E)

Source location

Instrument list, item 4 (киука / поси / вырвыр sentence)

• Weather / fertility magic

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