Two Boats (English) in: North Asia — Mansi
After seven years of drought the Great Woman said to the Great Man, “It has rained elsewhere. How shall we save ourselves? The other giants are gathered in a village to take counsel. What shall we do?” The Great Man answered, “Let us cut a poplar in two, hollow it out, and make two boats. Then we shall weave a rope of willow roots five hundred fathoms long. We shall bury one end of it in the earth and fasten the other end to the bow of our boats. Let every man with children embark in the boat with his family, and let them be covered it with tarpaulin of cowhide, let victuals be made ready for seven days and seven ninth and put under the tarpaulin. And let us place pots of melted butter in each boat.” Having thus provided for their own safety, the two giants ran about the villages, urging the inhabitants to build boast and weave ropes. Some did not know how to set about it, and the giants showed them how it should be done. Others preferred to seek a place of refuge, but they sought in vain, and the Great Man, to whom they betook themselves because he was their elder, told them that he knew no place of refuge large enough to hold them. “See,” said he, “the holy water will soon be on us; for two days we have heard the rumble of its waves. Let us embark without delay.” The earth was soon submerged, and the people who had not built boats perished in the hot water. He same fate befell the owners of boats whose ropes were too short, and likewise those who had not provided themselves with liquid butter wherewith to grease the rope as it ran out over the gunwale. On the seventh day the water began to sink, and soon the survivors set foot on dry ground. But there were neither trees nor plants on the face of the earth; the animals had perished; even the fish had disappeared. The survivors were on the point of dying of hunger, when they prayed to the great god Numi-târom to create anew fish, animals, trees, and plants, and their prayer was heard.
(a.i) Hunfalvy (1864) (Hungarian) — (a.ii) Adam (1874) (French) — (a.iii) Gaster (1969) — (a.iv) Secondary sources
– Gaster, Theodor, H., Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament, (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1969), pp. 93-94.
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