Rock artists in Sycachi-Alyan, 12 Millenniums ago (3)

 To know more about Sikachi-Alyan, I made my way

to the Far Eastern State Research Library on Muraviev-Amurskiy street near the museum. It was the old red-brick building of early 1900s. On the left to this library, there stands the Holy Assumption Cathedral Church, Uspensky church in Sobornaya (Cathedral) Square, which is one of the largest Russian Orthodox cathedrals in  the Russian Far East. From the Cathedral square people can descend to the the bank of great Amur river. This is the one of the most spectacular viewpoint of the river. Unfortunately, as the river was still flooded, there were no excursion ship in operation for tourists.  

               
  The Library looked a little bit majestic. But as I entered into the building on Sunday afternoon, I saw an old woman sitting on the reception desk. She was kind enough to take the trouble to issue a permission card to let me in, although I was absolutely a stranger from an Asian country and her English was as terrible as my Russian. Here I found interesting legends related to Sycachi-Alyan in the book titled "Down The Amur from Khabarovsk to Nikolaeusk-na-Amure"  

Legend in stones 
Some long time ago in the location of the present-day Sycachi-Alyan a small nomadic camp existed. Its inhabitants led a quiet life but once misfortune came. The volcano awoke and burst out the fiery lava that in an instant destroyed the small camp and everything alive around it. Only two persons got saved, a husband and wife who had gone hunting across the mountains. Upon coming back home they saw a terrible picture. The land was covered with ashes and there was nobody alive around. For several days they shouted and cried in distress until losing voice. In the meantime the earth got cool and started looking like a choke-cherry cake. And the stones of the Amur river bank were still soft. The husband and wife strolled along the river drawing on the stones by finger. They wanted to leave memory of the perished and the native camp. The local inhabitants believe that these people who avoided death were the predecessors of the Nanai nationality. 


Legend of the three suns
In Sikachi-Alyan they will tell you the legend of the three suns:
"... Many centuries ago things were different. We had many animals in the taiga, much fish in the rivers, and forests were rich in berries, nuts and medicinal herbs. But once three suns were seen in the sky and they burnt the earth so it grew black, the trees and herbs got extinguished. The heat was so strong that the birds' wings were broken. They say then ravens appeared among birds. The people trying to find refuge from the three suns excavated deep dugouts where they stayed till late at night daring to come out only in the evening to see the horrible picture: burnt earth and dead fish in the river. The people began praying to the God of the Earth - Dragon Kailasu felt sympathetic and sent his twin sons Ado. The brave warriors took sharp arrows and shot two of the suns that rolled down to the underground world so order reigned on earth again. And the twin brothers became gods since then and the people called them Ado-seveni ..."

The plot of these two legends today can be seen in the art of the local painters and craftsmen, in the bright choreography of the folk lore ensemble Aioga and of the Ethnographic Museum exhibits.

(to be continued)