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    The Defender
    The Defender
    The Defender
    Ebook126 pages1 hour

    The Defender

    By Nicholas Kalashnikoff, Claire Louden and George Louden

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    About this ebook

    Friendship and human warmth are important all over the world but especially in the arctic chill of the Siberian mountains, where assistance from a neighbor can mean the difference between life and death. Nevertheless, a devoted shepherd named Turgen risks losing his place in the community for the sake of the wild rams that share his mountain home. The villagers used to admire Turgen for his skills as a healer, but their superstition overwhelms their gratitude when a jealous shaman denounces the gentle shepherd for protecting the endangered rams from hunters. Only the widow Marfa remains steadfast and refuses to shun the defender of wildlife.
    Recounted by an author with intimate experience of life in an isolated Siberian village, this Newbery Honor Book tells a timeless tale of warm hearts in a cold climate. Kirkus Reviews noted that this book is "of interest to all children on many levels, as it supplies animal interest, a good story, and an enchanting glimpse of an unfamiliar region."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMay 19, 2017
    ISBN9780486822259
    The Defender

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    • 4/5
      A Newbery Honor Roll title, which really was as good as many Newbery award books. It’s set in Siberia and unlike many Newbery titles is not about the coming of age of a young person. Rather it’s more about the coming of age of an idea. This book is about an old man who the other villagers consider odd because he has developed a fondness for the local rams which have become endangered by trophy hunting. An excellent read.
    • 4/5
      A man living in the mountains in Siberia struggles against village rumors and fights loneliness by befriending the wild rams also living in the mountains.Too simple and saccharine for my tastes.

    Book preview

    The Defender - Nicholas Kalashnikoff

    30

    CHAPTER 1

    THIS IS THE STORY OF THE LAMUT, TURGEN, WHO LIVED alone high in the hills of northeastern Siberia and had for friends a herd of mountain rams.

    Turgen, whose name means fleet-of-foot in the Lamut tongue, was a lonely man. It had not always been so. When he was younger he had had a wife and a son whom he loved. But both had died of an illness that burned like fire, and rested now in a single grave under the larch tree outside his door. He had also had the liking and trust of the Yakuts who were his neighbors in the valley below. Among them he was famed for his knowledge of medicine. Knowing him for a kindly, generous man, they came to him for healing grasses, and were never refused. He, in turn, visited them and sat by their komeleks, or fire-places, to exchange the latest news.

    All this was in the past. Turgen no longer received callers or went into the valley, except to take fish to the widow Marfa and receive milk for his own use. Marfa and her two children, a son Tim and a daughter Aksa, were Turgen’s only friends. For the most part he stayed close to his yurta, a simple hut perched between two cliffs above a mountain stream. On sunny days, when he was not hunting or fishing, he loved to sit on a rough bench under a great larch tree and smoke his pipe while watching the activity in the valley below. The mountains were full of mystery and peace. Because of them he could think of the past without regret.

    You wonder why the people of the valley shunned Turgen. The reason, you will say, was no reason at all. Word had spread among them that he was friendly with the wild rams who lived in the mountains. Who ever heard of friendship between a man and mountain rams? the Yakuts asked. It was impossible. And if it was impossible, then Turgen was a sorcerer—a partner of the devil.

    CHAPTER 2

    GOSSIP, STARTING LIKE A SMALL FIRE, GOT BIGGER AND bigger. One occasion especially helped this evil rumor. On a holiday, years before, the people of the valley had gathered to eat and drink and dance. As always, the shamanist was present—a man believed to have power to communicate with the good and evil spirits who were part of an ancient faith. And as always he ate and drank with the gayest of the company.

    The shamanist had long been jealous of Turgen because of his influence over the Yakuts. For one thing, Turgen was a sober man and kept his wits at all times, which the shamanist did not do. As the shamanist was dependent upon voluntary contributions for his living, he could not tolerate the thought of yielding any authority to another.

    On this day the party went on hour after hour, until the shamanist from an excess of food, drink, and excitement fell down unconscious. To the superstitious Yakuts, who revered him greatly, he was in a trance and they waited eagerly to hear what he would report about his conversation with the spirits when he awoke.

    A woman named Stepa went to him and wailed:

    Arise, O Shamanist, and open our eyes, ignorant people that we are. Tell us our future and what we have to fear.

    In a short while the shamanist rose, looked about him with wild eyes, seized his tambourine and struck it several times.

    I saw, he muttered, I saw a dark cloud swim across the sky to Turgen’s yurta. I looked. I looked, and in it was the figure of a devil. A real devil, with horns and a tail like a cow’s. I spoke, putting a spell upon him, and he changed into a wild ram. I made the spell stronger, and he vanished in the exact spot where Turgen lives. O my friends! Beware of the devil in the ram’s hide!

    With that, the shamanist fell to the ground again exhausted.

    Amazed, the Yakuts said to one another, He has seen the devil! Let us be thankful that the devil passed us by and went instead after the soul of Turgen.

    But here the woman Stepa, who wanted to be in the shamanist’s good graces, interrupted. Beware the devil! she screamed. He can come to you too. You say that Turgen is a Christian—but has anyone seen him pray when the priest visited us? No. Believe me, the devil is looking to have such people for a friend. Beware of Turgen! Avoid him!

    The Yakuts were more impressed by the shamanist’s vision than by Stepa’s words. Still they listened and remembered. When, not long afterwards, the shamanist had another vision in which Turgen was associating with the devil, the simple started to believe. They did not condemn Turgen, nor would they harm him. If he has bound himself to the devil, they said, that is his affair. Well just stay away from him.

    They did so, and time passed. People might even have forgotten the story of Turgen’s sorcery had not a simple, foolish man named Nikita come running to the village one day to report in great excitement that he had seen Turgen sitting on the bench beneath his larch tree while a mountain ram strolled nearby.

    With my own eyes I saw it, he declared. A wild ram in company with a man.

    Everyone knew Nikita for a careless talker who embroidered truth with a lively imagination, but the Yakuts were a superstitious people and like many others were easily convinced by loud shouting. Think of it,they said, shaking their heads dolefully, a wild ram has become tame. Such a thing has never been heard of before. This really smells of the devil’s work.

    For these men had hunted the mountain rams all their lives and they knew that no wild creature in the world was so fearful of human beings. Hunting them was hazardous sport because the rams lived in the most remote crags. Many a hunter had fallen and been crippled for life trying to search them out. There was a saying that anyone who killed a ram was certain to meet misfortune, but this was one of those popular beliefs not to be examined too carefully for truth.

    Of course, the Yakuts might have gone to Turgen and questioned him, but they didn’t. Is it reasonable to ask a sorcerer why he takes the devil for friend? they asked. Better stay out of harm’s way lest the evil spirits reach out and take the inquisitive ones also into their net.

    So it was that the people of the valley no longer visited Turgen, or he them.

    CHAPTER 3

    WORDS THAT SPEAK EVIL, THOUGH THEY HAVE NO teeth, can tear the heart, was an old proverb. It hurt Turgen that the Yakuts turned from him, avoided his questions and all contact with him. It was as if a dead wall of ill-will had suddenly risen between him and the people of the valley. Because he was ignorant of any wrong on his

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