Expedition to the Chud kingdom

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

"And now I'm going to show you something that you've definitely never seen … a vampire tooth." The initial skepticism vanished instantly when he put the box on the table in front of us.

Crossing the river, our expedition got to the rocky bank covered with large boulders. We caught our breath, looked around. Peace and quiet, the nearest village is 20 km away from us, and even then there are 1, 5 villagers living there, as they say in these places. Our guide takes off the gun from his shoulder, peers carefully at the edge of the forest, you need to be on the lookout. Literally half an hour ago, walking along the opposite bank, we noticed fresh tracks of a bear, rather large, on the soft ground. The clubfoot, in search of food, went ashore, but, not finding anything tasty, he retreated back to the forest. And although there were many of us, and we walked quite noisily, it was still worth being careful.

"What is it?" - one of the members of our expedition points in the direction of large boulders. Small wet footprints are clearly visible on them, a chain of footprints that dries quickly in the sun. We examine the find. The size of the foot is small, about size 35–36. Not long ago a woman or a child passed through here, but where can a child come from here, and there can be no women in the district. The places are deaf and wild, only rare hunters wander around in search of game. Our guide thoughtfully examines the tracks: "These miracles have passed, they are the owners here …" "Peipsi people?" - we clarify. “Well, yes, miracles,” the guide nods. - "They see us off …"

* * *

In the first days of May, Tatyana Kudymova called from Kudymkar, located not on the territory of the Komi-Permyak district, and offered to conduct a tour of places of power, visit ancient settlements that could presumably belong to the culture of the mythical Chud people who lived in those lands many hundreds of years ago. on foot by taiga paths amazing places - Arazai, Ramenye, Pronin Klyuch. But Tatyana was completely intrigued by the offer to go to Pozhva and see with her own eyes a tooth … of a vampire.

Gathering together by the joint group of the Russian UFO Research Station and the Perm Geographical Club, we set off from Perm towards Kudymkar, taking with us instruments for studying anomalous phenomena, photographic and video equipment …

* * *

Kudymkar greeted us with a clear sky and warm May sun. After spending the night in the city, early in the morning we set off towards the first place of power, which we planned to visit. It was necessary to drive about 100 kilometers along the highway, another 20 kilometers along taiga roads and about 8 kilometers on foot.

Tatyana drove us to Arazai - one of the ancient settlements of the Komi-Permyak district. In memory of the ancient people who lived here, only the name of the place remains. Several years ago, these lands were transferred for ecovillage. And nowadays three families lived far from civilization, forming a tribal community. The witch Volodya, who accompanied us, said mysteriously: “Under Mount Arazai, one of the crystals used by our ancestors is hidden in the ground. The same crystal is in Okunevo and in other zones. Under Arazay, the crystal is still "working". There is a place of power.”Whether or not it is, we had to check …

On the approaches to the settlement, an unusual find was waiting for us. From afar, we noticed a glimpse of some kind on the road; a long, oblong object lay in the grass. We came closer, a horse's skull, whitened in the sun, lies by the road, bones protrude from the grass not far away.

We rise to the Arazai, a high, bright place, a magnificent all-round view. Tatyana points to the east in the direction of distant heights: "In those places, they say, the underground city of Chud has been preserved." Konstantin, the head of the hunting farm, who accompanied us during the entire expedition in case of unexpected encounters with a wild animal, nods: “In these places, unusual phenomena often occur. Some are similar to fairy tales, but too often these tales are repeated. Our hunters meet unusual people on forest paths. It happens that a hunter of an elk in the wilderness will hammer, start butchering. A strange, bearded little man comes out of the forest, his clothes are old, and he says, "Let me help you." Hunter of course agrees. They cut up the carcass, the hunter cuts off a piece of meat, turns to his unexpected assistant: "Take it, thanks for the help!" It happens that at the places of ancient settlements such people are seen: they come from nowhere and go nowhere. Usually everyone who sees them notices - their face is pale, or they get sick, or they live in the twilight …"

Svetlana lives with her adult son in the house closest to us. We moved to these places three years ago, raised our house, and established a household. He invites you to the table, talks about his life. The basic principles are life in harmony with nature, the same as that of the Anastasians, followers of the works of Maigret. They live on what land and forest give them. “It only seems that the land is difficult to cultivate,” says Svetlana. “It all depends on how you feel about her and how you distribute the work. The earth heals and feeds us. We want to start autumn goats, according to the old tradition we will make medicinal milk. There are a lot of medicinal herbs around, I made the necessary collection, I fed the goat with this herb, it passed through itself and gave you milk, in which all the medicinal substances were preserved. You drink and gain strength …"

In the courtyard, we notice a strange octagonal post of logs in the center of which a small hut rises on high pillars. “The son decided to collect the foxes,” explains Svetlana. - “The house is like this, on eight sides, it gathers strength in itself, by autumn it will finish the house, cover the base of the log house with sprinkles, and you will get a hill. In winter it will be warm and comfortable there."

At the border of the forest, on an old mighty tree, hang two huge devine logs made from solid tree trunks with a hollowed out core. The top and bottom of the decks are closed with wooden corks, and small holes are made in the center of the decks. "Hives!" - we guess.

Walking around Arazai in a circle, having talked with the people who live here, you begin not only to understand, but to see how our ancestors lived, how they found a common language with nature, into which they immersed, and how they simply knew how to simply exist in completely deaf and inaccessible places, but also to use the power, the unknown opportunities that gave them these places.

At parting, Svetlana gives us birch sap to drink. “It's not enough this year,” she complains, “Only five buckets were collected” …

* * *

Further on, the path led to the site of the ancient settlement of Ramenye. On the still wet taiga roads, broken by the Urals, we were able to drive the SUV only the first five kilometers. Having reached the reserved fork, we realized that further it was possible to move only on foot …

The name Ramenye, when you hear it for the first time, seems familiar, as if you knew it a long time ago, and then forgot it. It has several interpretations. Traditionally, it is believed that the word "ramenie" comes from the ancient Russian word "ramen" - "arable land overgrown with forest" or "arable land cleared of forest." Dialect dictionaries and dictionaries of folk dialects give a slightly different interpretation: "ramen", "ramen" in most areas mean "a large dense forest", "swampy forest", "forest edge". If we consider the lexeme "frames", then the picture becomes quite interesting. It is extremely common in the Bible and, above all, refers to various heights: mountains, hills, heights. In Hebrew, frame means "height." On the pages of the Old and New Testaments, you can find many places associated with the lexeme "Ram": the cities of Rama, Ramaphem, Ramafim-Tsefim, Ramat-Lehi, Ramat-Mitsfa. A number of biblical names retain the meaning of "high", such as Ram and Ramai. In traditionally biblical territories, toponyms with the same sacred basis are still preserved, for example, Ramon is a mountain and at the same time the bed of a dried-up river. Among the ancient Egyptian names one can also find "ram" - Ramses. In the Arabic language, you can also find many words with a common linguistic base "ram", which can be found in numerous toponyms, for example, in the name of the holy Muslim holiday Ramadan or in the Arabic name for the constellation of Sagittarius - Rami.

We could understand the true meaning of the word Ramenye only by reaching this place, seeing with our own eyes what our ancestors put into this concept. The eight-kilometer route along the taiga road turned out to be extremely easy and enjoyable.

“An interesting incident happened on this road a few years ago,” Tatiana Kudymova began her story. “A group of tourists decided to go to Ramenya and hold several ancient rituals there. When they reached the middle of the way, they noticed that exactly in the center of the road someone had planted mushrooms, large, beautiful. It was evident that they had been dug in quite recently. Almost until Ramenja, someone unknown was digging a forest treat in front of the group. They did not find any traces of them, and the mushrooms were fried with pleasure in the evening on the fire. At night, unusual sounds were heard near the tent, as if someone approached the camp and was sitting watching people. There was a feeling of gaze and close attention. Miracles like to joke like that, and if they like a person, they can treat them to mushrooms …"

During the conversation, we did not notice how we went to the edge of the forest and found ourselves in an endless open space, the road went uphill, where the sun was already shining brightly, it seemed that we were climbing into the sky. Having reached the top, we found ourselves on the top of a high hill with a flat area of several hectares. “We interpret the word Ramenye differently,” said Tatiana. - "A high place illuminated by the sun, because RA is the sun!" Indeed, the open area was available to sunlight all day, and the place for settlement here was very convenient. To the left rose another small flat-topped hill, an excellent place to build a luminary or watchtower there. Apparently, we thought like our ancestors, because, having climbed it, in the center we found a large rectangular depression 10 × 10 meters, which could be the remains of a house or other structure.

From this point, the taiga was visible around for many tens of kilometers. Below, about a hundred meters from us, the bed of a dry river stretches in a winding strip. We go down, on the right we notice an artificial saturation crossing the river - once upon a time there was a ferry or a dam here. We turn to the slope from which we have just descended and freeze in surprise - it seems to be lined up along a ruler into regular geometric shapes formed by overgrown grooves, multi-colored grasses and rows of bushes and trees. All this system forms precise geometric shapes, which indicate that a long time ago there were houses, there were roads and paths. You could roughly estimate the age - judging by the size of the trees, they have been growing here for at least one and a half hundred years …

"There are many such places in our area." - Tatiana continued her story. “We don't know who lived in them anymore, we can only guess by the names of the places. But Ramenye has always been associated with the settlement of Chudi …"

* * *

Alexey, the curator of the Pozhvinsky museum, brought out a small transparent box: "And now I will show you something that you have never seen for sure … a vampire's tooth." The initial skepticism vanished instantly when he put the box on the table in front of us. Under transparent glass on the fabric lay a seemingly ordinary human tooth, but the most unusual thing about it was its size and shape. It looked like the front upper canine of a man, but it was one and a half larger, sharper and wider, like the blade of a hunting knife.

Alexey found this unusual artifact not far from the ancient burial ground. The tooth was lying on the sand, apparently washed ashore by the current. Anticipating the question that arose in our minds, Alexey explained: “There used to be a tradition to burn the dead, so I could not find any other bones. But if it really was a tooth of some unusual person, then he could “lose” it under completely different circumstances. In legends and tales, you can find references to the fact that vampires and ghouls changed their "working" teeth, they fell out over time, and in their place new stronger ones grew."

For several years, Alexey has been engaged in archaeological searches in the Pozhva area. Some of them appear in his dreams, then he finds them and, as a rule, makes amazing discoveries. He expresses his dreams and visions on canvas, in his office all the walls are occupied with paintings, the main theme of which is mysticism and the other world. Aleksey claims that there are “gates” near the city through which you can go to the parallel world.

When we asked whether the ancient traditions of communication with the spirits of the elements, which were present in paganism, were preserved among the local residents, he nodded. A healer lives in a neighboring village, but she not only heals, but can be a guide to another reality. She had an unusual case, they brought in a woman for treatment, who went to the forest with mushrooms and disappeared for three days, and when she was discovered, she went mad. Grandmother performed secret ceremonies, restored consciousness to the woman. And she told an amazing story. It turns out that in the thicket of the forest, she met a five-meter giant, a translucent creature, who beckoned her into the depths of the forest. She could not resist and went with him into the taiga. The woman did not manage to remember what happened next …

* * *

In the area of Usva we turn into the forest. "There is another amazing place not far away." - says Tatiana. - "Pronin key. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a peasant called Pronya lived in our area. They say that he was very greedy for money, he tried to find all the treasure. He recognized several places where the silver could have been buried. For several years he dug in ravines and lowlands. And one day, in one of the holes he had dug, a clean and cold spring came in. Whether Pronya found his treasure, no one knows, but he did a good deed for people. The source has since been nicknamed the Pronin Key. The water is not curative. Measurements were made several years ago, they say - a high content of silver in the water. So it turns out, Pronya found his own treasure”. - Tatiana smiles. - “But not everything that we want is clearly given to us. You need to be able to make desires …"

People often come here, the key was eventually put in order, walkways were made, a wooden gutter was stretched out so that it would be convenient to take water. They tried to do everything without nails and staples so as not to spoil the key.

“You can drink water,” says Tatiana. - “And you can dip your head. The hair after this water becomes clean and soft, no shampoo will wash it off like that."

In turn, we dip our heads under a stream of cold water. It's cold, but I want to stand for so long, as if the water washes away the fatigue and the negativity accumulated in the city.

We go back upstairs, goodbye tossing a coin into a small lake formed in front of the key. We will return here again …

* * *

Many original legends are associated with the Komi-Permyatsky District. But the most important and exciting are the stories, myths and legends about meetings with the Chud people. There is no clear understanding of where this people came from and where it went, there is only a persistent idea of the Chud that went underground. Allegedly, fleeing from wars and extermination, miracles were lowered into dugouts, which they themselves dug into the ground, and then blocked the entrances. But if you think a little about the legend, the picture becomes clearer - after all, the dugouts could well be caves leading to underground shelters-settlements. And many unusual stories and incomprehensible encounters are associated with caves in the Perm Territories.

All these tales and legends are perceived by a modern person, a resident of a big city, to put it mildly, inadequately. But only until it gets into the atmosphere of secluded forest settlements, until it has traveled many kilometers through the reserved taiga, will it find itself in the places of ancient settlements and temples.

According to the stories of researchers and hunters, in the north of the Komi-Permyak Okrug, in the Gain area, you can still find unusual bottomless wells filled with water. Local residents under no circumstances take water from them, believing that these are the wells of ancient people leading to the underworld.

Our next expedition will lie in the Gain area, armed with a powerful echo sounder, we want to try to measure the depth of the Chud wells, trying to unravel another mystery of these places …

Author - Nikolay Subbotin, Director of RUFORS

THE AFTERWORD

Recently, I decided to go through the photographs from the Kudymkar expedition. Looking through the night photographs taken in the area of the Proniny Klyuch, I noticed strange spots that looked like balls. Having increased the brightness and contrast of some photos, I was surprised to find spherical objects, which are usually called plasmoids …