There once lived in Notozero a noid named Riz. He harmed many people, and helped many as well. At last, in his old age, he himself fell ill. Everyone thought he would recover, but it turned out otherwise. After some time he died, and people began to fear him even more than when he had been alive.

A coffin was made for him, and he was placed inside it, but no one agreed to take him away for burial, because, as a sorcerer, he might rise on the road and eat the driver. Even his sons did not dare to take him to be buried. At last, another noid was found, and for an agreed payment he set out to bury the dead man.

He left with him in the evening, so that he could bury him in the morning or during the day. At first he drove the reindeer well, but around midnight, suddenly and for no reason, the reindeer became frightened. He looked ahead and to the sides, but nowhere could anyone be seen or heard. He looked back and saw that the dead man was sitting up. He became afraid, but being a sorcerer himself, he immediately shouted to him: “When you are dead — lie down!” The dead man obeyed him and lay down.

After some time the reindeer became frightened again. He looked back once more and saw that the dead man was sitting up again. He jumped out of the sledge, snatched a knife from his belt and said: “Lie down, or I will cut you, if you do not fall down.” At the sight of the knife, the dead man’s teeth became iron, and because of this the driver regretted showing the knife. He should have shown him a stick or a log, and then the teeth would have become wooden. The dead man, however, lay down this time as well.

Again he drove on, but now he knew that if the yammiy rose a third time, it would eat him. So he drove up to a large spruce, jumped down from the sledge, tied the reindeer aside, and then began hurriedly climbing up the tree. At last he reached the top, and at that time the dead man rose and got out of the cart. His iron teeth were grinding, and his hands were on his chest, just as they had been folded crosswise.

The dead man came up to the spruce, walked around it several times, and began to gnaw at it. First he gnawed the branches, and did this quickly. At last he began to gnaw the trunk as well. He gnawed like a wolverine, and large chips flew from his sharp teeth. He gnawed briskly, and at last the spruce began to move. The driver saw that things were going badly, and so, from the top, he himself began breaking branches from the spruce and throwing them down. The dead man, seeing this, thought that the spruce was falling and stopped gnawing.

In this way the driver distracted him from his work several times. He did this so that the spruce would not fall before dawn, and he knew that at dawn the dead man had to lie down and die. At last the branches no longer helped: the dead noid understood and began to gnaw without stopping.

After that, the living noid began to crow like a rooster, so that the dead man would become frightened and think that morning was beginning. He crowed like this several times, and after each time the dead man looked toward the place where dawn should appear; not seeing it, he continued to gnaw. The driver, seeing that he could not stop him by any means, became afraid.

He decided to climb down, thinking that when the dead man saw this, he would think that the driver was surrendering to him of his own accord. The dead man really did stop gnawing and began to wait. So the driver climbed down quietly. At last dawn appeared, and the driver shouted: “Dawn has come — go back into your coffin!” The dead noid saw the dawn, became frightened, went to the sledge, and lay down in the coffin.

The driver climbed down from the spruce, closed the coffin, harnessed the reindeer again, and took him to the place where he was to be buried. He arrived there quickly, dug a grave, and lowered the coffin into it on its side, so that the sorcerer could not rise. He knew that if a noid were laid in the grave on his back, or with his back upward, he would rise at night. He filled in the grave and hurried back.

He returned and told everything exactly as it had happened; the people became afraid. Even during the first six or seven years after the sorcerer’s death, they were afraid to walk past his grave, and those who did pass by heard someone crying or howling.

Once, young lads were walking past his grave, at a place called Riste-Kide, and laughed, saying: “He was a great noid, and here he lies.” When they had gone about a verst from the grave, they suddenly heard that someone seemed to be riding after them; even the ground was shaking. They were frightened.

One of them was not a simple man, and was quick-witted: he cut an alder stick and made a cross for them on the ground. The noid ran up to that place, but could not cross it, and went far around to the side. Meanwhile they ran forward, and as soon as they heard the pursuit again, they again made a cross on the road with the stick.

In this way they ran as far as the Tuloma River, where there was a boat. They pulled it into the water and pushed off from the shore. At that moment they heard a loud crash on the bank and saw that something like two large stones had fallen into the water and sunk. The lads came home completely frightened, and afterward told others not to laugh, if they did not want to fall into the noid’s teeth.

From N. Kharuzin’s essay “On Noids among the Ancient and Modern Sámi.”

The photographs were taken in the Lovozero tundras and in the Raslak mountain cirque on the Kola Peninsula.