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I Forge Iron

"Consecration Ritual for a Blacksmith Novice among the Yakuts"


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Among the Yakut, blacksmiths receive their skill from K'daai Maqsin, chief blacksmith of the whole underworld. He lives in an iron house, and owns black cattle with white heads, and spotted red horses. For many versts [1 verst = roughly 2/3 mile] before the approach to his house, the ground is covered with remains of fired iron slag. The forehead of this deity is covered with dirt nine fingers thick, his cheeks with rust three fingers thick, the face is like a chunk of earth torn from the mountain; his eyes are always closed, and when he wishes to see, eight men from above and eight men from below drag the iron lids apart with iron hooks. K'daai Maqsin is a great master. If a valiant hero, a vassal of the evil spirits, loses his arm or leg, he forges him a new one and fixes it in its proper place. He can make rifles that do not miss and a garb which will protect against bullets. He can add strength to a weaker hero. He makes a very hard iron which he tempers in a special liquid made from the blood of a lion, the tears of a species of seal, blood from the lips of a young man and the blood of the cheeks of a young girl. His bellows are made of thirty cowhides. He has as assistants hammer-men, bellows-men, and file-men.

Popov, A. “Consecration Ritual for a Blacksmith Novice among the Yakuts.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 46, no. 181, 1933, pp. 257–271. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/535717.

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Cool! I have a little cultural anthro in my background.

Ive always been curious why North & South America have no or very little iron in their history. Especially post Viking ironmaking around Nova Scotia. Once you see the process, making iron is not difficult. Im sure the vikings were observed by the locals back in their day. 

 

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No need to be sorry, they accepted me as for independent studies with no school affiliation so I'm good. Better yet, I don't know if my friend with the masters in history has seen this one and it's a good one. Seriously a patron god who requires 8 men above and 8 men below with iron hooks to pull his eyelids open IF he wants to take a look HAS to have a GOOD STORY!

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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  • 4 months later...
On 9/1/2019 at 10:18 PM, anvil said:

thanks,you guys. I'll check it out.

If you ever see something specific about Iron in north/south America, let me know.

I just read this on afro-american metalwork in the Americas. And it has propelled me into a wormhole of stuff to read
https://www.academia.edu/26550751/African_and_African-American_Metallurgy?email_work_card=thumbnail

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  • 2 weeks later...

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