Nadvid Ubushiev, Legends About Alcohol

Abstract

Nadvid recounts two legends, one about the origin of vodka, and the other about why Chingis Khan banned and then approved vodka. Legend One. One day the Buddha puts a jar with vodka on the top of a high mountain. Having emptied its contents, Arakha (evil) urinates into the jar and flees. Seeing the urine in the jar, Ochir Vani asks, ‘Who did it?’ The sun replies: ‘It is that one who is on the run!’ The moon points at Arakha: ‘Look, look, it is running!’ For revealing his theft, the angry Arakha promises to attack the sun 3 times a year and the moon 3 times a month (hence, solar and lunar eclipses). Then Ochir Vani cuts the thief in two with his mighty rod. Arakha’s lower part falls on the ground, turning into insects and other scum. Legend Two. In order to understand the properties of vodka, Chingis Khan summons 3 men — including a blind man, a man without arms, and a man without legs – and gives them vodka. The 3 men drink the vodka the whole day and in the evening come to see Chingis Khan. The blind man says as if he could see: ‘What a fizzy vodka! It is almost pouring out!’ The man without hands threatens: ‘I will beat you up, all of you!’ The one without legs shouts: ‘I will stampede you all to death!’ Having understood its dangerous properties, Chingis Khan bans vodka. One day a deity called Bayn Namsrai (Kubera Buddha) turns into an old man and sets out distilling vodka. In the old times people sprinkled vodka 7 times before drinking it, and the 5th sprinkle was always dedicated to Chingis Khan. When the old man was thus distilling vodka, Chingis Khan was riding past his yurt and decided to stop and see what was happening inside. The old man invites the Khan inside and performs a vodka sprinkling ritual. At the 5th sprinkling he utters a well-wish: ‘Let our Great Chingis Khan live long in health/lLet his luck spread to all of us!’ Upon hearing this, Chingis Khan says to the wise old man: ‘I see that vodka is an important drink. Let it be like an elixir to us all, giving us strength!’ Since the old man was understood to have been Oirat, this permission was granted only to the Oirat people.