There is a small forest and a lake near the Bolshaya Kheta River. Since ancient times this place has been called Tombe, in Nenets Tampey. A Delhi shaman lived there. He had a wife and a son.
One day the son says to his father:
- I had a dream. In the dream I heard the voice of God. It was as if He told me that somewhere there is one sacred fir tree with seven branches. This fir tree sways in the wind and sings to me: come, come, come! How many times have I seen this fir tree in my dreams and heard the voice of God. I was afraid to tell you, Father, about it. But I can't keep silent any longer. Shall we get ready and go to the place where the sacred fir tree stands?
The shaman of Delhi, hearing such words of his son, was extremely surprised. He could not understand how his son, not being a shaman, could hear the voice of God himself, and even see the sacred fir tree, which even experienced shamans see only rarely. Delhi's shaman remained silent for a long time, pondering his son's words, and then he spoke:
- Son, I can't understand you. Even if you did hear the song of the sacred fir tree in your dream, where are we going to find it? Are we gonna drive all over the Bolshaya Kheta and look at every fir tree? That's crazy. We'll drive around for a year, torture the deer for nothing, but we probably won't find anything. I think: Son, if you really heard God's voice, try to remember what he told you. Didn't he tell you exactly where to find the fir tree?
The son was unable to answer his father anything, and the conversation ended there.
One month has passed and March has come. Although the sun is already quite high, it is still cold in the tundra. Some camps have already started to march northward to the spring calving grounds for reindeer.
The son of a Delhi shaman said one evening:
- Father, in my dream I saw the road on which we are going to argysh (caravan) to the sacred place. I heard again the voice of God and the singing of the fir trees. We have to argyle across the Malaya Kheta River to the Yenisei. We will cross one hill and find two hills covered with spruce. There will be a sacred place there.
Hearing these words of his son, the shaman said:
- It's good that you recognise the place where we have to go. Of course, I would like to go to the tundra with all the people to the calving grounds. But if you have heard God's voice again, we must go to the sacred place.
The shaman began to prepare for the argysh. He caught thirty riding reindeer. He took his son, his wife and another worker with him in case there was no one to guard the reindeer.
The way turned out to be far and difficult. We made four argish with small stops. The shaman was in a great hurry. He said:
- We have to go faster. By the time we reach the sacred place, by the time we make the idol, it will be April. When will we have time to go to the tundra? After all, the reindeer calving is approaching.
Finally, the shaman and his men reached the right place. They put up a chum near a lake in a forested area about fifty kilometres south of modern Dudinka. The lake was such that not everyone would notice it. There were so many islands that you would not know which side to approach from. But the shaman Delhi had known this lake for a long time. He had travelled by reindeer many times.
In the evening at dinner, the shaman said to his son:
- I know that fish lake. It is true that there are no big teal here, but you can catch as many whitefish as you like. While we make a sacred sledge and put the idol, we can fish. Before the argysh to the tundra we'll stock up on fish.
The shaman and his son put up the net, and then began to look round the forest to find suitable material for making a sacred sledge. They made some logs. Only the shaman himself cut the wood, but his son was not allowed to do it. He heard the voice in his sleep, but he was not yet a shaman. He could only pass on what he had heard to his father.
When the shaman and his son returned to the chum in the evening, they noticed those two hills overgrown with fir tree.
The son said:
- Father, look, what is it? Is there a fire burning or something glowing? Maybe it's a fire? But no, it doesn't look like a real fire.
Delhi shaman said:
- This is no ordinary fire. You see the light of that fir tree that sang songs to you in your dream. That fir tree belongs to God Himself. An ordinary man has no right to go near it.
The next day the shaman started making the sacred sledge. He did everything himself, and his son only sat beside him and told his father what to do. He must have dreamt about all the parts of the sacred sledge. By evening the sledge was ready, and all that was left was to put a reindeer skin on it. But the shaman decided that it should be done tomorrow. When the sun had already set, it was a sin to do such a sacred act.
The son said:
- Father, put this sledge away from the chum, where the ground is completely clean, no one has walked on it. You have made the sledge from fir tree, and nothing shall defile it, no one shall go near it.
The shaman put the sacred sledge in the right place, and then we went to the tent, ate and went to bed.
In the morning, after breakfast, the shaman's son spoke again about the dream:
- Father, I can't sleep well. All night in my dreams I heard the sacred fir tree singing. God himself keeps me awake. Hurry up and finish equipping the sacred sledge! Now we must slaughter the deer. In my dream I saw that the deer must be a three-year-old male. Father, let's hurry up and slaughter the deer!
The shaman Delhi went with his son to the herd and caught just such a deer. Then they slaughtered it and covered all parts of the sacred sledge with its blood. The skin of the sacrificial deer was taken off with its horns and hooves and covered the whole sledge with it. The horns were left on the forehead.
When they had finished this sacred act, the son spoke again:
- Father, harness two reindeer to this sledge and take it to the two hills where last time we saw the fir tree with the light coming from it. Put the sledge with its front towards the sunrise. When you come back, we'll start making me a tambourine and shaman's clothes. Now, when the idol will be placed in our sledge, I can start the shamanistic ritual.
Delhi shaman did as his son told him to do. He may not have wanted to fulfil his son's request, not considering him a true shaman, but he could not refuse. If the son had seen shamanic dreams and heard the voice of God, how could he not fulfil his request?
First Delhi made a tambourine for his son, while his mother sewed a shaman's parka and hat. Everyone was in a hurry, as it was urgent to leave here and go to the tundra to be on time for the reindeer calving.
When the tambourine and clothes were ready, the moment came when the son of the shaman of Delhi could begin his first shamanistic ritual. He sat down on a specially prepared place in the chum, where the skin of a wild deer was laid out. He took the tambourine in his hands and sang...
The shaman of Delhi listened to his son's singing and could not understand anything, although he had been an experienced shaman for a long time and had himself sung shamanic sacred songs many times, which are usually not understandable to an ordinary man. No matter how hard he tried to understand his son's singing, nothing worked. Of course, the shaman could not interrupt his son and ask him what the song was about. It was not allowed at all. The shaman assumed that the son was probably singing the same song that the sacred fir tree had sung to him in his dream.
The son finished singing, put the tambourine aside and said:
- Father, now listen carefully! The sacred sledge that you left by those two spruce-covered hills is no longer empty. It has a master named Numgypoy. He will be the idol of our family. Wherever we go, we will always carry him with us. I don't know what the master of our sacred sled looks like. But, Father, you have copper goggles. When you go to this sled, look inside, but only through the glasses and only with one eye. Close your other eye! Father, you will be the only one looking at the master of our sacred sledge. The rest of us will turn away. We can't look. Even I won't look, though I've already done my first shamanistic ritual.
When the son finished talking, they ate, then caught some reindeer and rode to the hills where something glowing had been seen earlier. The shaman Delhi rode in front.
When he reached the sacred sledge, Delhi put on his copper goggles and closed one eye tightly. He lifted the reindeer skin and looking with one eye saw the owner of the sacred sledge, Numgypoy. Some humanoid creature, on whose body shone seven stars was clearly visible...
As soon as the shaman Delhi saw this creature, the deerskin suddenly curled up on its own, as if enclosing some object inside. The shaman groped the skin and was convinced that there was an idol inside.
Then the shaman went up to his son and said:
- Son, now you're a real shaman. Now I believe you've actually prophetic dreams. It seems we have an idol from God himself. What are we going to do now? We'll tie the idol on the sledge, harness the reindeer and hurry home. Spring is rushing us, the reindeer calving time is coming soon. But, son, before we set off, we must slaughter another reindeer and feed not only the idol, but also the place where we found it.
They slaughtered a reindeer and performed a sacred act. After that they returned to their former camp, and then started argyshing to the tundra...
A few more years passed and the shaman Delhi died. The sacred sledge with the idol of Numgypoy was left to his son, and he carried it wherever he argyshed. When he lived his life and died, the sledge with the idol was laid beside his grave. He had no son, and there was no one to inherit the sacred sledge. Nobody knows what happened to the sledge and the idol afterwards.