Page 7 - Animals of the Sakhalin Region in myths and legends

The albatross helped the sailors — brought their ship out of the

ice of Antarctica, but one of the sailors shot the bird, not knowing
why. And soon a dead calm came, and the sailor was accused of
bringing a curse on everyone. As a sign of this, the corpse of a bird
was hung around his neck.
When the crew had already begun to suffer from thirst, a ghost ship
appeared, aboard which Death played Life-in-Death dice bargaining

the souls of the ship’s crew members. Death won every round except
with the guilty one — he won Life-in-Death.
For seven days the sailor suffered, looking into the eyes of the
dead. In the end, he blessed all life in the world. Then the curse
disappeared, and the albatross fell from his neck. A torrential rain
passed, quenching the sailor’s thirst.
The ship immediately went home, disobeying the wind, guided by
the angels who had taken possession of the bodies of the dead. Upon

arrival, the ship disappeared along with the crew, and Life-in-Death
forced the sailor to wander the land. And there was a belief that the
killing of an albatross entails misfortune.

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