sculptural Ergera, steel, 2023, by Genergen, 

dedicated to the Abkhaz deity of hunting based on the plot of the fairy tale

“When Azhveipsh goes hunting”

(sculptures of the "Erger" lineup are protected by a patent) 

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WHEN AZHVEIPSH GOES HUNTING 

(excerpt)

​

When the time comes, the lord of wild beasts Azhveipsh sends his servant

Shvakvaz into the forest with the words: “give to those to whom you did

not give.” But the hard-of-hearing servant does as we know: therefore,

some hunters are always lucky, while others cannot get anything.

 

   Once upon a time, long ago, during the dawn of the city of Guenos**, when the skill of hunting multiplied by new weapons, Shvakvaz returned from the forest worried:

– Lord, someone stranger has come into the forest. He disperses the game with a cry that pierces bones. The birds fly away, and the predators and animals leave.

– Did you see him?

– No. I couldn't get to him because of his screaming.

 

   In the evening, at sunset, the youngest daughter of the patron of hunting returned:

– Father. A bird we don't know is similar to a woodpecker, but larger than an eagle owl. She is not visible and inaudible in flight. And only when she sits on a branch and screams, it glows brighter than the Moon.

– Have you seen hunters in the forest?

– No. They are afraid to go hunting. They are wondering what angered you?

​

   The next day everything happened again.

   Two days passed like this. Three days passed like this. And on the fourth, at dawn, a poisonous scream

the alien bird flew to the hill where Ajdeipsh lived, and when the rays of the sun illuminated the tops

trees, and Azhveipsh (who usually performs ablution at this time) did not come out from his hut, the faithful servant Shvakvaz guessed that the lord of the beasts had left before dawn, as befits a hunter.

​

   The next day everything happened again.

   Two days passed like this. Three days passed like this. And on the fourth, at dawn, the poisonous cry of an alien bird flew to the hill where Ajdeipsh lived, and when the rays of the sun illuminated the tops of trees, and Azhveipsh (as usual at this time performing ablution) did not come out of his hut, the faithful servant Shvakvaz guessed that the lord of the beasts had left before dawn, as befits a hunter.

​

    Azhveipsh walked and did not walk; leaving no traces. Azhveipsh swam and did not swim; shaking drops of dew from the blades of grass. And when he reached the border of the tract, where there was an impassable thicket, Azhveipsh turned into a winged thin weaver (butterfly) and flew through the thickets to the cry of a stranger in the forest. The hunter Khatazhukva saw this. He was returning to his village from the Seredinnaya River gorge.

​

   Having reached the bend of the stream, where a large overgrown boulder rose at the bend, Azhveipsh changed his appearance and turned into an animal capable of catching winged game.

 

   The stranger was approaching. Like a jumping flea, he disappeared from the branch in a jump and, illuminating the tree crowns with a flash of light, appeared again with a scream that could drive you crazy.

 

SO AN UNKNOWN BIRD INVADED THE POSSESSION OF AZHVEIPSH AND WITH ITS INVASION DRIVED HIS GAME AWAY FROM HIS FOREST.

———

**Guenos — is a Greek settlement (polis) of the VI-V century BC.e. founded on the site of the modern city of Ochamchira.

​

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