This legend was recorded in March 1896 from Mykhailo Fotul in Stroiń, in the former Bereg county, and published by Volodymyr Hnatiuk in the first volume of his ethnographic materials from Hungarian Rus'. It belongs to a local Christian apocryphal and folk-Biblical storytelling world, where the Noah story is joined to village moral teaching, the origin of strong drink, and local etymological play.

The story contains a harmful period anti-Roma origin claim in Noah's curse on Ham. It is translated here as a source motif from the 1897 witness, not as fact and not as a description of any living community.

The source gives wordplay around palynka, horivka, and okovytka; where the local wordplay is uncertain, the translation says so rather than inventing a confident etymology. The original source text is included below for verification.

Noah

Long ago the world was terribly cursed, accursed. People did not believe in
the heavenly God, that he was in heaven, but bowed down to idols and treated
them as God for themselves. There was no separation among the people; they
went on just like cattle: brother took sister, and they did filthy deeds. God
was angry over this - may he be holy! He waited for repentance from them for
six hundred thousand years. But what was God to do with them? God commanded
Noah to make an ark: "Noah, make an ark, for there will be a flood."

Noah set about making the ark. But with what did Noah make the ark? Long ago
there were no axes, and there was no iron. Noah found himself a stone slab and
cut the wood with it, with that slab. The devil comes to Noah and asks Noah,
"What are you making there, Noah?"

But Noah does not want to tell him. So he goes to Noah's wife. God had
forbidden Noah to tell anyone what would happen. But the devil prepared a
drink, palynka, for Noah - before that there had been no palynka anywhere, and
no one knew of it. The devil says to the wife, "Take this drink, this
palynka." She had asked the devil what sort of drink it was, and he said,
"Palynka." Why is it called palynka? The source gives a local wordplay here
whose exact logic is uncertain. "When Noah comes, give him this drink so that
he drinks, because he is very worn out."

And Noah came home in the evening, and she gave him that palynka to drink.
That palynka fell very much to Noah's taste, to his health. But why did the
devil prepare that palynka for Noah? Because when a man is drunk, he will say
anything at all. And then Noah, drunk, told his wife. "What are you making
there, Noah?" his wife asks him.

"I am making an ark."

Then Noah sinned, because he told his wife. Noah went to work on the ark the
next day, and everything he had already made by then, the devils had carried
away. And Noah began to weep greatly. Noah now saw that he had sinned, and
Noah says, "Lord, what am I to do now?"

And an angel came to him: "Why are you weeping, Noah?"

"I weep, Lord, because I have sinned."

"Noah, God had commanded you not to tell anyone. Why did you drink that
palynka, Noah? The devil seduced you, Noah, and your wife. But do you know,
Noah, where you first cut a tree?"

"I know."

"Then go there, to the first stump, and strike it with that slab with which
you cut. The devils will ask you why you are beating the stump with the slab.

"You say, 'I will keep beating it until you bring the ark back together!'"

And the devils brought the ark, and Noah finished the ark. And he took into
the ark a pair from every living breath. He took a pair of people for seed; he
took from the cattle, from the wild animals, and from every bird. God had
commanded him so.

And what happened? God gave rain: for forty days and for forty nights the rain
fell without ceasing. And a very great flood came about. The ark went about on
the water like a cradle. But what did Noah do when he saw that the flood had
stopped and the ark had come to rest on a place, on a mountain? Noah already
sees that the earth is slowly becoming visible; he would let everything out of
the ark, but he sees that water is still everywhere. Noah drove out the raven
so that the raven would bring him a green thing from the earth. But the raven
did not bring it; he stayed there on the earth. The raven found a drowned
thing and began to eat it. Noah cursed the raven. Noah let a dove out of the
ark so that it would bring him beautiful green things from the earth, to see
whether they existed somewhere already. The dove brought beautiful green
things to Noah in its beak, and Noah rejoiced greatly. He let all the birds
out of the ark. And on that mountain Noah found wine and went to taste the
wine, whether it was good. Noah got drunk on the wine, and he got so drunk
that he was in a very bad state. His youngest son went in and saw his father.
This was Ham, and he began to laugh and mock his father. He came home and told
his other two brothers, "Go, just look at what father is like! Father is," he
says, "drunk like a pig!" But those two brothers went in to him and saw their
father, and they respectfully wiped their father clean and did not laugh at
their father. They brought their father home in their arms. And when Noah woke
up, he cursed Ham. "You," he says, "cursed Ham, accursed one. From your tribe
there will be nothing else, only Roma."

And Noah blessed those two sons: "From you there will be noble tribes and the
first people in the world, Rusnaks and lords. I bless you, and may God bless
you!"

Palynka has still more names. Horivka is called that because something burned
in it; the exact source wordplay is uncertain. Grandfather says okovytka.
Why is it called okovytka? Because it is boiled in an iron pot.

Recorded in March 1896 from Mykhailo Fotul in Stroiń, Bereg county.

Hnatiuk's parallel note cites Drahomanov, Chubynsky, K. J. Erben's flood tale,
Stepan Rudansky, Ivan Franko's Old Testament apocrypha, Porfiriev, Paleia Tolkovaya, Tikhonravov, and Pypin.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from Volodymyr Hnatiuk's Етноґрафічні материяли з Угорської Руси. Том I. Лєґенди і новелї, published in Lviv in
1897 as Етноґрафічний збірник, volume III. The translated unit is legend 3,
Про Ноя, printed on pages 5-7.

The English was translated directly from the older Ukrainian/Rusyn
source-language witness, using the OCR only as a navigation aid and
checking the working source text against source-page images. No existing
English translation was used as the base.

Source note: коучег is rendered as "ark"; фейса is rendered as "axes" with
support from Verkhratsky's Hungarian-Rus' dialect material, where фейса
appears beside сокыра; фаральований is rendered as "worn out," controlled
by Verkhratsky's фарадлованый; у рокаш is rendered as "back together,"
with Verkhratsky supporting в рокаші as "in a heap, together"; and квіти красні is rendered as "beautiful green things" to avoid importing the familiar
English "olive branch" where the source does not say it. Руснаки is kept as
"Rusnaks," a historical local ethnonym.

Reader caution: the Ham curse includes a harmful anti-Roma origin claim. This
edition presents it as source language in a nineteenth-century folk-Biblical
legend, not as ethnographic fact and not as a claim about Roma people.

Source route: Internet Archive identifier etnohr_03-1; source images checked at IA PDF pages 24-26 /
printed pages 5-7, with page 27 checked as outside the unit. The underlying
1897 source is public-domain-era under the Good Works Library's United States
operating posture.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican
Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Про Ноя

Ukrainian/Rusyn source text from Volodymyr Hnatiuk's 1897 Етноґрафічні материяли з Угорської Руси. Том I. Лєґенди і новелї, legend 3, printed pages
5-7. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the
English translation above. This is a lightly corrected reading witness, not a
full diplomatic edition.

3. Про Ноя.

Світ даўно буў дужи прокльатий, спрокльатиў; і у Бога небесного
ни вірували, шчо йи на небі і болваном сьа кланьали і то за Бога
почитали собі. І ни було межи народом розлуки, лем так ходили,
ги марга: брат сестру браў і паскудны діла творили. І Бо сьа за
ото гніваў; сьатуй би сьа! Чикаў у них Бó покайанія за шість сто
тисячіў рокоў. Но, шчо Бо зробиў з ними? Бог Нойови росказаў уже
правити коучег: Нойи! прав коучег, бо буде потопа.

Ной коучег ісправиў. Но чим Ной коучег правиў? Даўно ни було
фейса, ані зельіза ни було. Найшоў собі Ной таку плиту іс камени
і тим дерево рубаў Ной плитоў тоў. Ходить чорт ід Нойови і звідать
Ноя: Шчо ти, Нойи, тото правиш?

Но Ной йому ни хочи казати. Но, він ходить ід Нойовоў жоньі.
Бог запрітиў у Ноя, оби нікому ни казаў, шчо буде. Айбо чорт
ізладив напой, палинку, Нойови - доти палинки нигде ни було, нитко
и ни знаў за ньу. - Каже чорт жоньі: На сесь напой, тоту палинку;

• Бо она звідала чорта, ош шчо тото за напой? А він повіў: палинка.
  Поза чого она палинка сьа зве? Бо миньі йи, каже, мньа: Ка; а други
  того, ош налить сьа, та й варить сьа. - Но, йак прийде Ной, обись
  йому дала сесь напой, оби пиў, бо дужи фаральований йи!

І Ной прийшоў у вечері домо і ўна йому дала оту палинку пити.
Дужи Нойови у смак упала тота палинка, на здоровульа. Но за шчо
чорт тоту палинку зладив Нойови? За ото, бо чоловік коли пяний,
та хоть шчо повість. І тоді Ной повіў жоньі собі, пяний. Но, шчо
ти, Нойи, правиш ото? звідать жона му.

Правльу коучег.

Но, Ной тоді согрішив, бо повіў жоньі собі. Ной пошоў правити
коучег другий день і шчо доти уже буў справив, то чорти ушитко
рознесли. І Ной імяў плакати дужи. І уже увидів Ной, ош согрішив
і каже Ной: Господи! шчо миньі чинити тіперь?

І прийшоў д ньому ангіл: Шчо ти, Нойи, плачиш?

Плачу, Господи, бо согрішив-им.

Нойи! Тибе Бо буў заказаў, оби ти ни казаў нікому. На шчо ти
пиў тоту палинку, Нойи? Тебе чорт ізвів, Нойи, і твою жону. Но,
ци знайш ти, Нойи, десь перше дерево сьтеў?

Знаю.

Но, йди бий там у того пня першого плитоў тоў, шчо рубаш. Чорти
тя будуть звідати, шчо ти бйиш у пня плитоў?

Ти кажи: Доти буду бити, доки ми не знесете коучег у рокаш!

І чорти знесли коучег і Ной коучег доправив. І взяў у коучег по
парі із ушиткого диханя. Взяв із людей по парі на насіня, взяв іс
худоби, взяв із звірки, із усякойі птиці. Бог му росказаў так.

І шчо сьа стало? Бо дав дошчь: за сорок дниў, за сорок ночий
непрестанно падаў дошчь. І велика сьа потопа учинила дужи. І
коучег так ходив на воді, йак гайбу. Но шчо Ной учинив, йак
увидів, потопа стала і коучег став на місто, на гору? Уже Ной
видить, ож уже витко землю помалу; но й пущавби він вон ушитко
с коучега, айбо видить, ож води суть ище усяди. Загнав Ной ворона,
оби му приніс ворон квіт із зимлі. Айбо ворон ни приніс, ай остав
ся там на земли; найшов ворон потопленикоў і став ото їсти. Ной
закляв ворона. Упустив Ной голуба іс коучег, оби му з зимлі приніс
квіти красні, ци суть уже дайде. Голуб приніс у писку квіти красні
Нойови і Ной сьа твердо зрадував і упустив оту птицю ушитку іс
коучега і Ной на той горі найшов вино і пошов вино кушати, ци
добройе оно. І Ной сьа упив вином і так сьа упив, шчо дужи
недобрі сьа мав. І уйшов син май менший і увидів вітця собі. Ото
був Хам і ймив сьа сміяти і насмішати на вітцю собі. І прийшов
домо і повів другим своїм двом братям: Ідіть, увидьте лем який
няньо! Няньо такий, каже, йак свиня пяний! Но і оті два брати
пішли му і увиділи вітця собі і красно собі вітця оптерли і ни
сміяли сьа на вітцю на своїм і принесли домо на руках вітця свого.
Но, і йак сьа Ной проспав і прокляв Хама. Но ти, каже, проклятий
Хами і заклятий. Іс твого племя ни буде йнше нич, лем цигани.

І тих двох синіў благословив Ной: Із вас буде племя дорогойи і
перші люде на сьвіті, Руснаки і пани. І йа вас благословльу і Бо
най вас благословить!

Палинці йи ище больше имья. Горівка зве сьа за ото, бо тот ка...
ізгорів у ньи. Датко каже оковитка. Поза чого зве сьа оковитка?
Поза того, бо варить сьа у жельізном гонци.

Записано в марті, 1896, від Михайла Фотула в Стройні, Береської
столиці.

Паралєлї: Драгоманов, Малор. нар. пред. и разск., ст. 17, ч. 46:
Водка. - Чубинський: Труди, І, 109. - Драгоманов, Малор. нар.
пред. и разск., ст. 94-96, ч. 6 і 7. - Чубинський, Труди, І, ст. 211:
Единорожець. - K. J. Erben, Vybr. báj. a pov. nár., ст. 6: Potopa
světa. - Твори Степана Руданського, т. II, ст. 127-140: Велетні,
ст. 243-254: Потоп. - Др. Іван Франко, Апокріфи старозавітні,
ст. 65-73 (Памятки українсько-руської мови і лїтератури, т. I,
1896). - П. А. Порфирьев, Апокрифическія сказанія о ветхозаветных
лицах и событиях по рукоп. Соловецкой библиотеки, С. Петербург,
1877, ст. 107-108. - Палея Толковая, Москва, 1892, ст. 100-104. -
Тихонравов, Памятники отреченной русской литературы. Т. II, ст.
213-281. - Пыпин, Памятники стар. русской литературы. Т. III, ст.
9-10. - В. Г.

Source Colophon

Source witness: Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Етноґрафічні материяли з Угорської Руси. Том I. Лєґенди і новелї, Lviv, 1897, legend 3, printed pages 5-7. Internet Archive identifier: etnohr_03-1, https://archive.org/details/etnohr_03-1.

The working source text was checked against source-page images of IA PDF pages
24-26, with page 27 checked as outside the unit. This source transcription is
a lightly corrected reading witness and is not a full diplomatic edition.

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