Tyzhil-Kutkhu

In Krasheninnikov's account of the Kamchadal faith, Tyzhil-Kutkhu is the son born to the creator Kutkhu and his wife Il'kkhum after the family settled on Kamchatka. When Kutkhu left the peninsula, Tyzhil-Kutkhu married his sister Siduka and remained as master of the land: he created the land animals and appointed the cloud-dweller Pilyachuch (Bilyukai) their herdsman, made clothing from their skins, and, after living at first on bark, invented boats and nettle-fibre fishing nets, teaching his son Amleia to fish. Krasheninnikov stresses that the Kamchadals therefore honoured Tyzhil-Kutkhu rather than Kutkhu, celebrating him at their November festival; through Amleia and the daughter Sidukamshich his line was held to be the source of the peoples of Kamchatka.

Parentage

• Raven (Kutkh)

Domains

• creation of the land animals
• subsistence crafts boats and nets

Powers

• to create the land animals and clothe people in their skins
• to devise boats and nettle-fibre fishing nets

Relations

• spouse: Siduka
• sibling: Siduka
• sibling: Symskalin

Sources

• S. P. Krasheninnikov, Opisanie zemli Kamchatki [Description of the Land of Kamchatka] (St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1755), vol. 2, pt. 3, ch. 11, 'On God, the creation of the earth, and the dogmas of the Kamchadal faith'.
• S. P. Krasheninnikov, Explorations of Kamchatka: North Pacific Scimitar, trans. E. A. P. Crownhart-Vaughan (Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1972).