Cap.

Article’s title

PP. in this book

Journal or volume-set wherein article was originally published

Vol:PP. in that journal

2.

Space in the H^anty World-Outlook

65-76

PRO FOLKLORISTICA

5 (1997) : 16-26

3.

Spirit Dolls at the Pym River H^anty

77-86

Studies in Folklore and Popular Religion. 1996.

1 : 125-32

4.

Sacrificial Rituals of the Pym River H^anty, pt. 1

87-100

PRO ETHNOLOGIA. 1998.

5 : 57-68

ARCTIC STUDIES. ".

1 : "-"

5.

Sacrificial Rituals of the Pym River H^anty, pt. 2

101-128

PRO ETHNOLOGIA. 1999.

8 : 57-71

ARCTIC STUDIES. ".

2 : "-"

8.

Shamanism as Information Design

157-[179]

(manuscript)

--

p. 3

for the __ tribe

Northern H^anty

Eastern H^anty

the house’s door is __

north

south

the sacred shelf is __

south

north

members of the __ tribe

pray facing __

Mansi

southward

p. 5

H^anty

northward

H^anty "stated that the shaman must go and consult the devil to find out the result of a {prospective} hunt. He must go to where the sun sets".

p. 4

"the ... Mansis who situated graves with the head facing north ... believed that the lower world could be found to the north ... . ...

The dead in the Pim region are entombed with the head facing the south ... since people sleep with their head facing north, the dead must lie in the opposite direction because in the underworld everything is turned upside down."

p. 5

the last hope resides in the "Old man of the sacred town" in Vezhakary. The latter god is ... a bear and a mouse ... .

p. 6

If the spirit of the dead does not receive help from "The old man of the sacred town" it proceeds along the current, crying, whereupon it move on to the lower world in order to receive the final approval from the God of Sicknesses in Vanzevat (Schmidt 1989:225-225)."

p.

hlunk

125

"On the Lyamin, a tributary of the Pym, the "invisible people", as the hlunks are also known, had a colony where they lived together in families. ...

126

"The sacred dolls are kept and offerings are brought to them in sacred groves ...; the Khantys ... keep them in sacred storehouses and nartas. The sacred narta is then kept ten to fifteen steps north of the Khantys’ conical tent with its nose towards the south. ... their sacred storehouse ... is built is a separate location in the woods."

Most of the hlunks, however, are replaced every seven years."

127

"The storehouse has its keeper ... . He takes care of the storehouse and dolls and distributes the offerings at common sacrifices, where a peculiar social levelling takes place between families ... . Each family brings as many offerings (food, textile, reindeers, money, etc.) as they consider necessary and affordable. In the course of the offering, the food is distributed equally, so that poorer families receive more than they brought to the hlunk. The same holds for clothing : ... the storehouse keeper divides these on behalf of the hlunks between the families". {so, these hlunk-s personify the sharing-principle of communism.} {likewise, the potlatch of the tribes of the Oregon Territory "is a way to share your wealth. ... Give your guests gifts. This is all part of sharing your wealth. Items should be ... given to your guests during the height of the potlatch. You are distributing your wealth and sharing what you have with others." ("SWP")} {"Potlatch can be seen as mutual aid. It is aid because it is the gift." ("MP")} {In the Solomon Islands, "Wealth is given away ... as it is acquired. (One notes how utterly threatening this giving away of wealth was to European missionaries and government officials in the cognate indigenous societies of the American Northwest in their criminalization of "potlatch" gift giving.)" ("C&P")}

"If the river’s spirit ... has a special sacrificial storehouse at a sacred place ... the hlunk then resides [therein] with his assistants. These are usually the hlunks of bigger rivers such as the old man of the Ob As-iki, Kasym-imi of the Kazym and others. The god of the Pym has a special storehouse, too ... .All the Khantys living in the Pym basin take their offerings to that storehouse. The time of offering is set by the storehouse keeper who is advised by the hlunks. ...

128

As-iki is considered more powerful than Pym-iki, the Pym being a tributary of the Ob. ... . ... goddess Kasym-imi of the Kasym river was said ... to have given a battering to her father, the highest god Numi-Torum. For that her father made her lame, ... to limp".

129

"The hlunks {hlunk-s as idols} are believed to help people without shamanic powers more that shamans who have to rely more on their own power." {power to summon the same hlunk-s as deities, without using idols} "sound-producing instruments besides the drum are also used in shamaning". {shamans summon deities by music rather than by idols.}

131

a ... reindeer-shaped hlunk who will secure good luck in reindeer-hunting".

p.

se’ances

62

[a se’ance in the Pym river basin] "A shamanic seance took place, too, to find out the gods’ attitude toward the sacrifice. For that end, one of the renowned local shamans ate amanita while another beat the shaman’s drum (Khanty kuijyp) ... . Finally, however, the shaman who had eaten the mushrooms sat at the drum and "the spirits took him". He beat the drum for some time, then began to pronounce what life would be like ... . ... Thus the shaman kept alternately beating the drum and speaking, as the spirit of the mushroom (Khanty pong) went between him and Torum-Ati (another name for Numi-Torum). Here, pong is the intermediary between the shaman and the god, communicating by turns the questions and the answers. ... .

63

[se’ances elsewhere] "In the basins of the Vasyugan and the Irtysh, however, ... the spirit of the shaman himself goes to travel after eating pong ... . {Praesumably, the spirit of the shaman is guided by the pon-spirit in this journeying.} [In those river-basins,] it was not the was not the shaman who sang at the ritual, but the mushroom spirit, or the shaman merely repeated the songs sung to him by the spirits of the mushroom".

Thereupon the woman told [the journeyer] to go back : If your name is not on the list you cannot pass.

The episode recalls ... the Northern Khanty who maintain that the sky god provides the god of the underworld with a list of those doomed to die, and the latter refers to it when selecting the souls to be herded to his realm ... . Again relating to the Northern Khanty, ... the sky god does not keep count of the souls himself but has [en]trusted this job to his private secretary, who compiles the list according to his instructions ... . ... among the Northern Khanty, the life span is measured out by Numi-Torum’s wife Kaltesh, who keeps a book of records for this purpose (Schmidt 1989:223)." {This theme, of a book indicating how long each living person will live, is very Taoist.}

"Only leftovers can be given to the spirits of sickness. When the poryi is over, everyone goes home, the "upper ones" (that is, gods of the heavens) go away ... . "The lower ones", the demons, through around ... . When everything is finished, then they will come to gobble up the leftovers."

p.

n.

deity

64

1

A strong argument in support of the connection between Myv-imi and Kaltash-imi is the above-mentioned story about how Kaltash-imi was cast down from the heaven by Numi-Torum because of her misbehaviour. The misbehaviour consisted

65

Kaltash-anki or Pugos-imi can be identified with Tshoorys-nai, Mother of Fire. The River Ob is said to flow into a big sea, at the bottom of which there is hole where the water falls and burns in a big fire. The fire is called Choorys-nai and she is the wife of Tshoor-skyyn, king of the sea, and also the mother of all fires (... Kerezsi 1997: 36). {Pippala-ada ‘Fig-Eater’ generated the mare-fire (SP 7:1:33 – WA&OMB, p. 229), into whose "mouth no larger than a needle" (WA&OMB, p. 230) the ocean is quaffed [so ought this "mare" to be a camel (us.t.ra = Old English goddess Eostre)]? – anyway her mouth may be the whirlpool said by other Siberian tribes to be located in the sea at the mouths of major rivers. "The five rivers put the fire in a golden pot ...; they threw it into the ocean, and it began to drink the waters little by little" (BP 110 -- WA&OMB, p. 232).} {"the mare-fire in the ocean, a metaphor for the fire of lightening in a cloud" (Sayan.a on RV 2:35:3 – GGI&T, p. 55, fn. 23) could also denote a whirlpool-like helix, since in Hellenic art the keraunos (‘thunderbolt’) held by Zeus is commonly depicted as a helix.} Another interesting report tells us that As-to-imi, wife of As-iki dwelling at the estuary of the Ob, gives children to women ... . The American researcher M. Balzer also identifies the Mother of Fire with Pugos and the "Mother of All Beings" (Balzer 1978: 133. 134). At the same time, there are reports stating that Choorys-nai and Kaltash are sisters: daughters of Mother Earth. The picture is further elaborated by a report saying that Mother Earth (Meh anki) has a mother called Mih pugos anki (Kerezsi 1997: 35). Generally, as I noticed at the joint sacrifice discussed in the present paper, the Pim River Khanties recognise a difference between Choorys-nai and Myg-imi and Kaltash, too, is represented at the offerings as a separate personage. Yet the coincidences cropping up in myths indicate that there must be some kind of link between these persons. ... To some extent, the subject has been examined by Ágnes Kerezsi (1997: 35. 38). ... Connections can be established between Kaltash -- Pugos -- Myg-imi -- As-to-imi -- Choorys-nai".

66

2

Kul-iki can appear in the shape of a dog or a cat. He can also assume the likeness of fog, hiding from people their guardian spirits, as a result of which people become his easy victims ... . ... the shrine of Kul-iki on the River Yugan ... holds the image not only of Kul-iki himself but also of his mother Evut-imi ... .As a rule, Kul-iki's name was not mentioned, particularly in the presence of a sick person."

3

Numi-Torum has various parallel names: Ent-Torum (Great Torum), Sanki or Sange Torum (Bright Torum), Jem-Sanki (Good Light), Alle-iki (Great Old Man), Nagi-iki (White Old Man), Ynyt Torum (Great God), Kansh iki, Tarn Sanki, and so on (... Kerezsi 1997 ...). Numi-Torum dwells on the seventh floor of the upper world, too high to deal with the affairs of mortals. If a person desires to address Numi-Torum, he must do so through the mediation of some lower god. ... human beings can find assistance from the children of Numi-Torum : Sorni-iki, Kazym-imi and other minor gods. In order to appeal to them, one must give an offering to the addressee, too, and say an appropriate prayer asking to dispatch the soul of the sacrificed reindeer to the Highest One.

67

Literature presents data confirming the existence of Numi-Torum's father and grandfather. The Mansi know his father under the name of Kors-Torum and grandfather as Kosjar-Torum; among the Northern Khanties, the corresponding names are Num-Kurys and Num-Sives ... . ... Num-Kurys and Num-Sivys are, together with Num-Torum, three different spirits of the upper world, fathered by Kors-Torum. In texts collected ... on the Sosva River, Numi-Kworys occurs as the supreme god who lowered Numi-Toorym, Saghl-Toorym and T'apyl-iki together with their sister Kaltash-ekwa between heaven and earth ... . ...

68

An interesting parallel has been drawn between Numi-Torum and Sorni-iki, on the one hand, and the old Iranian Mithra, on the other. There are data indicating that the lineage Kors-Torum -- Numi-Torum -- Sorni-iki is associated with the Iranian sun god; the argument takes support from the coincidences between the name Kors and the Iranian word xurðét, "bright sun", as well as from several analogous traits in the mythological themes of the two peoples, treating on Mir-susne-Xum and Mithra, respectively (Toporov 1989: 170. 174). In his article, Toporov brings further examples supporting his theory of strong mutual connections between the Uralic and old Iranian peoples (ibid.)."

4

Sometimes he is heard just galloping past in the sky. Sorni-Torum does not like anybody to fly faster than himself. I even heard [an informant] claim that Sorni-iki determines the speed of jet planes which are not to fly faster than he has allowed. Judging by how he has manifested himself at very short intervals to people living at great distances from each other, [that informant] believes that his speed must at least equal that of light. Once he is said to have run around the world quicker than it took a bit of birch-bark to burn up. Nevertheless he found time to help people, on his way ... .

69

Among the Mansi, kindred people of the Khanties, the heavenly horseman is known under the name of Mir-susne-Xum, "The Man Who Looks on the World" ... . For several reasons, he is one of the favourite gods of the Mansi. First and foremost, he is considered to be the forefather of the Mos tribe ... . He was born during the fall Kaltash-imi took upon being cast down from the sky by Numi-Torum because of her misbehaviour. Having obtained the miraculous steed, Mir-susne-Xum or Sorni-iki was able to ride around the whole world. The Mansi see him as the main mediator between Numi-Torum and humans ... ."

5

"As-iki is the master of fish. He makes fish and sends them into the nets of the fishermen. He also decides how many fish must go into each river. Once it so happened that the god of Salym (a tributary of Ob. The god of Salym is the master of Thunder and notorious for his bellicose disposition -- author's note) thought he was getting too few fish from As-iki. So up he goes to As-iki and demands: `Listen, why do you give me so few fish, give me more.' But As-iki was in a defiant mood, did not give him fish. So the god of Salym went away and began to prepare for war. He picked up an arrow-shaft and began to whittle away on it. Whittled one chip off it . the chip turned into a stickle-back. Whittled another chip . that, too, turned into a stickle-back. Thus the stickle-backs became many. They swam downstream into the river Ob. As-iki looks . a stickle-back. Looks again . nu, holera, (emotional interjection in Russian, translates as "Oh, cholera!") another stickle-back! So he went upstream along the Ob until he could see . the Old Man of Salym is whittling away at arrow-shafts, chips are falling down and turning into stickle-backs. As-iki got a terrible fright, began to call from afar: `What are you doing there, planning to wage war? Against whom?' Salym-iki called back: `Against you, of course, why don't you give me fish?!' So As-iki reckoned the matter was grave and sent lots of fish into the Salym, many large pikes. Mhmh." ...

70

In the Pim river basin, one likeness that As-iki may assume is that of a gadfly. When a Khanties notices a gadfly struggling in the water, he is certain to pick it out since according to tradition, the gadfly helps men to escape the danger of drownings."

"The Khanties have also seen UFOs."

""At the lower course of the river Ob in the village of Korvozhevo, a Khanty informant described two types of menkv (‘spirit’ in Khanty). One was described as a "bigfoot", the other displayed traits of an "alien". The latter were described as being three metre tall robot-like creatures who had flashlights for eyes."

[quoted from :- Balzer 1993:149] "It was my first attempt at a se’ance ... . ... . ... I started beating on the drum and chanting. Soon two beings, exactly, definitely two, appeared on either side of me. ... So I looked and I saw I was very far from my hearth. It was recending {receding}".