288 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



All observers speak in enthusiastic language of the tempera- 

 ment and moral qualities of the Tunguses, and 

 characters particularly of those groups that roam the forests 

 about the Tunguska tributaries of the Yenisei, 

 which take their name from these daring hunters and trappers. 

 " Full of animation and natural impulse, always cheerful even in 

 the deepest misery, holding themselves and others in like respect, 

 of gentle manners and poetic speech, obliging without servility, 

 unaffectedly proud, scorning falsehood, and indifferent to suffering 

 and death, the Tunguses are unquestionably an heroic people 1 ." 



A few have been brought within the pale of the Orthodox 

 Church, and in the extreme south some are classed 

 as Buddhists. But the great bulk of the Tungus 

 nation are still Shamanists. Indeed the very word Shaman is of 

 Tungus origin, though current also amongst the Buryats and 

 Yakuts. It is often taken to be the equivalent of priest ; but in 

 point of fact it represents a stage in the development of natural 

 religion which has scarcely yet reached the sacerdotal state. 

 " Although in many cases the shamans act as priests, and take 

 part in popular and family festivals, prayers, and sacrifices, their 

 chief importance is based on the performance of duties which 

 distinguish them sharply from ordinary priests 2 ." Their functions 

 are threefold, those of the medicine-man (the leech, or healer by 

 supernatural means) ; of the soothsayer (the prophet through 

 communion with the invisible world) ; and of the priest, especially 

 in his capacity as exorcist, and in his general power to influence, 

 control, or even coerce the good and evil spirits on behalf of 

 their votaries. But as all spirits are, or were originally, identi- 

 fied with the souls of the departed, it follows that in its ultimate 

 analysis Shamanism resolves itself into a form of ancestry-worship. 



The system, of which there are many phases reflecting the 

 different cultural states of its adherents, still prevails amongst all 

 the Siberian aborigines, and generally amongst all the uncivilised 

 Ural-Altaic populations, so that here again the religions strictly 

 reflect the social condition of the peoples. Thus the somewhat 



1 Reclus, vi. ; Eng. ed. p. 360. 



2 V. M. Mikhailovskii, Shamanism in Siberia and European Russia, 

 Translated by Oliver Wardrop, Jonr. Anthrop. Inst. 1895, p. 91. 



