234 SIBERIA. 



tribes, they yet adhere to Schamamsm and other superstitions of heath- 

 enism. Tlie Schamans, from whom Schamanism has its name, are in 

 general a set of jnglers, who go about through the tribe exhibiting all 

 kinds of tricks in order to obtain presents. The history of not a few 

 is, it is said, very different. Certain individuals are born with excitable 

 nerves, and an ardent imagination. They grow up amid the general be- 

 lief of ghosts, and the mysterious power exercised by the Schamans. 

 The credulous youth is strongly affected, and aspires also to participate 

 in supernatural power. He therefore retires from his companions into 

 solitude, and, by the contemplation of the gloomy aspect of all around 

 him, his imagination is powerfully affected. He makes long vigils, fasls, 

 and uses strong narcotics and stimulants, until he is persuaded that he 

 also has seen the mysteiiqus apparitions, of which he has heard from 

 boy-hood. He is then received as a Schaman, with many ceremonies, in 

 the silence and darkness of night, and the magic drum and other em- 

 blems of his ordei are given him. A true Schaman, therefore, is not a 

 cool, calculating deceiver, but a psycological phenomenon every way 

 worthy of attention. Always after seeing them operate, says an eye- 

 witness, they have left upon my mind a long-continued and gloomy im- 

 pression. The wild look, blood-shot eyes, the laboring breast, the con- 

 vulsive utterance, the seemingly involuntary distoi-tion of the face and 

 whole body, the streaming hair, the hollow sound of the drum, all con- 

 spired to produce the effect ; and I can well conceive that these should 

 a[)pear to the superstitious and ignorant savage as the work of evil spir- 

 its. Every tribe is accompanied by one or more of them. They are 

 consulted on all important occasions, and their decisions are rarely con- 

 troverted. An illustration of their power is mentioned by M. Wrangell, 

 and occurred among the Tschuktschi at Ostrounoje-fair, in 1814. A sud- 

 den disease visited and carried off not only a number of the Tschuk- 

 tschi, but also a great number of their rein-deer. A general consultation 

 was held by the Schamans, in which it was resolved that Kotschen, one 

 of their most distinguished chiefs, should be sacrificed to appease the 

 incensed spirits. Kotschen was so much esteemed that the people, not- 

 withstanding their usual implicit obedience to the Schamans, on this oc- 

 casion rejected their decision. The sickness continued to rage, and 

 Kotschen, like another Curtius, declared his willingness to submit. But 

 such was the veneration in which he was held, that no one could be 

 prevailed upon to execute the sentence, until his own son, urged by his 

 father's entreaties, and terrified by his threatened curse, plunged a knife 

 into his heart, and gave the body to the Schamans. Schamanism has no 

 settled dogmas of any kind. It is not a system of belief, though so 



