SHAMANISM CASANOWICZ 41 7 



to rise higher than Kaira Kan. In consequence of this presumption 

 he lost his ethereal nature and sank into the bottomless water. Kaira 

 Kan out of compassion made man raise himself out of the depth, at 

 the same time bidding him to bring up the earth out of the water 

 as habitation for man since he could no more fly. But man, still 

 rebellious, in bringing up the earth put part of it into his mouth in 

 order to secretly create a land for himself. But when he came up 

 the earth swelled in his mouth so that he could not breathe and 

 would have choked if he had not spit it out at the command of Kaira 

 Kan. The land which Kaira Kan created was even and smooth, but 

 the earth which came out from the mouth of man sprawled in all 

 directions and covered whole land areas with swamp hills. Kaira 

 Kan named the man Erlik and banished him into darkness where 

 he became lord {Kan) of hell. Then Kaira Kan caused to grow 

 from the earth a tree with nine branches and under each branch 

 created a man. These nine men became the ancestors of the nine 

 tribes of mankind who people the earth. 



Erlik by corrupting men got them into his power. Kaira Kan 

 in his anger over the wickedness and folly of mankind withdrew to 

 the uppermost of the seventeen heavens and banished Erlik to 

 the third stratum of the subterranean realm of darkness. Erlik, 

 persisting in his impiety, built with the evil spirits a heaven for 

 themselves in imitation of Kaira Kan's heaven. But Kaira Kan 

 shattered it. The fragments of Erlik's heaven falling upon earth, 

 which till then was even and smooth, caused the high mountains 

 and deep valleys. This time Erlik was thrust down to live forevei* 

 in the lowest world of darkness. 



From Kaira Kan came as emanations the. other high gods : Bai 

 Ulgan, highest after Kaira, who lives in the sixteenth heaven, 

 Ky Sagan, in the ninth heaven, and Mergen, in the seventh heaven, 

 where is also mother sun, while father moon lives in the fifth 

 heaven, where is also the demijurge creator. Bai Ulgan's two sons 

 are in the third heaven. In this third heaven are also located the 

 "sea of milk," or the spring of all life, the mountains of the gods, 

 and the paradise to which go the souls of the just and the blessed. 

 The latter are mediators between the gods of heaven and their 

 offspring on earth, helping them when they are in distress. 



Beneath this realm is that of Jersu^ earth, conceived as a com- 

 munity of spirits, as an animate whole, at whose navel lives Jo Kan, 

 whose power is almost equal to that of Kaira Kan. Besides him 

 there are high lords {Kans), seventeen in number, corresponding 

 to the seventeen mountains and the seventeen seas. Where the 

 seventeen seas unite lives the Ocean Kan. There is also an Altai 

 Kan, the national or folk god. All these gods and demigods are, like 

 the heavenly lords, helpers of man and creative powers, but only 



