SHAMANISM CASANOWICZ 427 



or, aiijain, all are found as jjarts of the practice of a sorcerer, or 

 wonder-worker. Again, the methods of the medicine man are also 

 found everywhere and largely enter into the shaman's practices. 

 But while the shaman's methods are connected wdth the cult of 

 spirits and are not fundamentally magical, but rather mysticism of 

 a primitive kind, seeking intimate communion with the spirit 

 world, those of the medicine man are partly magical, partly em- 

 pirical with the use of naturalistic methods of healing, and are not 

 necessarily connected with the spirit world. The shaman's procedure 

 is mainly based on the fact that he is en rapport wnth spirits and can 

 control them, while the medicine man generally acts by methods in 

 which the aid of spirits is not essential.^^ 



SHAMANISM CONTRASTED WITH FETISHISM 



Fetishism, the belief that material objects can become, by appro- 

 priate rites and incantations, habitations of mysterious or magical 

 powers, has some kinship to Shamanism. It also springs from ani- 

 mism, being the expression of the notion that the world is pervaded 

 by mysterious spiritual powers. But while in Fetishism the magical 

 power is believed to reside in the instrument or in particular sub- 

 stances, or that the fetish itself is something supernatural, a quasi- 

 personified power or potency, having volition, in Shamanism the 

 will-effect of the shaman is the elRcient factor in compelling ghosts 

 or spirits or gods to do his will. In Fetishism the emphasis is laid 

 on the thing, although rites and incantations may be employed in 

 making the fetish ; in Shamanism the prime factor is the personality 

 and will of the shaman, although he may employ like means. 



THE SHAMAN IN ACTION^ 



The activity of the shaman as a priest or sacrificer, a conjurer up 

 of spirits, and as a prophet is most impressively illustrated by the 

 ceremonies attending the sacrifice to Bai Ulgan, who dwells in the 

 sixteenth heaven, and is next in rank to Kaira Kan, the highest god. 

 It is something like a mystery play or religious drama in which the 

 shaman as conjurer of the spirits is the actor. The procedure of this 

 sacrifice and the ceremonies, conjurations, and incantations accom- 

 panying it are very elaborate and are distributed over three evenings. 



On the first evening the shaman selects a spot in a birch thicket and 

 there places a new ornamented yurta (tent) . In the yurta a young 

 birch tree with the lower branches lopped is set up; on one of the 



"> Comp. also Dison, 1. c, p. 12 : "As compared with their representatives in other 

 parts of the world, the shamans in America seem to show, both in their making and in 

 their whole character, less reliance on the dead, the ancestral spirits, than do those of 

 other regions « • * deriving his power from animals and natural phenomena." 



-■0 Mainly abridged from Radloff, op. cit., p. 51 f.. and Mikhailovskii, 1. c, pp. 74-78. 



