430 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



depart to the realm of the dead unless in company of other members 

 of the household, or at least of some cattle. Yaryik, being the 

 Jersu prince of the seas, is best able, by driving waterfloods, 

 to force the return of the abducted souls and to drive the soul of 

 the departed to the netherworld. 



The belief of the noxious influence of the soul of the dead has 

 its basis in the close family relationship between the dead and the 

 surviving members, which may be considered as the basis of the 

 shamanistic theory and practice. Another cause of this belief 

 is the frequency of epidemics, which, with the lack of sanitary pre- 

 cautions and medical help among the Altaic peoples, are often 

 frightfully devastating and which the people charge to the hostility 

 of the ghosts. 



Doctor Kadloff had the opportunity to attend such a purifi- 

 cation in July, 1860, on the Kengi Lake. In the yurta after sunset 

 were about twenty persons, relatives and neighbors, assembled. It 

 was to be a purification after the death of the housewife. The 

 guests present were quite unconcerned, chatting and smoking. 

 When dusk descended there was heard from a distance the dull 

 sounds of the shaman's drum. By and by the shaman entered the 

 yurta, his chant and beating of the drum gradually softened, pass- 

 ing into a sort of whining and whispering. He held a dialogue 

 with the soul of the deceased, who piteously implored him to let 

 her stay in the yurta with her children. But the shaman merci- 

 lessly presses the soul by the power of the drum, which is filled 

 with mighty spirits, until at last he catches it between the drum 

 and the drumstick and presses it to earth. By changing the modu- 

 lation of his song and of beating the drum he indicates that he 

 has brought the soul to the netherworld. There a dialogue is 

 started with the preceding relatives to whom he has brought the 

 soul of the lately deceased. They decline to accept her. The 

 shaman regales them with vodka, which puts them into a hilarious 

 humor. They sing and are merry, and thus the shaman succeeds 

 in smuggling in the new soul. 



When the shaman calls in the aid of Yaryik the merry scene 

 in the netherworld is suddenly interrupted through the inrushing of 

 the flood. The souls cry for help, whine and lament, and the cattle 

 and souls of relatives, which the deceased took along, are driven 

 back home. The shaman imitates the rushing of the waves and 

 roaring of the pressing water. Sometimes the shaman does not 

 succeed in smuggling in the new soul, or the soul escapes and returns 

 to the yurta. Then the scene begins anew. 



Returning from Sheol to the upper world, the shaman fell into 

 a frenzy, singing and dancing wildly until he collapsed. 



