THE HEATHEN OSTIAKS. 447 



"Nothing is to be achieved at the Bodarata, for wood and pasture 

 are lacking; here something might be accomplished." 



"You will have to render an account to your superiors; they 

 will examine you and will be satisfied." 



"You will also have to answer to the three elders of your tribe; 

 they also will examine your writings, and then come to a decision 

 about the new journey." 



" The course of your journey will henceforward be happy and 

 without accident; and you will find your loved ones at home in the 

 best of health." 



"If the statements of the Russians who are still at Bodarata 

 corroborate yours, two emperors will reward you." 



" I see no other face." 



The performance was at an end. On the Ural Mountains lay 

 the last glow of midnight. Everyone left the tent, the faces of the 

 Russians showing the same credulity as those of the Ostiaks and 

 Samoyedes. But we invited the shaman to accompany us to our 

 boat, loosened his tongue and that of his disciple with brandy, and 

 plied him with all manner of cross- questions, some of them of the 

 subtlest kind. He answered them all, without exception, without 

 ever getting into a difficulty, without hesitation, without even 

 reflection; he answered them full of conviction, and convincingly, 

 clearly, definitely, tersely, and to the point, so that we recognized 

 more clearly than before the extreme craftiness of the man with 

 whom we had to deal. 



He described to us how, even in his boyhood, the spirit had 

 come upon him and had tortured him till he became the disciple 

 of a shaman; how he had become more and more intimate with 

 Yamaul, the messenger of the gods, who appears to him as a friendly 

 man, riding on a swift horse, and carrying a staff in his hand; how 

 Yamaul hastened to his help, and even, if need were, called down 

 aid from heaven when he, the shaman, was struggling with evil 

 spirits often for several days at a time; how the messenger of the 

 gods must always communicate the message to him just- as he 

 received it, for that otherwise he felt every drum-beat as a painful 

 stroke; how Yamaul, even to-day, though visible to him only, sat 



