I 



THE SAMOiEDES. 181 



in the magic art. They either sit down, or walk about in a circle. The chief 

 sorcerer beats the drum, at first slowly, then with increasing violence, singing at 

 the same time a few words to a mystic melody. The disciple immediately falls' 

 in, and both repeat the same monotonous chant. 



At length the spirits appear, and the consultation is supposed to begin ; the 

 Tadibe from time to time remaining silent, as if hstening to their answers, and 

 but gently beating his drum, while the assistant continues to sing. Finally, this 

 mute conversation ceases, the song changes into a wild howling, the drum is 

 violently struck, the eye of the Tadibe glows *^\^ith a strange fire, foam issues 

 from his lips — when suddenly the uproar ceases, and the oracular sentence is 

 pronounced. The Tadibes are consulted not only for the purpose of recovering 

 a strange reindeer, or to preserve the herd from a contagious disorder, or to 

 obtain success in fishing ; the Samoiede, when a prey to illness, seeks no other 

 medical advice ; and the sorcerer's drum either scares away the malevolent 

 spirits that cause the malady, or summons others to the assistance of his patient. 



The office of Tadibe is generally hereditary, but individuals gifted by nature 

 with excitable nerves and an ardent imagination not seldom desire to be initia- 

 ted in these supernatural communications. No one can teach the candidate. 

 His morbid fancy is worked upon by solitude, the contemplation of the gloomy 

 aspect of nature, long vigils, fasts, the use of narcotics and stimulants, until he 

 becomes persuaded that he too has seen the apparitions which he has heard of 

 from his boyhood. He is then received as a Tadibe with many ceremonies, 

 which are held in the silence of the night, and invested with the magic drum. 

 Thus the Tadibe partly believes in the visions and fancies of his own overheated 

 brain. Besides dealing with the invisible world, he does not neglect the usual 

 arts of an expert conjuror, and knows by this means to increase his influence 

 over his simple-minded countrymen. One of his commonest tricks is similar to 

 that which has been practised with so much success by the Brothers Daven- 

 port. He sits down, with his hands and feet bound, on a reindeer skin stretched 

 out upon the floor, and, the light being removed, begins to summon the minis- 

 tering spirits to his aid. Strange unearthly noises now begin to be heard — 

 bears growl, snakes hiss, squirrels rustle about the hut. At length the tumult 

 ceases, the audience anxiously awaits the end of the spectacle, when suddenly 

 the Tadibe, freed from his bonds, steps into the hut — no one doubting that the 

 spirits have set him free. 



As barbarous as the poor wretches who submit to his guidance, the Tadibe 

 is incapable of improving their moral condition, and has no wish to do so. 

 Under various names — Schamans among the Tungusi, Angekoks among the 

 Esquimaux, medicine-men among the Crees and Chepewyans, etc. — we find sim- 

 ilar magicians or impostors assuming a spiritual dictatorship over all the Arc- 

 tic nations of the Old and the New World, wherever their authority has not 

 been broken by Christianity or Buddhism ; and this dreary faith still extends 

 its influence over at least half a million of souls, from the White Sea to the ex- 

 tremity of Asia, and from the Pacific to Hudson's Bay. 



Like the Ostiaks and other Siberian tribes, the Samo'iedes honor the memory 

 of the dead by sacrifices and other ceremonies. They believe that their de- 



