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In this paper the shaman's transformations into an animal or a
bird by means of casbing spells and studied with a great
importance attached to the question by which means are these
transformations made visible and audible. The inspiration for the
research is got from the Nganasan foretelling spell in 1990(*1)
and that is why the work is that nganasan-centred. The comparative
material of the subject both of the nothern and the southern
regions of Siberia, and of some other regions of the world offers
a great deal of parallels. This indicates that the technical
skills of the ritual are widespread.
The shaman's transformation into the animal or the bird is
connected with his helping spirit and his guardian spirit. The
Buryat, for example, name the shaman's guardian spirit 'khubilgan',
which could be translated 'metamorphosis' (compare with the verb 'khubilkhu'
- 'to change oneself'', 'to take another shape' (Eliade 1974)).
The presence of the shaman's spirits is considered to be the most
essential requirement, as the spirits are that who give the shaman
all the information and practical aid on his ecstatic journeys.
Majority of the shaman's spirits, especially in Siberian
shamanism, have taken the shape of the animal or the bird (Hultkranz
1978). The Nganasan name their shaman's spirits d'a-mad'i (Kortt &
Simchenko 1985: d'amáda 'animal' or 'zoomorphic', ie. 'having a
throat'), despite of whether the spirit is zoomorphic or
anthropomorphic. Gracheva (Gracheva 1983) considers the term to be
the opposite of the term 'séjmid'a, which is translated by Kortt
and Simchenko as "having the eyes", and commented on as a synonym
both of a human being and of an animal.
Usually wild game, such as a bear, an elk, a seal, a wolf, a hare,
a deer etc. appear as the helping spirits. Among the domestic
animals a horse is known as the shaman's spirit for the Yakut, and
for the Ostyak and the Vogul who use the horse to go to the Heaven
(Karjalainen 1918). Among the ornitomorphic helping spirits a
goose and a diver are the most prevalent as being the good divers,
as well as a swan, an owl, a crow, and an eagle are widespread.
For the Lapps fish may appear as the helping spirits, and for the
Tungus people the helping spirits may appear in the shape of
snakes.
Usually the shaman's helping spirit makes an animal or a bird
without any special characteristic features or originality. The
contrary examples are given by the Netsilik Eskimo's comparatively
extravagant spirits, where the zoomorphic spirits have it's
originality. For example, a very big grampus (Arlu); a black
earless dog (Kunnararjuq); a giant bear that especially loves
human flesh (Naroluk), and some others (Balicki 1970).
There are three different ways of zoomorphic and ornitomorphic
transformation in Siberian shamanism. They are: objective
transformations, soundic transformations, and expressive
transformations.
The whole shaman's equipment beginning from the costume to finish
with the smallest details of it symbolizes a certain animator a
bird. The Nganasan shaman's costume symbolizes an elk. It is sewn
of elk hide with a metal figure of a hartshorn on it's back. The
Nganasan instepless boots remind of elk feet. Majority of the
pendants fastened to the costume represent some shaman's spirits.
Gracheva describes the two bear figures on the Nganasan shaman's
costume as symbolizing a she-bear and a he-bear. According to the
shaman's explanations, he can team the bears to a sledge, and they
take him wherever he wants, and "with that quickly that nothing
could be seen but the wind is whistling in the ears". In addition
to the bear figures, there are six goose's head figures , and
three bird tails. The goose's head figures are needed to move
through the air to the upper world. The bird tails help the shaman
to dive. The shaman has to dive when healing people, as the
Nganasan consider water to be the location of sick spirits. They
say that the sick people's spirits are held there. When the shaman
finds out the wanted spirit, he seats it on the bird tail, and
fastens it to the tail with a chain for it didn't get lost on the
way back, and returns it to the sick person.
Whereas the shaman's costume as the whole symbolizes the elk, the
fringed sleeves of the costume symbolize the bird wings. Gracheva
describes a case that the shaman clasp the patient, and spreads
the leather fringe, sewn to his sleeves, over the patient.
According to the shaman's comments, he defends the sick person
from sick spirits like a bird protects its pinfeathered youngs (Gracheva
1978).
In Siberian peoples' shamanism a drum symbolizes a draught animal,
mainly an elk. Zhornitskaya describes a ride on the drum when the
shaman bestrides the drum and bumps himself as when riding the
elk. Such practice is spread among Ostyak-Samoyedic shamans and
Evenk shamans. Although the Nganasan are not familiar with the
practice of riding on elk, still the drum is the symbol of the elk
for them. According to Dolgih's data the Nganasan shaman Kherepte(?)
imitated the elk by means of the drum scraping the ground with the
drumbuttons(*2) like the elk scrapes the ground with its forelegs
(Dolgikh 1978) (*3).
The zoomorphic transformations described above are expressive
rather than objective. By expressive transformation we mean
imitating of the movements of animals or birds. These
transformations could be rhytmless movements, such as the turn of
the body, the wave of the hand etc., pantomimes, or dances.
Actually, one can't draw the line between the pantomime and the
dance. In some researchers the difference is made on the ground of
eirher it is a mere imitating of someone, or some meaningless
rhytmical movements are added. The Eskimo's pantomimes imitating
the shaman's zoomorphic spirits are distinguished from their
ceremonial dances, for example (Driver 1970).
In most cases the imitating of animals is classified as a dance.
Zhornitskaya differentiates two subdivisions of a ritual dance,
such as imitating ritual dances and ecstatic ritual dances. In
case of the imitating ritual dance, there is the transformation
into zoomorphic spirits into which the shaman changes himself on
his journey. The ecstatic ritual dance is to help the shaman to
reach ecstasy. Both these subdivisions are improvisatory, and
consist of the widely spread imitating movements without any
certain succession. They are considered to be dances because the
movements are always carried out with a certain rhythm (Zhornitskaya
1992).
The imitating of behaviour and uttering sounds of animals and
birds is a widespread and extremely old practice, as the
information of it appears in the travel books written several
centuries ago. The earliest data about the Samoyed, the Ostyak,
and the Vogul peoples' imitating practices date back to the 18th
century (Romenskaya 1986). In the diary of his travels to Siberia
in the 1840s Middendorff gives a detailed description of the
samoyed roundelay in which the bear movements are imitated, and it
is accompanied by grunting coughing, which is obviously the
uttering sound of the bear (Middendorff 1987). Thus the practice
shouldn't be looked at as a part of shamanism only, but it is also
a part of social entertainment. Both in case of the practice being
a social entertainment, and in case of the practice being a
shamanistic ritual, the imitating of the movements of animals or
birds is accompanied by the imitating of the uttering sounds of
animals or birds.
The imitating of the uttering sounds of animals or birds can be
either natural or symbolic. In case of natural imitations some one
uttering sound, such as a whistle, a cry, a howl, etc. is imitated
as alike to the real uttering sound as possible. The natural
imitations have of practical importance above all. They are used
to decoy the animals, whereas the human voice timbre is completely
concealed. The uttering sounds of birds can be imitated by means
of different whistling techniques, and by means of decoy whistle.
In case of the sounding imitations produced by the human voice the
usual vocal-phonetic intonation is not used. The uttering sound of
birds are imitated by means of a falsetto. The uttering sounds of
animals are produced by means of a nose-throat articulation based
on one respiratory cycle, which enables to provide hoarses,
grunts, roars, etc (Sheikin 1983; Sheikin 1984; Kim & Sheikin
1986).
The symbolicimitations of uttering sounds are based on the real
uttering sounds of animals or birds, whereas the intonation is
transformed by man. The result of it is a note pattern which
expresses the main characteristic features of the source signal.
Less complicated imitations, such as the cuckoo's calling etc.,
are closer to the source sound, and both the rhythm and the
pitches of the signal are quite original. More complicated
imitations are man's creation rather than the uttering sounds of
birds. To confirm the above-mentioned there is the song of the
great northern diver (sample
1) which differs from the source signal in its substantially
slower movement, and also in its varied melody arrangement
(compare with the
sample 8 where there is the pattern of the uttering sounds of
the diver in the shaman's ritual). The using of the falsetto and
the syllabled text imitating "the bird's language" emphasize that
this concerns the uttering sounds of birds.
The sounding imitations by which the shaman expresses his
transformations into the animal or the bird, are substantially
closer to the source sounds than the song of the great northern
diver mentioned above.
Next, a brief survey of Djulsymjaku Kosterkin's foretelling spell
is given. The three travel episodes of the spell contain a great
deal of expressive and sounding imitations. The purpose of the
spell was to find out how many years would the shaman's patient
live. Majority of the spell was carried out singing. The practice
lasted 3 hours and 50 minutes, and only 40 minutes of it were
occupied by talk.
All the melodies performed during the spell belong to the shaman's
helping spirits and guardian spirits. These melodies could be
considered to be the personal melodies, as they are named after
the spirits' names. In the present time the Nganasan don't
associate the genesis of songs with the spirits. The songs are
considered to be created by the shamans themselves. The melodies
created by the shamans don't have any feature characteristic of
that particular genre as compared to the nganasan melodies in
general. Although the majority of these melodies belong to the
zoomorphic spirits not one of them personates a melodic
characteristic of a particular animal or bird.
The same melody may have different functions during the practice.
In the exposition of the show the melodies act as call signs, i.e.
the singing of these melodies is expected to fetch their owners.
According to the nganasan shamanistic ritual, the call signs are
syllabilized in a nonsensical way. Some peoples, such as the
Ostyak, have the instrumental call signs which are performed on
string instruments named either "nars-juh", or "panan-juh"
Alekseyenko, 1988).
Having taken the advices of the fetched spirits the shaman starts
his hypothetical journey. The travel episodes are those where the
shaman transforms himself into a bird or an animal depending on
where he happens to go.
Djulsymjaku's 1st travel episode is accompanied by the song in the
melody of the song of na-rka 'ne-me (the song of the she-bear),
which works as the travel song tara-rsa ba-'le (compare with the
verb taru-d'a 'to start moving').
The nganasan shamans cast spells in the sitting position. Standing
up is the sign that the journey is going to begin. In the 1st
travel episode the shaman imitates the elk. The expressive
transformation starts with the walk on the spot, that is
accompanied by the bows (i.e. the shaman in the shape of the elk
tries to find the right path), and by the nods of the head. Next,
he turns a semicircular to the sunwise (i.e. like the Heaven
revolves), and imitates the grunts of the elk (sample
2). During the journey the shaman's assistant holds the chain
fastened to the back of the shaman's costume (as if people held
the chain for nobody didn't miss or get lost. The shaman is the
chief elk, that is followed by all the others) (*4). Next, the
shaman imitates the flight of the swan and the uttering sounds of
the swan (sample 3).
The whole episode is accompanied by the melody of ka-d'a ko-'pta
(i.e. the thundermaid's melody) which doesn't belong to any
particular ornitomorphic or teriomorphic helping spirit.
Djulsymjaku explains that this melody is chosen because "the
clouds are like the birds, as they also travel".
After the travel episode the shaman sits down and starts telling
the stories about what he has seen on his journey, and at the same
time the spirits repose who helped the shaman on his journey.
In the 2nd travel episode the shaman imitates the bear. The
finding of the right path is carried out in the sitting position.
The shaman casts an investigating glance to the right and to the
left, next he shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. Then he
rises to his feet and moves slowly to the sun-wise. His movement
is accompanied by the recitative a-nt'ina ma-nt'ina ĺ-ku ai. These
are the meaningless words, or the shaman's words as the comment
says. However, the nganasan bear dance is accompanied by these
words. The recitative syllable text alternates with the imitations
of the grunts of the bear (the ritual episode:
sample 4; the
dance: sample 5).
After the bear dance the shaman starts imitating the elk. The walk
on the spot becomes more energetic, and finally becomes the run on
the spot. The crooked arms move from front to back like when
increasing the speed. These movements are accompanied by the
imitating of the coughs of the elk (waf-waf). The walk becomes
slower and unrhytmical. The shaman in the shape of the elk bows
and imitates sniffing.
In the following episode the shaman says that he walked along the
crooked path, and that he needs flyers, i.e. the birds as the
helping spirits who could lead the way when he happens to lose it.
Before starting for his 3rd journey the shaman makes it sure
whether he is on the right path or not. It takes place by means of
a song which goes like this:
We lived with the wild elks
There was fish enough
The clothes were made of elk hide
I am no more the master of the elks.
The spirits answer by the mouth of the shaman's assistant:
You are correct
You are on the right path
Go forward.
Next there is the most long-lasting and the most emotional journey
which starts with the finding of the right path like the previous
episodes did. It goes like this: the shaman bows and straightens
his back, and looks around searching with his his arm concealing
the eyes. Then he beckons forward with his arm whereas his look is
irresolute; next he retreats; then he picks his steps forward
again. His movements are unrhytmical, and the practice resembles a
pantomime. Then he stops short and hits the ornament worn round
his neck (it is the figure of the helping spirit) with the
drumstick for he had been shown the way. Then he gives the drum to
the assistant and goes down on one knee, rocking his body to and
fro; then he stretches his arms out with the palms upward, and
starts beckoning.
The practice is accompanied by the song with the following
content:
The path that we rode along before is covered with snow. The
path was visible as the elk teams rode along it. Now I can no more
find the path as I can see very little. Now there are the roads
for tractors and snowmobiles. Now I am in the closed house(*5). If
I were in the tent, perhaps it would be easier to find my way.
Here I can see nothing. I can but nose my way out. The shamanistic
path is completely invisible, as the place is unknown. Some
spirits tell me "to be careful; not to stand up! not to fall into
the evil spirits' hands; not to hurry; when you hurry, it will
drain you. You would walk slower for you could bring your children
up to maturity. The evil spirits look out of the Earth. If you
hurry, you can't see them, but they have to be driven away.
When singing the shaman rocks himself unrhytmically. His gestures
are hesitant and his glances back are anxious.
Next the shaman sings that he is a bear (to the melody of the song
'na rka ne me, sample
6) and he imitates the roaring of the bear (to drive away the
evil spirits).
Then the shaman in the shape of the bear becomes the shaman in the
shape of the goose, and its flight is expressed by the imitating
of flaps of the wings, by the sudden lifts of the heels, and by
making circles by the hips. The expressive imitations are
accompanied by the sounding imitations of the goose. These
practices are accompanied by the tinkle of the ornaments fastened
to the shaman's costume (sample
7). Suddenly the goose changes its manner of flying. The
shaman moves his stiff arms up and down, and in doing this he
makes sudden jolts with his wrists. Then the goose becomes the
bear again, and the roars of the bear and the shamanistic words
are uttered alternately. The journey is continued along the road.
While the movements of the birds and the animals are imitated only
in travel episodes, the sounding imitations appear in some other
kinds of episodes, too. For example, Djulsymjaku imitates the
uttering sounds of a great northern diver (sample
8) in the song that comes after the call signs. The song says
that all the spirits of importance are present, and the
foretelling may begin. The song is to the melody of the song of
the great northern diver (the song of o-tare,
sample 6).
For some peoples the sounding imitations act as the call signs. In
case of the Orotsh funeral feasts of the bear, the killed bear is
brought up to the house where the majority of the feast is carried
out. Inside the house the roaring of the bear is imitated, meaning
that the bear is expected to come in (Sheikin 1986). The Nganasan
don't use the sounding imitations as call signs. After the show
the shaman has to gather all the helping spirits together, and
"put them to sleep". Djulsymjaku comments on it: "The Heaven is
foursquare, like a sheet of paper is. These four corners are like
the four quarters of the horizon. The spirits will sleep under the
sheet of paper. You must not wake them up until the next spell."
The spirits are called together by means of the following calls:
Dis
ko-u ko-u ko-u ko-u
In most cases the calls like that appear in the spell, as it is
seen in sample 9,
which is a fragment of Tubjaku Kosterkin's spell in 1989(*7). When
the shaman's assistant gives the call signs to the spirits, the
rest of the people participating in the ritual have to support him
by calls, for the spirits reacted to them quicker. Such practice
is spread among the samoyed peoples living in the northern areas.
Eis
E
E
o-uok o-uk o-uk
Ges
F
u-ok u-ok u-ok u-ok
These calls come from the "vocabulary" of the reindeer breeders.
They use the calls like that or similar to that to call the herd
of reindeer together. When the reindeers cross the river the
Nganasan support them by the calls "he-hei-heh!" (sample
10). In case of a spell the shaman uses these calls to make
his hypothetic draught animal move quicker (sample
11). Here it follows that the shaman communicates with his
zoomorphic helping spirits like people communicate with the real
animals.
The calls used by the reindeer breeders are rather melodic,
especially the call "he-hei". The Nganasan consider the calls to
be "the music created by Man to make the reindeers cross the river
quicker, and to prevent them from cold in the cold water."
The movements by which the shaman expresses his transformations
are widespread among Siberian peoples, i.e. the different peoples
imitate the same objects in the same way. For example, flying of a
bird is imitated by moving the arms extended sideways up and down;
and the ride on a draught animal is imitated by bumping himself as
when riding a real animal.
There are regional differences in sounding imitations but the
practice itself is spread all over Siberia. The Ostyak are the
exception of it, as they have the songs that represent some animal
or bird, but they lack the practice of sounding imitations because
they consider it making fools of the birds or the animals.
However, the Vogul are familiar with the practice of sounding
imitations. Rombandejeva describes the episode of the funeral
feast of the bear where the spirit in the shape of the bear named
Jalius ojka appears and he makes a circle to the sunwise, and
spits every now and then like the bear. Rombandejeva also mentions
a human being imitating a sea gull by means of moving his arms
extended sideways up and down, like the sea gull flaps its wings,
and utters the following sounds: "tjar-tjar-tjar" (Rombandejeva
1993).
Eliade considers the sounding imitations as a code that the shaman
uses to communicate with the spirits. In several Indian tribes
both in North America and South America it is compulsory for the
shamans to acquire the imitating skills during the initiation
period. According to Eliade's data the Lapps, the Chukchi, the
Yakut, and the Tungus practiced the code. He objects against the
Sienkewicz-Gudkova's statement when saying that the Ostyak also
practiced the code (Eliade 1974). It is self-evident that the code
is not used beyond the rituals. The taboos forbid the Orotsh to
provide some naturalistic sounding imitations (Kim & Sheikin
1986). It is a practical taboo rather than theoretical as the
Siberian peoples consider the sounding imitations to be the genre
of music that precedes to the song, and they are practiced not
only by the shamans but also by other people.
The genres of epic also contain the sounding imitations of animals
and birds. It can be exemplified by the fragment of the nganasan
song si tabi (i.e. the heroic song) where the singer imitates the
uttering sounds of an owl and the flaps of its wings that is
marked under the staff. The uttering sounds of birds are imitated
in children's plays, too.
On the one hand the sounding imitations can be considered to be
entertainment, that get their subject from everyday life. On the
other hand in some languages the words "magic" and "song"
(especially "bird song") are marked by the same word. In Germanic
languages the word "magic" is marked by the word "galdr" which
comes from the verb galan 'to sing ', especially 'to sing a bird
song' (Eliade 1974).
In Nganasan epic a mythical hero is able to understand the
sounding imitations of animals and birds, and to act in the way
the animals or the birds do (to fly, for example). Both in the old
heroic songs and in shamanism Man can have animals and be
identified with animals simultaneously. The general idea of the
shaman's journey is perhaps the imaginary return to the period of
time when the men and the animals were the same?
Commentaries
1. The video signal recording of the ritual is in the collection
of the Estonian Literary Museum named after F.R.Kreutzwald.
2. The drumbuttons, or the drumknobs are the parts of the
instrument which have an acoustic purpose. They produce an empty
space between the drumskin and the frame of the drum which acts as
a resonator, as it can be seen in the following figure.
3. In addition to the drum being a draught animal, there are some
other objects which can be expressed by means of the drum in
Siberian shamanism. For example, it may symbolize a boat, a cloud,
etc, but for certain the drum symbolizes the object by means of
which one can move forward.
4. In the literature in the field of etnography the chain has
somewhat different purpose. It is fastened to the pole of the tent
for the shaman didn't fall into the fire.
5. Djulsymjaku Kosterkin performed the spell in the sound
recording studio of Novosibirsk Conservatoire.
6. xo:tare is a mythical name for the great northern diver (the
general name for the diver is nuo na). O:tare is the shaman
Demnime's (Djulsymjaku's father) helping spirit which is the
antropo-ornitomorphic spirit, i.e. the bird that, when coming out
of the water, takes the shape of the woman.
7. The video signal recording is made in the village named
Ust-Avam, and the recording is in the collection of the Estonian
Folklore Archives.
References
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1. The ritual dress coat and plastron of Even shaman; 2. The ritual
cloak of Yakut shaman; 3. The dress of Altai shaman;
4 & 5. Shamans in action, acting as a bird spirit
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