blance between the Tibetan and Iranian customs of exposing corpses. Both leave the body to be devoured by dogs and vultures; to the Tibetans, it is of the utmost importance that the body should be transformed into a skeleton as quickly as possible. The Iranians put the bones in the astodan, the "place of bones," where they
await resurrection.° We may consider this custom a survival of pastoral spirituality.
In the magical folklore of India certain saints and yogins are believed to be able to raise the dead from their bones or ashes; Gorakhnath does so,9' for example, and it is worth noting at this point that this famous magician is regarded as the founder of a
87 Ez. 37:1-8 ff. See also the Book of the Dead, ch. cxxv; in Egypt too, the bones were to be preserved for resurrection. Cf. Koran 2:259. In an Aztec legend mankind is born from bones brought from the nether region; cf. H. B. Alexander, Latin-American [Mythology], p. 90.
88 A. Griinwedel, Die Teufel des Avesta und ihre Beziehungen zur liana-
graphie des Buddhismus Zentral-Asiens, II, 68-69, fig. 62; A. Friedrich,
"Knochen und Skelett," p. 230.
89 Cf. "The Tibetan Mode of the Disposal of the Dead," pp. 1 f.; Fried- rich, p. 227. Cf. Tat, 13, 1 1 ; Bundahan, 220 (rebirth from the bones).
90 Cf. the house of bones in a Great Russian legend (Coxwell, Siberian and Other Folk-Tales, p. 682). It would be interesting, in the light of these
facts, to re-examine Iranian dualism, which, to express the opposite of
"spiritual," uses the term ultdna, "bony." In addition, as Friedrich remarks
(pp. 245 f.), the demon A§tOvidatu, which means "bone-breaker," is not
unrelated to the evil spirits that torment Yakut, Tungus, and Buryat shamans. 91 See, for example, George W. Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kttnphall Yogis, pp. 189, 190.
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Yogic-tantric sect, the Kanphata Yogis, among whom we shall find several other shamanic survivals. Finally, it will be enlighten- ing to cite certain Buddhistic meditations directed to obtaining a vision of the body becoming a skeleton; 92 the important role of human skulls and bones in Lamaism and tantrism; " the skeleton dance in Tibet and Mongolia; " the part played by the briihma- randhra (= sutura frontalis) in Tibetan-Indian ecstatic techniques
and in Lamaism; 95 and so on. All these rites and concepts seem to us to show that, despite their present incorporation into very diverse systems, the archaic traditions that find the vital principle in the bones have not completely disappeared from the Asian spiritual horizon.
But bone also plays other roles in shamanic myths and rites. Thus, for example, when the Vasyugan-Ostyak shaman sets out in search of the patient's soul, he travels to the other world in a boat made of a chest and uses a shoulder bone as oar." We should also cite in this connection divination by the shoulder bone of a ram or sheep, extensively practiced among the Kalmyk, the Kirgiz, the Mongols; by a seal's shoulder blade among the Koryak.97
92 Cf. A. M. Pozdneyev, Dhyana and Samddhi im mongolischen Lamaismus, pp. e4 f. On the "meditations on death" in Taoism, cf. Rousselle, "Die Typen der Meditation in China," especially pp. so ff.
93 Cf. Robert Bleichsteiner, L'Eglise jaune, p. 222; Friedrich, p. 211.
94 Bleichsteiner, p. 222; Friedrich, p. 225.
95 Eliade, Toga: Immortality and Freedom, pp. set ff., 419 f.; Friedrich, p. 236.
96 Karjalainen, Die Religion der Jugra-Volker, 11, 335.
97 The essential details have already been given by R. Andree, "Scapu- limantia." See also Friedrich, pp. 214 f.; add to his bibliography: G. L.
Kitiredge, Witchcraft in Old and New England, pp. 144, 462, n. 44. The
center of gravity for this technique of divination appears to be Central Asia (cf. B. Laufer, "Columbus and Cathay, and the Meaning of America to the Orientalist," p. 99); it was frequently used in protohistorical China from the Shang period (see H. G. Creel, The Birth of China, pp. 21 ff., 185 ff.). The same technique prevails among the Lobo; cf. L. Vannicelli, La religiose dei Lolo, p. 151. North American scapulimancy, which is confined to the tribes of Labrador and Quebec, is of Asian origin; cf. John M. Cooper, "Northern Algonkian Scrying and Scapulimancy," and Laufer, p. 99. See also
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v. Symbolism of the Shaman's Costume and Drum
Divination itself is a technique particularly adapted to actualizing the spiritual realities that are the basis of shamanism or to facili- tating contact with them. Here again the animal's bone symbolizes the mystery of life in continual regeneration and hence includes in itself, if only virtually, everything that pertains to the past and future of life.
We do not believe that we have strayed too far from our subject—the skeleton represented by the shamanic costume—in citing all these practices and concepts. Nearly all of them belong to similar or homologizable levels of culture, and, by enumerating them, we have indicated certain datum points in the vast field of the culture of hunters and herders. Let us make it clear, however, that all these vestiges do not equally denote a "shamanic" struc- ture. And let us add that, in regard to the parallels established among certain Tibetan, Mongol, North Asian, and even Arctic customs, it is necessary to take into consideration influences from South Asia and especially from India. To these we shall have to return.
Shamanic Masks
It will be remembered that among the objects possessed by the Buryat shaman, Nil, the Archbishop of Yaroslavl, listed a mon- strous mask.98 In our day its use has disappeared among the Buryat. In fact, shamanic masks occur rather infrequently in Siberia and North Asia. Shirokogoroff cites a single case in which a Tungus shaman had improvised a mask "to show that the spirit of malu
is in him." " Among the Chukchee, Koryak, Kamchadal, Yukagir, and Yakut the mask plays no part in shamanism; rather, it is used, sporadically, to frighten children (as among the Chukchee)
H. Hoffmann, Quellen zur Geschichte der tibetischen Bon-Religion, pp. 193 If; Leopold Schmidt, "Pelops and die Haselhexe," p. 72, n. 28; Fritz Boehm, "Spatulimantie," passim; F. Altheim, Geschichte der Hunnen, I, 268 ff.;
C. R. Bawden, "On the Practice of Scapulimancy among the Mongols." 98 See above, pp. 151 1. 9s Psychomental Complex, p. 152, n. 2.
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and, at funerals, to avoid recognition by the souls of the dead (Yukagir). Of the Eskimo peoples, it is principally among the Eskimo of Alaska, who have been strongly influenced by American Indian culture, that the shaman uses a mask.'"
In Asia the few attested cases come almost exclusively from southern tribes. Among the Black Tatars shamans sometimes use a birch-bark mask, with mustache and eyebrows made of squirrels' tails."' The same is true of the Tatars of Tomsk.'" In the Altai and among the Goldi, when the shaman leads the dead person's soul to the Kingdom of Shades, he daubs his face with suet in order not to be recognized by the spirits.'" The same custom is found elsewhere, and used for the same purpose, in the bear sacrifice.'" In this connection it would be well to remember that the custom of anointing the face with fat is fairly widespread among "primitives" and that its meaning is not always as simple as it seems. A disguise or defense against spirits is not always in question, but, rather, an elementary technique for magical participation in the world of spirits. So we find that, in many parts of the world, masks represent ancestors and their wearers are believed to incarnate these."' Daubing the face with fat is one of the simplest ways of masking oneself, that is, of incarnating the souls of the dead. Elsewhere masks are connected with men's secret societies and the cult of ancestors. Historico-cultural research considers that the complex made up of masks, ancestor cult, and initiatory secret societies belongs to the cultural cycle of matri-
i oo See Ohlmarks, pp. 65 f.
101 G. N. Potanin, Ocherki severo-zapadnoi Mongolii, IV, 54; Harva, Die religiosen Vorstellungen, p.
io2 D. Zelenin, "Ein erotischer Ritus in den Opferungen der altaischen Tuerken," pp. 84 f.
10,3 Radlov, Aus Sibirien, II, 55; Harva, Die religiosen Vorstellungen, p. 525.
104 Nioradze, Der Schamanismus, p. 77.
105 K. Meuli: "Maske"; Schweizer Masken, pp. 44 ff.; A. Slawik, "Kulti-
sche Geheimbilnde der Japaner and Germanen," pp. 717 1E; K. Rank; Indogermanische Totenverehrung, I, 117 ff.
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v. Symbolism of the Shaman's Costume and Drum
archy, secret societies being, according to this interpretation, a reaction against the domination of women."'
The rarity of shamanic masks should not surprise us. As Harva has rightly observed,107 the shaman's costume is itself a mask and
may be regarded as derived from a mask originally. An attempt has been made to prove the Oriental—and hence recent—origin of Siberian shamanism by citing, among other things, the fact that masks are more frequent in southern Asia and become increasingly rare and finally disappear in the Far North.1°8 We cannot here
enter upon a discussion of the "origin" of Siberian shamanism. Yet we may note that, in North Asian and Arctic shamanism, the costume and mask have been variously evaluated. In some places 109
the mask is believed to aid concentration. We have seen that the kerchief covering the shaman's eyes or even his whole face plays a similar role in certain instances. Sometimes, too, even if there is no mention of a mask properly speaking, an object of such a nature is present—for example, the furs and kerchiefs that, among the Goldi and the Soyot, almost cover the shaman's head.'"
For these reasons, and taking into consideration the various evaluations given them in the rituals and techniques of ecstasy, we may conclude that the mask plays the same role as the shaman's costume and the two elements can be considered interchangeable. For wherever it is used (and outside of the shamanic ideology properly speaking), the mask manifestly announces the incarnation
106 Cf., for example, Georges Montandon, Traite d'ethnologie culturelle, pp. 725 ff. See the reservations, for America, expressed by A. L. Kroeber
and Catharine Holt, "Masks and Moieties as a Culture Complex," and W. Schmidt's reply, "Die kulturhistorische Methode and die nordameri- kanische Ethnologie," pp. 553 ff.
107 Die religiosen Porstellungen, pp. 524 f.
108 Cf. A. Gahs in W. Schmidt, Der Ursprung, III, 536 If.; for the opposite opinion, Ohlmarks, pp. 65 f. See below, pp. 496 if.
109 For example, among the Samoyed (Castren, cited by Ohlmarks,
p. 67).
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of a mythical personage ( ancestor, mythical animal, god)." For its part, the costume transubstantiates the shaman, it trans- forms him, before all eyes, into a superhuman being. And this is equally true whether the predominant attribute that it seeks to display is the prestige of a dead man returned to life (skeleton) or
ability to fly (bird), or the condition of husband to a "celestial spouse" (women's dress, feminine attributes), and so forth.
The Shanzanic Drum
The drum has a role of the first importance in shamanic cere- monies.112 Its symbolism is complex, its magical functions many
and various. It is indispensable in conducting the shamanic séance, whether it carries the shaman to the "Center of the World," or enables him to fly through the air, or summons and "imprisons" the spirits, or, finally, if the drumming enables the shaman to concentrate and regain contact with the spiritual world through which he is preparing to travel.
It will be remembered that several initiatory dreams of future shamans included a mystical journey to the "Center of the World," to the seat of the Cosmic Tree and the Universal Lord. It is from a branch of this Tree, which the Lord causes to fall for the purpose,
On the masks of prehistoric magicians and their religious meaning, cf. J. Maringer, Yorgeschichtliche Religion: Religionen im Steinzeitlichen Eu- ropa, pp. 184 ff.
112 In addition to the bibliography given in n. 1, p. 145, see A. A. Popov, Seremonia ozhivlenia bubna u ostyak-samoyedov; J. Partanen, A Description of Buriat Shamanism, p. 20; W. Schmidt, Der Ursprung, IX, 258 ff., 696 IL ( Altaians, Abakan Tatars); XI, 306 f. ( Yakut), 541 ( Yeniseians); XII,
733-45 (synopsis); E. Emsheimer, "Schamanentrommel and Trommel- baum"; id., "Zur Ideologie der lappischen Zaubertrommel"; id., "Eine sibirische Parallele zur lappischen Zaubertrommel"; Ernst Manker, Die lappische Zaubertrommel. II: Die Trommel als Urkunde geistigen Lebens, especially pp. 61 ff.; H. Findeisen, Schamanentum, pp. 148-61; Uszlo Vajda, "Zur phaseologischen Staling des Schamanismus," p. 475, n. 3;
V. Dinszegi, "Die Typen and interethnischen Beziehungen der Schamanen- trommeln bei den Selkupen (Ostjak-Samojeden)"; E. Lot-Falck, "L'Anima- tion du tambour"; id., "A propos d'un tambour de chaman toungouse."
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v. Symbolism of the Shaman's Costume and Drum
that the shaman makes the shell of his drum.'13 The meaning of
this symbolism seems sufficiently apparent from the complex of which it is a part: communication between sky and earth by means of the World Tree, that is, by the Axis that passes through the "Center of the World." By the fact that the shell of his drum is derived from the actual wood of the Cosmic Tree, the shaman, through his drumming, is magically projected into the vicinity of the Tree;
he is projected to the "Center of the World," and thus can ascend to the sky.
Seen in this light, the drum can be assimilated to the shamanic tree with its notches, up which the shaman symbolically climbs to the sky. Climbing the birch or playing his drum, the shaman approaches the World Tree and then ascends it. The Siberian shamans also have their personal trees, which are simply repre- sentatives of the Cosmic Tree; some shamans also use "inverted trees," 114 that is, trees planted with their roots in the air, which, as is well known, are among the most archaic symbols of the World Tree. This whole series of facts, combined with the re- lations already noted between the shaman and the ceremonial birches, shows the intimate connection between the Cosmic Tree, the shaman's drum, and ascending to the sky.
Even the choice of the wood from which the shaman will make the shell of his drum depends entirely on the "spirits" or a transhuman will. The Ostyak-Samoyed shaman takes his ax and, closing his eyes, enters a forest and touches a tree at random; from this tree his comrades will take the wood for his drum on the following day."' At the other end of Siberia, among the Altaians, the spirits themselves tell the shaman of the forest and the exact spot where the tree grows, and he sends his assistants to find it
115 Cf. above, p. 42.
114 Cf. E. Kagarow, "Der umgekehrte Sehamanenbaum." See also
Holmberg: Der Baum des Lebens, pp. 17, 69, and elsewhere; Finno- Ugric [and] Siberian [Mythology:, pp. 549 ff.; R. Karsten, The Religion of the Sameh, p. 48; A. Coomaraswatny, "The Inverted Tree"; Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, pp. 294. W.
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and cut the wood for his drum from it."6 In other regions the shaman himself gathers up all the splinters. Elsewhere sacrifices are offered to the tree by daubing it with blood and vodka. The next step is "animating the drum" by sprinkling its shell with alcoholic spirits."' Among the Yakut it is considered best to choose a tree that has been struck by lightning."8 All these ritual customs and precautions clearly show that the concrete tree has been trans.. figured by the superhuman revelation, that it has ceased to be a profane tree and represents the actual World Tree.
The ceremony for "animating the drum" is of the highest interest. When the Altaic shaman sprinkles it with beer, the shell of the drum "comes to life" and, through the shaman, relates how the tree of which it was part grew in the forest, how it was cut, brought to the village, and so on. The shaman then sprinkles the skin of the drum and, "coming to life," it too narrates its past. Through the shaman's voice, the animal whose skin has been used for the drum tells of its birth, its parents, its childhood, and its whole life to the moment when it was brought dawn by the hunter. It ends by promising the shaman that it will perform many services for him. In one of the Altaic tribes, the Tubalares, the shaman imitates both the voice and behavior of the resuscitated animal.
As both L. P. Potapov and G. Buddruss 119 have shown, the
animal that the shaman "reanimates" is his alter ego, his most powerful helping spirit; when it enters the shaman he changes into the mythical theriomorphic ancestor. This makes it clearer why, during the "animation" rite, the shaman has to relate the life history of the drum-animal: he sings of his exemplary model, the primordial animal that is the origin of his tribe. In mythical times every member of the tribe could turn into an animal, that is,
116 Emsheimer, p. 168 (after L. P. Potapov and Menges, Materialien zur Volkskunde der ThrkvOlker der Altaj).
117 Ibid., p. 172.
118 W. Sieroszewski, "Du chamanisme d'apres les croyances des Ya-
koutes," p. sn.
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v. Symbolism of the Shaman's Costume and Drum
he was able to share in the condition of the ancestor. In our day such intimate relations with mythical ancestors are the prerogative only of shamans.
During the séance the shaman re-establishes, for himself alone, a situation that was once general. The deeper meaning of this recovery of the primordial human condition will become clearer after we have examined other examples. For the moment, it is enough to have shown that both the shell and the skin of the drum constitute magico-religious implements by virtue of which the shaman is able to undertake the ecstatic journey to the "Center of the World." In numerous traditions the mythical theriomorphic ancestor lives in the subterranean world, close to the root of the Cosmic Tree, whose top touches the sky."' Separate but related ideas are present here. On the one hand, by drumming, the shaman flies away to the Cosmic Tree; we shall see in a moment that the drum harbors a large number of ascensional symbols.12' On the other hand, by virtue of his mystical relations with the "reanimated" skin of the drum, the shaman is able to share in the nature of the theriomorphic ancestor; in other words, he can abolish time and re-establish the primordial condition of which the myths tell. In either case we are in the presence of a mystical experience that allows the shaman to transcend time and space. Both metamorphosis into the animal ancestor and the shaman's ascensional ecstasy represent different but homologizable expres- sions of one and the same experience—transcendence of the profane condition, reestablishmentof a "paradisal" existence lost in the depths of mythical time.
Usually the drum is oval in shape; its skin is of reindeer, elk, or horse hide. Among the Ostyak and the Samoyed of eastern Siberia, the outer surface bears no design.'22 According to J. G.
120 Friedrich, "Das Bewusstsein eines Naturvolkes von Haushalt and
Ursprung des Lebens," p. 52. lei Below, pp. 173 f.
122 Kai Donner, La Siberie, p. 230; Harva, Die religiosen Vorstellungen,
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173
Georgi,123 the Tungus drums are ornamented with representa- tions of birds, snakes, and other animals. Shirokogoroff thus de- scribes the representations that he saw on the drums of the Transbaikal Tungus: the symbol of terra ,firma (for the shaman
uses his drum as a boat to cross the sea, hence he indicates its