Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/65

Rh of the Palaeo-Siberians have narrow egotistical aims, the heroes of the Neo-Siberians are of a nature as much nobler as the environment of the natives. The tales concerning animals are very similar to fables.

Family shamanism is more important among Palaeo-Siberians than professional shamanism. In fact the latter is but slightly developed, since the environment does not encourage social aggregation. Among Koryaks and Khamchadales there is scarcely any social organisation apart from the family. Among the Chukchis and Yukaghirs clan organisation is in its infancy. With such social conditions it is not surprising that the shaman is merely the head of the family. On the contrary, among the Neo-Siberians professional shamans are not only more important but almost the only ones, as the function of the head of the family is quite separate.

Among Palaeo-Siberians lack of light and of suitable materials results in a poor shamanistic apparatus. The shamanistic coat and cap which play such a large part among the Neo-Siberians are here not required, as the ceremonies are mostly performed in the dark and close underground houses.

Those tribes, the Yakuts and Gilyaks, who ethnologically fall into a different group from that to which they at present geographically belong, present to us a curious mixture of the old religious and social conceptions and those they have acquired in the new environment. The Gilyaks, originally a more Nordic tribe, migrated southwards, especially in the island of Sakhalin, and there they adopted in their shamanistic ceremonials, dress, and beliefs