Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/66

54 certain features from the Neo-Siberians. This, however, could be explained by contact with the more cultured Tunguses, but, in the case of the Yakuts, a Turkic tribe whose original home is probably in the South near the Tarim, one cannot suppose that they have been influenced by the much lower culture of the Nordic tribes. It is much more probable, as Trostjanski suggests, that "with the change of habitation from the brighter south to the severe north, where the sun hides its light for some months of the year, the sky and sun ceased to be gods." One of the most curious complex ceremonials of the Yakuts is the kumiss festival. It originated in the land of the horse, and is only performed symbolically in the land of the reindeer, or else the custom and festivals associated with the use of kumiss quite disappear in the new land; thus environment changes the customs and modifies the beliefs.