Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/139

Rh the earth in a caleche drawn by dappled grey horses to distribute blessings and wealth. But people were induced by Shaitan to murder him, and, the better to conceal the crime, they burnt the body, and scattered the ashes to the winds. Trees suddenly sprang up wherever the ashes fell, and the son of God came again to life, no longer as the personification of good, but in the form of countless spirits, inimical to mankind. These evil spirits are called Keremet. Vámbéry believes this word to be the Körmüs, Körümes, or Devil of the Altai Tatars, though Schiefner, on the other hand, thinks it a loan-word from the Persian Khormusd, O. Pers. Ahura Mazda, the personification of goodness. See § 16.

§ 13. The halls of offering were for the most part built of wood, in the form of a parallellogram, with three doors, one to the east, at which the sacrificial animals were brought in; another to the north, at which water was carried in; the third to the west for the people to enter by. Along the west wall was a curtain, behind which the sacrificial flesh was eaten. In the middle stood a very large table.

§ 14. Before an animal is slaughtered the Jomzya (the wise man, wizard) first pronounces the prayer of purification. Then it is doused with water till it begins to shiver. Should this not take place, the animal is unfit for sacrifice. When the meat has been cooked in kettles, it is cut up and divided among those present, but the head, feet, and hide are suspended to the trees, and the entrails are burnt.

§ 15. The Chuvash believe that the souls of the dead pass into the bodies of dogs, and when they hear the howling of the latter they imagine they are listening to the voices of the departed.

§ 16. Dr. Radloff, in ''Proben der Volkslitteratur der Turk. Stämme Sud Sibiriens'', pp. 175-184, gives a long Altai legend of the creation of the world. The following is a summary of its contents:

Before the earth and sky were made there was nothing but water. God and a man flew about as black geese. God told the man to go to the bottom of the sea and bring up some earth. God made land