There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
10-09-2014, 11:33 PM( This post was last modified: 10-09-2014, 11:39 PM by peter )
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10 - SIBERIA'S INDIANS
The American Indians are descendants of the Indians of Siberia. Siberian Indians also spread west (to Russia and eastern Europe). They were the original Russians, Finns and Esthonians. Much later, the Muscuvits began " ... to send their own hordes back towards the rising sun. The east-bound pioneers were not nomad cattle herders ..., but gangs of cut-throat Cossacks. Throughout the 1600's these gangs came and went ... " (pp. 100-101).
As for the Siberian Indians: " ... The Siberian Indian does not aspire to acquire power by making as many other men as possible work for his aggrandizement. He is on the same terms with his fellows as you are with your own friends when you are camping in the woods ... " (pp. 101).
The last census (1897) " ... showed slightly under a million Siberian Indians, all told, and about five million persons of Russian birth or decent ... " (pp. 106).
One thing that struck Digby everywhere was the love of freedom and life of the prairie, river and forest: " ... They do not mind driving wagons, farming, lumbering, or so forth; but that they do on terms of equality with the whites. And there is an utter absence of the arrogance and contempt to which the North American Indian is treated ... " (pp. 107).
Siberian IndianS worship manifestations of nature, as expounded by their Shamans or witch-doctors. Worship " ... is the conventional word, but there is little, if any, adoration about religion in the Siberian forests ... " (pp. 107). As a result " ... they feel themselves perpetually surrounded and interfered with by invisible beings all their life. Whatever happens ... is due to direct supernatural intervention ... " (pp. 108).
Most of the races are dying out, " ... largely owing to accidents caused by over-indulgence in wodka, and to not having developed immunity to the contagious diseases brought by the white man. Veneral disease, too, claims a great number of victims; indeed it is quite rare to see an Indian who is not obviously suffering from some form of skin trouble ... " (pp. 108).
11 - SHAMANISM AND WITCH-DOCTORS
" ... The universe, to these roving children of forest and prairie, consists of a number of layers, or strata, separated by intermediate slices of space or matter. The seven upper layers constitute the kingdom of light and the seven lower layers constitute the kingdom of darkness. The surface of the earth is flat and lies between the two groups. The good spirits dwell above, the evil ones below. In the very highest layer, the seventh heaven, reigns the great Delguen Sagan. He is perfect, morally, and meddles very little in the base affairs of earth. Down in the nethermost pit lives Erlik Khan, the Black One.
The human race, in the philisophy of Shamanism, constitues the plaything of the spirits of dead men. The witch-doctor, being gifted with second sight, is aware of what is going on in the invisible world, and can pretty well always avert ... catastrophe, by appealing the evil spirits and by appealing, in extreme cases, to a benevolent bhurkan, for there are a whole hierarchy of lesser gods ... ": (pp. 118-119).
" ... The witch-doctors, as you may well understand, have their hands full with their task of acting as intermediaries and this array of invisible interferers with our destinies. They are queer folk, absent-minded in the material routine of life, always preoccupied with visions. They are frequently hypnotists of no little skill, blunting the acuteness of observation of their audience by monotonous chant and noisy reiteration of incovations, until it is very susceptible to mob suggestion, and then transfixing one person after another with glaring eyes that seem ... to jump out of their face. They are experts in performing numerous conjuring tricks that are accepted as supernatural magic. Often they are ventriloquists.
The witch-doctors do not hold regular services, or have churches or temples; nor do they wear a uniform. But on those special occasions they wear costumes that are remarkable as any of those of witch-doctors of New-Guinea or the Congo, and as they sway and dance and woRk themselves up into a frenzy they make 'music' with extraordinary instruments ... " (pp. 121-122).
Although whites were seldom allowed to watch a performance, Digby did. The description of what he saw in chapter 6, although mighty interesting, is, I think, not needed to understand the attitude of Siberian Indians.
It is, however, important to remember witch-doctors used both masks and a kind of drum to perform rituals. It is also important to remember that witch-doctoring, in those days, was not quite unknown in Germany and France (...). Finally, one needs to remember there was a strong connection between witch-doctors and animal sacrifices. Although human sacrifices were uncommon in Digby's day, some tribes, like the Samoyedes in northeast Siberia, still " ... kill off their old people and those incurably ill. The Samoyedes' very name means 'cannibals' ... " (pp. 159).