Government.—The family is the foundation of the state government, which is patriarchal among the more uncivilized and despotic among the more elevated tribes. The paternal power of the ruler is unlimited, because the king stood nearer to the gods, and therefore became des potic. Considering this, the servility prevalent appears in a milder light: this also explains the slight worth of the common man in comparison with the higher classes, as well as the strict division of castes, which we find here as in the East.
Id weapons that Marco Polo found among the Mongolians were bows and arrows, iron clubs, lances, and armor of ox-hides, which when dried at the fire become very hard. They use bows and arrows even at the present time, as Figure 5 (p1. 72) shows; notice also the cover half drawn over the bow. There are swords too, richly orna mented (p1. 71, Jig. 2; fil. 72, jig. 5). At present firearms are becom ing more and more used (p1. fig. I). The Turcoman (p1. 72, fie. 5), like the Bashkir (p1. 70, fig. 1, at the left), holds his riding whip in his right hand. They have military discipline and an art of war, to which they owe their historic significance. Their peculiarities, however, are disappearing before the increasing influence of Russia.
Refigion.—Many of these peoples—Turks, Kirgheez, West Siberian races, etc.—have adopted the Mohammedan religion; others—as the Mon golians, Buriats, and Buddhists; and still others—as the Vakoots and other Siberian races—profess the Greek Catholic faith, just as all people of Mongolian descent living in Europe, except the Moham medans, are Christians. But many in Asia have retained, even under cover of modern religions, their original heathenism, which we will now briefly consider.
It is interesting to see how it corresponds with the Sinto of the Japanese and with the old Chinese religion. All worship one special, powerful god of heaven ( Jumala among the Finns; Nun] among the Samoieds; Tengri among the Mongolians; Buga among the Turnm among the Ostyaks), as well as other chief gods, the sun, the moon, the earth (whose masculine deity was, according to Castren, the Wainamoinen of the Finns), and the sea—the sun, as the most important, generally being identified with the god of heaven. Fire is worshipped as an earthly out flow of the sun's fire.
There are various other gods and evil powers, who live in dark forests or as death-gods in the interior of the earth. Some races, as the Ostyaks and heathen Yakoots, honor female as well as male gods. The souls of the departed become good or evil spirits, and are believed to haunt places like ghosts. Rewards and punishments are looked for after death. There are also multitudes of ghosts and genii; many are concealed in the form of annuals, particularly of bears; others in trees, rocks, etc.; and there
are numerous guardian spirits. Many of the gods of earlier times have become personified in the myths, as is the case with Wainamoinen. Idols are often seen, yet honor is not paid to them, but to the gods who have come down to and dwell in them. Trees are honored, being holy for the same reason. The images, often very rude figures, and sometimes merely a stake or pile, are placed under trees in holy groves or are kept at home in special baskets, or they have their own yurts, in which they follow the caravan when marching.
The highest gods, like Jumala, and also the protecting spirits and the souls of ancestors, have representations made of them. Many sacrifices are offered both in the family and publicly, as seen on Plate 73 (Jig. 8), which represents the memorial of a great sacrifice by the Calmucks of the Volga after a pestilence among horses. The skulls of the horses are artistically piled and surrounded by a ditch. These tribes also pray to 1.-18 the gods, and only the most ignorant believe that a spiritual communi cation between gods and men requires external ceremonies (Castren). Therefore, with these lowest classes the priests and the shamans, who mediate between gods and men, occupy a high rank. Women sometimes serve as shamans. The priests address the highest gods only in particular cases; generally the lower ones are solicited, as being sufficiently power ful. When communing with the gods the shamans are thrown into a condition of ecstasy accompanied with wild motions and gestures.
The clothes of the priests are much ornamented (pl. 69, fig. I t), often with pictures or with the feathers and skin of animals sacred to the gods. They prophesy, perform miracles, and heal diseases, which latter are believed to be the work of the evil spirits. They are by no means always deceivers. However repulsive Shamanism may seem to be or really is— the shamans of the old Mongolians ate human flesh in order to bring on the ecstatic condition, and similar traces of anthropophagism are found among the Ural-Japanese—in the beginning it rested on worthy and relig ions conceptions (see p. 63).
Burials.—The dead are sometimes buried on high mountains, like the Mongolian princes, or hung up in a box between two trees in the forest, as among the Yakoots, but generally they are buried in the usual way. Such articles as are deemed necessary for the future life are either laid upon or put into the grave, and the image of the deceased is carefully made (as, e. g., among the Ostyaks) and honored for years. Such images in wood or stone are often set up on the graves (pl. 69, fig. 9). The Mohammedan Tartars build mortuary chapels, often in a tasteful style; such a building is seen, in a somewhat ruinous condition, ou Plate 73 (fig. 3, on the right in the background).