SHAMANISM, shiemon-lz'm (Pers. sha Ma n, idolater). The name applied to the religion of certain Ural-Altaic peoples, as Finns, Hunga rians, Turks, Mongolians, and Tunguses. but chief ly those of Northwestern Asia. At present, Sha manism is hest represented by the practices of the Tunguses. According to them there are Hu ee spiritual realms, heavenly, earthly, and subter ranean. The earthly realm is on the surface of the earth; the other two consist of stories above and below the earth's surface. The good spirits live above or on the earth; the evil, below (within) it. The upper world of light is corn posed of seventeen such stories or heavens; the lower world of darkness, of seven (or nine) hells. Above live the greatest lords, karts, gods, good spirits, and blessed ghosts; below, devils, demons, kobolds, goblins, gnomes, swan-maidens, and the damned. These were the first creations. The world was created by Kaira Kan, the highest god. The first man had evil designs and conse quently lost his ethereal nature. but Kaira, out of compassion, created earth for him, till his continued impiety caused him to be banished into the darkness. This man was Erlik, who became the lord of hell. But Kaira made other men to live on the earth, thus creating the nine an cestors of the nine races of men. Erlik, however, misled them, so that Kaira resolved to leave men to themselves hereafter; hut the god again con demned Erlik to live in the under world, while he made for himself the upper world of seventeen heavens. Seeing this. Erlik made a last effort to he as great as Kaira, and also created a heaven: but Kaira shattered it and this time thrust Erlik down to live forever in the next to the lowest world of darkness, ascending himself to his permanent abode in the seventeenth heaven. From Kaira came as emanations the. three highest gods. Bai trelgiin, who lives in the sixteenth heaven, Kysagan, in the ninth heaven, and Mergen, in the seventh heaven, where also lives the mother sun, while the father moon lives in the sixth heaven. The demiurge creator dwells in the fifth heaven, and Bai Uelgiin's two sons in the third heaven. Here• in the third heaven, is the spring of all life, 'the sea of milk.' the mountain of the gods, and the para dise to which go the souls of the virtuous and the blessed.
Beneath this realm is that of Jersu, earth it self, conceived as an animate spiritual crea tion. There are seventeen lords of Jersu, each like a god. One is the lord of the Seventeen Seas; another, the highest, is Jo Kan, who in habits the navel of earth and has power equal to that of the gods of heaven; and a third is the national god Altai Kan.
All the gods and demi-gods of heaven and earth are favorable to man and do him no harm; but only the Jersu Kane may be approached directly by common men. The spirits of the up per world and of the under world must be ap proached through the mediatory spirits of the dead; in the case of good gods through the Soino, that 'is, the nine guardian ancestors of man. But, again, only certain families of men now living can control the Sono and other Manes. The power to move the spirits is inherent in cer tam families. This power manifests itself by ecstasy, and by inspiration shown in trembling, sweating contortions, ravings, and fits. When thus inspired, one can act as mediator between men and the spirits, and he who does this is a wizard and a Shaman or Kam, his function being called kamlanie. The Shaman seems to mediate with the Manes and the latter with the spirits, but in reality the Shaman is infused with Manes and so possessed by them that all he does at a sacrifice or in prophesying is really done by the ancestor who is in possession of the Shaman's soul.
The evil ones in Erilk's realm occupy various hells, and below his own hell is that of the damned, the lowest of all, Kasyrgan by name, in which the victims are boiled in a pot out of which they can come according to their virtue or by the help of the good spirits. Erlik is the foe of man, but he is called Father Frill:, "because all men belong to him and at the cud he takes the lives of all." Fo• Erlik is the cause of death, as he is of sickness, malformation, poverty, and all other misfortunes. Hence. men honor Erlik first of all, call him father and guide, and make him rich offerings, for although the spirits of light are more powerful than those of darkness, they require little attention. When a human be ing is horn, a good spirit is sent down by Bai l'elgitn to supply it with life from the sea of milk and ever after to keep watch at its right hand. guiding it aright. But simultaneously Erlik sends a devil from below to stand at the man's left hand and mislead him. After death the soul goes to Erlik, who judges it. If its virtues pre dominate Erlik has no power over it, it goes to the third heaven: but if its evil is greater than its good, it is damned and dropped in the boiling hell below. Yet human virtue is not enough to save a soul, for all spirits are envious and desire a man's goods, and it is safest to satisfy both kinds of spirits with, gifts. To keep on good terms with these a Shaman is requisite, whose of fice is to sacrifice, give oracles, and purify a house from the spirits of the dead. Consult Rad loff, Aus Sibirien (2d ed., Leipzig, 1893).