Siberia

Siberia is a vast territory of northern Asia, part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly the U.S.S.R.). It is bounded by the Urals on the west, by Kazakhstan, China, and North Korea on the south, by the Pacific on the east, and by the Arctic on the north.

In former times, most of the tribal cultures of Siberia practiced the art of sorcery through the expertise of the shaman. The definitive characteristic of the shaman, as opposed to other tribal ritual leaders, was the ability to go into trance and travel in the spirit world.

The Samoyeds of Siberia believed in the existence of an order of invisible spirits called tadebtsois. These were ever circling through the atmosphere and were a constant menace to the people, who were anxious to propitiate them. This propitiation could only be effected through the intervention of a tadibe, or necromancer, who, when his services were requisitioned, attired himself in a magic costume of reindeer leather trimmed with red cloth, a mask of red cloth, and a breastplate of polished metal. He then took a drum of reindeer skin ornamented with brass rings and, attended by an assistant, walked in a circle and invoked the spirits while shaking a large rattle. The practice was very similar to that found among the Lapps in Lapland.

As the noise grew louder the spirits were supposed to draw near the sorcerer, who addressed them, beating his drum more gently and pausing in his chant to listen to their answers. Gradually he worked himself into a condition of frenzy, beat the drum with great violence, and appeared to be possessed by the spirit's influence, writhing and foaming at the mouth. All at once he stopped and oracularly pronounced the will of the spirits.

The tadibe's office was a hereditary one, but a member of the tribe exhibiting special qualifications was adopted into the priesthood, and through fasts, vigils, and the use of narcotics and stimulants—in the same manner as employed by some Native Americans—came to believe that he or she was visited by the spirits. The initiate was then adopted as a tadibe in a midnight ceremony and invested with a magic drum.

Many of the tricks of the priesthood were merely those of ordinary conjuring, such as the rope trick, but some of the illusions were exceedingly striking. With their hands and feet tied together, the tadibe sat on a carpet of reindeer skin and, putting out the light, summoned the assistance of the spirits. Peculiar noises heralded the spirits' approach, snakes hissed and bears growled, the lights were rekindled, and the tadibe's hands and feet were untied.

The Samoyeds sacrificed often to the dead and performed various ceremonies in their honor, but they believed that only the souls of the tadibes enjoyed immortality, hovering in the air and demanding frequent sacrifices.

Further to the east, inhabiting the more northerly part of Siberia, lived the Ostiaks, who nominally adopted the rites of the Greek church, but magic was also common among them. Many Ostiaks carried a kind of fetish they called schaitan.

Larger images of this kind were part of the furnishings of an Ostiak lodge, but they were attired in seven pearlembroidered garments and suspended from the neck by a string of silver coins. In a strange sort of dualism they were placed in many of the huts cheek by jowl with the image of the Virgin Mary, and at mealtimes their lips were smeared with the blood of raw game or fish.

The Mongols, who inhabited the more southern parts of the vast expense of Siberia, were also ancient practitioners of magic and relied greatly on divination. To prognosticate the weather they employed a stone endowed with magic virtues, called yadeh-tash, which was suspended over or laid in a basin of water with sundry ceremonies.

Many of the old beliefs and practices in Siberia died out following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent development of the area.