Boas Anniversary Volume; Anthropological Papers Written in Honor of Franz Boas

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 Excerpt: ...the sky, where the benevolent deities have their abode. On the right side of the altar stand nine innocent youths in a row, and on the left a row of nine pure maidens, with goblets filled with kumiss consecrated to the benevolent deities. The splendid festival attire worn on this occasion by a Yakut girl is shown in Plate XX, which represents both back and front views. The trimming consists of valuable fur, silver pendants, and other decorations. The steward addresses a prayer to the "creators," begging for blessings,--increase of horses and cattle, a good harvest of hay, good health for the people and animals, and an abundance of food. Then he takes the kumiss-festival ladle (ysyax xamy.yaha), and makes a libation, in the direction of the dawn, to the benevolent deities (see Plate xvn). Then, while making a libation to the ground, he addresses the local deity, "the owner of the place" (an doidu iccita), asking him not to harm the inhabitants of the spot and the members of the clan. After that, the steward, with the help of the sacrificial ladle, proceeds to divine. He throws the ladle towards the sky: and if it falls with the front part upwards, it portends the granting by the deities of future abundance; and all the people utter the joyful cry Uruf Then the boys and girls give the goblets with the sacrificial kumiss, according to the directions of the steward, to the elder and honored members of the clan, both male and female. These, after placing themselves,--the men on the right and the women on the left of the altar,--drink off the kumiss from 1 Bloody sacrifices are given only to evil deities, and not to the "creators" (see Jochelson, The Koryak, 1. c., p. 91). 'The festival above mentioned was arranged specially for my b...