At the funeral, and for several years afterwards, the kinsmen sacrifice reindeer
over the grave.
When a chief or Starochina dies,—the owner, it may be, of several herds of
reindeer,—his nearest relatives fashion an image, which is kept in the tent of the
deceased, and receives the same measure of respect that was paid to the man
himself in his lifetime. At every meal it occupies his accustomed seat; every
evening it is solemnly undressed, and duly laid down in his bed. For three years
these honours are regularly paid; after which the image is buried, in a belief that
the body must by that time have decayed, and lost all recollection of the past.
Only the souls of the Tadibes, and of those who have died a violent death, are in
the enjoyment of immortality, and hover about the air as disembodied spirits.
THE OSTIAKS.Further to the east, and occupying the northernmost part of Siberia from the
Oural Mountains to Kamtschatka, are the Ostiaks.
The Russians have imposed upon this people the Christian religion, as taught by
the Greek Church; but it seems probable that the majority adhere in secret to
their heathen creed. Madame Felinska, a Polish lady, who for some years lived
in exile in Siberia, relates that, one day, when she was seeking a pathway
through a wood, she came upon a couple of Ostiaks, on the point of performing
their devotions. These are certainly of a much simpler kind than the rites
enjoined by the Greek Church: the worshipper simply places himself before a
tree—he appears to prefer the larch—in some sequestered forest-nook, and
performs in rapid succession the most extravagant contortions and gestures. As
the practice is prohibited by the Russian Government, it is necessarily made a
matter of secresy.
An Ostiak generally carries about him a rude image of one of the deities or
demons which he adores under the name of Schaïtan; but he conforms to
Russian customs by wearing a small crucifix of copper on his breast. The
Schaïtan is a rude imitation of the human figure, carved in wood. It is of
different sizes, according to the uses for which it is intended; if for wearing on
the person, it is a miniature doll; but as part of the furniture of an Ostiak’s hut it
is made on a large scale. It is always attired in seven pearl-broidered chemises,
and suspended to the neck by a string of silver coins. In every hut it fills the
place of honour,—sometimes in company with an image of the Virgin Mary or