Sevokhi, a cult object: Anthropomorphic image (“yegda”)

Oroche

river Koppi, Ussuri Krai, Mouth of the Tepta River tributary

late 19th - early 20th century

Wood; glass: colored glass

height 46.0; width 17.0

РЭМ 1870-46

It is a mythic shamanistic image, the shaman’s helper ghost image, a wooden figure of a man with eagle owl head and wings and with hoofed legs of a deer. This idol was called Yerga, a shamanistic folklore character symbolizing the ghost of nature and of the sun’s travel, the main shamans’ patron living in heavens. During the rite, the shaman flew to him to the fifth level, a heaven where there was a red mountain with animals possessing shaman powers – a boar and a hare. During a sorcery session, the shaman asked the idol questions about the location of the sick person’s soul, and about disappearance and search for the ghosts responsible. After a successful sorcery, the idol was fed with fresh reindeer blood, meat, or fat. The shaman himself carved such an idol for his needs. After the shaman’s death, the idol was handed over to a novice, a young shaman who used the power transmitted by the old shaman.