Bird image, a detail of a shaman’s costume.

Evenki

Yenisei Guberniya, Okrug

кон. XIX в.

Metal: iron; leather

РЭМ 163-2/1

The metal figurine of a bird, possibly a crane, has two heads on a long thin neck and a flat body with small wings on the sides. The crane had an important role in the shamanism of the Evenki of the Western group. It was considered a strong ghost, the shaman’s assistant in his travels across the words of the Universe. Collected by naval surgeon and scientist A. S. Botkin in the 1895-1896 marine survey. An exhibit of the 1896 All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. Abstract by V.V. Gorbacheva