Introduction

This article gives an overview of the sacrifice of reindeer by Lake Num-To1 in the Beloyarsk region, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region, Tyumen oblast, Russian Federation on April 19, 1996.

The description is based on the written notes made by this author at Num-To village in the evening after the event and supplemented by comments provided by the people present there.

During the sacrifice it could be seen2 that a hunter from Num-To village, Stepan Randymov (55), was more involved in watching it than the other people. He did not perform leading parts in it, but every time someone forgot about something, it was he who lead them back to the right path. This was the reason why this author chose Stepan to be the key informant. He has twice provided commentaries on the present ritual.

First, he explained the ritual immediately after the end of it at his place in Num-To village. He recalled the most important events of it from memory. When questioning Stepan, this author concentrated on the aspects of it that Stepan was able to recall.

Secondly, Stepan Randymov explained this sacrifical ritual when watching the event on video tape recorded by the Khanty-Mansiysk broadcasting company "Yugoria" on April 24, 1996. Then Stepan was questioned together with a Khant Sergei Grishkin from the broadcasting company "Yugoria". Timofei Moldanov, a Khanty folklorist, at whose place in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk the meeting took place, participated in the discussion, too.

Also, some information is provided in an interview given by Timofei and Tatyana Moldanov, Khanty folklorists and ethnologists, at their place in Khanty-Mansiysk on April 26, 1996. Timofei participated in the second part of the ritual and also helped to prepare it.

Yuri Vylla, President of West-Siberian Reindeer Herders’ Society, was the only Nenets who provided information about the ritual. Though he was the main organizer of the ritual, he did not perform a leading role during it.

The majority of the people participating in the ritual were Nenets, mostly reindeer herders from the tundra belt, including some Nenets from the forest areas around the Varyogan River. The lack of information provided by the Nenets is due to the short time this author could spend on the spot. The next morning after the ritual this author, together with other guests,3 left Num-To. Thus, it should be considered that this is a Nenets ritual explained by a Khant (S. Randymov), though, he has had a Nenets wife.

This aspect gives a different background to the present overview. An interpretation provided by Stepan highlights the traditional elements of the ritual. At the same time, the majority of the Nenets taking part in the ritual did not pay much attention to the different parts of it, but rather regarded the ritual as a whole.

The forthcoming description of the ritual will be given without making wider connections or drawing comparisons with other related phenomena. The purpose of this article is to give a comprehensive overview of the events focused on this particular ritual of sacrifice with commentaries provided by people who participated in it.

This method has been chosen, presuming that oral interpretation of the ritual within a culture is variable. There are no unchanging criteria for interpreting the ritual. Nowadays the Nenets have no proper rules of ritual behaviour or social control over the authenticity of understanding sacrifical ritual: possible interpretations are individual.

Yuri Lotman states that in cultures without mass literacy the available mnemonic-sacred symbols are involved in the text of the ritual. At the same time these symbols maintain some freedom regarding the ritual as a phenomenon. Symbols pertaining to the ritual are wrapped in the sphere of oral tradition and legend, whereas their connections with various contexts would be "imbalanced" (Lotman 1992: 106).

There is an infinite variation of semantic relations between single actions of sacrifical ritual and the phenomenon as a whole. So are the connections between the ritual, worldview and daily life: they cannot be fixed overall.

Provided that a wider approach to the subject would presume a more thorough study and reasoning of connections between the ritual and its backgrounds, this author chose a small-scale project of giving a thorough description of the sacrifical ritual at Lake Num-To.

The course of the sacrificial ceremony

The sacrifice of reindeer took place in a sacred place on a small island near the southern shore of Lake Num-To, 1.5 kilometres to the east of the village Num-To. On the shore of the lake, there were seven sacred cedars. On the island there grew birches. The weather was clear, windy and cold, about 15–20 degrees below zero.

Participants in the ritual, both men and women,4 went there in snowmobiles and reindeer sledges along the frozen lake. The three reindeer that would be slaughtered were tied to a birch.

According to Stepan Randymov, three reindeer were killed, thus having a team of them. One reindeer was white and had horns, hor,5 and was a leader animal. It was the most important victim. The other reindeer were grey and without horns.

Stepan6: Here, by the sacred lake, we prayed to all gods and spirits. This is why we took along our wives. When offerings are made to the whitest heavenly god,7 only men participate in it. And when /meat of reindeer/ is taken home, /it/ is a taboo to give it to women. Neither frozen nor cooked. Only men /eat it/.

However, some Nenets families, who, men and women together, give offerings to heavenly gods, sun, moon /---/. I know some. For them this is not a taboo. To a white god a white /reindeer/ fur with a head was hung to a birch. They came with their wives: it is not a taboo for them. At home women, as well as men could also eat meat.

There are also some sites where only men are allowed to go. These are high places. They climb to some hill, and – Oh! There is a sacred site over there above the forest. However, when riding a reindeer sledge, the sacred site may be at a distance of 40–50 kilometres. In most cases such places are near the upper courses of rivers, between rivers. There are such places near here, by the Kazym /River/ and in some other places where it is a taboo for women to go. /---/

Last year we went to the place where the sacrifice took place by reindeer sledge. There we sacrificed three reindeer, a team of reindeer ./---/

There is an island in the middle of the sacred lake. It is considered to be sacred, as it is like the heart of the lake. Women have never been to it: only men go there.8

That time we took the sacrifice to the shore, where everybody could go with his wife and children. /---/ There everybody can take along his wife.

/---/

On that lake there is an isthmus that looks like a neck of human or animal with a head on it. On the part of the head there are two sacred sites. Not a woman has ever been /there/. It has two eyes, two islands with six birches /on them/, there are two eyes on the sacred lake. In the lake, at a distance of four kilometres from the village, there is an island that is considered to be the heart /of the lake/. When one sees it from a bird’s eye view, from a plane or helicopter, it resembles an animal, with the heart, head, and eyes. /---/

Over there one can see plaits: small rivers go like plaits.

/---/

Every tribe does not have its private site. The sites, such as the one by the lake Num-To, are very old. Every river has a name which is sacred. All peoples can sacrifice on Lake Num-To. However, there are no such places on the lands of different tribes. There were no such things before. And there are no such things nowadays either.

/---/

When someone from a different region has to sacrifice a reindeer, he buys it for money or vodka. There is a custom that everybody has to sell him a reindeer then. He can go there by plane or train.9 However, one cannot take along /a reindeer/. Thus, one must buy a reindeer on the spot from a settlement, village or conical tent. No matter whom you ask, everyone would sell it.

Then, a fire was lit on the sacred site, and they started to boil water in buckets. They had taken firewood with them.

Stepan: The fire was lit. Because fire is stronger than any of the hundred gods.10 Because in fire everything burns to ashes. Thus, first a fire was made. The fire burned as long as people sat there. They /watched/ that it did not extinguish.

Two pieces of cloth were tied round the neck of the white reindeer, a longer and a shorter one. Both were light, nearly white.

Stepan: The cloth must always be three metres long. No matter what color it is. This sacrifice is to heavenly spirits, gods.11

Now, everyone who had taken along a piece of cloth, tied it round the reindeer's neck. As long as it is alive, the cloth would be round its neck. Those who did not have a cloth, left coins. Those who came for the first time, men or women. Only silver, white coins /are suitable/, coppers are not allowed. Banknotes were also allowed where we offered. Those who had not taken along a piece of cloth, took a clean handkerchief and tied it to a birch.

The reindeer furs were hung on birches together with heads and horns. They were from the previous sacrifices. There were also pieces of cloth and ribbons tied round the birches. Birch is a white tree related to white gods and the Upper World.

Stepan: The furs that hang there on a sacred birch were put there a year ago, last year when we first came to this site. When giving offerings in a place for the first time, then a fur with a head and ribbons are tied there and left forever. These furs, heads and horns are not taken with you.

First, Yuri Vylla (Aivaseda), a Nenets from the tundra belt, Maria Kuzminitshna Voldina, a Khant from Num-To, editor of the Khanty newspaper "Hanty Jasang", published in Khanty-Mansiysk, and Oleg Aivaseda, Yuri Vylla's neighbour, gave interviews to the TV crew. They talked about the importance of keeping oil industry away from the areas around lake Num-To, and about traditional culture. Also, they explained that Yuri Vylla would dedicate his white female reindeer to the President of Russia (at the moment of dedication: Boris Yeltsin), and Oleg Aivaseda would dedicate his to the Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (at the moment of dedication: Filipenko). The idea of this was that the President and Governor thus had a property in Yuri Vylla’s and Oleg Aivaseda’s herds, and when the environment would be polluted this would also affect the president's and governor's properties.

Then a cloth was spread on the snow. On the cloth everybody put sacrifices he/she had taken along: barankas (hard biscuits), snickers, candies, cigarettes "Prima", bottles of vodka, tea, etc. There were seven vodkas, i.e. three 100 cl and one 50 cl ("half-full") bottles. The 1l bottles were counted as two. It was important that there were seven vodkas, although they had not agreed about it before. They just counted that there was exactly the right amount of them.

Stepan: They put the bottles right on the snow. I was watching. But I had a cloth with me. I had a leftover: I saw it hanging on a nail, thus I took it with me. I put this red cloth on the snow. Then the bottles were placed on it. They put the bottles on the snow, on the clean snow. They had nothing to put them on, and then of course it is allowed. You just put a bottle and a cup with vodka right on the snow. But I knew the customs: I took a red cloth with me. Its length was less than a metre.

/---/

We sacrificed to seven gods-spirits. We had seven bottles. Exactly. The bottles were big, this makes /the same as/ six /small bottles/. Thus, we had seven bottles.

Then, the reindeer were untied and arranged in a line with their heads to the victims and cedars, whereas they had to be with their heads to the south, thus to the sun and white gods.

Stepan: To white heavenly gods, always to the sun. To the black god Hyn-iki12, then to the dawn. Then a reindeer must be placed in this direction. The young13 did not know it. They placed them opposite us. Opposite us, to the night. For they were dead.14 We first prayed for life. If the old man did not tell them, I would have told them myself that the heads must be to the sun. The young first placed them to the night. When placed to the night, then a sacrifice could be made in a settlement.15 When to the black god, we need not have gone there. We could have made the sacrifice at our village. They say that the black and heavenly gods are at war with each other. The black gods..., when they drink too much, get drunk. It can be that one would kill another, and is then imprisoned.

/---/

Cedars are to the black god.16 And also to Hyn-iki. Earlier, old men, our grandfathers also made sacrifices/ by the shore over there. On that spot, 50 metres from the shore, a cedar remained. And six small ones started to grow there. So, there are seven cedars growing now. There also sacrifices are made, to the black god. And also to the sacred lake. /---/ The black god, a cedar, a black tree is related to it. To cedars also cloths are tied.

/---/

To the black god only black reindeer /are sacrificed/. And to the white god only white reindeer. /---/ To the black god so that people did not have illnesses, that they did not die. They pray, as they pray to the heavenly god. They make similar sacrifices, such as reindeer, vodka, food. A table is also laid.

Vodka was poured into cups, and the cloth with food stood untouched. The reindeer stood in a line, the one to the east was the white one, hor.

Stepan: They made sacrifices, so that there was a team of reindeer. The first one, the one with horns was the leader. One cannot rein all the animals. Only the one to the left is the leader. The reins are /in one's right hand/, in one's left hand there is a horei. One governs them with the horei only. Thus, the leader is to the left. Where the leader, there also the other.

The men stood behind the reindeer, with their faces to the south. The guests were on their right, with their faces to the southeast. Some men (Täkvjak, an old Nenets, Yuri Vylla, Oleg Aivaseda, Stepan Randymov) took off their caps when praying. Most of them had their caps on.

Firstly, Täkvjak, the oldest of the Nenets, said a long prayer. Then Oleg Aivaseda, another Nenets, said a somewhat shorter prayer.

Stepan17: /Today sacrifices were made/ to the sacred lake /---/ Num-To, Heavenly lake18, that is why it is a sacred lake.

/---/

/We prayed/ that all local people, all people /had a happy life/. For children had a peaceful life, and for all people grown up around here, for they live in the same places where their mothers and fathers did. For /these places/ were not neglected.

Those who want their children to forget about it, this is their business. They do not obey, neither believe in god. They cannot then be forced to do so. Those who want, obey their parents. Here, the young also came. Mothers and fathers do not live for 100 years, you know. They will be heirs then. They should also make sacrifices there. In the same place. Where their grandfathers did. And where we have been today. /---/

But this sacrifice was made for family life, for one's children to be well and alive. For one to have good luck with one's reindeer. But the Nenets all live with reindeer.

/---/

The old Täkvjak, the one with grey hair among the Nenets from the forest areas, is the oldest of his generation. That is why he was trusted with /saying the prayer/, for he /prayed to/ all the heavenly gods, spirits of the sacred lake, so that they would take care of all the reindeer. /---/ There were other victims. All those who had come here, had taken something with them – vodka, food. They put all that on the cloth. Seven bottles of vodka and seven cups of vodka were placed there. For the heavenly gods, spirits of the sacred lake receive it, with reindeer and all, hospitably. /---/ He told about all gods, as many as there are heavenly gods. One hundred gods, all in all. He called each god separately. /---/ Kaltash-imi. There are many of them, one cannot count them.

/---/

When we went there, the weather was bad, now it is clear. We also prayed that the weather be clear when you fly back. Also, that those who had come here, that they had good luck on the road. Snowstorm, purga, that is what the weather is like here. We have such custom. That when misfortune comes to a person or family, /we pray that luck be with them/.

But when /we pray for everybody/, then that the people who had come here had clear weather when going back by helicopter or plane. This is for all spirits and gods whom we pray be happy.

Then the reindeer were killed. Two Nenets people throttled them by pulling tight a lasso about their necks. The third Nenets hit them at the nape with the eye of his axe. Before he hit, he measured two times. The third reindeer fell on its left side. They quickly turned it on its right.

Stepan: It fell on the wrong side. It certainly had to be turned on its right side. You see, when the leader was hit, it fell on its left side. They all then turned it on its right, for it lay there.

The other two reindeer were pushed after hitting them with the axe, so that they fell on their right sides. The prone reindeer were also stabbed in the heart and nape. Then they were dragged clockwise. The three reindeer were left lying with their heads to the south.

Stepan: /On the snow reindeer are turned around/ once clockwise. The white, grey grandfather, Täkvjak told the young to turn /the killed reindeer/ around once again. Like the sun goes. It is a custom that they turn so in sacrifices. He prayed to all gods and spirits and then he has to make three circles clockwise.

The dead reindeer were placed on the snow, as when pulling a sledge. The white one on the left was the leader. Their legs were placed to the east. The head of the white reindeer was turned by 90 degrees (with its snout to the heavens), horns were jabbed into the snow. Then Stepan Randymov hit them on their sides with a lasso, and made sounds proposing motion. The white reindeer convulsed at it, which indicated that the white gods had received it. It seemed that the other two were not. The third reindeer shuddered a little at the hit, but Randymov did not count it. Actually, he did not see its movements, as he turned before the victim started to move.

Stepan: To the upper gods. /---/ Reindeer are placed with their heads to the sun. Not to the night. We placed them like a team. The one with the horns was the leader. The leader was received well. Even when I hit it three times, it moved three times as dead. But the other two, they fell down and were dead already. The leader was received just after we had prayed to the spirits. /---/ All the reindeer that were touched with the lasso, they had to beat three times, for they must not fall dead. /---/ They certainly have to be hit three times with the lasso, for they moved. After that the reindeer is dead already, but /only after/ one has hit it for three times.

Then the men stood behind the reindeer again, with their faces to the south, women and guests to the west of the reindeer, with their faces to the east. Then they all screamed aloud seven times and turned around clockwise, making bows at each quarter of the horizon. This all happened in disorder, so that they all did not make the same number of turns or bows.

Stepan: All gods and spirits were called to the spot, so that they hear it. Probably some did not. They were not called then. After that they scream seven times. And turn themselves around seven times. /---/ Among all the gods in the world the white heavenly gods are the most important. Like father and mother, and the sun, seven sons, seven brothers. That is why seven times. But in other sacrifices they do not scream seven times. Only three times. When they do not call them all. But this time all the gods on the ground and in heaven, all were called. And a team of reindeer /was sacrificed to them/.

While they are turning themselves and screaming, some Nenets pass by the sacred site over the lake on sledges.

Stepan: They did not want to participate. No one is personally asked to participate /in the sacrifice/. Those who want must come themselves. The two who passed by along the lake rode to their village, their tent. /---/. Usually they tell everybody about the sacrifice. All who want to participate, learn from it. The young do not want to come. Their parents did not take part in such sacrifices and so do they.

After the prayer the main participants in the sacrifice covered their heads with a hood or cap.

The lassos that were round the necks of the victims, were thrown into the birches. Two stayed there, whereas the third one fell down.

Stepan: The lassos that were tied around the reindeer's necks, are thrown /in the birches/. For all the gods and spirits /focused their attention/ where there people have reindeer. For people had good luck with reindeer, for reindeer grew well and had a happy life. For people had good luck with fishing and hunting. So that when someone goes hunting, then animals would come to him. /---/ Now there were no trees, they just threw them over there into the brushwood. Lassos must be thrown into the wood. No matter which one. Should there only be a tree nearby.

Then they started to eat sacrificial food. The Nenets started eating and Täkvjak served vodka. Everybody present got a cup of vodka. The cup was passed on clockwise. Täkvjak had the bottle. He filled the cup and gave it to someone, who then drank it up and gave it back. Täkvjak again filled the cup and passed it to the person sitting, kneeling or squatting to the left of the previous one. Only the men started eating and drinking, later the women joined in.

Stepan: This time all the spirits and gods were called. And the table19 /was laid for them/ with the sacrifice of reindeer. First the cups with vodka. There are seven of them. The first one has to be given to fire, to the Fire God. /---/ Everyone must drink. Now each man gets a cup but when all men have got one of those standing on the table when gods and spirits were being called, then comes the women's turn.

Seven cups and seven bottles. So that there is not an even number of cups, four, six or two. /---/ All the spirits and gods were called. And this is why there are seven cups and seven bottles.

At the beginning of eating Stepan poured the cup of vodka, that was chosen before and stood there at the time of sacrifice, into the fire. As Stepan said, fire is "the strongest among the hundred gods". At the same time he was saying prayers in Russian. His wishes were very general: for everybody to be happy, for everybody to be well, and for everybody to get back home well (many had come there from distant regions, not only from areas around Lake Num-To and surrounding tundra areas). He said his prayers in Russian, so as everybody would understand (the TV crew filmed it). Besides, the gods would understand any language, as Stepan said afterwards. After the prayer Randymov made bows to different quarters of the horizon, while turning around clockwise three times. Stepan sacrificed to the fire bareheaded.

The content of his prayer was as follows:

...to the almighty god, fire... your children, all... people be well, for guests who have come here, would get home with fine weather, for they be well.

When the men had finished eating, they started to skin and chop the reindeer. The skins with heads (without lower jaws) were placed aside, more or less with their snouts to the south.

Before skinning the victims, white cloths were removed from the neck of the leader and tied to birch branches. Later, before placing the skins and heads on the snow, they were tied again about the cut-off head of the leader.

Stepan took some blood with a cup from their cut bellies and tossed it in various directions, mostly to the south, to the cedars, covering the area from southwest to southeast. He tossed so seven times.

Stepan: I took /blood/ of the three victims, /tossed/ it to seven places. It is taboo to throw more than seven. /---/ When we took the cups of vodka, there were also /seven of them/. To the gods, spirits, this all is for them. We prayed to the spirits. It is taboo /to throw blood/ for more than seven times. /---/ Thus, we sacrificed to seven gods-spirits, as we had seven bottles. /---/ /I took/ blood of three reindeer. I saw that no one wanted to /do it/. The young probably do not know it. I /keep/ our traditions, as my parents taught me. And I did it all myself.

The chops were left there on the snow, some were cooked cook in buckets over the fire.

Also, they continued eating and drinking. Then the Khants Aleksei Moldanov, with his sons Timofei and Grigori arrived. They came from around the Kazym River (54 kilometres) by snowmobiles. They had also a bottle of vodka with them. Aleksei talked to everybody actively and tried to perform for the TV crew. He sang a lot.

Then Täkvjak sang even more, especially for the TV crew to film it. He himself considered it to be very important.

Stepan Randymov stood bareheaded next to him and was looking at him all the time, bowing to the south at intervals.

Stepan: The old man sang, for the young would sing alike when he is dead.

Then he told about reindeer. How we sacrificed them. How we laid the table. With this song /he turned/ to all gods again, calling to them all.

While he was singing, I looked at his eyes. I am a Khant. My wife was a Nenets. I was scared that he might put a curse upon me. /So,/ I wanted to listen to him. He is blind in his left eye. His right eye was in tears already. He sang a song. So, I was looking at his face: he was singing, but he felt that he would not have much time left to live by this lake.

The empty bottles were jabbed into the birch twigs, an activity started by Stepan Randymov and imitated by other people.

Stepan: We put the bottles there, so as not to leave rubbish there. As the lake is sacred. We drank this bottle to the heavenly gods, spirits in the forest. We drank the vodka. This vodka is also a sacrifice to the gods... They are alive, you know, they can find vodka everywhere. When you leave an empty bottle here, they would fill it. I always do so.

We have just been here, sitting. /The young Nenets asked:/ "Why do you take birch twigs and jab the bottles /into them/? Is it for beauty purposes?" I told them that I kept our traditions. You ate them up but the gods may also find some vodka. It can be that they have got a can of vodka. Thus, they must pour it somewhere. I always do like this. You can only jab them into birch twigs. You must not jab into the trees other than birch.

Then Stepan20 said that he is a guest at this sacrifice, as he is a Khant. This was the Nenets sacrifice.21 As Stepan was the guest, he could not coordinate the action there. Not one of the young really knew how the ritual should go. As Randymov said, everything there was performed wrongly:

Meat was cooked. They ate it already cooked, but nobody had eaten it raw. Actually, they ought to have eaten it raw first. And start cooking it then.

Stepan also explained this to the Nenets. The young Nenets listened to him and asked everybody to come and eat it raw (they had not cooked all the meat). Some people then ate it raw. First there was no salt, then they got some.

Stepan: The table was laid, but raw meat... Nobody even thought about it and nobody ate it. /---/ The ought to have eaten a piece of it each.

They enjoyed eating reindeer liver raw, which they call "the Nenets snickers".

When finished, they took the three reindeer skins with the heads to a birch previously chosen by Täkvjak. When trying to find the right tree he walked to and fro in the small wood and then chose a bigger tree. This was among the few trees in this island that would endure the load.

The Nenets went to the tree in line, one by one. One of them climbed the tree. Then he was thrown one end of the lasso. The one in the tree put it over a branch and threw it down again. The skins with heads were now pulled up the tree along the lasso. The Nenets who was in the tree now fastened them there, placing the horns between twigs. The skins and heads stayed hanging there, with their heads upwards.

Stepan: /The skins and heads of reindeer were hung/ in the birch, as it is a heavenly tree. We never cut them for firewood. They hang them in the birch.

/---/

To the white god you can sacrifice a three-metre long white cloth or a white reindeer. You hang it all: skin, head and horns. They /hang/ them in the birch only. We think the birch is related to the white heavenly god. A sacred tree. We do not cut it for firewood. The white cloth and the reindeer-victim. They also hung them. Only the birch /is suitable for that/. But the other trees – pine or spruce – are not. And other peoples in all other regions do it similarly. In other regions.22

While they were pulling the first reindeer, the white one, they all screamed seven times. The men stood around the tree, with their faces to the tree.

After all three reindeer were in the tree, women started to scream in the back row. They hooted a couple of times and stopped then. The men did not react to it. The women stood in the back row, with their faces to the west, but this was accidental. They did not turn themselves deliberately in that direction.

After that they cleared away everything they had used while eating, e.g. meat, firewood (that had been taken there from Num-To village), the lassos used for killing the reindeer and then thrown into the birch twigs, etc. So, they put everything they had taken there with them on the snowmobiles and reindeer sledges and rode back to the Num-To village.23

Before leaving, everybody had to make a small circle clockwise. Generally, all turns with sledges, both when arriving and when leaving, should be made clockwise. A young Nenets did not know that and turned against the sun.

Stepan: He turned the sledge left. In such a place one should turn clockwise only.

Täkvjak, leader of the sacrifice, was the last person to leave. He waited for the other people to leave. He was singing there. Yuri Vylla was also with him. They were sitting on a sledge and smiling, if not singing.

That was the end of the sacrifice. In the following evening people at Num-To went to see each other. They drank tea and sang a lot.

Subsequent Comments

There are some other important aspects related to the sacrifice on Lake Num-To described above. Although they do not pertain to this particular ritual only. These wider connections should also be examined.

Yuri Vylla, the Nenets from the tundra area, was the main organiser of this sacrifical ritual. He said that he had sacrificed two times on Num-To's sacred islands: for one and the other eye. He has to sacrifice for the third time, too: for the heart.24 But he does not want to do it yet: he is not prepared for that. This time he made a sacrifice on a small island by the shore. First, he sacrificed a white reindeer, next a dappled one, and third time he should sacrifice a black one.25

There are similar sacrificials ceremonies on Lake Num-To quite regularly every year. There is no certain time for doing that. Everybody can go there at any time during winter, make sacrifices and go back home.

An important aspect is to what extent do the commentaries provided by the Khanty coincide with the Nenets' (as the main performers of the ritual) opinions about it. Or, what are the links between their interpretations. That the Khanty also used to go to this sacred site, is among a possible explanation to this question. It was only by accident that in this case mostly the Nenets made sacrifices. On other days the Khanty went to make sacrifices there.

Stepan: People do not go there until next winter. As long as the other people would come. To that same place.

/---/

In winter, people who want to sacrifice all come at the same time. No one can be taken here by force. Everybody comes at will. In winter /they come here/ by reindeer sledges. From every region. /The Khanty26/ from Surgut region, Tromagan, Pim and Lyamin regions, they all come to the sacred lake by reindeer sledges. /---/ Along the same road which is marked by crosses on trees.27

There is an even more important aspect, namely the relations between the content and form of the ritual. In other words, this is a question about the norms of the ritual: can sacrificial ceremonies contain other aspects beyond traditional and original symbolic actions? Concerning the ritual described above, there was the problem of presenting it to TV and guests. Now, one may ask: was it a "real" sacrifice?

Timofei Moldanov: When going to Num-To, why was not there anything? Money or anything. Because for a long time I did not want drinking arranged at Num-To. Thus, there was no money. So, I was sitting, sitting, and did something when it was high time.28 This does not matter. This get-together there. It was not important that people went there. And made sacrifices there or whatever they did.

This was not a sacrificial rite, for the local Nenets this was a pretext for heavy drinking. Every year sacrifices are organized by people who live on the spot.

Tatyana Moldanova29: One should follow the content, but in this case they followed the form.

Timofei: We went there on the 18th.30 My father left the site on the 17th. He left his knife there. Went there to fetch it. With reindeer. But before that – why he left – they had gone with Grisha31 to the sacred site. They took a 3-year old reindeer with them. Then killed and sacrificed it there. Then went back home. But he left his knife there. And thus he went there in the morning of the 17th. And back again in the evening. He went there to fetch his knife before we started for there.

He knew that there would be a get-together on the 18th. Yet he did not stay. If there is the get-together, it is there. Let it be there.

This article has examined the traditional details of the ritual. However, for some participants this was also a form of political action. On the one hand, they were people who wanted to communicate the native peoples' fight for their traditional rights to a wide audience (Yuri Vylla and Oleg Aivaseda32). On the other hand, the people from the association "Saving Yugora", the Khanty newspaper and the broadcasting company needed a lively media event involving native people's culture. Also, this was a kind of entertainment, a way of spending leisure time in the form of traditional ritual.

However, Stepan Randymov regarded it as a real ritual, the original symbolic actions which should be performed in accordance with arbitrary rules. The present article is largely based on this viewpoint.

All the three aspects of the ritual – traditional, political and entertaining – were mingled with one another. They had a different role and influence on different people. The sacrifice of reindeer on April 19, 1996 was a good example of the contemporary changing traditional ritual among the Khanty and Nenets.

The ritual was carried out in accordance with its traditional actions. Yet only a few participants checked that the sacrifice be performed in a traditionally, originally correct manner. The majority of the participants just imitated the others. Should the leaders forget about any of the traditional rules, there was no one able to notice and "correct" it. In such cases opinions of individual "specialists" became crucial. There was no community understanding of the proper ritual behaviour.

Translated by Epp Uustalu

Footnotes

1 Num-To – 'heavenly lake' or 'lake of god' (in the Nenets language). In the Khanty language Torum Lor.

2 This author participated in the sacrifice by Lake Num-To on April 19, 1996 as a guest and performed all collective parts of it.

3 On April 19, 1996, there were people from the broadcasting company "Yugoria", Natalya Gogoleva, head of the association "Saving Yugra", Maria Voldina, and editor of a Khanty newspaper "Hanty Jasang". Also, a helicopter took home Yuri Vylla, President of the Reindeer Herders' Society with his family, and some native people from remote regions.

4 Before going there, women at Num-To were unsure whether they would be taken along or not. Had the sacrifice been carried out on a large sacred island, they should have stayed home. The main organiser, Yuri Vylla had actually planned to give offerings on that island, but he did not do it that time (see also Footnotes 8, 25).
The small island was not that sacred, and it was not a taboo for women to visit it. Thus, women were taken along. The purpose of the ritual was general, and this also caused and allowed their going there. Also, that time a wider response was expected for the event. The previous sacrifice on that island, was carried out without women, as said Sergei Grishkin from the broadcasting company "Yugoria".

5 Hor – reindeer bull (in the Khanty language).

6 Here and hereafter, mainly Stepan Randymov’s commentaries (abriged and adapted to the written text) are in italics. At the end of the article, commentaries by Timofei Moldanov and Yuri Vylla will be provided.

7 I.e. to Numi Torum. Numi Torum is the Khants’ and Mansi chief god who lives in the Upper World. The Nenets call it Num.

8 Stepan refers to the island in the middle of the lake Num-To where, according to some beliefs of the Khanty and Nenets, the white chief god Numi Torum, or Num, lives there. When in December of 1933 a Russian woman, Polina Shneider, a representative of the Ob-Irtysh oblast party committee, went there, she, together with the other people with her, were killed by the local Khanty and Nenets. This action was among the main reasons for the armed uprising undertaken by the Khanty and the Nenets people against Soviet forces in 1933–34, put down by Soviet army in 1934 (Leete 1996a: 394, see Footnotes 4, 25).

9 This refers to sacrifices in sacred sites generally. The village Num-To is at a distance of 100 kilometres from the nearest railway station.

10 This implies that there are very many, an incalculable number of gods.

11 White color relates to the gods of the Upper World.

12 Hyn-iki The most important god in the Underworld., also known as Kul' or Kul’-iki.

13 I.e. the young Nenets. Stepan contrasted his knowledge with theirs regarding both ethnic and age aspects.

14 Here it follows as if Stepan does not consider the reindeer sacrificed to the gods of the Upper World to be dead, whereas he considers to be dead those sacrificed to the gods of the Underworld. Yet it is not clear whether Stepan had similar considerations.

15 According to Stepan, a reindeer could be placed with the head in different directions, depending on which gods or spirits the sacrifice was made. At the same time he related some activities (drinking, killing animals) to the Underworld and Hyn-iki if not carried out in a sacred site.
According to Liivo Niglas, the Yamal Nenets always, when killing a reindeer, place it with its head to the sun, as killing a reindeer is also a sacrifice to the gods of the Upper World (L. Niglas, oral report to this author, see also "Reindeer in the Nenets Worldview" and On the Sacrificial Ritual...).

16 Here I am not going to analyse the Ob-Ugric semantic system of quarters of the horizon and kinds of trees. Stepan considers cedar as the most important tree of the god of the Underworld, and so it should be regarded in the context of this ritual. Yet other researchers have provided contradictory data on this question. For example, that in the Mansi, cedar is related to Numi-Torum, the most important god of the Upperworld (Gemuyev, Sagalayev 1986: 145), or to Kaltash-ekva, the people's mythological ancestress (Rombandeyeva 1993: 66).

17 Täkvjak and Oleg Aivaseda said the prayers in the Nenets language. A strong wind considerably interrupted the work of the broadcasting company, thus they could not tape the prayers. So, Stepan Randymov retold their content. As the prayers are typical for the Khanty and Nenets, their content is quite general.

18 Num-To –'heavenly lake' , 'lake of god' (in the Nenets lng.). See also Footnote 1.

19 Actually there was no table, but a red cloth spread on snow instead, as is said already.

20 Stepan Randymov stated that he was a guest at the sacrifice. This commentary is not provided after the sacrifice as are many other in this article.

21 Though it was not determined which ethnic group was more important at the sacrifice. Most people were Nenets, but there were also Andrei, a local Russian, Stepan Randymov and some other Khanty, and this author, an Estonian. Stepan probably considers that the main organiser and the old man, leader of the sacrifice were the Nenets.

22 This generalization is not valid in all aspects. In Ob-Ugric tradition cedar can also be related to the Upper World through sacrifice.

23 Generally, it is a taboo in a sacred site to take along the things that are taken there. Probably, this site is not "that" sacred, so that you can do it there.

24 As has been said above, there are three big islands on Lake Num-To: the two eyes and the third is the heart, as the local people say.

25 The island related to heart is to the night or Underworld of the Num-To village. There is also a local people's graveyard. This might explain the sacrifice of the black reindeer on this island (see Footnotes 5, 9).

26 The Khanty from the areas around the Kazym River also make sacrifices at Lake Num-To.

27 By trees marked by crosses Stepan cosiders the trees with twigs cut near the top. Such signs are used for marking winter paths over ice and snow between Num-To and the aforementioned rivers. (Leete 1996b: 53–54)

28 Timofei Moldanov (b. 1957), Vice President of Reindeer Herders' Society, among the main organizers of this sacrifice. He was responsible for financial support of it.

29 Tatyana Moldanova, Khanty ethnologist and folklorist, Timofei Moldanov's wife.

30 The guests (TV crew, editor of the Khanty newspaper, head of the association "Saving Yugora", etc.) arrived there by helicopter on April 18, 1996.

31 Grigori Moldanov, (b. 1968), a Khant, Timofei Moldanov's brother.

32 Yuri Vylla had threatened oil companies that he would organize an anti-oil industries picket at the sacrifice. This was to make the companies pay him, i.e. arrange free transport by helicopter to the sacrifical and back to their seasonal settlements. In return, the West-Siberian Reindeer Herders' Society promised to cancel the picket. He said that he did not really want to arrange it.

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