The Rite of Visiting a Holy Spring and its Mythological Context in the Folklore Tradition of the Altaians

Abstract

The analysis of semantics, structure and context of the ritual performed by Altaians during visits to holy springs - arzhan - has shown that it stems from animistic beliefs. The paper concludes that the ritual conducted for spirit masters of holy springs has a lot in common with the ancient shamanic ritual of jer-suu, i.e. sacrifices to spirits of mountains, rivers, lakes and holy springs. In fact, the actional elements of the sacrifice to spirit masters of springs are identical to those applied in the rite of sacrifice to spirit masters of the ‘land-and-water’ (Alt. jer-suu). There is an ethical code for visitors of a holy spring; any violation or improper performance of the worshipping rite is believed to entail corresponding punishment or bring efforts to naught. Those canons have been established and became a topic of discussion in folklore, particularly in mythological tales, epic songs, and beliefs. The narratives are centered around motifs of spring spirits’ appearances, their symbolic images pictured by visitors, with some positive or negative semantics. Plots of some stories deal with cases associated with violation of ‘holy-spring’ etiquette or improper performance of the rite. Texts of invocations to holy springs are more situational, and the initial part necessarily contains appeals to a particular spring. The most common and complete text of the introductory part of invocation comprises all the important characteristics of the glorified object. The Altai is praised with all its attributes as the place the holy spring flows from. The characteristic feature is that a request is submitted - to heal the patient from a disease. It is believed that the best time to visit a holy spring is from early summer - when leaves on trees bloom (Alt. jazhyl bürde - ‘at the time of green foliage’) - and to mid-autumn when foliage turns all yellow (Alt. sary bürde - ‘at the time of yellow foliage’). Thus, the time of visits to holy springs coincides with that of the spring-summer rite of Altai Takygani and ends in autumn, i.e. after the latter is over.