Then the people sing and both sexes dance in
ranks, as bears.
One of these bear-festivals was witnessed by the Russian traveller
L. von Schrenck and his companions at the Gilyak village of Tebach
in January 1856. From his detailed report of the ceremony we may
gather some particulars which are not noticed in the briefer
accounts which I have just summarised. The bear, he tells us, plays
a great part in the life of all the peoples inhabiting the region of
the Amoor and Siberia as far as Kamtchatka, but among none of them
is his importance greater than among the Gilyaks. The immense size
which the animal attains in the valley of the Amoor, his ferocity
whetted by hunger, and the frequency of his appearance, all combine
to make him the most dreaded beast of prey in the country. No
wonder, therefore, that the fancy of the Gilyaks is busied with him
and surrounds him, both in life and in death, with a sort of halo of
superstitious fear. Thus, for example, it is thought that if a
Gilyak falls in combat with a bear, his soul transmigrates into the
body of the beast.
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