Authorized translation of the paper published in mimeograph in VoI.2, No.1 (Nov. 1947) of The Central States Bulletin, the official organ of the Central States Branch of the American Anthropological Association.

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The Japanese village has a highly communal character determined in large part by the system of wet rice agriculture. The communal life of the village in turn importantly conditions its religious life. As long as men retained control of the village administration, and the shrine remained the focus of social life of the village, the priest remained a male and women were subordinated, often being excluded from religious life. However, sacerdotal tasks, which were originally in the hands of elders or toban (persons assuming the duty in turn), became more and more professionalized as the village administration became more complex. And, the more religious life became detached from social life, the greater the tendency for women to play important roles in religious life. Shamanistic cults and cere monies became prevalent. According to the author, shamanistic tendencies appear only where individualism is manifested. Therefore shamanism is more prevalent in towns, newly-populated districts, and in mountain and fishing villages, than in agricultural village communities.

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In Korean, Manchurian and Mongolian shamanism there are found various forms of fire rites. Those in Korean shamanism may be classfied as follows : 1) The burning of paper : a) at the first part of the rite (purification) b) at the end of the rite (divination) 2) The burning of the following sacred objects : a) burning paper dolls which represents the dead man's soul invited to the ceremony. b) burning paper tablets which symbolize the god in the family protection rites. 3) The burning of the following objects in healing rites : a) burning paper in the rites for eye disease. b) moxibustion (burning the moxa plant on the skin) in rites for the insane. c) burning a hut in which a curing ceremon for the insane is performed. 4) The ritual use of words and characters repre senting "fire" : a) words representing "fire" as found in the sacred songs of the female shaman b) magical characters which contain the lette "fire" written in red by the male shaman Generally speaking, these performances of fin rites in Korean shamanism seem to be rather mill in comparison with those of Manchuria and Mongolia. In the latter we frequently find vigorous and unusual performances ; for example, the rite involving the manipulation of red-hot iron by the Mongolian shaman or the rite of eating burning incense sticks by the Manchurian shaman. Such self-punishing and violent rites tend to be foreign to Korean psychology.

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Most of the Hailar Dahurs, about 800 in all, live in Nan-t'ung 2nd Mohort in the Banner of Solon but some also reside in Hailar. They consist of 4 hala and 5 mohon. Four of the latter have respectively 1 monoh-shaman, 3 of them male and 1 female. Every mohon has a special lineage from which all the shamans of the mohon are chosen. The progenitor of this lineage, or the spirit with the help of which the progenitor became a shaman, is called ojor. In a wider sense each shaman of each generation of this lineage is called ojor, too. The deities of the shaman are called onggor, the central figure of which is the divine spirit that has been responsible for the assumption of the shamanistic role. In the case of the mohon-shaman this divine spirit is ojor. To the category of onggor, however belong various divine spirits other than ojor. The spirits which are worshipped in common by the mohon are not limited to onggor, but the latte constitute the majority. If a mohon-shaman dies or is disobedient to the will of the ojor, another is elected by the ojor, being chosen from with in the mohon in question.

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The author describes the ceremony of the Manch shamans he observed at Ta-hung-ch'i-ying-tzu near Aigun in 1944. The ceremony had specific Manchu characteristics other than those normal an common traits in all northern shamanism. The Manchu characteristics could be observed also in the form of their dwellings. The author, a human geographer, has described in this paper the relations he has observed between shamanism and the physical environment.

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According to the T'ang-shu, a wolf-headed beggar appeared and predicted the fall of the Pi-Yen-T'uo 薜延陀, a Turkish tribe, saying, "I am a god, the Pi-Yen T'uo is going to decay." The author, pursuing the meaning of this fragmental record, concludes that this reflects some shamanistic rite in which the shaman appeared in the pelt or mask of a wolf. (1) He refers to the stone-headed human figures reported by Aspelin from Southern Siberia, which, when compared with the faces of the kamennaya babka in the Altai District and in Northwestern Mongolia, resemble participants in some religious rite. (2) He discusses the fact that the prediction of the wolfheaded beggar in the T'ang-shu : "I am a god…" coincides with the formula of the prediction of shamans among peoples of Northern Asia. He points out that among peoples of Northern Asia. He points out that among the ancient Turks one finds legends of wolf ancestors, a golden wolf's head attached to the top of banner standards, and the appellation bari (wolf) given to the guards, and that these phenomena may bear some relationship to the account given in the T'ang-shu.

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The author, formerly Director of the Saghalien Museum in Toyohara, after collecting folk-tales among the Saghalien aborigines, comes to the conclusion that the belief in shamanism is the only aspect of their culture which has not been changed by Japanese influence. In the present paper he gives a detailed description of the ceremonies performed by Orokko and Gilyak shamans in January, 1945, in the Otasu reservation near Sisuka, South Saghalien.

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The author is a pioneer in the study of shamanism. His interest dates from the presentation of his dissertationthesis : "The Religious Belief Proper to the Mongols-a Study of Shamanism" submitted to the Dept. of Oriental History at Tokyo University in 1917. His first research problem concerned the reason why the Mongols, who took up orthodox buddhism at their ascendancy, were converted into lamaism at the time of Khubilai Khan and also why they have remained so faithful to this cult. In the author's youth, however, academic circles did not regard shamanism as a legitimate and worthwhile topic for scientific investigation, and he encountered many obstacles. The donation of the Morrison Library in 1917 and the founding of the Toyo Bunko (Oriental Library) in 1924, as well as the development of field research by Japanese scholars on the peoples of the continent, changed the atmosphere. The study of shamanism has gradually become a favorite topic both in ethnological and historical studies.

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The existence of fat-tailed sheep in Central and Western Asia has long been noticed by various travellers and historians. Considerable folklore has accumulated on the subject of their huge tails. For example, some authors tell of the wheeled supports put under the tails so that they will not be injured when the sheep walk. Others have said that shepherds cut the tails of the rams, and having extracted the fat, sew them up again so carefully that no trace of incision can be seen. The big-tailed sheep of the Ta-Yueh-Shih 大月氏, which are said die from overgrowth of the tail if the fat is not extracted, are believed to be identical to the fattailed sheep found in the southern part of Russian Turkistan formerly dominated by the Ta-Yueh-Shih or Kushans. Chinese records are cited and compared with those of Western authors.

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