Healing. Rituals Related to Social Life Among the Kyrgyz in the Early 20th Century
HEALING
If someone falls ill, a kid is placed near their yurt with its head facing west, neighbors are called, the kid is slaughtered, and prayers are said. Without removing the skin from the slaughtered kid, the lungs and heart are taken out and placed in a bowl of water, and an old woman is invited to the sick person.
The sick person undresses, the old woman takes the lungs and strikes the patient on the palms and the soles of the feet, then strikes the heart against the heart. After that, these healing tools are discarded, and the bowl of water is carried three times around the sick person's head, who then spits into it, after which the water is poured out. The kid in its skin is given to a poor neighbor. Opkё chapt — "struck with the lungs"1.
Sarykul, Terskey
Treatment of livestock. If a cow has sore teats: seven stones are placed in the fire; when they become hot, they are taken to the cow, water is splashed on the stones, and while carrying them under the animal, the udder is scalded, having previously covered the cow well with a cloth.
There are other methods of treatment: embers from under three legs of the cooking pot (tagan) are taken, ash is blown off them onto the teats, then the udder is patted to heal the cow; when going to milk the cow, a spoon is placed in the bucket (milking pail) and milking is done without removing it, then, after bringing it home, it is taken out, and after scooping some milk, it is touched to the three legs of the cooking pot and the cauldron, after which the spoon with milk is carried around the cow's head and poured out2.
Kdkmээ — brain disease in sheep, when they spin in place3.
Tavup, or tamyrchi, — a healer who diagnoses illness by pulse4.
Synchi — a diviner, fortune-teller by face5.
Dalchi — a diviner by scapula6.
Tukurchu — a healer who charms away illness7.
Teepе — prayer beads (101 grains)8, consisting of three soku9.
Komos10 — a musical instrument.
Tolgo11 — 41 stones for divination about the future.
"Garba!" (Let it be healthy!), — shout the boys who are seated around the yurt by the bakshi during the healing process.
Bakshi's clothing. The bakshi wears a white robe. During the healing, he removes this robe and remains in a beshmet, tying a white cloth around his head.
The bakshi walks continuously around the sick person and sings words to a well-known tune, strikes him with his asa musa, compresses his chest and head, pierces him with a saber, and when he pulls it out, there are no marks left; he passes painlessly through fire.
The healing session lasts about three hours in the evening, between 7 and 12 o'clock.
The bakshi usually inherits his power, but this is not always the case.
Sick small children are wrapped for a time in the freshly removed skin of a goat or foal12.
In a rabid dog, there is a swelling on the tongue or palate, which, when it bursts, releases poison. If the swelling has not burst, the bite is safe. Treatment for a poisonous bite occurs as follows. If a rabid dog is caught, it is immediately burned, and the bitten person is placed in the smoke from the fire. Additionally, the victim is taken into forty yurts in turn, and in each yurt, he must bite the ear (handle) of an iron pot13, or: after killing this dog, its brain and middle are given to the bitten person to eat.
Dali — a sheep's scapula, by which the future is foretold: the meat is removed from the boiled scapula only with a knife, without touching with lips, and the future is immediately predicted.
Nazyr sadaqa — alms given by a duana14.
rч. Bolshoy Kebin
The son of the head of the bakshi. His brother was also a bakshi for 25 years. In 1919, during lunch, my interlocutor experienced a fog in his eyes, he lost his sight and lay unconscious. Then, as if everything started to pass, this person saw a rider who called him and said that he would make him wander for six months to a year, roaming among people, and then he would let him go, and he would become a normal person again. If during his wanderings he finds sick people, he must heal them, and the rider will help him. The rider was on a black horse, dressed in shabby, torn, colorful clothes, with large eyes, a crooked nose, and something like a papakha on his head, i.e., he looked like a human in every way. After this vision, the bakshi often fainted, and the rider constantly appeared to him. Then he began to go among people and heal the sick.
When he healed, he would chant:
Sу башында Сулайман, хак
Су айакда, Туркестан, хак
Арбаладан сактачи бир худа
Жезиракы жемингдир
Жетимакы жезенгдир
Жезиракы жезенгдир
Жетимакы жезендир
Бу дунъеде зорлук бар
Тиги дунъеде тенгдик бар
Адамакы жемендир
Адам етти жемендир
Арам етти жезиндир
Алданын кормбс жамалын
Мухаметтин емотемин дегендир
Имамамдын шапатамин дегендир
Улукларга тынш чылик
Арпаладан сахта гучу алла
Туркестанде туман бар, жак
Туркун, туркун сапарлар
Саклакучу бир алла
Тёбодегыл бенделыр
Кызарачыкан балангдан
Кара (ра) чыкан чаландан
Тодай кунен кечыргил
Тозок отым очургул
Кайур, кайур, кайур бар
Баладан сактагул
Жаладан саглаул
Узун емыр жаш берсын
Аллах Акбар.
(According to B. Soltonayev, this is a song of the duana, not the bakshi15.
The healing (kamlanie) lasted about an hour and a half in the evening. The rider appeared to the bakshi for help not during the session, but in a dream. Refusing to obey the rider's demands is not allowed, otherwise, one will fall ill, become lame, etc.
A female bakshi is called bubu. A man stops being a bakshi when he gets married (nothing is known about women)16.
The bakshi's outfit is ordinary but shabby. Special attributes: asa-musa and chanač on his back.
There was a tulku-bakshi17, who sent his djinns to harvest ripe barley, and they injured all their hands on the spikes and could not fulfill the task.
In the sick person, two djinns fight — his own and a hostile one. The outcome of the struggle determines the health condition of the sick person.
Divination by pouring molten lead was practiced by bubu (female bakshi), and they would throw fat into the fire18.
Uzguč19 — a healer who treats headaches: he kneads the patient's head, pulling the pain to the area between the eyebrows, then pinches the skin in that place and, squeezing hard, jerks it.
Telup — a healer who treats with various simple remedies (gives water to drink, etc.).
The bakshi and his attributes: asa-musa — a stick made from the same-named tree, with a sharp point at the end. With this stick, the bakshi strikes the sick person.
Comments:
1 According to the beliefs of the Kazakhs, female demons called albarsty periodically try to steal the souls of people who are in a light state (Essays on the History of Folk Medicine in Kazakhstan. Almaty, 1978. p. 22).
Perhaps this is why the method of treatment with the freshly removed lungs of an animal aimed to deceive the albarsty by substituting the soul of the slaughtered animal for the sick person's soul.
2 The hearth and cauldron among Turkic peoples are symbols of stability and prosperity, protectors and guardians of the life of the clan, family (Traditional Worldview of the Turks. I. pp. 136—147) and the main wealth of a nomad — livestock. The second and third methods of treating livestock are apparently more related to the hope that the deity of the hearth will help heal the livestock.
3 Kёkmёё or kёkmээ — "spinning", a disease of livestock, mainly sheep and cattle, characterized by spinning of the head (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 418).
4 Tavup — a physician, healer (as opposed to a doctor), tamyrchi — a healer who determines illness by pulse (from tamyr — blood vessel, pulse). See about this: Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. pp. 686, 700.
5 Synchi — According to K.K. Yudakhin, an expert on the combat qualities of horses, eagles, greyhounds (from syn — testing, expertise; internal quality, virtue). See about this: Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 679.
6 Dalchi, dalychi — a diviner by sheep scapula (from daly — scapula). See about this: Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 183.
7 Tukurchu (from tukur — to spit) — a healer who treated snake and poisonous insect bites with a "healing" spit or breath. See about this: Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 779.
8 Teepе — this word is not in K.K. Yudakhin's dictionary.
9 Soku — this word is not in K.K. Yudakhin's dictionary.
10 More precisely, komuz — a three-stringed plucked musical instrument (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 400).
11 Tolgo — divination by stones or on the alchik of a roe deer (formerly, mainly) before going on a campaign (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 757).
12 A fairly common method of treating the sick among the Turks in general. The sick person was wrapped in the skin of a freshly slaughtered goat or sheep with the fur against the body to induce heavy sweating (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 244).
13 See about this method of treatment in the section "Rituals related to the birth and upbringing of a child".
14 Nazyr-sadaqa — from nazyr — "vow, sacrifice or offering with a pious purpose" and sadaqa — "expiatory or thank-offering to drive away the spirit of illness, from the evil eye, etc." (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. pp. 550, 620).
15 "At the beginning of the waters, Suleiman, truth, truth (hak — also used as an epithet of Allah).
At the end of the waters, Turkestan, truth.
For the exhausted, the guardian is one God.
The lot of widows is poor, the lot of orphans is poor.
Protect the lot of widows, protect the lot of orphans!
In this world — violence, in that world — equality.
The lot of man is bad (heavy).
It is very bad for a person.
A person must be protected very much.
Condemn the one who deceived the blind.
Say that this is the positive influence of Muhammad.
Say that this is the mercy of the imam.
We wish great peace (tranquility).
Protect from life's troubles, O Almighty Allah!
In Turkestan, there is an innumerable army (or fog, cloud), truth.
Diverse travels (or paths-roads).
Protect strength, One Allah!
Repent, O servants of God!
You blush because of your children, you darken because of slander.
Live a long life, extinguish my hellfire!
There exists good, alms, charity.
Protect from misfortune! Protect from slander!
May the Great Allah grant you long years!"
Apparently, the informant B. Soltonayev is right, this song, judging by its content, resembles more a dervish song than that of a bakshi.
The prophet Suleiman (Solomon) mentioned at the beginning of the song is considered the father, the guardian of waters (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 666).
16 According to T.D. Bayalieva, a male bakshi could marry and have children. A female bakshi (bubu), on the contrary, had no right to marry (Bayalieva T.D. Pre-Islamic beliefs and their remnants among the Kyrgyz. Frunze, 1972. pp. 130—131).
17 Tulku-bakshi — a cunning, sly bakshi (from tulku — "fox").
18 Fat was thrown into the fire to appease the spirit of fire (see note 43 in the section "Wedding rituals").
19 Uzguč — from uz "to tear, to break" (Yudakhin K.K. Op. cit. p. 816).
Agriculture and hunting. Ritual life of the Kyrgyz in the early 20th century
