Examples of Tubyaku's Incantations

Helping spirit Hotarie:

Thereafter I'm going to say:
the God's unknown day,
the 1990th year today
when I'm meeting,
when I'm shamanising
before it's beginning -
if my incantation
is speaking truth,
let my children are being untouched
by Syrada god and Kotura god (the evil spirits).

Tubyaku is 
prepearing for ritual. Photo by H. Relve 1989.
Tubyaku Kosterkin is prepearing for séance, his son Leonid is speaking to father's helping spirits. His grandfather's shaman headgear before him is symbolising connection with the ancestors. Photo (60K) by H. Relve 1989.

You, the god who commands the day,
if I indeed have ever spent my nights
together with the sun who spins round today,
your warmth is turning back...
Briefly, I thought to say:
if I can rely safely on the
appearing of botfly maggots,
the appearing of fly maggots,
the appearing of gnat maggots
brought up by sunbeam,
then let my ready-to-blunder head
find the support for it's legs....

Yuri Sheikin is 
having a talk with Hotarie. Photo by H. Relve
Yuri Sheikin from Novosibirsk is having a talk with Hotarie. Photo (61K) by H. Relve 1989.

The Mother of bears, the Father of bears,
listen to me today.
The time when sunbeam is covered
you are using for sleep,
right is your going to rest....
While using your two like a reindeer team
we'll racing past all bad years
without losses.
Today it is right to say -
all the life of my children
is opened to the Water-eagle,
way of that kind, such a way.
My invasion is right -
the day, shrouded from me
will be opened by Hotarie the Water-stag,
the master of the water way...
But today, my dearest children,
if I'm really right
then in the direction of sunset you can,
they are saying, there you can
see a visible dark cloud.

Shaman crosier
The shaman crosier. Tubyaku used it at the séance in the same way as the drum has been used. Photo by H. Relve 1989.

God is my lord,
I don't know impure things.
All impure will be overcome by
Mikulushka the Iron Horse.
He is the lord of
thousands of stonemen,
of thousands of iron Russians,
of the birth of all machines....
These gods are working,
and with their working a strong law
is enforced like a stone,
is enforced like an iron....


Back to the Shamans from Kosterkin Family page