Irina cures sick children by massaging them or performing a special ritual of pouring hot lead into a cup with water. When children are sick they have the following symptoms: they cry, have headaches, throw their head back, rub their eyes, have a diarrhea and twitch. Irina measures her patients’ head with a thread and then massages it while reading mantras and asking gods to help. She uses children’s cream to massage them, although in the past Kalmyks used butter instead. Before becoming a healer, Irina suffered from poor health from her childhood. In Siberia, she spent two years in a hospital. When her family returned to Kalmykia, she started seeing gods and white horses in her dreams. She also flew in her dreams, as she recalls, ‘like a bird’. Later she underwent several surgeries. One day Irina went to see Tuvan Dorj, a Buryat lama in Elista, and told him about her dreams. Tuvan Dorj explained to her that it was gods who were asking her to start curing sick people. Irina’s first patient was the granddaughter of her neighbor. When she cured the girl, Irina’s intense dreams stopped. Irina usually cures her relatives and interprets dreams. Here are some dream interpretations that she provides: If you see your deceased parents, you should perform a ritual of offering to your parents; if someone gives you something, it is a good omen; if you see clear water, you will hear good news; if you see horses or dogs, it is also a good sign; if you see meat, it is a bad omen; if you see a snake, this means you have special abilities; if you see a bird knocking on your door – some of your relatives are going hungry. Irina says that in the past the Kalmyks paid more attention to signs and omens, whereas today less so. Here are examples of some bad omens: When children look at the sky and cry; when during a song someone moos like a cow. Irina says that many people in her family have special gifts. Her grandmother not only cured people but also could foretell the future with a rosary. Irina’s grandfather could interpret dreams. Irina’s mother also had healing abilities: she cured tuberculosis with a special concoction made from milk and copperas and could set dislocated bones in the right place. One day, Irina recalls, her husband fell ill and began to laugh. Irina took him to see her grandfather who asked her husband, ‘Did you hunt saiga antelopes?’ to which her husband replied in the affirmative. Since saiga antelopes were considered to be god’s animals, Irina’s husband was chased by evil shulmus-spirits, was her grandfather’s verdict. On another occasion, the car in which Irina and her husband were travelling hit and killed a saiga antelope. Irina immediately sent her husband to her grandfather to ask what to do with the corpse. Her grandfather advised that the meat should be cooked and given to the workers. The antelope was sent by god to feed people. Traditionally, saiga’s meat is used as a medicine. In the past, when someone was ill for too long, the people who lived in the same nomadic encampment were given small portions of saiga’s meat. The same can be said about doves. It is forbidden to kill this bird. Its meat, however, is also believed to have medicinal properties. Irina’s grandfather used dove’s meat for medicinal purposes. In traditional medicine the following are considered to have medicinal properties: beef soup, wolf’s bile, ground squirrel’s meat or fat, dog’s meat, saiga’s fat and raccoon’s fat. For example, ground squirrel’s meat or fat is believed to be good for tuberculosis. People suffering from forgetfulness or amnesia were traditionally treated with a wolf’s claw by sewing it into their pockets. The claw of a wild boar or a cat were also used as a protection from evil and envy.