Olga Budzhalova, about shamans and a fortune teller

Abstract

Olga says that in the past there were both male and female shamans in Kalmykia who worshipped goats. Believed to be protected by deities of ‘the black side’, shamans performed black magic. In Elista, there lived a woman called Avga who was a shaman and who had six red goats. In general, people who are engaged in black magic not only tend to torment their close relatives but also go crazy themselves. However, after accepting the patronage of black deities, these people begin to cure others. One of Olga’s relatives, who lived in Bashanta, fell ill. No hospitals that they went to, no doctors that they saw could help her. At that time there was one old man in Zalivnoy who could do divination. In his youth he was a monk, but following the revolution had to disrobe. After seeing Olga’s relative, the old man determined the source of her illness: she had taken three ‘colourful’ and one ‘empty’ thing from someone. It turned out that the woman had indeed taken from her Russian neighbor three turkeys and an empty bucket. As soon as she returned these things to her Russian neighbor, the woman recovered.