Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 6.-7. 1965-1966 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1966)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: Some ancient sources to the Shamanism. VI–VII, 1965–66. p. 27–42. t. XV.

for the original form of this detail in the Ancient Near Est.

40 Of all these we may gather that immediately after the Creation the first tree began to grow on the banks of some water; then it was uprooted and transplanted to the place where it was destined to be the object of cultic acts. This wood serves for the manufacture of a drum and a drumstick. Thus the mentioned process has an analogous course both according to shamanistic belief and the data of the precursor of tablet XII. This is a very important conclusion. 5. As we have mentioned, Gilgamesh performs an act of magic by the help of the drum and the drumstick made of huluppu-wood. Probably the act of going into rapture is meant here. However, the outcry of a little girl prevents him in performing the act and both objects fall to the Nether World. Also this detail might be compared to analogous ones in the orbit of shamanistic beliefs. We cannot attribute much importance to this detail, however, since a generally accepted principle runs : „Mulieres in ecclesia taceant!". Females were forbidden to enter the sanctuaries of Kronos and Heracles as well.

41 6. The more interesting is the circumstance that the drum and the stick fall down into the Nether World. There is a known shamanistic belief which holds the shaman brings a drum from the Nether World back to this one. According the Avam-Samoyeds the shaman brings the ready drum back to this world after having obtained the blessing of the underworld god.

42 This statement makes us understand, why Gilgamesh was so keen on regaining his magic implements from the Nether Regions. Basically such beliefs were rooted in the precept demanding the drum and the drumstick of the black shaman (at least in the case of the mythical first shaman) to derive from the Nether World. Generally they must obtain the blessing of the underworld god (e. g. Erlik Chan). The peoples of Siberia call this blessing ,,the resurrection of the drum".

43 7. Several features remind us that some of the details of the Sumerian tablet, connected with Enkidu, may be illustrated with shaman40. Ibid. p. T5; id.: Der Baum des Lebens p. 57; M. ELIADE: op. cit. 247. 41. PHYLAKCHUS: fragm. 34; L. R. FARNELL: The Cuits of the Greek States I (Oxford 1096) p. 34; in Italy women were barred from the sacrifices offerred to Heracles: Macrobius: Sat. I. 12. 28; Aulus Gellius: XI. 6. 2; Plutarchos: De orig. gent. Rom. вв. 42. W. SCHMIDT: Der Ursprung der Gottesidee. DC. Die Asiatischen Hirtenvölker. (Münster

—

Freiburg 1049) pp. 386—398; T. LEHTISALO: Journal de la Soc. Finno— Ougr. 48 (1936—37) p. 5; M. ELIADE: op. cit. p. 50; H. underworld journey is (aimed at getting the blessing of FINDEISEN: op. cit. p. 118. With Altaian Tartars the the infernal Mng for the drum of the shaman. It is after this blessing that the proprietor brings it back istic parallels too. E. g. Gilgamesh gives detailed instructions to Enkidu as regards his behaviour in the journey to the Underworld and his stay there. As an analogy we may adducethe rule that the initiation of the shaman always demands the cooperation of at least another acting shaman.

44 The latter is bound to» explain to the person to be initiated, how he is to behave before and in course of his impending journey to the Nether World or to Heaven (according to his quality of a black or a white shaman), how he can succeed in attaining hisgoal, and what sort of danger is besetting him in the route. Should e. g. the candidate for the dignity of a shaman not comply with the prescriptions, he may easily be trapped in the Nether Regions,

45 just as it has happened to Enkidu. Before becoming a shaman, the candidate is plagued by diseases for a long time.

46 Also Enkidu has been ill before his death ( = his journey to the Underworld) for a considerable time.

47 Evidently it would be just a functionalist reasoning to suppose that the parallels of the Sumerian tablet bear out the election of Enkidu for the dignity of a shaman. As a matter of fact, it is Gilgamesh who performs charm with the drum. On the other hand we know that in course of the initiation of shamans a part of the men or shamans present, possibly one to three men are „doing shamanism" with the drum before the candidate.

48 This is the ceremony of „teaching" the drum, г. e. its first use. According to the Sumerian tablet it happened also at the occasion of the first use of the drum that the great loss befell the hero, that drum and stick were precipitated into the Nether World. 8. Gilgamesh hews, annihilates the tree from which the material for the drum and the drumstick was taken. But we know that it the tree, serving as material for the manufacture of the drum, becomes annihilated in course of carving out the necessary pieces, then not only the hero, felling the sacred tree, but alco his companions are believed to perish. In the words of a Mansi heroic poem Tarjäim-Khorjäim and his followers are treading the war-path : * to this world. According to V. DIÓSZEGI the shamanancestor of the clan has to bless the drum. Népközl. 4. 19519) pp. 227, 2311. One of the drums in question has been manufactured just of the wood of a willow: p. 229. 43. V. DOSZEGI: op. cit. p. 230. 44. H. FINDEISEN: op, cit. p. 69. 45. A. OHLMARKS : Studien zum Problem des Sohamanentitm. (Lund 1939) p. 154, 46. V. DIÓSZEGI: Népközl. 4 (1959) p. 23; Ibid. pp. 223—2:25; H. Nachtigall, ZfE 717 (19521) pp. 188-Ч193. 47. This is known, however, to later texts only: ANET, Tablet VII. On the other hand, Enkidu dies before the events of Tablet XII here. 48. V. DIÓSZEGI: Népközl. 4 (1959) pp. 34, 183—'184. 32