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.
„They go on, they go on, lo! the three brothers Reach a big pine-tree, grown at the creation of the earth, at the creation of waters. „In order to fell the pine, lo! TarjäimKhorjäim with the axe in his hand Jumps out of the sleigh with striped sides and three ani7nals." The pine-tree warns the hero not to harm it. However, he does not abstain from it. Therefore the tree curses him: ,, . . . If you hew me now, You will be hewn too, as you go to the battle!" But the hero does not heed these words: „So he began to cut the standing pine, grown at the creation of the earth, at the creation of waters." 1 ^ The curse ot the pine-tree works, but the brothers of the hero, felling the tree, precede him in dying. The whole story reminds us of the circumstances of Enkidu' s death according to the Sumerian story. 9. Gilgamesh and Enkidu slew the heavenly bull after a hard struggle. This legend is found also in the Sumerian sources of the epic. 50 Let us adduce as an analogy that both the fragmentary relics of Shamanism and original beliefs generally contain a fight of the shamans with bulls, often in the shape of bulls. 51 This is especially well noticeable in the beliefs preserved by Hungarian folklore. (We have to emphasize that the traces of Hungarian Shamanism, though survivals only, have conserved at least one thousand years old popular beliefs.) We cannot omit to mention that Enkidu is presented both by the texts 52 and representations 53 as a bullman. The epic also records Gilgamesh's appearance in the shape of a bull: 514 „Gilgamesh and Enkidu Grappled each other, Holding fast like bulls;" 55 49. B. MUNKÁCSI: Vogul Népköltési Gyűjtemény П'2. Budapest 1&92) pp. 341, 236. 50. S, N. KRAMER: JAOS 64 (1944) p. 15; M. WIT'ZEL: OLZ 34 (1931) pp. 402-*40a. 51. V. DIÓSZEGI: Ethnographia 63 (1962) and id.: A sámánhit emlékei . . . pp. »8, 342, seqq. 52. H. FRANKFORT: op. cit. pp. 63^64; e. g. in the text oí Tablet II, being of Old Babylonian origin: II. ii. 11—IS. In this late period, however, his figure does not show the features clearly which reveal that he used to be imagined or depicted as an animal. 53. H. FRANKFORT: op. Cit. pp. 61, 64. 54. Ibid. p. 64 and ANET. I. ii. 8 or I. ii. 20, respectively. It is impossible to suppose that the quoted text uses the simile of a bull merely as a symbolical expression, trying to convey the fierceness of the battle. For the rest, this could have been done by the representation of the single combat of a Hon with a bull (etc.), a frequent motive in the Ancient East. Having slain the bull of Heaven, the victors are jeering at Ishtar, nay probably at Inanna too. 53 An allusion to an event of 1746 will not be perhaps anachronistic: in a Siberian village the priests of the shamanistic people, the shamans, mocked, at the conquering Orthodox religion by slaying a bull in a special manner and an obscene play. 57 All the performance is strongly reminiscent of the way in which Ishtar was derided. Summarizing the parallels quoted above, we may fing certain analogies between the details of the Sumerian tablet and the customs and beliefs of Shamanism. This is worth our attention mainly because is is no coincidence. Parallels cannot be found as regards some isolated details only but almost to each detail of the text. Basing our conclusions on he customs of shamanistic peoples, we are able to reconstruct a process similar to that contained in the Sumerian tablet, from the creation of the tree to the fall of the drum into the Nether World. Also such details are added to these parallels which have existed both in the Sumerian text and the shamanistic opinions of the recent past, without being derived from the beliefs of ancient Shamanism. Such are the female living in the tree (Lilith) and the snake in the first place. On the other hand, the idea of the eagle is an old attribute of Shamanism in all probability. Even if we wanted to, we could not look for the development of the belief of an eagle perching on a tree in Southern Mesopotamia. 58 Besides those enumerated above, further analogies may be recognized if one investigates a detail of the Sumerian tablet, unheeded so far; namely that the tree, used for the production of a drum and a drumstick for Gilgamesh furnishes the material for a sacred bed and a throne for Inanna at the same time. This has such a near parallel in the tale of a Samoyedic ethnical group that we are induced to quote it in detail: The translation „ox" cannot be called a very fortunate one, regarding Gilgamesh who has chased the girls of" his city: ANET pp. 73— Щ. 55. ANET p. 78, II. vi. 19—21. 56. ANET p. 85, VI. 1161—165. 5i7. B. MUNKÁCSI: Vogul Népköltési Gyűjtemény H/1. (Budapest 1910) p. 359 58. L. STERNBERG: AfR 28 (1930). In his view the cult of the eagle penetrated the body of beliefs of numerous peoples but the complex of its typical features is only found with the Siberian peoples, being an ancestral heritage (p. 150). For the rest, he looks for the origin of the component ,,eagle + world tree" near the Persian Gulf. 3. Alba Regia 33
