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Mircea Eliade - The Yakut and Buryat Smith
Identifier
010958
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
According to Yakut myths, the smith received his craft from the ‘evil’ divinity K’daai Maqsin, the chief smith of the underworld. He lives in an iron house, surrounded by fired slag iron. K’daai Maqsin is a famous master; it is he who repairs the broken or amputated limbs of heros. He sometimes takes part in initiating the famous shamans of the other world, by tempering their souls as he tempers iron....
The Buryat also have ‘black smiths’ who daub their faces with soot for certain ceremonies; the people are particularly afraid of them. The smiths’ tutelary gods and spirits do not merely help them in their work, they also defend them against evil spirits