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THE CULT OF THE Lorps OF EARTH AND WATERS cosmological description of a particular place in Mongolia are rare. Jigmedjamc told us that people called the Sutaa ridge King, and not Queen, as it ought to be called because of the gender of its genius Joci. It is an important data about the cosmological conception of the Mongols. Analysing Jigmedjamc’s narration in the context of mythologmes, there are both typical and atypical features. The morphology of the genii /oci of the most important natural phenomena in the closer and further surroundings of the Dsakhchins show a great variety. The Lama called them sibdg, “lord-spirit”, ejen “owner spirit” and sawdag “local spirit” as well. Even the same spirit was called by him by all the above mentioned terms. This data also testifies that the spirits and deities names may be referred to by various terms indicating originally differing groups (cf. Tib. sa bdag “lord(s) of a territory, local spirit” and Tib. gzhi bdag “lord(s) of settlements”. The term ejen is a collective designation of various kinds of spirits, protectors, ancestors, totems etc.'° According to the definition of the Buryat dictionary of shamanic and pre-shamanic terminology ejen, Bur. ezen means primarily “the lord or owner of something and is a summarising term, an epithet for all kinds of protector spirits: Bur. xad, ongon, zayan, noyon, zarin”’.'' Our Oirat informants used only the term ezen, ejen, sawdag, Sibdeg, and used them only for the protector spirits of places, earth, waters, woods, lonely trees and have never used these terms to denote the “lords” or “owners” of sicknesses, diseases, objects or animals. The Buryat material refers several times to the “lords”, “owners” of objects, wild animals and sicknesses.'? The Buryats regard even the Sun and Moon as having owner spirits that protect people and cattle.'* According to Hangalov’s records: the totemic birds like the eagle, the swan and the raven have their own ezen, too. Even some of the musical instruments, e. g. the xür “fiddle” have an owner spirit; it might play at nights on the xär and summon with its music other spirits (or souls); that is why Buryats break and throw away a xur that plays music — apparently — by itself at nights.'* Buryats think that forests have their owner-spirits, which live and hunt there. According to a Balaghan Buryat aetiological myth, once a hunter was lost and died of hunger, then he became the spirit owner of that forest he was lost in. This spirit is a tall, black man, who wanders in the forest, but sometimes sits down and cries. This cry is heard by the lost persons in the forest.!* The owner-spirit of the forest is imagined as an ordinary hunter, wearing a gun and a knife, like the other hunters.'° 10 Birtalan, Agnes: Die Mythologie der mongolischen Volksreligion, pp. 1029, 1040, 976-978, etc. Manzigeev, I. A.: Burjatskie Samanisticeskie i doSamanisticeskie terminy. Izdatel’stvo Nauka, Moskva 1978, p. 102. 2° Hangalov, M. N.: Sobranie Socinenij II. Burjatskoe KniZnoe Izdatel’stvo, Ulan-Ude 1960, pp. 30-31. 5 Hangalov, M. N.: Sobranie Socinenij I, p. 119. ‘4 Hangalov, M. N.: Sobranie Socinenij I, pp. 40-41, 90. 5° Hangalov, M. N.: Sobranie Socinenij I, pp. 78-79. 1% Hangalovy, M. N.: Sobranie Socinenij II, p. 34. 383
