Bear songs
The article analyzes the songs dedicated to the bear, which are performed during bear merrymaking - the rites held on the occasion of the bear's prey. The records made in the 1990s by the Khants of the upper reaches and at the mouth of the Kazym river have become the material for the study. The paper presents the folk typology of bear songs. The author reveals the General and different in the order of performance and content of bear songs in the Ust-Kazym and upper-kazym variants of merrymaking. Stories about the origin of the bear and the origin of bear ceremonies are a common fund of bear songs of the Northern Ob Ugric peoples. Bear songs are being examined in the context of similar texts recorded at different times in neighboring territories and among close peoples and then compared with works of other folklore genres and current beliefs. Person acts as the Creator of Holy places and the initiator of new traditions in bear merrymaking.