Who Taught the Snake to Fly? On the Display of Mythological Principles in the Bashkir Totemism
The goal of the article is to analyze heathen concept of the gigantic mythological creature - flying serpent (dragon) which was common among the ancient Bashkir tribes. This monster of the polytheism period was a connecting link between the World of the Living and the Upper and Lower Worlds of the deities. Having repulsive appearance of the dangerous monster (often hostile to the human beings), the dragon was considered at the same time as the deity of wealth and fertility. Members of one of the Western Bashkir tribes had the name of the gigantic serpent - Baradzha. The river, along which the tribe had settled, was also named after the serpent (Baradzh - Chishma = Sheshma). Apparently dragon was a worshiped totem animal of the Western Bashkirs who had later assimilated with the Tatars. According to the folk tales and legends, man-eating serpents lived on the territories of the many cities of the Volga region and the Urals (Kazan, Bilyar, Birsk, Ufa). Meanwhile, there was no any cult of usual snakes or serpents among the Bashkirs.