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<P align="justify"> The reindeer, both wild and (semi-) domesticated, has been an important animal in the Saami economy ({{Artikkelilinkki|0829|wild Reindeer}}; {{Artikkelilinkki|0803|semi-domesticated Reindeer}}). It has also had a considerable cultural significance as a common sacrificial animal, but it has not been the object of the same kind of cult as the bear ({{Artikkelilinkki|1054|Bear cult}}), at least among all the Saami. Nevertheless, the wild reindeer plays an important role in some birth myths, and there is also an eschatological astral myth connected with it. </P> <P align="justify"> People were exhorted to treat the reindeer and its remains with respect in order to ensure good fortune in herding. In many cases, this was based on a belief about the principle of life being connected with bones ({{Artikkelilinkki|1057|Soul}}), and thus it was ultimately a question of ensuring the cycle of life of creatures. For example, if the skeleton of a reindeer was found on the fells, the bones had to be collected and laid out under a bush in their proper order; this custom is still sometimes adhered to. Generally, it was forbidden to destroy a reindeer s bones, for example, by burning them; rather they had to be buried or given to the dogs. </P> <P align="justify"> A white reindeer ({{Artikkelilinkki|0420|<I>Valkoinen peura</I>}}) was a propitious animal for reindeer herders, and every reindeer owner had to have one in his herd to ensure good fortune in his livelihood; often they were considered to be descended from the cattle of the earth spirits. The white reindeer, whether wild or domesticated, was also an important sacrificial animal for propitiating the higher gods like <I>Radien</I> (the {{Artikkelilinkki|1058|Sky God}}) and <I>Bieggagállis</I> (the {{Artikkelilinkki|1059|God of the Winds}}). The genitals of domesticated reindeer were also sacrificed to <I>Radien</I> because he was considered the ultimate upholder of order in the world and consequently the guardian of fortune in reindeer herding. The {{Artikkelilinkki|1067|Sun}} (<I>Beaivi</I>) and the {{Artikkelilinkki|1003|Moon}} (<I>Mannu</I>) were also thought to be instrumental in the well-being of reindeer. Sacrifices were made to the Sun for prosperity in reindeer herding, while in some places the Moon was ritually honoured in December to ensure his aid at calving time. </P> <P align="justify"> Both wild and domesticated reindeer were popular sacrificial animals in <I>sieidi</I> cults and other rituals. A reindeer that was sacrificed to the lower gods had to be dark in colour, or at least a strand of dark wool was threaded through its ear. In the <I>siedi</I> cult, the thread was red and in sacrifices made to the {{Artikkelilinkki|1038|Thunder God}} it was grey. In sacrificial rituals made by an individual person to ensure success in his livelihood it was frequently sufficient to sacrifice the antlers, or for example a <I>sieidi</I> stone might be smeared with the fat of a wild reindeer, but major annual communal rituals and rites performed in a crisis resulting from an accident or adversity generally required the sacrifice of the whole animal.</P> <P align="justify"> In western Saami cosmogonic myths, the Sun is the original father of mankind, but also a cult hero who introduced the hunting and domestication of wild reindeer and reindeer herding. These myths have been encoded in long epic episodes, the best known of which is called Peive-parnen Suongoh Jettanasi ilmin. The Son of the Sun Goes a-Wooing in the Land of the Giants (Anders {{Artikkelilinkki|16158|Fjellner}}). According to this legend, the Saami are the descendants of a marriage between the Son of the Sun and the Daughter of the Giant; pleased with this union, the Sun gave the couple the first herd of wild reindeer as a kind of dowry and taught his son to hunt the reindeer. Wild reindeer and the skill of hunting them are therefore derived from the Sun. In the eastern Saami tradition, on the other hand, either the Sun himself or his son marries a human wife. From the union, the Daughter of the Sun is born, and she marries a poor reindeer herder; it is from this union that the Saami people are descended. According to the eastern Saami version, too, wild reindeer are derived from the Sun. </P> <P align="justify"> According to western Saami astral mythology, the children (<I>Gállabártnit</I>) of the Son of the Sun and the Daughter of the Giant were celestial elk hunters on skis who chase an elk in the form of a constellation called <I>Sarva</I>, which according to Johan {{Artikkelilinkki|1652|Turi}} was composed of Cassiopoeia, Perseus and part of the constellation of Auriga, while the <I>Gállabártnit</I> were the stars composing the Belt of Orion. This celestial hunting drama has a cosmic, eschatological dimension: when the heavenly skiers finally catch their prey, the world will end. Thus the wild reindeer features both in the origins and in the end of mankind; this animal which helps to maintain life appears along with the birth of the human race, and when it disappears life itself ends. There is an eastern Saami story about {{Artikkelilinkki|1084|<I>Meandash</I>}}, the mythical reindeer man of the dawn of the world. His mother was a female shaman ({{Artikkelilinkki|1051|Shamanism}}). He was able to turn himself into a wild reindeer, once when he was in this metamorphosis he was covered by a bull reindeer. <I>Meandash</I> lived with his mother in a lodge made from reindeer bones and hides and his abode was separated from the world of man by a bloody river. Inside his lodge, he assumed a human form but outside it he was a wild reindeer. When he grew up, he wished to marry a human wife. His mother opposed this because a human could never be as pure as he was. However, he got his way, and his children were born as humans but later they were changed into wild reindeer calves because their mother broke a taboo against leaving hides that had been soiled by the children inside the lodge. The reindeer man himself was condemned to remain in his reindeer form for ever and to flee to the tundra. Left alone, the wife re-married, but her new husband was a poor hunter. <I>Meandash</I> took pity on his family and offered to bestow good hunting fortune on the husband if the latter would kill him and divide the meat among his relatives. By bestowing good fortune in hunting on the mate of the Ur-mother, <I>Meandash</I> taught the whole Saami people how to hunt wild reindeer. <I>Meandash</I> s wife and her new husband became the progenitors of the Saami people. The wife maintained a special relationship with <I>Meandash</I>, the guardian divinity of wild reindeer hunting. By sleeping inside the hide of the reindeer man she was able to obtain half his soul and travel as a wild reindeer over the fells. The myth thus emphasizes the close relationship between humans and the wild reindeer,the fine border between man and animal. Some rock drawings in the Kuola Peninsula can be interpreted as being connected with the legend of <I>Meandash</I>, or at least generally with the close connection between the wild reindeer and man. </P><BR><BR>
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