Yas Kemyalgn and Dalyn Shinj

In the past the vertebra of a sheep was used for divination. It was called kemyalgn. The shoulder blade was also used for divination. Before divination, the shoulder meat had to be eaten by old people. After divination the bone had to be broken with a middle finger. Those who could do so were considered good people. The shoulder blade is thin in the middle, which is where the bone starts to crack from.

Sandzhi Kalyaev was the first to write about yas kemyalgn. Performed at weddings, this genre consists of two people talking with each other about symbolic aspects of certain bones. According to the rule, one of them deliberately misinterprets a bone, and when asked by the other to repeat it, he says it correctly by uttering ‘Ebe, ebe, bi endurzhyazhv’ (Oh, oh, I was mistaken). According to N. Ubushaev, the word ‘ebe’ originally meant a woman or a mother. Therefore, this genre may have been originated in the period when the ancestors of Kalmyks lived in a matriarchal society.

Yas kemyalgn is mentioned in a fairy tale about ‘Yovgn Mergn Baatr’ (Hero the Walking Shooter). The fairy tale has an episode where the hero roasts saiga meat, and when he starts eating he discovers that one of the vertebrae has not been roasted properly, being covered with a blood vein. Since it was considered a bad omen to each such a piece of meat, the master of his fate asks the hero to compose a story about the bone.

In the past, if the groom’s people could not recount yas kemyalgn, they were fined with a horse. Today, by contrast, yas kemyalgn has lost its sacred meaning and people may say it incorrectly without consequences.

Boris talks about Kalmyk divination. This is his story:

Before doing divination with a rosary, one should read the mantra of Okn Tengri. First, hold the main bead of the rosary and roll the rosary on your hand arbitrarily. Then pinch an occasional bead and start counting every three beads. The number of remaining beads is used for divination: three beads means ‘it is closed’ (byutyu), two beads – ‘a road’ (khaalg), one bead – ‘a joy’ (bair). Next, read the mantra again, hold the rosary from its short side and count every three beads. To be sure, one needs to do the divination three times. For the third time, take a bead from the middle of the rosary. At the end, analyse all three results. For example, if two results are ‘one’ (a joy), and one is ‘three’ (closed), then this may be interpreted as a good result overall: despite obstacles, in the end everything will be alright.

The divination should be only performed early in the morning. Kalmyks traditionally did divination by using a stick or a rosary. By contrast, Tibetans used dice. Kalmyks used a sheep’s shoulder blade for divination rarely. This type of divination was used mainly to predict the upcoming winter. One should look at the shoulder blade by holding it against light and examining it. If the wide part of the shoulder blade is white, it means that the winter will be cold and snowy. If the blade has dark strips along its edges, the beginning of the winter will be muddy. I do not know the rest. Kalmyks used only sheep’s shoulder blade for divination, may be because the head of a sheep is used as an offering.

Ekaterina’s grandmother used to do divination on marriage prospects for girls. For this she used sheep’s shoulder blades and a dog. She would write the names of several girls on the blades and put them on the floor. Then she would let a dog in to pick up a bone. The first blade bone that the dog chose indicated which girl would marry first.

When the meat from ram’s shoulder was eaten, people used the shoulder blade for divination. Each protuberance had its meaning. Knowledgeable people would tell something by looking at them. I don’t know that. Then the head of the shoulder should be broken off in a special way. It was usually done by a man and if he did it he was regarded as wise, strong and powerful.