The totem pole of the tiger between the Hezhe

The tiger is one of the totem poles most spread between the Hezhe, second in popularity only after the bear. There are numerous stories that they relate to the tiger to the Hezhe.

Close to Jabarovs it circulates this history: "Long ago there was a girl who in the deepest of the forest met a tiger and pairing off with him it turned into his wife. It had a son whom it called Akejinka, which there means "born of the tiger". When this son grew it turned into a big hunter, a woman took and it had with her numerous children, who gave place to a clan which members are considered to be all his progeny, and therefore also of the tiger. That's why the people of the clan of Akejinka are not afraid of the tiger, not even the tigers hurt them. If, on having gone out of fighter, they are a tiger, it is enough to them to remain idle."

Other stories narrate like a couple that belonged to the clan of the tiger it gets lost in the forest, and without anything that to eat they are on the point of dying of famine. When they ask his ancestors for help they are saved by a tiger that it salts of the forest with a deer in the mouth.

Another story speaks about a tiger that marries a woman. The woman sees a man in a sleep. On the following day it enters the forest and finds a hut where it remains asleep, to discover that there is a tiger sleeping next to you. They narrate others as a hunter saves to a tiger of the pitfall in which it has fallen down, and is corresponded by the protection of this one.

The tiger is an animal with a deep symbolic meaning for the Hezhe. They think that the tigers come to the burials to weep for the dead persons.

That's why the Hezhe never hunt tigers. If they see his traces they give a detour. If they hurt to a tiger they realize a pardon ceremony. They never say his name.

More information: Xu Changyu. - Hezhe zu wenxue (The literature of the Hezhe). 1991

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