Mountain-Person Bear

Culture-hero/mediator tier (classed as demigod: a sacred animal-person, not a free deity). Chxyf is the Nivkh word for bear. The bear festival is the keystone of Nivkh religion; the festival bear is treated as honored kin and as the envoy of Pal-yz'.

Parentage

• Master of the Mountain

Domains

• mediation with spirits
• the bear festival

Powers

• carries the people's gifts and message back to the mountain god
• secures continued game and luck in exchange for honor

Relations

• companion: Master of the Mountain

Sources

• Lev Shternberg, The Social Organization of the Gilyak, ed. Bruce Grant, 1999
• Cambridge, Business History Review, 'The Nivkh People's Sustainable Bear Hunting Enterprise, 17th–20th Centuries'