Ancestor

Socio-mytho-ethnogenetic post.

It is known that one of the early phases of the evolution of religion is the totemic stage, when society (clan, tribe) mystically identifies itself with some kind of animal, less often - a plant. In particular, many ancient Rechan (and not only) tribes even believed that their ancestor was a certain beast - in such legends/myths he turned into a man, took some girl as his wife, and that’s it...

There are several views on these legends:

• The (dangerous) beast in this case appears as a deity, by becoming related to which a person falls under its protection. That is, an absolutely pure myth without any real background;
• connection with werewolfism (very doubtful, this will be discussed in future posts);
• mythical ancestor - some metaphysical being who actually took the tribe under its protection.

We would like to focus on the latest version, and here's why. The guy (apparently the same Motley from the earlier posts) describes his meeting with the Ancestor:

“...ko rd bѣ, both orsta velikago; Whether we speak to a human voice, we don’t answer our mouth. and yet again, I saw others once, and again a third time, and even more so, I didn’t kill him and never flowed with him.”

“Like a red (irbis) [he] was, but of great stature; as if he spoke to us with a human voice, but did not open his mouth. And when time passed, [I] saw him a second time, and then a third time, but I never met him again and never communicated with him.”

Then he describes how this same Ancestor carried him on his back, and a whole cloud of ordinary snow leopards accompanied him. So, if this is not some kind of creepy hallucination, this Ancestor resembles some... not quite corporeal creature, let's say. I won’t say anything categorically, because this is not my field, and I don’t know much about it - but... something like that.