Legend about komus

There’s a legend in Altai: a hunter going along the wood, heard strange melodic sounds. It was a bear climbed up a dry larch, was pulling its chip and playing it. The hunter liked the sound and he made an instrument, which produced the same sounds. In this way comus (Altaian vargan) appeared.

The ancient shamans considered that there were three worlds: the upper, the medium, and the lower one, and that shaman can visit, using changing conscience conditions (trance). The shamans used this trance travels for obtaining power and information, and practiced different techniques to reach this state, including different instruments. The main instruments of shaman were tambourine and vargan. The tambourine was a Yin shaman instrument used for collective meditations. The vargan was a Yin shaman instrument, which helped to reach the changing conscience condition of a person playing it, and in a less degree of his audience. It is considered that comus scares away vile spirits and calls up protecting spirits and allies. The case of the comus is made from Siberian cedar, its form and ornaments stem from the original arts of the ancient tribes of the Scythian age.