  The white and black shamans, the Buryat say, fight with each other, hurling axes at one another from distances of hundreds of miles. The white shaman serves the West tengeri and West khats, and has charge of the ceremonies held at birth, marriage, &c. He wears a white coat and rides a white horse. A famous white shaman was Barlak of the Balagansk district, at whose grave his descendants still go to worship.
The black shaman serves the tengeri and khats of the East. These shamans are said to have power to bring illness and death upon men. They are not liked, but much feared, by the people, who sometimes kill black shamans, to such a point does this dislike develop. [1] The grave of a black shaman is usually shaded by aspens, and the body is fastened to the earth by a stake taken from this tree. 
