Little is known of the next levels.
A piece of information received from the Ljamin River says that the third
level is occupied by Russian and Tartar gods.
In the first level, there lives
Numi-Torum's youngest son Postajankt-iki - "the fast old man",
sometimes also called Sorni-iki - "the golden old man". If somebody
calls Postajankt-iki by his name, the god is said to jump startled 
high
up in the air and dash to look who had needed him to come so fast. And
woe betide you if you had called for him for no particular reason. He has
also an alternative name - Õi-shlapt-lah-hliotõ-iki - to be used when one
doesn't want to frighten him, especially at offerings. Sorni-iki rides
on the back of a white horse. Among the Mansis, the heavenly rider appears
also as Mir-susne-hum - "the man observing the world" (Gemujev,
Sagalajev, Solovjov 1989: 102). He was one of the best liked gods among
both the Hantis and as the Mansis. There are several reasons for that.
First, he is considered to be the forefather of the Mos tribe (Solokova
1971: 216). And second, he has several traits for which he is set to watch
over the world and its inhabitants. Among the Mansis, he is the main intermediary
between Numi-Torum and the humans (Gemujev, Sagalajev, Solovjov 1989: 157-158).
In the middle world there live human
beings, animals and other creatures. According to Semjon Pesikov, in the
days of the old there were "invisible human beings" - vonth-hluunkth
or hlunk - who lived together with ordinary humans. But at some time they
moved on to the heavens. An especially big "wave of migration"
was said to have taken place after the first time a woman went to the outer
space. Sprits and gods are believed to dislike that women are higher than
them. Formerly, women were forbidden to climb on high places and even to
step over fishing and hunting equipment. On the whole, there were many
taboos for women, not so much for their degradation as some of today's
feminists seem to think, but rather for their protection. Some of the prohibitions
were caused by the belief that the power of women was uncontrollable, especially
during the times of menstruation and pregnancy. Thus, they might have affected
the undertakings of men and changed the expected outcomes. A people living
wild in the nature, however, can not allow such things to happen.
The most important of the middle
world hlunks are usually the descendants of Numi-Torum. Numi-Torum has
seven sons and one daughter. According to some sources also the number
of his daughters is seven, but the first version is more widely spread.
He has also a whole lot of grandchildren and other descendants. His oldest
son is called As-iki or "the old man of the Ob". His domain is
the whole Ob River Basin. According to the Surguti District Hantis, each
god who is connected with a particular river, has under his control the
whole area from where waters flow to his river.
Of other middle world gods Kazõm-imi,
the daughter of Numi-Torum and Kaltash-anki, Numi-Torum's wife should be
mentioned. The figures of Kazõm-imi and Kaltashi-anki prove that Eliade's
statement as if only male gods were important among Middle and North Asian
nations is not completely true (Eliade 1974: 10). The goddess Gazõm-imi
is not only very important for the Kazõm Hantis, but also for the Obdorsk,
Ob and Surguti Hantis (Sokolova 1971: 217; Kulemzin 1984: 111). Also Kaltaš-anki
plays quite an important role in the life of the Hantis - Kaltaš is the
foremother of a whole phratry and the guardian of married women, women
in childbed and children.
An important figure in Hanti and
Mansi folk-belief is the bear. Old songs refer to the bear as the son (or
daughter) of Numi-Torum. At first, he lived in his father's house in the
heavens, but later settled on the earth. This story has many versions,
yet all emphasize the idea that the humans are descendants of the bear
(Karjalainen 1918: 387-389; Schmidt 1989: 195-197; VKK 3, 1991: 13). Also
the Baltic Finns consider the bear to be related to the humans (Waronen
1891: 70). After killing a bear the hunters must definitely organize a
bear festival.
In every river basin there is one
or more sacred places (jalpõn-ma in the Mansi language) (Karjalainen 1918:
185-186), which are similar to the sacred groves of other Finno-Ugric people.
Fishing, hunting and picking berries is prohibited there. Women are usually
forbidden to go there (Karjalainen 1918: 190). The sacred place is dedicated
to some god or spirit that is connected to the place. True, there is information
about some such places where these restrictions were not in force (Gemujev,
Sagalajev, Solovjov 1989: 4). There are usually storehouses for the storage
of
god dolls and other sacred objects in the sacred places. Each of such sacred
places has a master-caretaker (Karjalainen 1918: 239). This job is often
handed down from father to his eldest son, but it could be also given to
someone else if the “master” was considered unworthy of this job (Karjalainen
1918: 239). In the sacred places offerings are performed. An offering is
carried out when someone has for example had a dream where he is informed
of the need to perform an offering, or when some other sign is received.
A common offering ceremony is performed before the new year during either
the new or the old moon. In the beginning of the new year offerings must
be avoided (Anatoly Tevlin, Nize Sortõm, Vm 1995).
The lower world consists of seven
parts. Again, the information about it is incomplete. The lowest level
is occupied by Heini-iki (also called Kul-iki). He is the ruler of the
lower world and the master of all the sickness spirits. As a rule, Kul-iki’s
name was not mentioned, especially in the presence of the sick.