The tally stick for counting songs was a must-have for the bear festival. The indigenous peoples of Siberia held the festival after harvesting a bear. This tally stick was donated to the museum by the ethnographer, Doctor of Historical Sciences Nadezhda Lukina. She was a guest of honor at a real Khanty Bear Festival near the Yugan River.

For the Khanty, Selkups, and Evenks, bear hunting was part of the national bear festival. In Siberia, including the Tomsk region, the indigenous peoples performed this ritual from ancient times to the 20th century.

The bear was regarded as the ancestor and totem, the son of the supreme god Torum. The Khanty believe that if a bear gets on its hind legs and shows its belly, then it succumbs to the hunter. This means that a deceased relative wants to come to the festival and visit his family so he is reborn as a bear. So the hunters believed that they did not kill the bear, but rather fulfilled the deceased relative’s special request. This person was not afraid of death, because he was to be reborn again.

After the hunt was over, the bear was brought to the village with great honors. Its meat was cooked in large cauldrons, and the hide with head and paws was placed on a special platform. The animal’s head was decorated with beads. A special treat of berries and cakes in a birchbark box was placed in front of the bear. The hunter sat at some distance and said: ‘It was not me who killed you, the others killed you.’

Guests were invited to the bear festival. To honor of the animal, more than two hundred songs, dances and sketches were performed. The meat had to be eaten in the right way, in compliance with the traditions. Before the meal, both guests and hosts smeared the tips of their noses with charcoal and drew a line along the neck. Sometimes, during this ritual, they imitated crows making croaking sounds. Besides, there was a number of prohibitions at the bear festival. For example, women were not allowed to eat meat from the animal’s upper part.

One of the first festival songs was performed on behalf of the bear — it told about the bear’s heavenly origin and the celebration held to honor it. The beginning was as follows: ‘At the great Torum the father”s, where the waters of golden winds flow, inside his house, with powerless hands, a small beast, with powerless legs, a small beast, I lived.’ This song was performed by a man in a special costume. The ceremony was carried out so that the bear would not hold a grudge and would come back reborn.

At that moment, the first notch was made on the tally stick for counting songs. The tally is a four-sided block of wood with a bear’s head carved out at one end. It was divided into five parts with special notches: they denoted five days and nights during which the festival lasted. Side notches were made to mark the number of songs, scenes, and dances that were performed at the celebration.

The bear’s bones were buried in the forest after the festival. The animal’s skull was hung on a tree or wrapped in a scarf and hidden in a sacred chest.