Yiffiverse:Yega

Yaga (sing.), Yaga (pl.)

"whereas each human individual has a yega (designation of the soul among the Koyukon Indians) of its own, in animals and things these is one yega for each species, but not for each individual." Fr. J. Jett�, "Riddles of the Ten'a Indians." Anthropos 8, 1913.

The Yega ("picture," "shadow"), as the double is called, is "a protecting spirit, jealous and revengeful, whose mission is not to avert harm from the person or thing which it protects but to punish the ones who harm or misuse it."

These noble animals are compose races living under the control of an overlord, having their established social life, executing their migrations, and carrying out other modes of conduct not unlike governments of human societies

It is the yega who governs the destinies of his race, their return to the world after death, and their allotment as game food to the hunters.

They say that all animal, of every species have an elder brother, who is, as it were, the source and origin of all individuals, and this elder brother is wonderfully great and powerful

It is the guardian of the game that sacrifices its "Younger brothers" to the hunter's shot when the hunter is ritually pure and shows no cruelty to the slain animals.

Domistic Animals have no yega thats why humans can control them.

Notes

Jette (1911) discussed whether there were both individual yega for each individual animal, and/or a yega for the whole species or class like fish. This second kind of yega would be like the Bosses or Masters of Game of other tribes. Failure to treat the slain animal with proper respect might mean that the hunger could never kill another of its kind, for the creatures would hold aloof from him. In other cases, the offender, or some member of his family, would suffer fits or seizures

Jette (1911) On_the_superstitions_of_the_Tena_Indians_middle_part_of_the_Yukon_Valley_Alaska