Among the Buryats of southern Siberia, it is thought that "the dead ancestors who were shamans choose from their living kinsfolk a boy who is to inherit their power. This child is marked by signs; he is often thoughtful, fond of solitude, a seer of prophetic visions, subject, occasionally, to fits, during which he is unconscious. The Buryats believe that at such a time the boy's soul is with the spirits, who are teaching him; if he is to be a white shaman, with the western spirits; if he is to be a black shaman, among the eastern spirits." Usually, the youth does not enter upon his duties until he has reached his twentieth year (504.87). The tribes of the Altai believe that "the ability to shamanize is inborn; instruction only gives a knowledge of the chants, prayers, and external rites." There is in early life an innate tendency to sickness and frenzy, against which, we are told, the elect struggle in vain (504.90): "Those who have the shamanist sickness endure physical torments; they have cramps in the arms and legs, until they are sent to a _kam_ [shaman] to be educated. The tendency is hereditary; a _kam_ often has children predisposed to attacks of illness. If, in a family where there is no shaman, a boy or a girl is subject to fits, the Altaians are persuaded that one of its ancestors was a shaman. A _kam_ told Potanin that the shamanist passion was hereditary, like noble birth. If the _kam's_ own son does not feel any inclination, some one of the nephews is sure to have the vocation. There are cases of men becoming shamans at their own wish, but these _kams_ are much less powerful than those born to the profession." Thus the whole training of the _kam_ from childhood up to exercise of his official duties is such as "to augment his innate tendencies, and make him an abnormal man, unlike his fellows." When fully qualified, he functions as "priest, physician, wizard, diviner." _Moses_. Of the childhood of Moses Oriental legend has much to say. One story tells how the daughter of Pharaoh, a leper, was healed as she stretched out her hand to the infant whom she rescued from the waters of Nile. Well thus resumes the tale (547.122):--