“One of the most fascinating aspects of shamanism for the student of epic poetry is the initiation of the shaman through sickness and dreams,” writes Karl Reichl in his Turkic Oral Epic Poetry. “These visions are paralleled by the initiation which epic singers experience in many traditions.”
The recollections of Džanïbay Kodžekov, a Kyrgyz singer:
One day I went to Qočqor and fell asleep on the way. Suddenly I saw in my dream three riders riding along with lances, on whose points fires were burning. One of them pierced me with a spear and carried me away on it. The lance went through me, but its point continued to have a burning fire as before. The riders told me that such a punishment was conferred on me, because I didn’t continue the work of my fathers. Then the riders started to prepare food.
I turned to them with the question: “You are supernatural, aren’t you, and not real people?”
To this one of them gave the answer: “I am Semetey, and these are Külčoro and Qančoro [heroes of the epic].”
I would have liked to eat the food prepared by them, but Qančoro ate it all up; because of this there arose a fight between him and Külčoro. Finally Qančoro brought me fresh food; this was millet. He poured the grains into my mouth and I swallowed them. The grains were džomoq [heroic tales]. He poured a lot of them into me.
I regained consciousness in my own house, being ill. I was ill for a long time. After my recovery I went into the mountains and there I began to recite Manas to myself, but after some time I recited the epic also in front of a big crowd of people. This is how I became a manasčï [a singer of Manas].
(as collected by Raisa Zaitovna Kydyrbaeva)
Altaic Storytelling 