MONGOLIAN BRANCH.
The peoples belonging to this ethnologic branch exhibit the
characteristics of the Yellow Race in the most prominent manner. They
are fond of a nomadic life, and have at different periods made wide
conquests; but they have, as a rule, become absorbed in the races they
have overcome. The Mongols are still, however, the rulers of the Chinese
Empire. They belong either to the Buddhist or to the Mahometan faith.
This branch is divided into three great families, analogous with the
differences in their language: the _Mongols_, the _Tunguses_, and the
_Turks_. We may add to them a fourth family, the _Yakuts_, for these
latter possess the physical characteristics of the Yellow Race, and
speak a Turkish dialect.
THE MONGOL FAMILY.
The most decided features of the Yellow Race are particularly prominent
in the _Mongol_ family. Its members have a larger head, a flatter face
and nose, and smaller eyes than those of the other families. They have a
broad chest, a very short neck, round shoulders, strong thick-set limbs,
short bow-legs, and a brownish-yellow complexion. The most nomadic of
the Mongol family live under the rule of the Russian and the Chinese
Empires.
Fig. 99 represents a Mongol Tartar.
Three principal nations are to be found in this family: the Kalmuks, the
Mongols proper, and the Burïats.
* * * * *
_Kalmuks._--M. Vereschaguine, in his “Journey in the Caucasian
Provinces,” has described the nomadic Kalmuks whom he met with on the
frontier separating the Caucasus from the district of the Cossacks of
the Don. Travelling villages are found on these dreary and monotonous
steppes. The habitations of which these villages are composed consist of
tattered tents. These contain, mixed up in an incredible confusion,
boxes, cases, lassoes, saddles, and heaps of rags. A hearth is the only
sign of a fireplace. During the heat of summer, the children of both
sexes, up to the age of ten, run about almost entirely naked. In winter,
in the midst of their terrible snowstorms, and when the thermometer is
below zero, they remain for days together huddled up in their tents
beneath heaps of their clothing.
[Illustration: 99.--A MONGOL TARTAR.]
A Kalmuk’s dress consists of a shirt, of a _bechmet_, of a wide pair of
trousers, of red leather boots, and of a square cloth cap with a broad
border of sheepskin fur, generally ornamented with an immense knob on
the top. The more wealthy wear into the bargain an ample and lengthy
dressing-gown. The women do not, like the men, wear a belt round their
shirt; their hair falls from beneath their cap in several plaits tied up
with ribbons of different colours.
Cunning, trickery, fraud, and theft, are the staple occupations of these
nomadic tribes. The mother supports her child without the father
troubling himself about it, and it grows up in a state of neglect.
The food of the Kalmuks is extremely primitive. Boiled flour, diluted
with water and cooked up with pieces of horseflesh, forms the staple of
their culinary art. They are fond of tea, and drink a great deal of it,
but they season it so highly as to entirely lose its flavour. They are
downright drunkards into the bargain, and in this respect the women and
the children are not a whit behind the men. They sometimes spend whole
days in gambling with greasy and ill-assorted cards.
The Kalmuks are capital horsemen. They also breed and break-in camels,
which they sell in the Tiflis market.
* * * * *
_Mongols proper._--The Mongols proper, or the Eastern Mongols, wander in
the steppes of Mongolia. They are divided into numerous tribes, of which
the most important have received the name of _Khalkas_.
Mongolia may be divided into two parts, as distinct by their political
proclivities as by the nature and produce of their soil.
The southern part, an arid district, is only inhabited in the vicinity
of the Chinese frontier, where numerous tribes of Mongol origin, direct
tributaries of the Chinese Empire, are to be found. The northern
division, entirely populated by Khalkas tribes, is fertile.
The Khalkas are subdivided into two castes: the Buddhist priests, and
the black men who allow their hair to grow. The latter possess an
aristocracy, leading like the rest a pastoral life, from whom are
selected the chiefs of the tribes, chosen by election. The Khalkas could
bring into the field at least fifty thousand horsemen; but they are
wretchedly armed with worthless Chinese double-edged sabres. These are
notched or spiral-shaped. Their other weapons are short spears, arrows,
matchlocks with queer-shaped breeches, shields stuffed with sheets of
leather, and coats of wire mail.
The life of a wandering Khalkasian is very uneventful. He begins his day
by going round his flocks, and mounted on a horse which is never
unsaddled, and which has spent the night fastened to a stake at the door
of his tent, he gallops after the animals that have strayed away; then
he bends his steps to a neighbouring camp to gossip with the herdsmen it
contains. Returning home, he squats in his tent for the remainder of the
day, and kills time by sleeping, drinking tea diluted with milk or
butter, or by smoking his pipe; while his wives draw water, milk the
cows, collect fuel, make cheese, or prepare wool and the skins of
various animals for clothes and shoes.
The Khalkas, hospitable and sober, possess the primitive virtues of the
Yellow Race; but they are unacquainted with either commerce or
manufactures. The only things they produce are felt stuffs, a little
embroidery, and some poorly tanned skin and leather. They dispose of
their raw produce to Russian and Chinese traders, who cheat them as much
as they can. The payments are made in blocks of tea, five blocks being
an equivalent to one ounce of Chinese silver. This tea is composed of
the coarsest kind of leaf and of the small twigs of the herb.
The dull and contemplative existence of the Khalkasian has few events to
interrupt it. It is broken only by a pilgrimage, by a funeral followed
by long festivities, by the arrival of a few travellers, or by a
marriage. This last is, as among the ancient patriarchs, only a species
of barter in which the girl is sold by her father to the highest bidder,
and is an excuse for a week’s rejoicing, in which all concerned revel in
orgies of meat, tobacco, and rice brandy.
* * * * *
_The Burïats._--Miss Lisa Christiani, in the course of her travels in
eastern Siberia, received the chiefs of some Burïat tribes who had made
known their desire to pay her their respects. She met on the following
day, on the banks of the Selinga, an escort, sent by the Burïats in her
honour, composed of three hundred horsemen, dressed in splendid satin
robes of various colours, and wearing pointed caps trimmed with fur;
they carried bows and arrows in their shoulder-belts, and bestrode
richly caparisoned horses (fig. 100). It was in this manner the
traveller made her first acquaintance with this tribe.
[Illustration: 100.--BURÏATS ESCORTING MISS CHRISTIANI.]
At the time Miss Christiani fell in with them, the Burïats were
celebrating the obsequies of one of their principal chiefs. The
travellers were present at the funeral service and ceremonies, which
were performed in a Mongol temple, and afterwards at the games which
took place according to their ancient custom. These games included
archery, wrestling, and horse and foot races. A banquet followed, at
which roast mutton, cheese, cakes, and even some capital Champagne were
served to the guests.
The Burïats number about thirty-five thousand men, dwelling in the
mountains to the north of Baïkal. Their herds and flocks constitute
their wealth. Their religion is _Shamanism_, a species of idolatry very
prevalent amongst the inhabitants of Siberia. Their supreme God inhabits
the sun; he has under his command a host of inferior deities. Amongst
these barbarous people woman is considered an unclean and soulless
being.
THE TUNGUSIAN FAMILY.
The Tungusian family consists of two divisions: the Tunguses to the
north, and the Manchús to the south-east.
The _Tunguses_.--The Tunguses, who are scattered in Siberia from the Sea
of Okhotsk to Ienissia and to the Arctic Ocean, are nomadic, and live on
the produce of their hunting and fishing. Daouria to the north of China
is their native country. Those who live under the Russian government are
classified, according to the domestic animals constituting their
principal resources, as dog Tunguses, horse Tunguses, and reindeer
Tunguses.
The nomadic Tunguses of Daouria were described at the close of the last
century by the Russian naturalist Pallas, the same who found on the
shores of the Lena the antediluvian mammoth, still covered with its skin
and coat of hair, the discovery of which caused so much excitement in
Europe.
* * * * *
_Manchús._--Fig. 101 represents the type of this race. We do not think it
necessary to speak of them.
THE YAKUT FAMILY.
The countenance of the _Yakuts_ is still flatter and broader than that
of the Mongols. Their long black hair flows naturally round their head,
while but little grows on their faces: they keep one tress very long, to
which they tie their bow to keep it dry when they are obliged, in the
course of their wanderings or whilst out hunting, to swim across deep
rivers.
[Illustration: 101.--MANCHÚS SOLDIERS.]
[Illustration:
_P. Sellier, p.^{t}_
_Imp. Dupuy, 22, R. des Petits Hôtels_
_G. Regamey, lith._
MONGOLIAN
ESQUIMAUX
YELLOW OR MONGOLIAN RACE]
We will take a few details about the country of the Yakuts and its
inhabitants from the interesting travels of Ouvarouski, republished in
the “Tour du Monde.” The land of the Yakuts has two different aspects.
To the south of Yakutsk, it is covered with lofty rocky mountains; to
the west and to the north, it is a plain on which grow thick and bushy
trees. It contains numberless streams of considerable depth and width.
The inhabitants, however, content themselves with boats made of planks
or wooden and bark canoes, only capable of holding two or three persons.
The reindeer is the principal means of conveyance used by the Yakuts.
[Illustration: 102.--YAKUTS.]
The severity of the cold is very great in this country--greater,
perhaps, than in any other part of Siberia. Its population is not more
than two hundred thousand. The Yakuts (figs. 102 and 103) are stoutly
made, though only of middle height. Their countenance is rather flat,
and their nose is of a corresponding width. They have either brown or
black eyes. Their hair is black, thick, and glossy. They never have any
on their faces. Their complexion is between white and black, and changes
three or four times a year; in the spring, from the action of the
atmosphere; in the summer, from that of the sun; and in winter, from the
cold and from the effects of the heat of their fires. They would make
bad soldiers, as their peaceful disposition forbids them from ever
fighting; but they are active, lively, intelligent, and affable. In
their encampments their provisions are at the service of every traveller
who seeks their hospitality. Let his stay last a week, or even a month,
there is always more than enough for both himself and his horse. They
are fond of wine and tobacco, but they endure hunger and thirst with
remarkable patience. A Yakut thinks nothing of working for three or four
days without either eating or drinking.
But let us quote Ouvarouski, the author of the description of the
customs of the Yakuts.
“The land of the Yakuts,” says this traveller, “is so extensive that the
temperature varies very much. At Olekminsk for instance, wheat thrives
capitally, because there the white frost comes late; at Djigansk on the
contrary, the earth always remains frozen two spans below the surface,
and the snow begins to fall in the month of August.
“The Yakuts are all baptised in the Russian faith, two or three hundred
of them perhaps excepted. They obey the ordinances of the church and go
annually to confession, but few receive the sacrament, because they are
not in the habit of fasting. They neither go out in the morning nor
retire to rest at night without saying their devotions. When chance has
befriended them, they thank the Lord; when misfortune overtakes them,
they regard it as a punishment inflicted by the Almighty for their sins,
and, without losing heart, patiently await better times. In spite of
these praiseworthy sentiments they still preserve some superstitious
beliefs, particularly the custom of prostrating themselves before the
devil. When long sicknesses and murrains prevail, they cause their
shamans to practise exorcisms and sacrifice cattle of a particular
colour.
“The Yakuts are very intelligent. It is sufficient to hold an hour or
two’s conversation with one of them to understand his feelings, his
disposition, and his mind. They easily comprehend the meaning of
elevated language, and guess from the very beginning what is about to
follow. Few even of the most artful Russians are able to deceive a
Yakut of the woods.
[Illustration: 103.--A YAKUT WOMAN.]
“They honour their old men, follow their advice, and consider it wrong
and unjust to offend and irritate them. When a father has several
children, he gets them married one after the other, builds a house for
them next to his own, and shares with them his cattle and his property.
Even when separated from their parents their children never disobey
them. When a father has but one son he keeps him with him, and only
separates from him if he loses his wife and marries a second who brings
him other children.
“The wealth of a Yakut is estimated in proportion to the number of
cattle he possesses; the improvement of his herds is his first thought,
his principal wish; he never thinks of putting by money till he has
succeeded in this object.
“Anger is acclimatized among all nations; the Yakut is no stranger to
it, but he easily forgets the grudge he may owe to any one, provided the
latter acknowledges his wrong and confesses himself to blame.
“The Yakuts have other failings, which must not be attributed to an
innate bad disposition. Some of them live on stolen cattle, but these
are only the needy; when they have taken enough to feed them two or
three times from the carcase of the stolen beast, they abandon the rest;
this shows that their only motive is hunger, from which they have
suffered perhaps for months and years. Besides when the thief is caught,
their princes (kinæs, from the Russian kniaz) have him whipped with
rods, according to ancient custom, before everybody. The man who has
undergone this punishment carries its degradation with him to the day of
his death. His evidence can never be again listened to, and his words
are of no weight in the assemblies where the people meet to deliberate.
He can be chosen neither as prince nor as _starsyna_ (from the Russian
_starchina_, ancient). These customs prove that theft has not become a
profession among the Yakuts. The thief is not only punished, but never
regains the name of an honest man.
“Let a Yakut once determine to master some handicraft, and he is sure to
succeed. He is at one and the same time a jeweller, a tinker, a farrier,
and a carpenter; he knows how to take a gun to pieces, how to carve
bone, and, with a little practice, he can imitate any work of art he has
once examined. It is a pity that they have no instruction to teach them
the higher arts, for they are quite capable of executing extraordinary
tasks.
“They are wonderful shots. Neither cold nor rain, neither hunger nor
fatigue, can stop them in the pursuit of a bird or an animal. They will
follow a fox or a hare for two entire days without minding their own
fatigue, or the exhaustion of their horse.
“They have a good deal of taste and inclination for trade, and are so
well up in driving a hard bargain for the smallest fox or sable skin,
that they always get a high price for it.
“The gun-stocks that they manufacture, the combs they cut and ornament,
are works of great finish. I may also remark that their oxhide leather
bottles never get foul, even if they are left for ten years full of
liquid.
“Many of the Yakut women have pretty faces; they are cleaner than the
men, and like the rest of their sex are fond of dress and fine things.
Nature has not left them without charms. They cannot be called bad,
immoral, or light women. They pay the same honour to their father and
mother, and to the aged parents of their husband, as they do to the
Deity. Their head and their feet they never allow to be seen stripped.
They never pass the right side of the hearth, and never call their
husbands’ relations by their Yakut names. The woman who is unlike this
description is looked upon as a wild beast, and her husband is
considered extremely unlucky.”
Fig. 104 represents a Yakut village and villagers.
The Yakuts profess Shamanism, an idolatrous religion practised by the
Finns, by the Samoiedes, by the Ostiaks, by the Burïats, by the
Teleouts, by the Tunguses, and by the inhabitants of the Pacific
islands. Shamanists worship a supreme being, the creator of the world,
but indifferent to human actions. Under him are male and female gods:
some good, who superintend the government of the world, and the
destinies of humanity; the others evil, the greatest of whom (Chaïtan,
Satan) is considered to be nearly as powerful as the supreme Being.
Religious veneration is also paid to their ancestors, to heroes, and to
their priests, called _Shamans_; these latter in their ceremonies
practise a great deal of sorcery.
Fig. 105 represents some of these Shamans.
THE TURKISH FAMILY.
The people belonging to the Turk or Tartar family succeeded in founding,
in very ancient times, a vast empire which included a part of central
Asia from China up to the Caspian Sea. But the Turks, attacked and
conquered by the Mongols, were subdued and driven back towards the
south-west, that is to say to the south of Europe. There they became in
their turn conquerors, and overcame, after laying it waste, a portion
of Southern Europe.
[Illustration: 104.--YAKUT VILLAGERS.]
The Turks had originally red hair, greenish-grey eyes, and a Mongolian
cast of countenance. But these characteristics have disappeared. It is
only the Turks who now-a-days dwell to the north-east of the Caucasus
who possess the characteristics of the Mongols. Those who are settled to
the south-west exhibit the features peculiar to the white race, with
black hair and eyes. The fusion of the former with the Mongols, of the
second with the Persians and the Arameans, explain these modifications.
The Turks, more than all nations, manifest the deepest zeal for
Mahometanism, and show the greatest intolerance for the followers of
other creeds.
[Illustration: 105.--YAKUT PRIESTS.]
The Turkish family comprises rather a large number of races. We shall
consider here only the _Turcomans_, the _Kirghis_, the _Nogays_, and the
_Osmanlis_.
* * * * *
The _Turcomans_.--The Turcomans wander in the steppes of Turkestan,
Persia, and Afghanistan. They stray as far as Anatolia to the west. The
tribes who dwell in this last district have the shape and the physical
characteristics of the White Race; those who inhabit Turkestan show in
their physiognomy the admixture of Mongol blood.
The Turcoman is above the middle height. He has not strongly developed
muscles, but he is tolerably powerful and enjoys a robust constitution.
His skin is white; his countenance is round; his cheek bones are
prominent; his forehead is wide, and the development of the bony part of
the skull forms a kind of crest at the top of the head. His
almond-shaped and nearly lidless eye is small, lively, and intelligent.
His nose is usually insignificant and turned up. The lower part of his
face retreats a little, and his lips are thick. He has scanty
moustachios and beard, and his ears are large and protruding.
The Turcoman’s dress consists of wide trousers falling over the foot and
tight at the hips, and of a collarless shirt open at the right side down
to the waist, falling, outside the trousers, halfway down the thigh.
Outside these an ample coat is fastened round the waist by a cotton or
wool belt. It is open in front and slightly crossed over the chest. Its
sleeves are very long and very wide, a little skull-cap is worn instead
of the hair, and is covered with a kind of head-dress called talbac,
made of sheep skin, in the shape of a cone with a slightly depressed
summit. His shoes are a sort of slipper, or simply a sandal of camel or
horse skin fastened to the foot by a woollen cord.
The type is more strongly defined in the Turcoman women than in the men.
Their cheek bones are more prominent, and their complexion is white.
Their hair is generally thick but very short; and they are obliged to
lengthen their tresses with goat-hair loops and strings, to which they
fasten glass beads and silver pearls.
We will not describe their dress, but will only observe that they wear a
round cap on their head, to which they fasten a silk or cotton veil
falling backwards. The whole is surrounded by a kind of turban of the
breadth of three fingers, on which are some little squares of silver.
One end of the veil is brought under the chin from right to left, and is
fastened, by a little silver chain ending in a hook, on the left side of
the face.
Trinkets, necklaces, bracelets, and chains play such a prominent part in
the adornment of the Turcoman women, that a dozen of them together
drawing water make as much tinkling as the ringing of a small bell.
The men wear no ornament.
Fig. 106 represents a camp of nomadic Turcomans.
M. de Blocqueville, who published in 1866, in the “Tour du Monde,” the
curious account entitled “Fourteen months’ captivity among the
Turcomans,” describes as follows the habits of these tribes:--
“The Turcomans keep close to their tent a sheep or a goat, which they
fatten and kill on special occasions. The bones are taken out and the
meat is cut up and salted; some of it is dried and acquires a high
flavour much liked by the Turcomans; the rest, cut into smaller pieces
and placed in the animal’s paunch, is kept to make soup out of. They
collect the bones and other leavings, and stew them down in a pan so as
to have some broth to offer on festival occasions to their friends and
neighbours. The intestines fall to the children’s share, who broil them
on the coals and spend whole days in sucking and pulling about this
half-cleansed offal.
[Illustration: 106.--TURCOMAN ENCAMPMENT.]
“. . . . . . Women are treated with more consideration by the Turcomans
than by other Mussulmans. But they work hard, and every day have to
grind the corn for the family food. Besides this, they spin silk, wool,
and cotton; they weave, sew, mill felt, pitch and strike the tents, draw
water, sometimes do some washing, dye woollen and silk stuffs, and
manufacture the carpets. They set up out of doors, in the fine weather,
a very primitive loom made of four stakes firmly fixed in the ground,
and, with the assistance of two large cross pieces on which they lay the
woof, begin the weaving, which is done with an iron implement composed
of five or six blades put together in the shape of a comb. These
carpets, generally about three yards long and a yard and a half wide,
are durable and well made. Every tribe or family has its own particular
pattern, which is handed down from mother to daughter. The Turcoman
women are necessarily endowed with a strong constitution to be able to
bear all this hard work, during which, they sometimes suckle their
children, and only eat a little dry bread, or a kind of boiled meat with
but little nourishment in it. It is especially turning the grindstone
that wears them out and injures their chest.
“In their rare intervals of leisure they have always got with them a
packet, of wool or of camel’s hair, or some raw silk, that they spin
whilst they are gossiping or visiting their neighbours; for they never
remain quite idle like the women of some Mussulman countries.
“The man has also his own kind of work; he tills the soil, tends the
crops, gets in the harvest, takes care of the domestic animals, and
sometimes starts on plundering expeditions in order to bring home some
booty. He manufactures hand-made woollen rope; cuts out and stitches
together the harness and clothing of his horses and camels; attempts to
do a little trade, and in his leisure moments makes himself caps and
shoes, plays on the doutar (an instrument with two strings), sings,
drinks tea, and smokes.
“These tribes are very fond of improving themselves, and of reading the
few books that chance throws into their hands.
“As a rule the children do not work before their tenth or twelfth year.
Their parents up to that age make them learn to read and write. Those
who are obliged to avail themselves of their children’s assistance
during the press of summer labour, take care that they make up for lost
time in the winter.
“The schoolmaster, mollah (priest or man of letters), is content to be
remunerated either in kind, with wheat, fruit or onions; or in money,
according to the parents’ position. Each child possesses a small board,
on which the mollah writes down the alphabet or whatever happens to be
the task; this is washed off as soon as the child has learned his
lesson.
“The parents satisfy themselves that their children know their lessons
before they set out for school: the women in particular are vain of
being able to read. The men sometimes spend whole days in trying to
understand books of poetry which come from Khiva or Boukhara, where the
dialect is a little different to their own.
“The Turcoman mollahs spend some years in these towns to enable
themselves to study in the best schools.
“All these tribes are Mahometan and belong to the Sunnite sect. The only
external difference between them and the Persians of the Schiite sect,
who recognise Ali as Mahomet’s only successor, consists, as is well
known, in their mode of saying their devotions and of performing their
ablutions.
“Whilst at their prayers, they keep their arms crossed in front of them
from the wrist upwards only, instead of keeping them by their side like
the Persians.
“Although they follow pretty regularly the precepts of their religion,
they show less fanaticism and ostentatious bigotry than most other
Easterns whom I have seen. For instance, they will consent to smoke and
eat with Jews.
“Every Turcoman has an affection for his tribe, and will devote himself,
if need be, for the common weal. Their proper and dignified manners are
far beyond a comparison with those of their neighbours--even the
inhabitants of Boukhara and Khiva, whose morals have become corrupted to
a painful degree. I have seldom seen quarrels and disturbances amongst
the Turcomans. Sometimes I have been present at very lively and animated
discussions, but I never heard any low abuse or bad language as in other
countries. They are less harsh towards their women, and show them more
consideration and respect than do the Persians.
“When strangers are present, the women pass an end of their veil under
their chin and speak in a low voice, but they are saluted and respected
by the visitors, and enter into conversation with them without any harm
being thought of it.
“A woman can go from one tribe to another, or make a journey along an
unfrequented road, without having to fear the least insult from any one.
“When a Turcoman pays a visit he makes his appearance in one invariable
manner. He lifts the door of the tent, bowing as he enters, then comes
to a stop and draws himself up to his full height: after a pause of a
few seconds, during which he keeps his eyes fixed on the dome of the
tent, probably to give the women time to cover their chins, he quietly
pronounces his salutation without making the slightest gesture. After
exchanging civilities and inquiries about the health of relations and
friends, the master of the tent begs the visitor to take a seat on the
carpet beside him. The wife then offers him a napkin with a little
bread, or bread and water, or some sour milk, or a little fruit. The
stranger discreetly only takes a few mouthfuls of what is offered to
him.”
[Illustration: 107.--KIRGHIS FUNERAL RITES.]
The _Kirghis_.--The Kirghis (fig. 107) are a nomadic tribe. They inhabit
the tract of country situated on the frontiers of the Russian and
Chinese empires. They wander to and fro on wide spreading plains from
lake Baikal to the borders of the Siberian steppes.
They travel armed, and always prepared, either for war or for the chase.
As wild beasts attack men when by themselves, they nearly always travel
on horseback in troops.
For the matter of that, the Kirghis never get off their horses. All
business is settled, and all merchandise is bought and sold, on
horseback. There is in a town, by name Shouraïahan, where the sedentary
Kirghis reside, a market-place where buyers and sellers do all their
business without leaving the saddle. The Kirghis are much below the
middle height. Their countenances are ugly. Having scarcely any bridge
to their nose, the space between their eyes is flat and quite on a level
with the rest of their face. Their eyes are long and half closed, the
forehead protrudes at the lower part, and retreats at the top. Their big
puffy cheeks look like two pieces of raw flesh stuck on the sides of
their face. They have but little beard, their body is not at all
muscular, and their complexion is a dark brown.
* * * * *
The Kirghis are something like the Uzbeks, a race whom we can only just
mention, but the latter, living in a temperate climate, are tall and
well made, while the former, under the influence of a rigorous one, are
short and stunted.
Both these people possess a certain kind of civilization in spite of
their nomadic habits. In the districts in which they are in the custom
of travelling, they have established relays of horses, a very necessary
adjunct to their mode of life.
* * * * *
The _Nogays_.--The Nogays, who once constituted a powerful nation on the
shores of the Black Sea, are now scattered among other peoples. Many of
them still wander in nomadic tribes, on the steppes between the banks of
the Volga and the Caucasian mountains. Others who have settled down are
tillers of the soil or artisans. Such are those to be met with in the
Crimea or in Astracan. M. Vereschaguine came across some Nogays on the
Caucasian steppes. This Russian traveller says that they are peaceful
and laborious, and more capable of becoming attached to the soil than
the Kalmuks, whom they resemble a great deal in their mode of life and
in their habits and customs.
* * * * *
The _Osmanlis_.--The most important members of the Turkish family are
now the Osmanlis. The Osmanlis were the founders of the Turkish Empire
and the conquerors of Constantinople.
A tendency to a nomadic mode of life is a strong instinct with this
race. It degenerated as soon as it settled down anywhere, and this
perhaps is the cause of the decline of the Turkish nation, which at
present inhabits south-eastern Europe and Asia Minor.
The residence in Europe and the civilization of the Osmanli Turks date
from the Hegira of Mahomet in the seventh century after Christ.
Physically speaking, their outlines would seem to ally them to the
Caucasian race. This was the reason that they were so long classified
among the White or Caucasian race; but most modern anthropologists place
them in the Yellow Race.
The head of the Osmanli Turks is nearly round. The forehead is high and
broad: the nose is straight, without any depression at its bridge or
widening at the nostrils.
The Turkish head does not resemble the European head. It has a peculiar
abrupt elevation of the occiput. Its proportions, however, are very
good. Mongol descent can be traced in its shape, but scarcely in a
perceptible manner, if the features of the face alone are to be taken
into account.
The Turks, in general, are tall, well made, robust men, with a rough but
often noble physiognomy, a slightly tawny complexion, and brown or black
hair. Their carriage is dignified, and their natural gravity is still
further increased by the ample folds of their dress, by their beard, by
their moustachios, and by that imposing head-dress, the turban. They are
the most recent of all the races of Asian descent who have become
Europeanized, and they still preserve, especially in Turkey in Asia, the
habits, the costumes, and the belief that distinguished them three
centuries ago.
Now, as then, the Turks, like Easterns in general, restrict themselves
to a frugal and principally vegetable diet. They drink no wine. Bodily
exercises, such as riding on horseback and the use of arms, develop
their strength. Their hospitality is dignified and ceremonious. They are
small talkers, are much given to devotion, at least to its outward and
visible signs; and they dwell in quiet unpretending houses surrounded by
gardens. The Turk is a stranger to the feverish life of our European
capitals. Lazily reclining on his cushions, he smokes his Syrian
tobacco, sips his Arabian coffee, and seeks from a few grains of opium
an introduction into the land of dreams.
Such is Turkish life among the higher classes. The common people and the
labourers have none of these refinements of existence. Yet the lower
classes are less unhappy in Turkey, and in the East in general, than are
those of European nations. Eastern hospitality is not an empty word. A
wealthy Mussulman never sends empty away the wretched who seek his
assistance. Besides, it takes so little to support these temperate
healthy people, and the earth so plentifully supplies vegetable produce
in the East, that poor people can always find food and a roof to cover
them. The Caravanserai are public inns where travellers and workmen are
lodged for nothing; and the hospitality shown to the unfortunate
wayfarer by the country land-owners is really patriarchal.
Polygamy is less in vogue in Turkey and in the East than is supposed. A
Turkish woman being a very expensive luxury, that is to say, being in
the habit of doing nothing and of spending a great deal, it is only very
rich Mussulmans that can allow themselves the pleasure of supporting
more than one wife. Sometimes, indeed, the bride’s parents insert a
clause in the marriage contract, by which the husband gives up his right
as a Mahometan to possess four wives.
Besides their legitimate wives, the wealthy and the great keep a
collection of Georgian and Circassian slaves in the lonely sets of
rooms, closed by Eastern jealousy to all prying eyes, which are called
_harems_ and not _seraglios_. It is only within these isolated
apartments that Turkish women, whether wives or concubines, allow their
faces and arms to be seen. Out of doors they are always wrapped up in a
triple set of veils, which conceal their features from the keenest eye.
Mahomet permitted women to abstain from taking part in public prayer in
the mosques. It is therefore only in the interior of the harem that any
gathering of Mussulman women can take place. It is there, too, that they
give one another parties and entertainments.
[Illustration: 108.--A HAREM.]
An erroneous impression of the Turkish woman’s position is prevalent in
Europe. Many European women would be glad to exchange their lot in life
and their liberty for the supposed slavery of the Turkish women. Of
course we are only alluding here to their material position, and not
speaking from a moral point of view.
The Turkish lady is born to total and complete idleness. A young girl
who, at fourteen years of age, can not only sew fairly, but can actually
read, is considered a very well educated person. If she can also write,
and is acquainted with the first one or two rules of arithmetic, she is
quite learned. The woman of the middle classes never condescends to
trade, she is always idle. Even the poor woman rarely works, and then
only when it suits her.
The Turkish woman then, to whatever class she may happen to belong, is a
votary of the far niente. To drive away ennui, the wealthier make or
receive visits or frequent parties. In the harems of the rich, each lady
receives her friends in her own room. There they talk, sing, or tell one
another stories. They listen to music, they go to pantomimes, to dances,
and walk in the gardens. They pass the long hours agreeably by taking
baths together, by swinging in hammocks, by smoking the narguilhé, and
by giving elegant little dinner parties.
An evening party in a harem (la Kalva) is rather a rare occurrence, for
night festivities are not among Mussulman habits. No man is present at
these parties. As the guests arrive, the lady of the house begs them to
be seated, and places them side by side on a divan with their legs
crossed under them, or leaning on one knee. Coffee and a tchibouk with
an amber mouthpiece are handed round. Small portions of fruit jelly are
served on a silver embossed dish. Each guest, after a little ceremonious
hesitation, helps herself with the only spoon in the dish, and which
everybody uses. Each then puts her lips to a large tumbler of water
which follows the jelly.
General and animated conversation then begins. The maids of the lady of
the house seat themselves so that every one can see them, and begin to
sing, accompanying themselves on the harp, on the mandolin, on little
kettledrums, or on tambourines. Afterwards other young girls go through
a kind of pantomimic dance. When the music and the dances are over, they
play games of cards, and the party winds up with a supper (fig. 109).
Pleasure out of doors has other attractions. The Turkish ladies of the
middle class frequent the bazaars and pay one another visits.
There are three kinds of these visits: visits that have been announced
beforehand, unexpected visits, and _chance_ visits. The last are the
most curious. Several ladies collect together and go about in the
different quarters of the town, paying visits to people whom they have
never seen (fig. 110).
[Illustration: 109.--A HAREM SUPPER.]
Walking parties in Constantinople are regular picnics. On Sundays and
Fridays people leave town provided with all sorts of refreshments. The
sultans have constructed on some of the public walks overhanging
terraces, which overlook pieces of water and form level plots of ground.
Tumblers and conjurors, musicians and dancers give performances on these
terraces. Picturesque knots of women clad in their white _yaschmacs_,
which cover the whole face and only reveal the nose, are to be seen
there. Long flowing overdresses of a thousand different hues envelope
the rest of their figure.
The Turk may be lazy, but he is not at all unsociable, and many of his
characteristics indicate a great deal of gentleness. Like the Indians
and the ancient Egyptians, the Turks, and Easterns in general, have a
great repugnance to the killing of animals. Dogs and cats abound and
swarm in the streets of the large towns, but no measures are ever taken
to prevent the multiplication and the running wild of these animals. In
Constantinople flocks of pigeons fly hither and thither and levy, on the
barges laden with wheat, a species of black mail that no one disputes
with them. The banks of the canals are thickly peopled with aquatic
animals, and their nests are safe even from the hands of children, in
our country such cruel enemies to their broods. This forbearance is
extended even to trees. If it is true that in China the law requires
every land owner who fells a tree to plant one in its stead in another
spot, it is equally true in Turkey that custom forbids an avaricious
land owner from depriving either town or country of useful and wholesome
shade. The wealthy townsmen make it a point of honour to embellish the
public promenades with fountains and with resting places, both of which,
on account of the frequency of ablutions and of prayers required by the
Mahometan religion, are indispensable. Those who can only perceive in
the Turkish nation coarseness, ignorance, and ferocity, have been
deceived by the pride natural to a Mussulman, which is made the more
offensive by his silent and sometimes abrupt manners; but the basis of
the Mussulman character contains nothing to offend. The Turks are only
what it is possible for them to be with their lamentable institutions
and their faulty laws.
[Illustration: 110.--TURKISH LADIES VISITING.]
Their law we know is simply despotism, which is carried out from the
sultan down to the lowest official, unchecked by any guarantee of equity
or of justice to individuals. The sultan (_padishah_, meaning great
lord) appoints and dismisses at pleasure every dignitary and every
official: he is the master of their fortunes and of their life. But
anarchy is rife in the kingdom, and the sultan’s authority is not always
obeyed. Pachas have attacked and annihilated the troops sent to drive
them from their governorships; others have been known to dispatch to
Constantinople the head of the general sent to crush and degrade them.
The pachas are the governors of the provinces. Their rank is reckoned by
the number of their standards or tails. They unite under one head the
military and civil power, and by a still greater abuse, they are deputed
to collect the taxes. They would be absolute sultans in their own
provinces if the law did not leave the judicial authority in the hands
of the _cadis_ and the _naïbs_.
A pacha with three tails has, like the sultan, the power of life and
death over all the agents he employs, and even over all who threaten
public safety. He keeps up a military force, and marches at their head
when called on by the sultan. A pacha has under his orders several
_beys_, or lieutenant-governors.
The interior organization of Turkey may be described as a military
despotism. The Turkish nation continues to administer its conquest as if
it were a country taken by assault; it leads the life of an army
encamped in the midst of a conquered state. Everybody and everything is
the property of the sultan. Christians, Jews, and Armenians are merely
the slaves of the victorious Ottoman. The sultan graciously allows them
to live, but even this concession they are obliged to purchase by paying
a tribute, the receipt for which bears these words: “In purchase of the
head.”
The same principle is carried out in regard to land. The Turks have no
proprietary rights; they merely enjoy the usufruct of their possessions.
When they die without leaving a male child, the sultan inherits their
property. Sons can only claim a tenth part of their paternal
inheritance, and the fiscal officials are ordered to put an arbitrary
value on this tenth part. The officers of the State do not even enjoy
this incomplete right; at their death everything reverts to the sultan.
Under such laws, it is not to be wondered at if nobody cares to
undertake expensive and lasting works. Instead of building, people
collect jewels and wealth easy to carry off or to conceal.
The sultan, like a man embarrassed with such an abuse of power, shifts
the cares of government on to the shoulders of the grand vizier.
The grand vizier is the lieutenant of the sultan. He is the
commander-in-chief of the army, he manages the finances, and fills up
all civil and military appointments.
But if the power of the grand vizier is limitless, his responsibility
and the dangers he incurs are equally great. He must answer for all the
State’s misfortunes and for all public calamities. The sword is always
suspended over his head. Surrounded by snares, exposed to all the tricks
of hatred and envy, he pays with the price of his life the misfortune of
having displeased either the populace or the highest officials. The
grand vizier has to govern the country, with the assistance of a state
council (_divan_) composed of the principal ministers. The _reiss
effendi_ is the high chancellor of the empire, and the head of the
corporation of the _kodja_, or men of letters. This corporation, which
has managed to acquire a great political influence, contains at the
present time some of the best informed men of the nation. The duty of
watching over the preservation of the fundamental laws of the empire is
entrusted to the _ulema_, or corporation of theological and legal
doctors.
These laws are very short: they consist only of the Koran, and of the
commentaries on the Koran drawn up by ancient pundits. The members of
this corporation bear the title of _ulemas_, or _effendis_. They unite
judicial to religious authority; they are at the same time the
interpreters of religion, and the judges in all civil and criminal
matters.
The _mufti_ is the supreme head of the ulema. He is the head of the
church. He represents the sultan’s vicar, as caliph or successor to
Mahomet. The sultan can promulgate no law, make no declaration of war,
institute no tax, without having obtained a _fetfa_, or approval from
the mufti.
The mufti presents every year to the sultan the candidates for the
leading judicial magistracies; these candidates are chosen from the
members of the ulema. The post of mufti would be an excellent
counterpoise to the authority of the sultan, if the latter had it not in
his power to dismiss the mufti, to send him into exile, and even to
condemn him to death.
The foregoing political and judicial organization seems at first sight
very reasonable, and would appear to yield some guarantee to the
subjects of the Porte. Dishonesty unfortunately prevents the regular
progress of these administrative institutions. The venality of
officials, their greed and their immorality, are such, that not the
smallest post, not the slightest service, can be obtained without making
them a present. Places, the judges’ decisions, and the witnesses’
evidence are all bought. False witnesses abound in no country in the
shameless way they do in the Turkish empire, where the consequences of
their perjury are the more frightful, since the cadi’s decision is
without appeal. Justice is meted out in Turkey as it was meted out three
hundred years ago among the nomadic tribes of the Osmanlis. After a few
contradictory pieces of evidence, after a few oaths made on both sides,
without any preliminary inquiry, and without any advocates, the cadi or
simply the naïb, gives a decision, based upon some passage of the Koran.
The penal code of this ignorant and hasty tribunal merely consists in
fining the wealthy, in inflicting the bastinado on the common people,
and in hanging criminals right out of hand.
Yet Turkey possesses a kind of system of popular representation. The
inhabitants of Constantinople elect _ayams_, real delegates of the
people, whose business it is to watch over the safety and the property
of individuals, the tranquillity of the town, to oppose the unjust
demands of the pachas, the excesses of the military, and the unfair
collection of taxes. These duties are gratuitously performed by the most
trustworthy men among the inhabitants. The ayams undertake all appeals
to the pacha, when there exist any just grounds of complaint, and if he
does not satisfy them, they carry their appeal to the sultan.
Every trade and handicraft in Turkey possesses a kind of guild or
corporation which undertakes to defend the rights of the association and
of its individual members. The humblest artisan is protected in all
legal matters by this corporation. It is unnecessary to say that the
corporation enforces its rights before the judges by pecuniary means.
[Illustration: 111.--A TURKISH BARBER.]
It is a great mistake to imagine that the Mussulman religion
predominates in Turkey. In Turkey in Europe, not more than a quarter of
the population profess the creed of Mahomet. The remainder are
Christians, subdivided into the leading sects of that faith. The Greeks,
the Servians, the Walachians, and the inhabitants of Montenegro belong
to the eastern Greek Church. The Armenians are numerous, and are the
more powerful on account of their known character for austerity and
honesty. Other religious communities, such as the Jakobites, called
_Kopts_ in Egypt, the Nestorians, and the Maronites, have some
influence, from the unity which reigns among their different sects; the
Druzes, for instance, defy the Mahometans to their very face. There are
more Jews in Turkey in Europe, than in any other country.
All these brotherhoods, excepting the Druzes and the Maronites, were
formerly deprived of the free right of worship, were liable to marks of
ignominy, and were handed over, defenceless, to injustice. But in the
beginning of our century, an edict of the sultan declared all his
subjects, regardless of their religion, equal in the eyes of the law.
Mahometanism, which prevails in Turkey, and in the greater portion of
the East, dates from the 610th year of our era. Its principal doctrines
are purification, prayer, and fasting. The fasting takes place in the
month of _Ramazan_, a month which is the Mussulman’s Lent, and during
which all food must be abstained from in the daytime. It is followed by
the festival of _Beyram_, during which the faithful are allowed to make
up for their preceding abstinence. A _legal charity_ is instituted by
their creed. It consists in giving every year to the poor a fortieth
part of their movable property. Another religious injunction is the
pilgrimage to Mecca, which every Mussulman is obliged to undertake at
least once in his lifetime.
Their devotions take place five times a day. Friday is the day of rest
for the Mahometans, as Sunday is that of the Christians, and Saturday
that of the Jews.
Mahometanism has inherited from the ancient Arabs the practice of
circumcision. Mussulmans are forbidden to drink intoxicating drinks, but
are allowed to marry four wives, and to make concubines of their female
slaves. Their religion deprives them of all liberty of will, as it tells
them that everything that can happen, either for evil or for good, is
settled beforehand. It is this fatalism that paralyzes all individual
enterprise, and prevents the march of progress.
Mahometanism has not been more exempt than other creeds from schisms,
which have brought to pass religious wars always so terrible in their
consequences.
Its precepts, which have their advantages from a religious point of
view, have many disastrous consequences when we regard mankind’s
physical constitution. The interdict on the use of wine, for instance,
has given rise to the secret consumption of alcoholic drinks, and to the
public use of opium.
[Illustration: 112.--TURKISH PORTER.]
The Turks, although their literary civilization is still in its infancy,
possess a system of public education. The mosques of Constantinople, of
Broussa, and of Adrianople, have colleges attached to them. Young men
are sent from all parts of the Mussulman empire to these colleges, where
they receive some amount of education. When they have finished their
course of study, in which the commentaries on the Koran play the
principal part, and when several examinations have tested their
proficiency, the pupils receive the title of _mudir_ or professor. All
civil and judicial posts are monopolized by this educated class.
But in Turkey, what knowledge there is, remains absorbed among a small
quantity of individuals; no channel exists for the free
intercommunication of ideas.
Their _kodjas_, or writers, have indeed given their fellow countrymen a
large number of works, much esteemed by them--works on the Arabic and
Persian languages, on philosophy, on morality, on Mussulman history, and
on the geography of their country. But these writings, whatever their
value, never reach the mass of the nation. There are but few printing
presses in Turkey; the copyist’s art, such as it existed in Europe in
the middle ages, still flourishes there. The state of literature in
Turkey shows us what modern civilization would have become in Europe,
without the assistance of the printer.
With this general want of literary and scientific knowledge, we
naturally expect to find Turkey far behindhand in art, in manufactures,
and in agriculture. The latter, in fact, is in a sad state throughout
the whole extent of the Ottoman empire. Manufactures exist in a few
towns; in Constantinople, in Salonica, in Adrianople, and in Rustchuk.
Their principal manufactures are carpets, morocco leather, a little
silk, thread and swords. Their commerce consists in the export of their
raw produce; such as wool, silk, cotton, leather, tobacco, and metals,
particularly copper; wine, oil, and dried fruit are also largely
exported. The Turks are good cloth manufacturers, gunsmiths, and
tanners. Their works in steel and copper, and their dyes, are equal to
the best articles of European manufacture.
The Greeks, who are very numerous in Turkey, follow all kinds of trades
and callings. They make the best sailors of the Ottoman empire, while
the Armenians are its keenest traders. The latter travel all over the
interior of Asia and India; they have branch establishments and
correspondents everywhere. Most of them, while pursuing some mechanical
art, are at the same time the bankers, the purveyors, and the men of
business of the pachas, and other great officials. Jews show in a less
favourable light in Turkey than in Europe; any business suits them, if
they can make something out of it.
Figs. 111 and 112 represent two common Turkish types--a barber and a
street porter.