_YAKUTSK._
The province of Yakutsk.--Rivers.--Minerals.--The town of
Yakutsk.--Its temperature.--Inhabitants.--The
Yukaghirs.--The Yakutes.--Their dwellings.--Food.--Dress.--
Products.--Occupations.--Industries.--Language.--Religion.--Route
from Yakutsk to Okhotsk.--Reindeer riding.--Summer
journey.--Treatment of horses.
The province of Yakutsk is the largest in Siberia, and covers an area
of no less than a million and a half of square miles, and is therefore
nearly as large as the whole of Europe, omitting Russia.[1] The total
population of this enormous province is 235,000,--that is to say,
it has about one-seventh part of an inhabitant to each square mile.
The yearly number of marriages is 5,000, and the births 12,000. The
Russian town population in 1876 numbered about 2,000, and the country
population 5,000; of which there were hereditary nobles, 100; personal
nobles, 450; ecclesiastical persons, 600; military, 1,700; and the
rest, upwards of 220,000, were natives--that is to say, Tunguses,
Yukaghirs, and Yakutes. The natives are divided into communities, under
_golovahs_, or mayors, of their own race, who are, however, subject to
the Russian authorities. The province is divided into five uyezds.
The chief mineral product is gold, which has frequently to be procured
from frozen ground. The valleys of the Vitim and Olekma especially are
rich in this mineral. In the valley of the Vitim, about 200 versts
from its mouth, are quarries of mica, from which the whole of Siberia
was formerly supplied with a substitute for window-glass. Mr. Erman
procured plates of brown mica from one to two feet square. As, however,
I saw glass used everywhere, I presume that the demand for mica must
have diminished greatly.
In the forests of the Vitim and Olekma are caught the smallest sables,
with the finest, blackest, and hence most valuable furs. The squirrels
of the district are hunted only in winter, when they are sometimes
black and sometimes bright grey, their fur in summer being red, the
hair loose, and skin valueless. The black realize the highest price,
and are frequently met with south of the river, while north of the Lena
none but grey are captured. The hunters think that this difference
depends upon the nature of the forest.[2]
The town of Yakutsk, which the natives proudly call “the city of
the Yakutes,” presents a curious medley of dwellings; for there are
seen not only the Government buildings, and the wooden houses of
the Russians, but also the less pretentious winter dwellings of the
Yakutes, and even their summer yourts. Oxen here take the place of
horses. Women and girls ride them astride; their sledges also are often
drawn by them, the driver being mounted on one of the animals. The
cathedral is built of stone, and dedicated to St. Nicolas; and there
are in the town some half-dozen churches, in which certain parts of the
service, if not the whole, are performed in the Yakute language. The
chief ecclesiastic is Dionysius, Bishop of Yakutsk and Viluisk, who has
in his hyperborean diocese 49 churches and chapels, and one monastery
containing 13 monks.
Yakutsk has the credit of being the coldest place upon the face of the
earth. The mean temperature of the air is 18·5 Fahrenheit. A degree
of cold takes place there every year between the 17th December and
18th February, exceeding 58° below zero. During Mr. Erman’s stay the
cold reached even 71·5 below zero. Mercury, therefore, is frozen at
Yakutsk for one-sixth of the year. An exceedingly warm summer follows
this cold winter, and continues from about the 12th May to the 17th
September. The ground is then thawed three feet deep, and though the
crops rest on perpetually frozen strata, yet they produce fifteen-fold
on an average, and in particular places forty-fold.[3]
Yakutsk has a population of 4,800, some of whom are political exiles,
Scoptsi, etc., who live both here and in the villages along the
river. It would require no great stretch of the imagination, however,
to call all the Russian inhabitants exiles, for they are upwards of
5,000 miles from Petersburg.[4] As we travelled on the Obi we had for
fellow-passengers an official with four children and a woman, bound
for Yakutsk; and when, outside Tomsk, we saw the party stowed into one
tarantass, we pitied them in prospect of the remainder of their 3,000
miles’ journey.
The Russian population of the province is confined almost exclusively
to the banks of the Upper Lena, Yakutsk, and its neighbourhood. The
Tunguses are found at the extreme east and west of the province, and
have been already spoken of in a previous chapter.
Of another race, the Yukaghirs, it may suffice to say that they were
computed, in 1876, at only 1,600 in number, and that very little is
known of them. They roam over a tract on the shores of the Northern
Ocean lying between the Yana and the Kolima. They were once powerful,
and on the rivers Yana and Indigirka tumuli and ancient burial-places
are pointed out, containing corpses armed with bows, arrows, and
spears. With these, too, lies buried the magic drum, well known in
Lapland. At one time there were more hearths of the Yukaghirs on the
banks of the Kolima than stars in the sky--so their legend says. These
people maintain themselves during the whole year on the reindeer they
kill in spring and autumn. At such seasons the mosquitoes drive the
tormented animals to take refuge in the rivers, and not until winter is
coming do they return to the woods, the stags leading the way, followed
by the hinds and their young. Posted under cover, the Yukaghirs
discover the place where the herd will make the passage of a stream,
and conceal their canoes under the banks till the animals take the
water. Then they push out, and, having cut the helpless deer off from
either shore, proceed to slaughter them, whilst swimming, with long
spears, which they use with marvellous skill.
The Yukaghirs are great smokers; their tobacco--the coarse species of
the Ukraine--they mix with chips to make it go further; and in smoking
not a whiff is allowed to escape into the air, but all is inhaled and
swallowed, producing an effect somewhat similar to a mild dose of
opium. Tobacco is considered their first and greatest luxury. Women
and children all smoke, the latter learning to do so as soon as they
are able to toddle. Any funds remaining after the supply of tobacco
has been laid in are devoted to the purchase of brandy. A Yukaghir, it
is said, never intoxicates himself alone, but calls upon his family to
share the drink, even children in arms being supplied with a portion.
In the centre of the Yakutsk province, occupying the valley of the
Lena, roam the Yakutes, some of whom I met as far off as Nikolaefsk.
They are of middle height, and of a light copper colour, with black
hair, which the men cut close. The sharp lines of their faces express
indolent and amiable gentleness rather than vigour and passion. They
reminded me of North American Indians; and I agree with Erman, who says
that their appearance is that of a people who have grown wild rather
than of a thoroughly and originally rude race. Those I saw, however,
having been long settled among the Russians, had perhaps become
somewhat more polished than their wandering brethren. As a race they
are good-tempered, orderly, hospitable, and capable of enduring great
privation with patience; but in independence of character they contrast
unfavourably with their Tunguse neighbours. Lay a finger in anger on
one of the Tunguses, and nothing will induce him to forget the insult;
whereas with the Yakutes, the more they are thrashed the better they
work.[5]
The winter dwellings of the people have doors of raw hides, and log or
wicker walls calked with cow-dung, and flanked with banks of earth to
the height of the windows. The latter are made of sheets of ice, kept
in their place from the outside by a slanting pole, the lower end of
which is fixed in the ground. They are rendered air-tight by pouring
on water, which quickly freezes round the edges; and the fact that it
takes a long time to melt these blocks of ice thus fixed is highly
suggestive of what the temperature must be, both without and within.
The flat roof is covered with earth, and over the door, facing the
east, the boards project, making a covered place in front, like the
natives’ houses in the Caucasus. Under the same roof are the winter
shelters for the cows and for the people, the former being the larger.
The fireplace consists of a wicker frame plastered over with clay,
room being left for a man to pass between the fireplace and the wall.
The hearth is made of beaten earth, and on it there is at all times a
blazing fire, and logs of larch-wood throw up showers of sparks to the
roof. Young calves, like children, are often brought into the house to
the fire, whilst their mothers cast a contented look through the open
door at the back of the fireplace. Behind the fireplace, too, are the
sleeping-places of the people, which in the poorer dwellings consist
only of a continuation of the straw laid in the cow-house.
In the winter they have but about five hours of daylight, which
penetrates as best it can through the icy windows; and in the evening
all the party sit round the fire on low stools, men and women smoking.
The summer yourts of these people are formed of poles about 20 feet
long, which are united at the top into a roomy cone, covered with
pieces of bright yellow and perfectly flexible birch bark, which are
not merely joined together, but are also handsomely worked along the
seams with horsehair thread.
The houses are not overstocked with furniture, and the chief cooking
utensil is a large iron pot. At the time of the invasion of the
Russians, this article was deemed such a treasure that the price asked
for a pot was as many sable-skins as would fill it. They use also
in winter a bowl-shaped frame of wicker-work, plastered with frozen
cow-dung, in which they pound their porridge. With regard to their
food, the Yakutes, if they have their choice, love to eat horse-flesh;
and their adage says that to eat much meat, and grow fat upon it, is
the highest destiny of man. They are the greatest gluttons. So far back
as the days of Strahlenberg, it was said that four Yakutes would eat
a horse. They rarely kill their oxen for food; and at a wedding, the
favourite dish served up by the bride to her future lord is a boiled
horse’s head, with horse-flesh sausages. When, however, horse-flesh
or beef is wanting, they are not at all nice as to what they consume,
for they eat the animals they take for fur, and woe to the unfortunate
horse that becomes seriously injured in travel! It is killed and eaten
then and there, the men taking off their girdles to give fair play to
their stomachs, which swell after the fashion of a boa-constrictor.
Thus earnestly do they aspire to their notion of the highest destiny
of man! Milk is in general request among them, whether from cows or
mares; and when they are in the neighbourhood of the Russians, and can
get flour, they do so; but far away in the forests they make a sort of
porridge or bread, not exactly of sawdust, but of the under bark of the
spruce, fir, and larch, which they cut in small pieces, or pound in a
mortar, mixing it with milk, or with dried fish, or boiling it with
glutinous tops of the young sprouts. In spring, when the sap is rising,
they gather their bark harvest. They make also fermented beverages
of milk; and in the height of summer, when the mares foal, an orgie
is held, at which the men drain enormous bowls of this intoxicating
liquor; whilst the women, denied the privilege of intoxication, solace
themselves by getting as near to it as they can by smoking tobacco.
The distillation of sour milk is also practised, producing a coarse
spirit known as _arigui_. They devour likewise enormous quantities of
melted butter. This also can be prepared in such a way as to cause
intoxication when taken in sufficient quantities.
The dress of the Yakutes resembles in its main features that of
the other natives of Siberia, save, perhaps, that they are fonder
of ornaments. Both sexes riding a good deal on oxen and horses,
a perpendicular slit is made up the back from the bottom of the
_sanayakh_, or upper garment, in order to render the wearer comfortable
in the saddle, and some of the women add behind them a cushion or
pad, to save them from the rough motion of the animals. During the
milder part of the year a robe, made of very pliable leather, stained
yellow, is worn, which indoors is frequently laid aside, and males and
females sit by the fire, leaving the upper part of the body naked. I
bought a pair of women’s Yakute boots of this leather. They fit
tight to the leg, and have at the top a flap of black velvet with red
cloth trimming, which can be turned down and exposed for show in fair
weather, or turned up, bringing the boots to the thighs. On each boot
are two broad leather thongs, five or six feet long, to wind round the
leg. Waterproof boots are here made, called by the Russians _torbasis_.
These are cut from horse-hide, steeped in sour milk, then smoked, and
finally rubbed well with fat and fine soot. They last exceedingly well,
and are an inestimable comfort to the wearer, enabling him to tramp
through snow, water, and mud without inconvenience.
[Illustration: TUNGUSE GIRLS IN WINTER COSTUME.]
The Yakute women are clever in making up fur garments. When visiting a
Yakute family, I was looking about for a souvenir, and could at first
see nothing to buy. In the room hung a curious cradle, very nearly
resembling a coal-scuttle, which, when travelling, they suspend at
the side of a reindeer; but this was too large for me to bring away.
At length the materfamilias drew out a box in which she kept her
treasures. Among these were some large pieces of fur, each consisting
of an immense number of the small pieces of white skin that are found
under the squirrel’s neck. No piece was so large as the palm of the
hand, and she had sewn them together with great industry. These I
bought, much to the disgust of her daughter, for whom they were to have
made a dandy garment. I purchased also of the old lady what I prized
more, namely, an “_itti_,” or large cap, coming down with flaps at the
ears. The crown is made of the skins of sables’ feet, and it has a
border all round of the fur of sables’ tails. The sight of this, since
my return, has often excited the admiration of my lady friends.
The Yakutes who inhabit the inclement region adjacent to the Frozen
Ocean have neither horses nor oxen, but breed large numbers of dogs,
which draw them to and fro on their fishing excursions. Even those
living on the 62nd parallel keep cattle under far greater difficulties
than usual, for they have to make long journeys to collect hay, and do
not always find enough. The cold prevents their breeding sheep, goats,
or poultry. Nevertheless, cattle and hunting are their chief means of
subsistence, for they do not in general cultivate the land, though in
the gardens at Yakutsk are grown potatoes, cabbages, radishes, and
turnips; gherkins, too, are reared in hot-beds.
Some products of Yakutsk industry are purchased by the Russians,
particularly floor-cloths of white and coloured felts, which are cut
in strips and sewed together like mosaic. From the earliest times they
have been able to procure and work for themselves metals.[6]
The language of the Yakutes, which is largely spoken by the Russians
who live among them, is one of the principal means by which we are
led to assume their Turkish origin, for Latham says their speech is
intelligible at Constantinople, and their traditions (for literature
they have none) bespeak a southern origin.
Here are some Yakute words compared with Turkish:--
English. Yakute. Turk.
Yes _Sittee_ Evet
No _Socht_ Yokh
Well _Outchigey_ Peky, Aee
Bad _Thoosahane_ Fené
Bread _Astobitt_ Ek-mek
Water _On_ Soo
Beef _Augauss_ Seyir
Horse _Att_ Att
Road _Coll_ Yol
Man _Kissi_ Kissi, Adami
Woman _Jaiktorr_ Aorat
Tree _Marss_
Rain _Samirr_ Yaghmoor
One _Bare_ Bir
Two _Akee_ Eekee
Three _Oose_ Ootch
Four _Terte_ Dort
Five _Baiss_ Besh
Six _Alta_ Altee
Seven _Sett_ Yedee
Eight _Agaouss_ Antuz
Nine _Togouss_ Tokuz
Ten _Owni_ On
Eleven _Onordoubis_ On-bir
Twelve _Okorduchi_ On-eekee
Twenty _Surbia_ Igirme
Strahlenberg calls these people Pagans, but the latest writers call
them Christians; and the method of their conversion was, it is said,
extraordinary, for the Russian priests not making much headway against
their superstitions, an ukase was one day issued setting forth that
the good and loyal nation of the Yakutes were thought worthy to enter,
and were consequently admitted into, the Russian Church, to become a
part of the Tsar’s Christian family, and entitled to all the privileges
of the rest of his children. Such was the tenor of this strange
proclamation, and success attended the measure. The new Christians
showed perfect sincerity in the adoption of their novel faith, and
the Russian priests have established their sway over the Yakute race,
though amongst the outlying portion a lingering belief in Shamanism
still survives, of which travellers from Yakutsk to Okhotsk have been
made aware by their Yakute guides leaving them awhile in foggy weather,
and stealing off into the forest to perform certain mysterious rites.
The distance from Yakutsk to Okhotsk is 800 miles and the journey,
whether undertaken in summer or winter, is one of the severest. The map
gives one the idea that it might almost be accomplished by ascending
the river Aldan and one of its affluents to the Stanovoi mountains. The
usual plan, however, is to leave Yakutsk on horseback, with all the
luggage on pack-saddles. Some estimate may be formed of the traffic
once passing on this route from the fact that there were formerly
employed in it from 20,000 to 30,000 horses. The postal service is
still continued between Irkutsk and the Sea of Okhotsk; but there is no
telegraph; hence the fact of Professor Nordenskiöld having been frozen
in the ice on the north-east coast of Siberia was brought a long way by
courier before it could be made known by telegram to Europe.
One of the difficulties of the winter journey is the insufficient
sleeping accommodation on the route. The houses, when they exist, are
very bad, and when they fail, travellers sleep in a tent, or else
upon furs and wraps in the open air. They usually lie, however, by
a roaring fire, and so roast on one side whilst they freeze on the
other--changing their position when need requires.
After proceeding for some distance the traveller has to exchange
his horse for a novel kind of steed--a reindeer, on which the mere
gaining of one’s seat, to say nothing of keeping it, is by no means
so easy as might be supposed.[7] Having gained his reindeer seat,
the English traveller may keep it--if he can. He will most likely
fall off half-a-dozen times in the first quarter of an hour, until he
discovers that he must poise himself in such a manner that his body
may continually, and with ease, lend itself to a swinging motion.[8]
There is a second lesson to be learned by the uninitiated, which is
usually imparted in a very impressive manner; for should the cavalier
attempt to hold with the knees, and the cushion consequently slip back,
the moment the weight is felt on the animal’s back, he bends under his
haunches and lets the rider slip to the ground, and that perhaps in
ice, snow, or a pool of water.
As the traveller approaches Okhotsk he has again to change his mode of
conveyance, to be drawn this time by dogs. All three methods of travel
have their delights on this lonely journey, the tedium of which is
sometimes relieved by an extemporary hunting scene.[9]
The difficulties of the summer journey are somewhat different in
character. A large part of the way lies over swampy ground, on which
the causeways are not kept in repair, and where the horses flounder in
mud and water, into which they occasionally pitch the rider. It is no
uncommon thing for horses to die under the fatigues of the way. The
Yakutes, moreover, have a cruel fashion of giving their horses little
food whilst journeying. A similar custom obtains farther east, among
the Gilyaks, where I found that, though they gave a dog two pieces
of fish daily when at home, yet, when travelling, they gave him only
one, because the dogs immediately after eating are always lazy and
feeble.[10]
These, then, are some of the difficulties of the old route, from
Irkutsk to the Pacific, which happily it did not fall to my lot to be
obliged to encounter; but I crossed the Baikal instead, and, after
making a _détour_ to the Chinese frontier, continued across the Buriat
steppe to the Amur.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by
the Yeneseisk, and on the east by the Sea-coast provinces; whilst on
its south lie the three provinces of Irkutsk, Trans-Baikal, and the
Amur. The northern and western portions of the province are flat, but
towards the south and south-east are the Yablonoi and Stanovoi mountain
ranges, continuations, in a north-easterly direction, of the mighty
Altai chain. The great river of the province is the Lena, whose waters
are drained from an area of 800,000 square miles. From the slopes on
the western side of Baikal its upper portion runs in a north-easterly
direction as far as Yakutsk, after which the Lower Lena runs due north
to the Arctic Ocean. The total length of the river is about 2,500
miles, with a fall of 3,000 feet. East of the Lower Lena are the
rivers Yana, Indigirka, and Kolima, all of which are navigable and
of considerable size, though small by comparison with their gigantic
sister.
[2] There are, says M. Réclus, nearly 50 species of fur animals, and
millions of specimens killed during the hunting season. The annual
export of furs from Siberia, not including those taken from sea
animals, represents a gross value of nearly half a million sterling.
The fur which regulates the price of all others is that of the sable,
which is worth at least from 16_s._ to £1, and sometimes commands, even
in Siberia, as much as £6 a skin. Only the back of the animal is used
for the best garments, one of which may contain 80 skins, and rise
to the value of nearly £500. The fur of the black fox is still more
appreciated, and a single skin sometimes fetches £30. Squirrel skins by
themselves constitute about a third of the Siberian revenue from furs;
ten, twelve, and even fifteen millions of these animals being killed
during their migrations in a single year. China receives a considerable
number of these skins at Kiakhta, but more find their way to Europe.
The furs brought to the fair of Irbit in the Urals in 1876 were as
follows:--
Grey squirrels 5,000,000 skins
Ermines 215,000 ”
Hares 300,000 ”
Foxes 82,000 ”
Martens of various kinds 750,000 ”
Sables 12,000 ”
Others 200,000 ”
[3] It is well known that in the northern parts of Siberia the ground
is always frost-bound, but to what depth is not so easily determined.
During the stay, however, of Mr. Erman at Yakutsk it happened that a
resident was digging a well, down which the man of science went, and
pronounced that he found the soil frozen to a depth of 50 feet below
the surface. So accustomed, however, do the natives become to the
cold, that with the thermometer at unheard-of degrees below freezing
point, the Yakute women, with bare arms, stand in the open-air markets,
chattering and joking as pleasantly as if in genial spring. Inside
their houses, in the heated part of the rooms, they get the temperature
up to 65° or 75°; but one day, when the thermometer stood at 9°, Mr.
Erman found the children of both sexes running about quite naked, not
only in the house, but even in the open air. In fact, the great cold is
not thought a grievance in Siberia, for a man clothed in furs may sleep
at night in an open sledge when the mercury freezes in the thermometer;
and, wrapped up in his pelisse, he can lie without inconvenience on the
snow under a thin tent when the temperature of the air is 30° below
zero.
[4] I was told by a legal authority that some of the political exiles
are sent to the province of Yakutsk, but, after the figures just
quoted, it would seem that their number cannot be very large; of
hereditary nobles in the province there were said to be, in 1876, only
100, and of personal nobles only 450. If, then, there be deducted from
these the Governor and his staff, military officers, and tchinovniks of
all grades, there would not be left a large margin for the class from
which political exiles are thought to come, supposing, that is, that
they are included in this return.
[5] Strahlenberg divides them into 10 tribes, and Syboreen’s Almanack
for 1876 gives their number at 210,000. They belong to the great Turk
family, and hence their Siberian locality is remarkable, because the
Turks have ever been the people to displace others, whereas the Yakutes
have been themselves displaced, and driven into this inhospitable
climate, it is supposed, by the stronger Buriats.
[6] The iron ore of the Vilui was smelted by the Yakutes long before
the advent of the Russians, and the other tribes got from them iron
axes, awls, and tools for stripping and dressing hides. The Yakutes
also make copper ornaments for clothes and harness, and the metal
plates which they sew on their girdles. Even now, although they use
European guns, they still make for themselves the great knife, or
dagger, which is worn at the waist. The Yakutsk steel is more flexible
than the Russian, and yet blades made of it will cut copper or pewter
as easily as European blades.
[7] To get on the animal’s _back_, as one would mount a donkey, would
probably cripple the deer for life. The saddle is therefore placed on
its shoulder close to the neck, and to mount, the rider, holding the
bridle, stands at the right side of the animal, with his face turned
forwards. He then raises his left foot to the saddle, which he never
touches with his hands, and springing with the right leg, and aided
also by a pole, which he holds in his right hand, he gains his seat.
The native girls and women are as expert in this jumping as the men,
and rarely want assistance in mounting.
[8] The practised reindeer riders acquire the habit of striking
gently with the heel, alternately right and left, at every step, just
behind the animal’s shoulders. This is done, not for the purpose of
stimulating the deer, but because the motion described is the surest
means of maintaining equilibrium. The staff, too, with which the rider
mounts is carried in his hand, and is used for maintaining an equipoise
in riding; but any attempt of the rider, in the first critical moment,
to support himself by resting the staff on the ground, is sure to end
in his being unseated.
[9] Mr. Erman describes the killing, during his journey, of a wild
sheep, and the joy of the Yakutes at the prospect of getting fresh
meat for supper. One of them cried out characteristically, “I will
stay awake the whole night, and eat till we set out.” Whilst the
carcase was being prepared, every one cut for himself some thin wooden
skewers, on which he spitted a row of little bits of meat. These were
only appetizers, to be followed by large pieces boiled in the pot. The
hunter, however, who had killed the sheep claimed as his perquisite the
animal’s head; the brains, as a special delicacy, he sucked out raw,
and cut out the eyes to be dressed for his own exclusive benefit.
[10] It does not appear that the Yakutes are otherwise cruel to their
horses, for Erman relates that, on going up to a horse that had carried
him many miles, to pat his neck by way of saying adieu, the Yakutes
came up and embraced the other horses, putting their arms round their
necks and hugging them like children. Mr. Hill, too, discovered in a
very practical way the regard of the Yakutes for their horses, when,
food having run short, and after a dinner of only cranberries and nuts,
he proposed that one of the animals should be killed and eaten, the
Yakutes replied that they never killed one of their horses until they
had passed five whole days together without any sort of food. It would
be a shame, they said, that while they had tea and a morsel of sugar,
and the prospect before them of getting other food, one of the poor
creatures should be slain. Mr. Hill, therefore, and his merchant friend
had to take their guns and hunt for game, with a keenness which they
had never known before.