Life must be dreary indeed to the wretched exiles sent to Yakoutsk, where in winter there is only daylight for four hours out of the twenty-four! The winter dwellings of the Yakouts are made of logs protected by banks of earth, which reach to the windows——which latter are made of blocks of solid ice; and an idea of the temperature may be formed by the fact that, notwithstanding the heat inside the building, these seldom melt till the return of spring. Human beings, cows, calves, and even reindeer, all live together inside these tents for the sake of warmth. In summer the tents are of birch bark and reindeer skin, of the same shape, but naturally much cooler than the winter quarters.
The Yakouts, unlike most of the aboriginal Siberian tribes, are cleanly enough in their habits. They may be said to live literally on reindeer, for the latter is their beast of burthen, and provides them with food, covering, and drink. A species of fermented liquor which they concoct from its milk is even more intoxicating than the “airak” of the Mongols. Reindeer flesh is, however, only eaten among them on great occasions, or when an animal dies from natural causes, the staple food being a sort of cake made of fir-tree bark powdered very fine, and reindeer milk. I saw one at the Irkoutsk museum, which, though four or five years old, still reeked of turpentine, and must, when fresh from the oven, have been somewhat trying even to the gastric juices of a Yakout.
Though a Yakout has few vices but gluttony, he is, like all Siberian races, a sad drunkard when he gets the chance. They are, however, as a rule, a clever, intelligent race. A Russian we met at Tomsk, had spent many years among them in exile. Being in want of a fork, he commissioned some Yakouts to make him one of wood, at the same time giving them a silver one as a model. What was his surprise when, a fortnight later, they brought him a perfect copy of his own model made of iron, with one exception; the handle of the model was of ebony. To get over this difficulty, they held the handle of the iron fork in wood-smoke till it had attained a dirty grey colour!
With the exception of small-pox, epidemics are rare in Yakoutsk, though the former disease sometimes lays whole settlements waste. It is a common thing for Russian fur-traders to come upon a Yakout village deserted by every living being but dogs and reindeer, while the corpses of those who have succumbed to this loathsome disease lie rotting above ground. When a Yakout is attacked, his companions desert him, leaving a cup of water and a bundle of firewood within his reach; and this, curiously enough, is the practice of many of the inland tribes in Borneo. Indeed, in appearance and customs the Yakout strikingly resembles the Dyak.
The Chaman religion, though dying out among the more civilized Bouriattes, is still practised to a large extent among the Yakouts. But very few Europeans have ever beheld the strange, weird ceremonies performed by these Chamans, who worship a deity supposed to inhabit the sun. Their rites are held in secret either in the depths of the forest, or the solitude of the “Toundras,” vast desert marshes; for none but the true Christian religion is recognized by the Czar’s government. A Russian fur-trader who witnessed, in hiding, one of their ceremonies a few years ago, thus describes the scene:——
“The officiating priest appears as soon as a select body of worshippers is ready, and enters a circle of flaming logs which has been kindled in readiness. He is clad entirely in white. Round his neck is slung a large circular brass plate, signifying the sun, while from his shoulders, sides, and thighs hang innumerable bells and the stuffed bodies of stoats, weasels, seals, and other wild animals. Fitting closely to him is a kind of light framework typifying the human body (I saw one of these at Irkoutsk), a perfect iron skeleton, showing the ribs, breast-bone, thighs, legs, &c. Sacrifices of reindeer and calves’ flesh, fish, airak, sable furs, &c, are then cast into the flames while he turns slowly round and round inside the ring of fire, till, like a Cairo dervish, he has worked himself into a kind of mad frenzy. He then falls helpless in a fit of exhaustion, brought on by excitement and exertion.” This ends the ceremony, which no one has ever succeeded in getting at the meaning of.
The “Tungouses” inhabiting the region to the north and east of Yakoutsk, are perhaps the wildest, as they are the filthiest, of any Siberian tribe. They are comparatively few (at most some four thousand), and are yearly diminishing in number. They profess no religion, are nomads, and gain a living by fishing and selling furs to Russian traders, who, by the aid of vodka and debauchery, are slowly but surely decimating them. The dwellings of the Tungouses are the same summer and winter, and are made of reindeer skins stretched tightly over a light wooden framework. It is somewhat curious to note that the tents of all these tribes are of different shapes, that of the Yakouts being square, the Bouriattes round, and the Koriaks and Kamchatdales triangular, and the Tungouses conical. The latter, though the dirtiest, are the most picturesquely dressed of any: some of their costumes of fur and birdskins being especially graceful and handsome.
The Yurakis, Samoyedes, and Ostiaks are so analogous to the two last-mentioned races as to need no description, though the latter are the race of which, on the Great Obi River, we saw the most. I have touched upon the least civilized races of Siberia, and will now conclude with a few remarks on the link between the civilized Siberian and the aborigines of this great country——the Bouriattes.
The Bouriattes may be said to form the greater part of the population of Irkoutsk, and are treated almost as equals by the Russian Siberian (the offspring of the convict population), who are gradually colonizing this part of Asia. Though as wild and uncivilized as the Yakouts one hundred years ago, the Bouriatte is now Russianized, has given up his old religion of “Chamanism,” dresses in European costume, and performs the duties of yemstchik, post-house clerk, policeman, and other Government officials so efficiently, that he is preferred by some, in these menial capacities, to the European Russian. The Bouriattes originally came from the region north of the Trans-Baikal region, known as Trans-Baikalia, on the eastern shores of Lake Baikal. They are now, however, to be found in almost any part of Siberia on the great post-road from Irkoutsk to Tomsk. Many, too, have amassed large fortunes as gold-diggers. This race differs but little in physiognomy from the Mongol Tartar. They are thrifty, industrious people, and ordinarily of an honest, hospitable disposition, though civilization has already begun to do its work, and they are becoming somewhat unscrupulous in their love of filthy lucre.
The Bouriattes number some two hundred and seventy thousand, and are the most populous aboriginal tribe that exists in Eastern Siberia. Their language is a kind of patois, composed of Mongol and Chinese, in which, oddly enough, a few Turkish words occasionally crop up. How the latter language ever drifted here is a mystery, but some of the words are precisely similar in meaning and expression. Like their neighbours, the Mongols, the Bouriattes are Buddhists, although some very few have remained Chamans (their old and primitive religion), and fewer still are Christians. European missionaries find the conversion of Chaman Bouriattes tolerably easy, that of Buddhists impossible. About every fourth Bouriatte becomes a Lama, and takes vows of celibacy. One of the Buddhist laws precludes a Lama from killing anything, be it only a flea; and I have seen the poor fellows writhing under the torture inflicted by vermin, but suffering in silence, till some friend in need has come up and annihilated their tormentors.