Of the miseries which here await him, Wrangell relates a melancholy instance. In a solitary hut, in one of the dreariest wildernesses imaginable, he found a Tunguse and his daughter. While the father, with his long snow-shoes, was pursuing a reindeer for several days together, this unfortunate girl remained alone and helpless in the hut,—which even in summer afforded but an imperfect shelter against the rain and wind,—exposed to the cold, and frequently to hunger, and without the least occupation. No wonder that the impoverished Tungusi not seldom sink into cannibalism. Neither the reindeer nor the dogs, nor the wives and children of their more fortunate countrymen, are secure from the attacks and voracity of these outcasts, who, in their turn, are treated like wild beasts, and destroyed without mercy. A bartering trade is, however, carried on with them, but only at a distance, and by signs; each party depositing its goods, and following every motion of the other with a suspicious eye.
The Russian government, anxious to relieve the misery of the impoverished nomads, has given orders to settle them along the river banks, and to provide them with the necessary fishing implements; but only extreme wretchedness can induce the Tunguse to relinquish his free life of the forest. His careless temper, his ready wit, and sprightly manner, distinguish him from the other Siberian tribes,—the gloomy Samoïede, the uncouth Ostiak, the reserved Jakut,—but he is said to be full of deceit and malice. His vanity shows itself in the quantity of glass beads with which he decorates his dress of reindeer leather, from his small Tartar cap to the tips of his shoes. When chasing or travelling on his reindeer through the woods, he of course lays aside most of his finery, and puts on large water-tight boots, or sari, well greased with fat, to keep off the wet of the morass. His hunting apparatus is extremely simple. A small axe, a kettle, a leathern bag containing some dried fish, a dog, a short gun, or merely a bow and a sling, is all he requires for his expeditions into the forest. With the assistance of his long and narrow snow-shoes, he flies over the dazzling plains, and protects his eyes, like the Jakut, with a net made of black horse-hair. He never hesitates to attack the bear single-handed, and generally masters him. The nomad Tunguse naturally requires a movable dwelling. His tent is covered with leather, or large pieces of pliable bark, which are easily rolled up and transported from place to place. The yourt of the sedentary Tunguse resembles that of the Jakut, and is so small that it can be very quickly and thoroughly warmed by a fire kindled on the stone hearth in the centre. In his food the Tunguse is by no means dainty. One of his favorite dishes consists of the contents of a reindeer’s stomach mixed with wild berries, and spread out in thin cakes on the rind of trees, to be dried in the air or in the sun. Those who have settled on the Wiluj and in the neighborhood of Nertschinsk likewise consume large quantities of brick tea, which they boil with fat and berries into a thick porridge, and this unwholesome food adds, no doubt, to the yellowness of their complexion.
But few of the Tungusi have been converted to Christianity, the majority being still addicted to Shamanism. They do not like to bury their dead, but place them, in their holiday dresses, in large chests, which they hang up between two trees. The hunting apparatus of the deceased is buried beneath the chest. No ceremonies are used on the occasion, except when a Shaman happens to be in the neighborhood, when a reindeer is sacrificed, on whose flesh the sorcerer and the relatives regale themselves, while the spirits to whom the animal is supposed to be offered are obliged to content themselves with the smell of the burnt fat. As among the Samoïedes or the Ostiaks, woman is a marketable ware among the Tungusi. The father gives his daughter in marriage for twenty or a hundred reindeer, or the bridegroom is obliged to earn her hand by a long period of service.
In East Siberia the Tungusi divide with the Jakuts the task of conveying goods or travellers through the forests, and afford the stranger frequent opportunities for admiring their agility and good humor. On halting after a day’s journey, the reindeer are unpacked in an instant, the saddles and the goods ranged orderly on the ground, and the bridles collected are hung on branches of trees.
Comfortably seated on his reindeer saddle, the traveller may now amuse himself with the dances, which the Tungusi accompany with an agreeable song; or, if he choose to witness their agility in athletic exercises, it only costs him a word of encouragement and a small donation of brandy. Two of the Tungusi hold a rope, and swing it with all their might, so that it does not touch the ground. Meanwhile a third Tunguse skips over the rope, picks up a bow and arrow, spans the bow and shoots the arrow, without once touching the rope. Some particularly bold and expert Tungusi will dance over a sword which a person lying on his back on the ground is swinging about with the greatest rapidity. Should our traveller be a friend of chess, the Tungusi are equally at his service, as they are passionately fond of this noblest of games, especially in the Kolymsk district.
Like all other Siberian nomads, they visit, at least once a year, the various fairs which are held in the small towns scattered here and there over their immense territory, such as Kirensk, Olekminsk, Bargusin and Ochotsk, which, before the opening of Amoor to trade, was the chief port of East Siberia.
CHAPTER CXLVII.
SIBERIA—Concluded.
THE SAMOÏEDES AND OSTIAKS.
THEIR BARBARISM — NUM, OR JILIBEAMBAERTJE — SHAMANISM — SAMOÏEDE IDOLS — SJADÆI — HAHE — THE TADEBTSIOS, OR SPIRITS — THE TADIBES, OR SORCERERS — THEIR DRESS — THEIR INVOCATIONS — THEIR CONJURING TRICKS — REVERENCE PAID TO THE DEAD — A SAMOÏEDE OATH — APPEARANCE OF THE SAMOÏEDES — THEIR DRESS — A SAMOÏEDE BELLE — CHARACTER OF THE SAMOÏEDES — THEIR DECREASING NUMBERS — TRADITIONS OF ANCIENT HEROES — OSTIAKS — WHAT IS THE OBI? — A SUMMER YOURT — POVERTY OF OSTIAK FISHERMEN — A WINTER YOURT — ATTACHMENT OF OSTIAKS TO THEIR ANCIENT CUSTOMS — ARCHERY — APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER OF THE OSTIAKS.
The Samoïedes, the neighbors of the Laplanders, are still farther removed from civilized society, and plunged in even deeper barbarism. The wildest tundras and woods of Northern Russia and Western Siberia are the home of the Samoïede. With his reindeer herds he wanders over the naked wastes, from the eastern coasts of the White Sea to the banks of the Chatanga, or hunts in the boundless forests between the Obi and the Jenissei. His intercourse with the Russians is confined to his annual visit at the fairs of such miserable settlements as Obdorsk and Pustosersk, where, far from improving by their company, he but too often becomes the prey of their avarice, and learns to know them merely as cheats and oppressors. Protestant missionaries have long since brought instruction to the Laplander’s hut, but the majority of the less fortunate Samoïedes still adhere to the gross superstitions of their fathers. They believe in a Supreme Being,—Num, or Jilibeambaertje,—who resides in the air, and, like the Jupiter of old, sends down thunder and lightning, rain and snow; and as a proof that something of a poetic fancy is to be found even among the most savage nations, they call the rainbow “the hem of his garment.” As this deity, however, is too far removed from them to leave them any hope of gaining his favor, they never think of offering him either prayer or sacrifice. But, besides Num, there are a great many inferior spirits, or idols, who directly interfere in human concerns,—capricious beings, who allow themselves to be influenced by offerings, or yield to magical incantations; and to these, therefore, the Samoïede has recourse when he feels the necessity of invoking the aid or averting the wrath of a higher power.
The chief of all Samoïede idols is in the island of Waygatz,—a cold and melancholy Delos,—where it was already found by old Barentz. This idol is a mere block of stone, with its head tapering to a point. It has thus been fashioned, not by a mortal artist, but by a play of nature. After this original the Samoïedes have formed many idols of stone or wood of various sizes, which they call “Sjadæi,” from their possessing a human physiognomy (sja). These idols they dress in reindeer skins, and ornament them with all sorts of colored rags. But a resemblance to the human form is not the necessary attribute of a Samoïede idol; any irregularly shaped stone or tree may be thus distinguished.