A Kachin shaman in ribbons and printed cotton
Editorial contextPallas saw a young Kachin shaman perform at the Karysh mine. The man was said to have been mad, or to have played mad, for years before taking up the craft, and still sometimes 'witched' all night until he collapsed. As a beginner he had no drum, only a paddle-shaped rattle stick; a shaman earned the right to a drum by sacrificing a horse and stretching its hide over it.
I saw the costume of a young Kachin sorcerer, who for many years before taking up the trade had been mad or had pretended to be mad, at Karysh… He performed his tricks without a cap and wore only brightly embroidered leather stockings and on his body a tight, very dirty smock of brightly printed cotton cloth (kitaika).
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Original wording
Ich habe den Aufzug eines jungen Katschinzischen Zauberers, der viele Jahre, ehe er das Handwerk angefangen, närrisch gewesen oder sich närrisch angestellt hatte, in Karysch gesehn… Er gauckelte ohne Mütze und hatte nur bunt ausgenähte lederne Strümpfe und am Leibe einen engen, ganz beschmutzten Kittel, von bunt gedrucktem baumwollenen Zeuge (Kitaika) an
About Kachin Tatars (Khakas)
Continue in this sourcePallas's journey through the provinces of the Russian Empire1768 to 1774 · 20 passagesBirch-bark yurts gleaming white on the Sagai steppe
Editorial contextStaying some days with the Tatars by Lake Ilkul on the Sagai steppe, Sievers praises their fine horses and cattle, sold to merchants as far as Moscow, notes that traders always bring brandy because 'one bargains better with a drunk Tatar than a sober one', and says he saw no sign of religion. Their yurts, he writes, were clean and roomy and all built of birch bark, shining a dazzling white against the green meadows and hills.
Their yurts are clean, roomy, and all built of birch bark, which in sunshine give off a dazzling whiteness into the distance and contrast most pleasantly with the green of the meadows and hills.
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Original wording
Ihre Jurten sind reinlich, geräumig, und alle von Birkenrinde gebauet, die bey Sonnenschein eine blendende Weisse in … der Ferne von sich geben und aufs Angenehmste mit dem … Grün der Wiesen und Berge contrastiren.
About Sagai Tatars (Khakas)
Keep in mind
The OCR here interleaves two columns; the quoted pieces are on this page but their order was restored.
Stone statues left by Cumans and other Turks
Editorial contextPresenting drawings of inscribed stone columns near Abakan on the upper Yenisei, Klaproth notes that they closely resemble the stone statues scattered over the steppe north of the Caucasus. Those, he says, are the only monuments the Cumans and other Turkic peoples left behind there.
Moreover, these same statues closely resemble those seen fairly often on the vast plains north of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the Caspian, which are the only monuments that the Cumans and other Turkic peoples have left us of their stay in those regions.
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Original wording
D'ailleurs, ces mêmes statues ressemblent beaucoup à celles qu'on voit assez fréquemment dans les vastes plaines situées au nord du Caucase, entre la mer Noire et la mer Caspienne, et qui sont les seuls monumens que les Comans et autres peuples turcs nous ont laissés de leur séjour dans ces contrées.
About ancient Turkic peoples of South Siberia; Cumans of the steppe
Keep in mind
Klaproth worked from drawings made by others (Müller's artist Lursenius, Strahlenberg, Pallas), not from the stones themselves.
'Abakan Tatars': the Kirghiz' descendants in 1895
Editorial contextRadloff notes that the Yenisei inscriptions were left mostly by the Kirghiz, and that their descendants still form a large part of the Turkic population there, 'the Abakan Tatars and Soyots'. In the nineteenth century Russian usage called many Siberian Turkic groups 'Tatars'. The same people who carved runic stones in the early Middle Ages were called Tatars by the time Radloff wrote.
When the Russians came to know them in the sixteenth century in the southern part of the Yenisei province, the Kirghiz were complete Turks, and even now descendants of the Kirghiz form a large part of the Turkic population of that area, the Abakan Tatars and Soyots.
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Original wording
Als die Russen sie im XVI. Jahrhundert im südlichen Theile des Jenisseischen Gouvernements kennen lernten, waren die Kirgisen vollkommene Türken und noch jetzt bilden Nachkommen der Kirgisen einen grossen Theil der türkischen Bevölkerung desselben Gebietes, der Abakan-Tataren und Sojonen.
About Kirghiz (Khakas), called Abakan Tatars in Radloff's time
Keep in mind
Radloff's own ethnographic judgement; his claim that the Kirghiz were first a non-Turkic people rests on a Chinese remark about red hair and blue eyes.
Checked against the page image.
Kachin weddings and the bride who must lie flat
Editorial contextPallas reports that the Kachin Tatars, rich herders who had not taken up farming or Christianity, keep one wife, court for years, and hold two weddings. The groom's father must set up a new yurt for the couple, while the bride's father supplies the household goods. After the betrothal the father-in-law never sees his son's wife again, and if they meet she must throw herself flat on the ground until he has passed.
The first wedding is held at the bride's father's, the second at the groom's, where the groom's father must set up a new yurt for the young couple… Except at the first wooing the father-in-law never sees his son's wife again, never goes into the son's yurt, and if he does meet his daughter-in-law, custom requires that she throw herself flat on the ground.
Working translation
Original wording
Die erste Hochzeit wird beym Brautvater, die andre beym Bräutigam gefeyert, wo des Bräutigams-Vater dem jungen Paar eine neue Jurte aufstellen muß… Ausser bey der ersten Freywerberey sieht der Schwiegervater seines Sohns Frau niemals wieder, geht nie in die Jurte des Sohns und geschieht es ja, daß er seiner Schwiegertochter begegnet, so will die Gewohnheit, daß sich diese platt auf die Erde niederwirft
About Kachin Tatars (Khakas)
Continue in this sourcePallas's journey through the provinces of the Russian Empire1768 to 1774 · 20 passages