Log houses with windows of ice
Editorial contextThe Vogul 'Tartars' lived in square log rooms like Russian peasant huts, with an open hearth instead of an oven. Once the fire burned down to coals, they sealed the smoke-hole with a sheet of ice, which kept the heat in and let daylight through. Wide benches around the walls served as seats by day and beds by night.
Their Dwellings are quadrangular wooden Rooms, like those of the Russian Peasants; only instead of Ovens they use Hearths, on which they burn Wood, and dress their Victuals. The Smoak-hole which is in the Roof, is covered with Ice, as soon as the Wood is burnt to a Coal, which keeps the warmth in the Room, and the light strikes through the bright and clear Ice.
About Voguls (Mansi), called Siberian Tartars
Continue in this sourceAn envoy's overland journey from Moscow to Peking1692 to 1695 · 18 passagesPraying once a year is enough
Editorial contextIdes lodged a night with the Voguls and asked about their religion. Once a year they go into the woods, kill one animal of each kind, hang the carcass on a tree and bow to it, then feast; and they saw no reason to pray more often. On the same page he notes that a good hunting dog was laid to rest in its own little wooden hut raised on four props of earth.
Their whole Religious Worship consists in making an Offering according to their Custom once each Year: When they go in crouds into the Woods, and kill one of each Species of Beasts … they flea off the Skins, hang up the Carcass on a Tree, and fall prostrate to the Earth, and in their way, Pray to it … What need of Praying any oftner than once a Year, say they?
About Voguls (Mansi), called Siberian Tartars
Keep in mind
Based on one night's conversation through interpreters.
Tatar villages that look like Russian ones
Editorial contextPassing Tatar villages on the Iren, Georgi notes that these farmers were poor but very clean, and that their timber houses differed from poor Russian peasant houses only in cleanliness and their wide sleeping platforms. Each village had a mosque in a 'wretched hut' and a mullah, and the best graves in their cemetery were surrounded by a low frame of logs.
Their dwellings differ from poor Russian peasant houses only in this [their cleanliness] and in the wide sleeping platforms. Each village has its chapel (mosque) in a wretched hut, and a mullah. Near Kardieva the road went over their burial ground on the wooded bank of the Turka. It had no enclosure, but the best graves are [surrounded] by a
Working translation
Original wording
Ihre Wohnungen unterscheiden sich blos hiedurch und durch die breiten Schlafgestelle von den armen Rußischen Bauerhäusern. Jedes Dorf hat seine Kapelle (Metsched) in einer kläglichen Hütte und einen Mula. Bey Kardiewa gieng der Weg über ihren Begräbnißplatz (Uljan) auf dem waldigen Ufer des Turka. Er hatte keine Einfassung, aber die besten Gräber sind mit einem
About Kazan Tatars settled in the Urals
Continue in this sourceGeorgi's travel journal from Lake Baikal to Kazan1772 to 1774 · 11 passagesKungur's Tatar caves, now ice-cellars
Editorial contextOn his way home Cochrane stopped at Kungur, a town of 1,100 houses. Before it became a provincial capital, he says, it was a favourite place of the Tartars, and the caves where they lived were still shown to visitors, now used as ice-cellars and storehouses.
Formerly it was the capital of a province, and previous to that period, a favourite place of the Tartars. The caves where they resided, are still shewn in the light of useful curiosities, inasmuch as they are converted into ice-cellars, and storehouses.
About Tatars (former inhabitants)
Keep in mind
Local tradition. Kungur is famous for its natural ice cave; the idea that Tatars lived in it is folklore, not evidence of Tatar cave cities.
