New Russian towns on Tatar land
Editorial contextAfter Yermak's death the Russians returned, built the fort of Tyumen and then the fortresses of Tobolsk, Tara and others (previous page). Coxe sums up the following century bluntly: the Tartars were subdued or wiped out, and new towns and colonies went up everywhere. In his account the Siberian towns were new Russian foundations, not inherited 'Tartar' cities.
The Russians pushed their conquest far and wide: wherever they appeared, the Tartars were either reduced or exterminated. New towns were built and colonies were planted on all sides. Before a century had well elapsed, all that vast tract of country now called Siberia … was annexed to the Russian dominions.
About Siberian Tatars and other native peoples
Keep in mind
The previous page lists the forts as Tumen, Tobolsk, 'Sungur' (probably a scan error for Surgut) and Tara.
Mammoth tusks shown in Moscow
Editorial contextAmong Siberia's riches Avril lists a fine ivory from creatures the Russians called 'Behemot', found along the Lena and the shores of the 'Tartarian Sea'. He was shown teeth in Moscow ten inches long, finer than elephant ivory. On the next page he says the ivory was believed to stanch bleeding, was prized by Persians and Turks for dagger hilts, and came from a creature 'as big and as dangerous as a Crocodile'.
Several teeth of this Monster were shewn us at Moscow, which were ten Inches long, and two in Diameter at the Root ; Nor are the Elephants Teeth comparable to 'em
About Siberian ivory hunters; Russian traders
Keep in mind
He saw the teeth; the living 'monster' is hearsay. This is fossil mammoth (or walrus) ivory; the page OCR is badly garbled around it.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Gold in the old graves: 'from whom but the former Tatars?'
Editorial contextArguing that the history of Chinggis Khan belongs to Siberian history, Müller points to the antiquities of southern Siberia: old entrenchments across the steppes, many memorial stones and statues, and graves from which gold and silver had been dug. He asks from whom such treasure could come but the former Tatars, to whom the riches of China, Persia, Russia, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary had fallen as plunder. On the next page he adds that the poorer old graves near Baikal show the earliest owners lived simply.
what treasures of gold and silver have not been brought out of the graves? From whom can they come but from the former Tatars, since it is known that all the treasures of China, Persia, Russia, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary had to fall to them as prey?
Working translation
Original wording
was für Kostbarkeiten an Gold und Silber hat man nicht aus den Gräbern hervorgeholet? von wem können dieselbe anders, als von den ehmahligen Tataren, herstammen, indem bekannt ist, daß alle Schätze von China, Persien, Rußland, Polen, Böhmen, Ungarn, ihnen zum Opfer werden müssen?
About The 'former Tatars' (the Mongol empire of Chinggis Khan)
Keep in mind
Müller's inference; modern archaeology dates many Siberian gold-bearing kurgans far earlier (Scythian and Hunnic periods).
A gold sphinx from a Siberian kurgan, and Egyptians in Siberia?
Editorial contextWitsen describes a small beaten-gold figure sent to him from Siberia, dug from an old burial under a kurgan: a lion or tiger body with a human head and spread wings. On the same page he wonders whether Egyptian idol-worship somehow reached Siberia, or whether Chinese settlers of Chinggis Khan's time left such things. A striking early report of Scythian-style gold from Siberian mounds, wrapped in pure speculation.
Another idol, two fingers' breadth in size, of beaten gold, was sent to me from Siberia; it too was lifted from an old burial place, where human bones were found with it, under a kurgan or great mound; it shows the body of a four-footed beast, like a tiger or lion, has the head of a man, and two wings
Working translation
Original wording
Een ander Afgoden-beeld, groot twee vinger-breet, van geslagen Goud, is my uit Siberien toegezonden, 't geen mede uit een oude Begravenis-plaets, daer men Menschen doods-beenderen by vond, onder een Kurgan, of groote heuvel is geligt, vertoont het Lichaem van een viervoetig Beest, als van een Tyger of Leeuw, heeft het hooft van een Mensch, en twee vleugelen
About unknown builders of Siberian kurgans
Keep in mind
The object is real evidence; Witsen's Egyptian and Chinese explanations are his own guesses, which he himself calls a riddle.
The 'pyramids' of Tartar kings on old maps
Editorial contextStrahlenberg describes the burial mounds of southern Siberia: some are earth heaps as high as houses, lying so thick that they look like a ridge of hills; others are ringed with rough or squared stones, and some are built entirely of stone. He explains that the 'pyramids' drawn on old European maps of Great Tartary, labelled 'Pyramidal Sepulchres of the Tartarian Kings', must mean these tombs, which are not really pyramids.
Some are only raised up of Earth, as high as Houses, … that, at a Distance, they appear like a Ridge of Hills. … In some Places these Tombs are entirely built of Stone. Hence we find in the ancient Maps of Tartary the Greater, a Number of Pyramids, with these Words, in Latin; viz. The Pyramidal Sepulchres of the Tartarian Kings,
About ancient peoples of the Siberian steppe (Strahlenberg's 'Scythians')
Continue in this sourceStrahlenberg's description of Russia, Siberia and 'Great Tartary'1709 to 1729 · 18 passagesTartary: a European label for everything east of the Ob
Editorial contextIntroducing Siberia, Witsen explains his own usage: in Europe the name Tartary is commonly given to all lands east of the Ob and the Caspian Sea, and he uses it that way too, though strictly speaking Siberia does not lie in Tartary. A clear statement that 'Tartary' on his maps was a convention, not the name of a state.
just as, under the name Tartary, most commonly in Europe, all lands east of the Ob and the Caspian Sea are known, as I too include them under that name; although, properly speaking, this Siberia does not lie in Tartary
Working translation
Original wording
gelijk met de naem Tartarye, meest doorgaens in Europa, alle Landen beoosten de Oby, en het Kaspische Meir, zoo als ik dezelve onder die benaming mede betrekke, bekent zijn; hoe wel dan eigentlijk genomen, dit Siberia in Tartarye niet en legt
About a general label
Continue in this sourceWitsen's North and East Tartaryc. 1600 to 1705 · 4 passagesMen with ox feet and dogs' faces by the northern ocean
Editorial contextIn his account of Mongol campaigns Carpini passes on marvels: far north, beyond the Samoyeds who live by hunting and wear only skins, the Tartars met at the Ocean monsters shaped like men but with ox feet and dogs' faces, who spoke a few words and then barked. On the facing page are the Parossites, with tiny mouths, who live only on the steam of boiled meat.
From there they came as far as the Ocean sea, where they found monsters which in every other respect had the form of men, but they had the feet of oxen and faces like a dog.
Working translation
Original wording
De là ils paruindrent iusqu'à la mer Oceane, où ils trouuerent des monstres, qui en tout le reste auoient forme d'hommes, mais ils auoient des pieds de bœuf, & le visage fait comme vn chien.
About Tartars (Mongol armies) and fabled northern peoples
Keep in mind
Carpini never went to the far north; these are travellers' tales in the classical tradition of dog-headed peoples.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Stone markers, idols and gold from the graves: whose were they?
Editorial contextMüller points to the traces of old towns on the steppes, the many stone markers and 'idols' (stone statues), old grave mounds, and the gold and silver objects dug out of them. He attributes them to the earlier Tatars, reasoning that the treasures of China, Persia, Russia, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary had fallen to them as conquerors. It is a scholar's inference, not a report from the graves themselves.
How many traces of small towns are seen in various places on the steppes? What a multitude of stone markers set up as memorials, idols, old graves and other such things are found everywhere? What precious objects, of gold and silver, have not been dug out of the graves? Where could they have come from, if not from the former Tatars
Working translation
Original wording
Сколько не видно слѣдовъ на разныхъ мѣстахъ по степямъ городковъ? Коликое множество въ память поставленныхъ каменныхъ маяковъ, болвановъ, старинныхъ могилъ и другихъ принадлежащихъ къ тому вещей на всѣхъ мѣстахъ не находится? Какихъ дорогихъ вещей, золотыхъ и серебреныхъ, изъ могилъ не выкопано? Откуда можно было имъ произойти, какъ только отъ прежнихъ Татаръ
About Tatars and Mongols of Chinggis Khan's era (as Müller supposes)
Keep in mind
Müller's attribution to the Chinggisid Tatars is his own guess; modern archaeology dates many of these kurgans and stone figures far earlier.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Log houses roofed with birch bark
Editorial contextKlaproth translates the Chinese encyclopedist Ma Duanlin on a northern people called the Piebald Horses. They built houses of logs laid one on another like the curb of a well, roofed them with birch bark, slept on hay, did not ride but drank mare's milk and fattened black-maned horses to eat. Klaproth notes that Ostyaks and Samoyeds still build this way and thinks the people were one of those tribes.
Their dwellings are made of trees laid one upon another, as the curbs of wells are made. The roof is covered with birch bark. Earth, wood, grass or straw serve them as carpets, and the place where they sleep is covered with hay. Others have no fixed dwelling.
Working translation
Original wording
Leurs habitations sont faites avec des arbres posés les uns sur les autres, comme on fait les clôtures des puits. Le toit est couvert d'écorce de bouleau. La terre, le bois, l'herbe ou la paille leur servent de tapis, et l'endroit où ils dorment est couvert de foin. D'autres n'ont pas de demeure fixe.
About Boma, the 'Piebald Horse' people of southern Siberia
Keep in mind
The link Klaproth draws between these Piebald Horses and the later 'piebald horde' of Siberia is his own suggestion.
A nation born of a princess and a wolf
Editorial contextRetelling a Chinese legend of the Uighurs, Deguignes says a Hun ruler shut his two beautiful daughters in a tower in the north so that heaven might marry them. An old wolf howled round the tower and made its den at the foot, and the younger sister, taking it for the god, went down to it. He adds that the Uighurs were said to imitate wolf howls in their songs, and that their tents stood on unusually high wheels, so the Chinese called them Kao-tche, 'high carts'.
An old wolf prowled night and day around the prison of the Tartar princesses; he watched the tower, howling frightfully, and finally made his den at its foot. The younger one, persuaded that this wolf, which had been watching the tower for so long, could only be the god to whom her father had dedicated her, urged her sister to go down with her.
Working translation
Original wording
Un vieux loup rodoit nuit & jour autour de la prison des Princesses Tartares, il observoit cette tour en faisant des heurlemens épouvantables; enfin il établit sa tanière au pied. La plus jeune persuadée que ce loup, qui examinoit depuis si long-tems la tour, ne pouvoit être que la divinité à laquelle son père l'avoit consacrée, encouragea sa sœur à descendre avec elle.
About Uighurs (Hoei-ke), called Tartars
Keep in mind
Deguignes himself calls it the nation's 'fabulous origin'.
The mammoth: a giant beast that lives under the earth
Editorial contextNear Yeniseisk the envoys heard of a huge animal in the coldest north that burrowed underground and died if exposed to sun and air. Its white, ivory-like bones were dug from river mud and carved by Russians into cups and combs, and its flesh was eaten against fever. The foreign name was Ma-mien-tou-va (mamont), the Chinese called it kee-shoo (the 'hidden rat'). Staunton notes that John Bell heard the same tale and that frozen mammoth flesh had since been found.
In the very coldest parts of this northern country, a species of animal is found which burrows under the earth, and which dies if it is at all exposed at any time to the sun and air. Its bones are very white and shining, like ivory. … The Russians collect the bones of this animal, in order to make cups, saucers, combs
About Russians and Siberian natives (reported to the envoys)
Keep in mind
Hearsay reported by the envoys; the belief that the animal lives underground is a folk explanation for frozen mammoth remains.
Alak-tsin, a town where every pot is silver
Editorial contextIn his chapter on the Tatar people, the Khivan khan and historian Abu'l-Ghazi describes a great town and many villages on a 'Bitter Sea' fed by the Uighur river (Klaproth identifies it as the Yenisei). The people shift their dwellings often, own only dapple-grey horses, mine silver nearby and cook in silver pots. Klaproth gives his own new translation because the old French version garbled the passage.
On the shores of this sea stands a great town and many villages. The inhabitants often change their dwellings; they own numerous herds and a considerable number of horses. … All are dapple-grey … The name of the town is Alak-tsin; near it there are silver mines. Among this people all the cooking pots and bowls are of silver.
Working translation
Original wording
Sur les bords de cette mer est située une grande ville et beaucoup de villages. Les habitans changent souvent de demeure; ils possèdent de nombreux troupeaux, et une quantité considérable de chevaux. … Tous sont pommelés … Le nom de la ville est Alak-tsin; dans son voisinage il y a des mines d'argent. Chez ce peuple toutes les marmites et les jattes sont d'argent.
About a tribe of the 'Tatar people' in Abu'l-Ghazi's history
Keep in mind
Abu'l-Ghazi wrote four centuries after the events from Rashid al-Din and oral tradition; the silver pots are hearsay, and Klaproth is unsure where the 'Bitter Sea' was.
Mammoths that burrow underground and die in the light
Editorial contextThe Ides section reports mammoth tusks and bones thawing out of riverbanks, and a member of the embassy who found a head with half-rotten flesh. The Yakuts, Tungus and Ostyaks say the mammoth lives underground, making the earth rise and sink as it moves, and dies as soon as it sees daylight. The Russians of Siberia think it was an elephant-like beast buried by Noah's Flood.
The Yakuts, Tungus and Ostyaks claim that they never come out of the bosom of the earth, under which they go this way and that. They even say that one often sees the earth rise and sink when they are moving … They assure us that they die as soon as they see the light
Working translation
Original wording
Les Jakutes, Tungufes, & Ostiaques, prétendent qu'ils ne sortent jamais du sein de la terre, sous laquelle ils vont de côté & d'autre. Ils disent même qu'on voit souvent la terre s'élever & s'affaisser lors qu'ils sont en mouvement … Ils assurent, qu'ils meurent aussi tôt qu'ils découvrent la lumière
About Yakuts, Tungus and Ostyaks (and Siberian Russians)
Keep in mind
Native belief and Russian flood theory reported by Ides; the bones and tusks themselves were real finds.
Kuchum Khan's realm and his fortress of Sibir
Editorial contextOn the eve of the Cossack invasion, Coxe says, Siberia was split between several princes and independent 'Tartar' tribes. The strongest ruler, Kuchum Khan, held the lands from the Irtysh and Ob to the Tobol and Tura, with his residence at Sibir, a small fortress on the Irtysh. The next page adds that it stood near today's Tobolsk and that some of its ruins could still be seen.
Siberia was at that time partly divided among a number of separate princes; and partly inhabited by the various tribes of independent Tartars. Of the former Kutchum Chan was the most powerful Sovereign … His principal residence was at Sibir, a small fortress upon the river Irtish
About Siberian Tatars
Continue in this sourceWilliam Coxe on the Russian conquest of Siberia and the China trade1780 · 11 passages'All the land was Tartary, and all the peoples Tartars'
Editorial contextIn his preface Gmelin explains why Peter the Great sent the expedition. Before it, he says, European geographers knew nothing of the far north: every land there was simply 'Tartary' and every people 'Tartars'. On the next page he adds that in Russia itself people talk far less about 'Tartary' than elsewhere, the way real experts talk less about hidden qualities than those still in the dark.
In the northernmost lands the geographers had nothing but darkness. All the land was Tartary, and all the peoples of those regions Tartars.
Working translation
Original wording
In den Nordlichsten Ländern war bey den Erdbeschreibern nichts als Dunkelheit. Alles Land war Tatarey, und alle Völker selbiger Gegenden Tataren.
About Everyone in northern Asia, as European maps saw them
Continue in this sourceGmelin's journey through Siberia, volume 11733 to 1743 · 15 passagesA town of pied horses and silver plate on the Yenisei
Editorial contextAnother branch of the Tatars, Abu'l Ghazi says, settled on the river Ikar (glossed in the margin as the Yenisei). Near its mouth stood a great town called Alachzin ('pied'), ruling smaller ones, whose people rode only piebald horses and, thanks to local silver mines, used nothing but silver plate. He adds that the Uzbeks had a tradition of such a nation but could not say where it was.
Near its Mouth there is a great Town, which commands several small ones thereabouts, call'd Alachzin, that is to say, pied; because the Inhabitants of that Town have none but pied Horses … There are rich silver Mines in the Neighbourhood of that Town; and 'tis for that reason that nothing is seen there but silver Plate.
About A branch of the Tatar tribe
Keep in mind
Hearsay bordering on legend; Abu'l Ghazi himself says the Uzbeks know of it only 'by Tradition'. The page footnote compares a Russian tale of a 'pied people' in Siberia.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR for this volume is unreadable); long s normalized.
Nomads who asked to be fired on
Editorial contextBack in Paris Chappe heard from the Chevalier de Saint-Pierre that a large band of Tartars once approached a Russian fort on the Siberian lines. Warned that they would be fired on unless they withdrew, they held a council and sent word asking the commander to fire. After the first cannonade killed several of them they held another council and asked again, and only left after the third.
A large detachment of these Tartars approached the Siberian lines a few years ago; the commander of one of the Russian forts saw them and, not knowing what this band of Tartars intended, let them know he would open fire on them if they did not withdraw. The Tartars gathered, held a council, and sent to ask the commander to order the firing; it was done.
Working translation
Original wording
Un gros détachement de ces Tartares s'approcha, il y a quelques années, des lignes de Sibérie; le Commandant d'un des Forts Russes les ayant apperçus, & ignorant l'intention de ces Tartares en troupe, leur fit savoir qu'il feroit faire feu sur eux, s'ils ne se retiroient. Ces Tartares s'assemblent, & après avoir tenu conseil, ils envoient prier le Commandant d'ordonner qu'on fit feu; on le fit.
About steppe 'Tartars' on the Siberian border
Keep in mind
A second-hand anecdote told in Paris, used by Chappe to argue that some nomads did not know firearms; nothing confirms it.
Governors licensed the looting of tombs
Editorial contextBefore the tsars took an interest, Strahlenberg says, the governors of Tara, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk and other towns let townsmen go out in caravans to rob the steppe graves in return for a tenth of the gold and silver. The looters smashed the finds and shared the pieces out by weight. He owned only a broken fragment of a bell-metal mirror to show for it.
…the Governours of the Cities of Tara, Tomskoi, Crasnoyahr, … used to give Leave to the Inhabitants, to go in voluntary Caravans, to these Tombs, in Order to ransack them, on Condition that … the Governour should have an Allowance, generally the Tenths. These Caravans, … used, … to knock to Pieces these choice Antiquities, and give to each Person his Share, by Weight.
About ancient steppe peoples
Continue in this sourceStrahlenberg's description of Russia, Siberia and 'Great Tartary'1709 to 1729 · 18 passages'Never so happy as in the wilds of Tartary'
Editorial contextIn his preface Cochrane calls all of northern Asia 'Tartary' and invites scientists to explore 'the vast fields of Tartary' after him. He closes by saying he was never so happy as in the wilds of Tartary. For him, as for many readers in the 1820s, 'Tartary' simply meant Siberia and the lands beyond it, not a country or a state.
I may be allowed to add, that after such a journey, I might be supposed cured of the spirit of travelling, at least in so eccentric a way; yet the supposition is far from the fact, for as I am conscious that I was never so happy as in the wilds of Tartary, so have I never been so anxious to enter on a similar field as at this moment.
About All Siberian peoples ('Tartary' as a region)
Continue in this sourceCaptain Cochrane's walk across Siberian Tartary1820 to 1823 · 12 passagesA map of a land that 'lay in the dark'
Editorial contextThe Royal Society's president greets Witsen's map as a Columbus-like discovery of a new world, and wonders aloud how anyone could chart deserts, bogs and mountains that seemed made for 'everlasting Solitude'. It is a vivid picture of how unknown 'Tartary' was to western Europe in the 1680s.
I Have lately had a great Effect of your Bounty in the Maps of Tartary. this is Columbus like, the Discovery of a New World; at least Tydings of those Parts, which from the beginning have layn in the Dark.
About Peoples of 'Great Tartary'
Continue in this sourceNicolaas Witsen explains his new map of Great Tartary to the Royal Society1666 to 1699 · 2 passagesThe Tatars called it Isker, not Sibir
Editorial contextIn a footnote Coxe rejects the popular idea that Siberia was named after the captured fortress of Sibir, pointing out that the Tatars themselves called the fort Isker. He suggests the regional name came to the Russians earlier, through the Permian and Zyrian peoples.
Several authors have supposed the name of Siberia to derive its origin from this fortress, soon after it was first taken by the Russians under Yermac. But this opinion is advanced without sufficient foundation; for the name of Sibir was unknown to the Tartars, that fort being by them called Isker.
About Siberian Tatars
Continue in this sourceWilliam Coxe on the Russian conquest of Siberia and the China trade1780 · 11 passagesThirty 'Tartarian' languages from the Black Sea to Japan
Editorial contextStrahlenberg announces the first part of his planned work: a comparative table of thirty languages spoken between the Black Sea and the Sea of Japan, which he calls the 'Tartarian' languages. He explains that the many peoples of Siberia and Tartary each have their own language besides the main languages used among them, and a footnote adds that they therefore cannot all properly go under the name of Tartars.
The first, then, is a Specimen of the Harmony of the Tartarian Languages, consisting of 30 languages, which begin at the Black Sea and end at the Sea of Japan. … (since various peoples live in Siberia and Tartary who, besides the main languages in use among them, have their own particular ones as well)
Working translation
Original wording
Das erste nun, ist ein Specimen Harmoniae linguarum Tartaricarum, bestehend in 30 Sprachen, die sich anheben von dem Schwartzen und sich endigen bey dem Japanischen Meer. … (indem unterschiedliche Völckerschaften in Siberien und der Tartarey vorhanden sind, welche nebst denen Haupt-Sprachen, so unter ihnen gebräuchlich sind, ihre eigene oder particuliere daneben haben)
About Peoples of Siberia and 'Tartary' (Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic and others)
Keep in mind
The OCR of this copy is badly garbled Fraktur; the quote has been restored letter by letter from the damaged text, so check the scan.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
'Kalmyk' means the ones who stayed behind
Editorial contextStrahlenberg rejects the view, in the French edition of Abulghazi, that 'Kalmyk' was an insult aimed at their religion. He says the name was given to them in the Tatar language and means a people that remained behind, from 'kal' (I stay) and 'umak' (tribe). A similar 'those who remained' explanation is still often repeated today.
received the name Kallmack, which is not a term of abuse on account of their religion, as the author remarks … but it means and signifies a people or tribe that stays behind or remains there, for Kall or Call means 'I stay there or behind', and Amack or Umack a tribe; hence by syncope Kallmack or Kallmuck.
Working translation
Original wording
den Nahmen von Kallmack erhalten, welches kein Scheltwort ihrer Religion halber ist, wie der Autor … remarquiret … sondern es bedeutet und heisset ein Volck oder Geschlecht, so nach- oder dableibet, denn Kall oder Call, heisset ich bleibe da oder nach, und Amack oder Umack ein Geschlecht, daher per syncop: Kallmack oder Kallmuck.
About Kalmyks (western Mongols, Oirats)
Keep in mind
The OCR of this copy is badly garbled Fraktur; the quote has been restored letter by letter from the damaged text, so check the scan.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Siberia, the Nogays and a coin-minting town on the Irtysh
Editorial contextFollowing 'Lorenzo' again, the Cihannuma says the Nogay Tatars are subject to the Crimean khans, that north of them lived the Bulghars, and north of the Bulghars lies the land of Siberia, mostly forest, where some Nogay Tatars live. There is a town there called Hanam, very prosperous and famous for trade, where jewels are sold, and Tatars of Cathay and Muscovites gather to trade. It gives an Ottoman reader a Siberia of towns and markets, not an empty waste.
North of the Bulghar people lies the land of Siberia; most of it is forest, and some of the Nogay Tatars live there. They have a city called Hanam, very prosperous and famous for trade.
Working translation
Original wording
بولغار قومندن شماله سیبریا اولکهسی دوشر اکثری اورمانلقدر ونوغای تاتارلرینك بعضی انده ساکن اولورلر وهمه خانام برشهرلری وار غایت معمور وتجارتله مشهوردر
About Nogay Tatars, Siberian Tatars ('Kesellu' Tatars), Bulghars
Keep in mind
Compiled from European atlases; the town names are garbled forms of names on Western maps.
Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR of this facsimile is garbled).
Marco Polo's northern Tartars read as Siberia
Editorial contextThe compiler admits that older books say almost nothing about Siberia, and turns to Marco Polo, who 'entered Tartar service' but never crossed the land himself. He is sure Polo's northern country is what is now called Siberia, and quotes him on its Tartars: ruled by a king of the great khan's line, keeping the old Tartar customs, worshipping an earth god called Natigai, living in no towns but in the open country, and eating only milk and meat.
In the inner northern lands live many Tartars, whose king descends from the family of the great emperor of the Tartars; and they still keep the manners and customs of the old Tartars. They are all idolaters and worship a god whom they call Natigai … They live neither in towns nor in villages, but in the open country between mountains and rocks.
Working translation
Original wording
In den inwendigen mitternächtlichen Ländern wohnen viele Tartarn, deren König von dem Geschlecht des grossen Kaisers derer Tartaren abstammet; und selbige behalten noch die Sitten und Gewonheiten der alten Tartarn. Sie sind alle abgöttisch, beten einen Gott an, den sie Natigai nennen … Sie wohnen weder in Städten noch Flecken, sondern auf dem Felde zwischen Bergen und Felsen.
About Tartars of the far north (Marco Polo's 'northern Tartars')
Keep in mind
A thirteenth-century report of the Mongol north, applied by the compiler to Siberia in 1720.
A unicorn's horn on the coast of Tartaria
Editorial contextArguing for a sea route to China round the north of Asia, Jenkinson pointed to a unicorn's horn found on the 'coast of Tartaria', which he thought must have floated there from the east. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, reporting the debate, scoffs that the 'barbarous Tartarians' might not know a unicorn's horn at all, and that such a horn would not float. The editors note the many forms of the unicorn legend across Asia.
His second reason is, that there was an Vnicornes horne … found vpon the coast of Tartaria, which could not come (sayd … he) thither by any other meanes then with the tides
About 'Barbarous Tartarians' of the northern coast of Asia
Keep in mind
Nobody here saw the horn; it may have been a walrus or narwhal tusk, but the source does not say.
OCR normalized; printed margin notes omitted.
Conquest 'like the Spaniards in South America'
Editorial contextSumming up the Russian conquest of Siberia, Cochrane writes that Tartar tribes who would not readily submit 'were at once exterminated', with a cruelty like that of the Spaniards in the Americas. Only Chinese resistance on the Amur, ending in the treaty of 1689, stopped the Russians from taking Mongolia.
Those tribes of Tartars who were not readily reducible to obedience, were at once exterminated; and something like the same merciless cruelty which characterised the Spaniards in South America, was practised in Siberia.
About Siberian Tatars and other native peoples
Keep in mind
A sweeping judgment from a second-hand history; it is not clear whether the words are the map note's or Cochrane's own.
Shamanism that Islam and Lamaism never fully uprooted
Editorial contextSchott says conjuring the dark powers by magic is found among all the peoples of his Finno-Tatar family, and that neither Lamaist Buddhism nor Islam had everywhere managed to push it out. In North Asia, he writes, it stayed 'raw shamanism', while among the Finns of Finland the same magic songs grew into poetry and the Kalevala-style epics. It is a sweeping comparison from books rather than fieldwork, but it records how European scholars saw shamanism as the shared old religion under the later faiths.
[such conjurations of the dark powers] we do find among all the peoples of the Finno-Tatar family … Lamaism and even the religion of Muhammad have not everywhere countered them with success … but what in North Asia remained raw shamanism, and among the degraded Finnish tribes of the polar lands still deserves no other name, was transfigured among the Suomalaiset of Finland into true poetry
Working translation
Original wording
finden wir zwar bei allen Völkern des finnisch-tatarischen Geschlechtes … der Lamaismus und selbst die Religion Muhammeds hat ihnen nicht allerwärts mit Erfolg entgegengewirkt … was aber in Nordasien rohes Schamanenthum blieb und noch jetzt bei den verwilderten Finnenstämmen der Polarländer keinen anderen Namen verdient, das verklärte sich bei den Suomalaiset Finnlands zu wahrer Poesie
About Turkic, Mongol, Tungusic and Finnic peoples (Schott's 'Finno-Tatar' family)
Keep in mind
A generalisation from books, with openly condescending language ('raw', 'degraded') about Siberian and polar peoples.
OCR normalized; the two dashes around the middle clause in the original are shown as ….
Sheepskin vests and a double scalp-lock
Editorial contextAvril lists Siberian peoples, the 'Ostiaks, Bratski, Jacuti and Tongusi', as further kinds of Tartars and guesses they are Kalmyk hordes tamed by contact with the Russians. He then describes their looks and dress: sheepskin vests tied with a cord carrying bow and quiver, heads shaved to the crown with a double lock, and a round bonnet whose coloured silk tuft marked the horde.
Their Habits are for the most part all alike, consisting of several Sheep-skins sow'd together, which they fit to their bodies in the form of Vests, and gird about their Wastes with a Cord, wherein hangs their Bow and Quiver, with which they go always arm'd. They shave their Heads to the very Crown, where they preserve a Tuft thick enough to make a double lock
About Ostyaks, Buryats, Yakuts and Tungus (called 'other Tartars')
Keep in mind
Hearsay that lumps very different Siberian peoples together; the Kalmyk-origin theory is Avril's guess.
Mammoth from 'Behemoth'
Editorial contextStrahlenberg argues that the word 'mammoth' comes from the Behemoth of the Book of Job, brought into Tartary by Arabs who found the bones of huge beasts and called them 'Mehemot'. He says the Tartars call the animal 'Khir', and cites an exiled Russian priest who said the old Siberian form was 'Memoth'. He admits he could not find out what kind of animal the bones came from.
And these Arabs coming into Tartary, and finding there the Relicks of some monstrous great Beasts, not certain of what Kind they might be, they called these Teeth Mehemot, which afterwards became a Proper Name, among the Tartars; and, by the Russians, is corruptly pronounced Mammoth.
About Tartars and Ostyaks; Arabs (his theory)
Keep in mind
His Behemoth etymology is speculation and is not accepted today.
'Kam', the Tatar word for a shaman since Rubruck's day
Editorial contextComparing medieval reports with what he saw in Siberia, Fischer notes that the soothsayers Carpini and Rubruck described among the Mongols, who beat drums and went out of themselves, can still be seen among the Yakut shamans. In a footnote he adds that Rubruck's word 'Cham' for such a seer is still used by the Tatars of the Kacha, the Teleuts, and the Chulym and Baraba Tatars for their sorcerer-priests.
Rubruck says, chapter 19, that the word Cham means a soothsayer, and that all people of this sort are called Cham among the Mongols… This name is still in use today among the Tatars on the Kacha river, among the Teleuts, the Chulym people and the Baraba people, and is given to their sorcerer-priests.
Working translation
Original wording
Rubruquis sagt Chap. 19, das wort Cham bedeute einen weißager, und alle leute von dieser sorte werden unter den Mogols Cham genannt… Dieser name ist noch heutiges tages gebräuchlich bei den Tataren am Katscha-fluß, bei den Teleuten, Tschulümern und Barabinen, und wird ihren zauberpriestern gegeben.
About Kacha Tatars, Teleuts, Chulym and Baraba Tatars; medieval Mongols
Continue in this sourceFischer's Siberian History1500 to 1747 · 4 passagesSamoyed and Tungus country, 'situated in Tartary'
Editorial contextThe Latin title page of Gerritsz's 1612 collection announces Isaac Massa's description of the Samoyed and Tungus regions 'lying in Tartary', recently acquired by the Muscovite empire, with a Russian map translated into Latin. Here 'Tartary' is simply the name of the far north-east of Asia, not a kingdom.
Isaac Massa of Haarlem's description of Samoyedia and Tingoesia, regions lying in Tartary to the east beyond the Vaygach Strait, and recently acquired by the Muscovite Empire
Working translation
Original wording
Isaaci Massae Harlemensis Samoiediae atque Tingoessae, regionum ad Orientem ultra Fretum Weygats in Tartaria sitarum, nuperque Imperio Moscovitico adquisitarum descriptio
About Samoyeds and Tungus, in a land called Tartary
Continue in this sourceMassa's report on the Russian road into Siberia, 'in Tartary'c. 1605 to 1609 · 8 passages'Vagabond Tartars' with huts by the rivers
Editorial contextBruce reports what an envoy sent by Peter the Great to the 'northern Tartar princes' found on a journey toward the Lena. He said they were all wandering Tartars in tents, rich only in cattle, but that along the rivers there were some houses or huts and a little corn, where their khans usually lived. The prince of the Yakuts turned him back.
He reported, that they were all vagabond Tartars, living in tents, and shifting their residence from place to place for pasturage, as all their riches consisted in herds of cattle ; but he observed a sort of houses, or huts, on the sides of rivers, and some corn, and in these situations their chams generally resided.
About Northern Siberian peoples ('northern Tartars')
Keep in mind
Second-hand; the envoy is not named and the peoples are not identified beyond the Yakuts.
'Tartar nations': Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryats
Editorial contextIn a note Coxe praises Pallas's new work on the 'Tartars' living between Siberia and the Great Wall, whom Pallas divides into Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryats, split in religion between shamanism and the Dalai Lama's Buddhism. It shows 'Tartar' used in 1780 as an umbrella term for Mongolic peoples.
No writer has placed the religion and history of the Tartar nations in a more explicit point of view than Mr. Pallas … concerning the Tartars, who inhabit parts of Siberia, and the territory which lies between that country and the Chinese wall … as they are divided into Calmucs, Mongols, and Burats.
About Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryats
Continue in this sourceWilliam Coxe on the Russian conquest of Siberia and the China trade1780 · 11 passagesKazan, Astrakhan and Siberia conquered
Editorial contextIn his summing up of Ivan the Terrible's reign, Horsey lists the conquest of the Tatar 'kingdoms' of Kazan and Astrakhan and the peoples along the Volga to the Caspian, the end of tribute to the Crimean khan, and the conquest of the 'kingdom of Siberia'.
he conquered the kingdom of Casan and the kingdom of Astracan, and all the regions and great people of the Nagaie and Chercas Tartors, and many other of that kinde, inhabitinge above two thowsand miells of each side that famous river of Volga, sowthward eaven to the Mare Caspian Sea.
About Kazan, Astrakhan, Nogai and Circassian Tartars
Keep in mind
Horsey overstates: the Nogais and Circassians were never fully conquered in Ivan's lifetime.
Raw rhubarb stalks that grip the throat
Editorial contextIn an appendix on rhubarb, Coxe (credited to Pallas) says the Tartars ate the leaf stalks of wild rhubarb raw, and that outsiders who tried them got a spasm of the throat at every meal until they grew used to it. A small, odd detail of steppe diet.
The stalks of the leaves are eaten raw by the Tartars: they produce upon most persons, who are unaccustomed to them, a kind of spasmodic contraction of the throat, which goes off in a few hours; it returns however at every meal, until they become habituated to this kind of diet.
About 'Tartars' of the Baikal region (probably Buryats or Mongols)
Keep in mind
Which people Coxe means by 'Tartars' here is not stated.
