A Tartar named Sachalar, forefather of the Yakuts
Editorial contextWrangel writes that the Yakuts' faces and language confirm their tradition of descent from the Tartars. In a footnote he gives the tradition itself: their ancestor was a Tartar called Sachalar, who crossed the mountains to Kirenga on the Lena, settled and married a Tungus woman. That, he explains, is why the Yakuts still call themselves Sachalary (Sakha).
Their countenance and language fully confirm the tradition of their descent from the Tartars. … According to this tradition, their ancestor was a Tartar, named Sachalar, who came from his own country on the other side of the mountains, to Kirenga on the Lena, where he settled and married a Tungusian woman; the Jakuti still call themselves Sachalary.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
An origin tradition as reported to Wrangel. It differs from the Omogai legend recorded by Sauer (W008).
Yakut winter house of poles, planks and dung
Editorial contextSarychev, who slept in these houses on the road, explains how a Yakut winter jurt is built: three rows of posts, beams laid across and sloping, rough planks, then a covering of grass, earth and dung. A hearth with a pitch-lined chimney of sticks burns all winter, and the cattle live in an attached shed. Summer houses are different: conical frames of poles covered with bark.
On these poles they lay five beams crossways and sloping, which are covered with rough planks, and afterwards with herbs, mould, and dung. … The summer jurts are altogether different from the winter ones, and have another name, being called masses; they are round and conical, made of long poles, and covered on the outside with the bark of trees.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
The OCR (and perhaps the 1806 print) reads the name of the summer house as 'masses'; the Yakut word is urasa.
A Yakut prince buried with his favourite horses
Editorial contextLesseps had been shown old Yakut coffins hung in trees, but says the Yakuts now buried their dead like Christians. At a prince's funeral his favourite horse and the best of his herd, richly harnessed, were tied to two carved or painted posts by the grave and killed over his body. Their hides and heads were then hung in nearby trees as a 'mausoleum', and the mourners roasted and ate the two horses on the spot.
If it is a prince, he is dressed in his richest clothes and finest weapons. … The prince's favourite horse and the best of his herd, both richly harnessed … walk beside the procession. On reaching the burial place they are tied to two posts planted by the grave. While their master is buried, they are slaughtered over his body,
Working translation
Original wording
Si c'est un prince, on le revêt de ses plus riches habits & de ses plus belles armes. … Le cheval favori du prince & le meilleur du haras, tous deux richement harnachés … marchent à côté du convoi. Arrivés au lieu de la sépulture, ils sont attachés à deux poteaux plantés auprès de la fosse. Pendant qu'on inhume leur maître, on les égorge sur son corps,
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
Lesseps describes the rite from what his Yakut host and others told him, not from a funeral he attended.
Birch-bark cone for the kumis festival
Editorial contextEach June, Yakut chiefs held a feast to bless their herds. Mare's milk was fermented into kumis in large leather bags, and a summer hut was raised on a meadow: a cone of thin poles covered with birch bark, decorated inside and out with birch branches, with a hearth in the middle. Guests of any nation were welcome; the shamans took the head seats. The shaman then poured kumis on the fire to each of the gods.
A summer hut is built of thin poles of a conical form, covered with the inner bark of birch, on some extensive meadow. It is ornamented inside and out with branches of the birch-tree, and a hearth is made in the centre. Relations and acquaintances are invited to the banquet; but all guests are welcome of every nation indiscriminately.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
Presented as general custom; Sauer does not say he attended a festival himself.
A Yakut prince's winter house of timber and earth
Editorial contextA Yakut prince at Amga, owner of two thousand horses, showed Lesseps his 'yurt'. Its walls were upright logs set side by side and plastered with clay, leaning inwards to carry a low-pitched roof. One half housed the family in bunk-like compartments, the other was a byre for cows and calves, with a round wooden hearth in the middle.
Beams set upright side by side and covered with clay form its walls, which do not rise vertically like ours. Drawing closer together towards the top, they carry a roof with a gentle slope … On the other side of the yurt live the animals, the cows and calves; it is quite simply a byre.
Working translation
Original wording
Des poutres posées debout les unes à côté des autres, & recouvertes de terre grasse, en forment les murs, qui ne s'élèvent point perpendiculairement comme les nôtres. Plus rapprochés vers le haut, ils supportent un toit dont l'inclinaison est peu rapide … De l'autre côté de la yourte demeurent les bêtes, les vaches, les veaux, c'est tout simplement une étable.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
The Yakuts are a Turkic people, but Lesseps does not call them Tartars.
Summer tents of boiled birch bark
Editorial contextThe Yakuts had two kinds of home. For summer they used the urasa, a light round tent of poles covered with sheets of birch bark that were boiled to soften them and then sewn together. White outside and yellow inside, they looked from a distance like canvas tents. The herders moved with them to the best pastures while they cut hay for the winter.
In summer they use Urossy, which are light circular tents formed of poles, and covered with birch-bark, which they strip from the trees in large pieces. These strips are first softened by boiling, and are then sewed together; the outside being white, and the inside yellow, the Urossy have a very pleasing appearance, and at a distance resemble large white canvas tents.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Continue in this sourceWrangel's expedition to the Polar Sea1820 to 1823 · 10 passagesKumis, but not the intoxicating kind
Editorial contextIn a footnote Wrangel says the Yakuts make kumis from mare's milk 'in the same manner as in Tartary', except that they have not learned, like the Tartars, to make it intoxicating. It is so nourishing that a couple of skins of kumis hung from the saddle are often the only food carried on a hunting trip of several days.
This well known beverage, prepared from mares' milk, is made here in the same manner as in Tartary; only the Jakuti have happily not learnt, like the Tartars, to make it intoxicating. It is an agreable beverage, and so nourishing, that a couple of large skins full of kumys hung to the saddle, are often the only provisions taken for a foraging excursion of a few days.
About Yakuts (Sakha); 'Tartars' of the steppe
Keep in mind
Sauer (W008) reports that Yakut kumis could intoxicate if drunk in quantity, so accounts differ.
The Yakuts are 'of Tartar nation' by their language
Editorial contextOpening his chapter on the origin of the Itelmens, Steller says the Yakuts belong to the Tartar nation, as their language shows, being a dialect of Crimean Tatar and modern Turkish. It is a clear example of 'Tartar' used as a language family, not a single people, and he notes that the Yakuts knew nothing of Kamchatka or its people.
The Yakuts, who are of Tartar nation as their language shows, which is a dialect of the Crimean and modern Turkish language, know nothing at all of the Itelmens, just as they had not the slightest news of the land of Kamchatka itself
Working translation
Original wording
Die Jakuten, so von tartarischer Nation, nach Ausweisung ihrer Sprache, so ein Dialect von der krimmischen und heutigen türkischen Sprache ist, wissen nicht das geringste von denen Itälmenen, so wenig als sie von dem Lande Kamtschatka selbsten die geringste Nachricht hatten
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Continue in this sourceSteller's description of Kamchatka1740 to 1744 · 4 passagesYakut horse-breeders: 'very opulent Tartars'
Editorial contextSauer and the Russians around him still called the Yakuts and their neighbours Tartars. Describing the Lena valley, he says the little Russian posts existed to collect fur tribute from 'the wandering tribes of Tartars' nearby. Here, crossing the Aldan on horseback with Yakut guides, he describes the plains as home to 'very opulent Tartars' with huge herds of horses and cattle: the cattle- and horse-breeding Yakuts.
The woods abound in wild beasts and game; and the plains are inhabited by very opulent Tartars, who possess immense numbers of horses
About Yakuts (Sakha), called Tartars
Keep in mind
The sentence continues 'and herds of cattle' on the next page.
Doors to the east, men south, women north
Editorial contextInside a Yakut winter hut the door always faced east, the fireplace stood near the middle with room to walk around it, and benches and small sleeping cabins lined the walls. Men sat on the south side and women on the north. A hut where someone had died was abandoned to ruin as a home of demons.
They always take care that the doors of their huts shall face the east. The fire-place is nearly in the middle; the back of the chimney towards the door, and a free passage quite round it. The sides of the hut are furnished with benches and small cabins, which serve for sleeping places. … The men keep the south side, and the women the north.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Continue in this sourceMartin Sauer's account of the Billings expedition1785 to 1794 · 12 passagesHorse-flesh: better than the tenderest beef
Editorial contextMany poorer Yakuts had been baptised, Sarychev says, perhaps to escape the poll-tax for a few years. The rich stayed pagan because Orthodox fasts would forbid their many wives and their food: meat, butter, milk and above all horse-flesh, their greatest delicacy. In summer they made kumis from mare's milk 'after the manner of the Tartars'.
The rich are not disposed to renounce a plurality of wives, nor the use of meat, butter, milk, and above all, horse-flesh, during the fasts … The latter is the greatest delicacy they can possibly conceive; and they often tell the Russians, that if they were once to make a proper meal from the flesh of a horse, they would in future prefer it to the tenderest beef.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Continue in this sourceSarychev's voyage to north-east Siberia1785 to 1793 · 4 passagesYakuts who look and talk like Tartars
Editorial contextLesseps notes that the Yakuts are strong and tall, that their features resemble those of the Tartars, and that people say the two languages are closely related. He only vouches for the fact that Yakuts speak very briefly and do not run their words together.
The Yakuts are robust and generally tall; their features as a whole bear some likeness to those of the Tartars; it is even said that the two languages are closely related. All I can affirm is that the Yakuts speak extremely briefly and do not run their words together.
Working translation
Original wording
Les Yakoutes sont robustes & généralement grands; l'ensemble de leurs traits a quelque analogie avec la figure des Tartares; on dit même que les deux idiomes se rapportent beaucoup. Tout ce que je puis affirmer, c'est que les Yakoutes ont la parole extrêmement brève, & qu'ils ne lient point leurs mots.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
The language link was hearsay to Lesseps; Yakut (Sakha) is indeed a Turkic language, related to Tatar.
Mare's-milk brandy thrown on the fire
Editorial contextStrahlenberg confirms, from questioning Yakuts himself, Isbrand Ides's report that at a set time of year they sprinkle a brandy distilled from mare's milk into a great fire, towards the east, as an offering to heaven. On the same page he says Yakuts wore their hair long, unlike their neighbours, and until recently buried a faithful servant alive with a dead master, a custom the Russians had forbidden.
…That, at a certain Time of the Year, they make a great Fire, into which they sprinkle a Sort of Brandy distill'd from Mare's Milk, towards the East, and thereby make an Offering to Heaven. I took an Opportunity of enquiring into the Truth of this Relation, of several of the Jakutians themselves, who all confirmed it.
About Yakuts, a Turkic people he counts among the Tartars
Continue in this sourceStrahlenberg's description of Russia, Siberia and 'Great Tartary'1709 to 1729 · 18 passagesShamans no better than an English conjurer
Editorial contextSauer explains that shamans could be men or, more rarely, women, trained by an old master in lonely woods. He heard wonderful stories of their power even from Russians, but after watching them many times he was not impressed. He then describes a healing ritual in detail, with a horsehair switch, a sacrificed mare or cow, and a drum.
I have heard most wonderful relations of their power, even from the Russians; but, notwithstanding I have seen their enchantments or incantations many times, I never could discover any of their feats equal to that of a common conjurer in England.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
Sauer's judgment reflects his Enlightenment scepticism.