Horsehair for the spirit of the mountain
Editorial contextCrossing a mountain, Wrangel's lead Yakut driver pulled a few hairs from his horse's mane and tied them to a tree as an offering to the spirit of the mountain. Travellers on foot planted a stick instead. Even baptised Yakuts kept the custom, and the drivers sang songs praising the landscape, which his sergeant explained was meant to flatter the spirit.
Our leading postilion got off his horse, plucked a few hairs from the mane, and fastened them to the tree with much solemnity of manner. He told us that this was a customary offering to the spirit of the mountain, to obtain his protection during the journey, and that foot-passengers placed a stick in the ground with the same intention.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Continue in this sourceWrangel's expedition to the Polar Sea1820 to 1823 · 10 passagesYakuts are Tartars: the Kazan test
Editorial contextArriving in Yakutsk in October 1822, Cochrane states that the Yakuts are 'evidently of Tartar origin, as their language is understood by the Tartars of Kazan'. He praises them as ingenious smiths who make their own knives, guns and kettles, living mostly on horse-flesh, but also describes them with the harsh prejudice of his day.
They are evidently of Tartar origin, as their language is understood by the Tartars of Kazan. Their complexion is a light copper colour; they are generally of low stature, with more regular and pleasing features, than the Tongousi
About Yakuts (Sakha); Kazan Tatars
Keep in mind
He repeats a common claim rather than testing it himself (compare Sarychev, W009). The rest of his character sketch is prejudiced.
Aley the shaman, father of twelve sons
Editorial contextThe Yakut founding story continues with Aley, a runaway from the Buryats who became Omogai's overseer and was thought to have supernatural powers. He declared himself a shaman, prophesied that Omogai's daughter would bear no children, and chose the chief's adopted girl instead. After Omogai's death most of the tribe followed Aley, who is said to have had twelve sons; the eldest founded a named tribe.
He observed, that all his tribe esteemed Aley to adoration; for they supposed him to possess supernatural powers, and attributed his continual good fortune and success to the immediate influence of spirits. … Aley now avowed himself a Shaman, and assumed the powers of divination.
About Yakuts (Sakha)
Keep in mind
Oral legend, not history.
Yakutsk: a decaying wooden fort and ice windows
Editorial contextSarychev describes Yakutsk as the oldest town in the region, grown up around a wooden ostrog of 1647 whose towers still stood but were falling into decay. There were a few stone churches, but all the houses were wooden, 'in the old Russian taste', with Yakut huts scattered between them. For windows they used mica or bladders in summer and slabs of ice in winter.
The ostrog, or wooden fortress, was erected in the year 1647, and soon afterwards the building of the town commenced. This old edifice, with its towers, is still standing, but in some places is fallen very much to decay. … All the dwelling-houses are built of wood, in the old Russian taste, with here and there Jakutish huts interspersed between them.
About Russians, with Yakut (Sakha) huts among them
Keep in mind
Sarychev's date of 1647 differs from Sauer's (W008) story of a first fort in 1632 that was later moved.
A priest flogs his Tartar guides
Editorial contextIn a footnote Sauer tells why he calls the expedition's priest 'more than savage'. On the road to Okhotsk the priest lost some food, assumed his two Tartar guides had stolen it, and had them tied to trees and flogged so badly that one died. Runaway exiles turned out to be the thieves. The priest said no harm was done because the guides were not Christians.
On a mere supposition that his two Tartar guides had taken it, he tied each of them up by an arm to a tree, and had them flogged to such a degree, that one of them died, and the other never recovered the use of his arm: it was afterwards known, that some runaway exiles hid in the woods were the thieves.
About 'Tartar' guides (on this road, most likely Yakuts)
Keep in mind
Sauer was not present; he tells it to show the priest's character. The same priest burned the Aleuts' carved masks, as Sauer reports on this page.
